(no subject)

[skygiants]

For those of you who have never read anything by Sheri S. Tepper, the thing about Sheri S. Tepper is that almost every one of her books is a Very Special Episode about Eco-Feminism Plus Some Other Stuff Sheri Tepper Really Wants To Talk About, As Filtered Through Enormous Amounts of Crack. My local library had about a million of her books when I was growing up, and I'm pretty sure they were the first feminist SF I had ever encountered. My tiny mind was BLOWN. You could write science fiction! About feminism! WHAT WAS THIS WHOLE NEW CONCEPT.

Now of course I look back and many of my vague memories make me go "OH SHERI TEPPER WHAT THE HELL," but, you know, vague memories are vague. Not having read any of her books for years and years, I suddenly had a strong urge to pick up one of the ones I remembered as being the most weird to see how I felt about it now, which ended up being Sideshow and was indeed just about as bizarre and lecture-y as I remember!

OUR SETTING:
ELSEWHERE, a planet composed of a zillion super-individual states, that diversity being STRICTLY ENFORCED by the Enforcers of the central government of Tolerance. All of the states have their own special terrible customs, like abusing women or sacrificing babies. In other words, an entire world created to be a giant straw-man argument against a policy of not interfering with other countries and different cultures.

OUR PROTAGONISTS:
ZASPER ERTIGON: The old retired mentor Enforcer, who once ILLEGALLY RESCUED A BABY from HUMAN SACRIFICE and has since become DISILLUSIONED with the whole system. Too old for this shit, and therefore doomed.
DANIVON LUZE: Has no idea that he was the ILLEGALLY RESCUED BABY and has become THE PERFECT ENFORCER. Has a magical sense of smell that can predict the future. Perpetually self-satisfied, kind of a jerk, Our Hero Sort Of.
FRINGE OWLDARK: Badass lady Enforcer with a Tragic Past, Loads of Insecurity, and Intimacy Issues. Our Heroine.
BOARMUS: Head Bureaucrat on Tolerance. Completely ineffectual.
JORY and ASNER: Heroes of previous Sheri S. Tepper books who appear here without much explanation.
BERTRAN and NELA ZY-CZORSKY: Hermaphroditic incestuous conjoined twins, randomly assigned different gender identities by their parents at birth, because WHY NOT. From Earth, sent to the plot via time travel, because again WHY NOT.

OUR PLOT
BERTRAN and NELA: We have escaped our restrictive fundamentalist Christian family and are now working in a sideshow as the world's only male/female conjoined twins!
BECCA: So hey, isn't it sort of problematic that Bertran and Nela were each randomly assigned a gender identity at birth and both of them have completely grown into that gender identity without any complications -
SHERI S. TEPPER: No time, no time, we have ridiculous amounts of plot to get through! Anyway, it gets way more problematic than this.
CELERY-SHAPED ALIEN: Hey, you two! I need you to save Earth by planting a MacGuffin in a Macguffin, and if you do I'll give you a deus ex machina to use at a later date.
BERTRAN and NELA: . . . you didn't tell us that planting the MacGuffin in the MacGuffin was going to send us to one of Sheri Tepper's straw-man worlds where we would have to have political debates about the nature of diversity and tolerance and moral responsibility all the time!
CELERY-SHAPED ALIEN: . . . sorry?

DANIVON LUZE: I have a top-secret mission to investigate DRAGONS. I am bringing with me Betran and Nela because my nose told me to. I am also bringing with me Fringe because I think she is hot and will spend the rest of the trip hitting on her despite her repeated requests that I not.
FRINGE: How many times must I say I AM NOT INTERESTED IN A RELATIONSHIP?
ZASPER ERTIGON: Aw, how cute, my two mentees are teaming up to save the world! Well, have fun, kids, but don't worry, this isn't goodbye - I'll definitely be back later to tell you both 'well done son' and then die.

BERTRAN and NELA: So your world is very interesting, but because we are the viewpoint characters from Earth we do have to say we think sacrificing babies is morally wrong.
DANIVON LUZE: We think nothing is morally wrong except interfering in someone else's culture! NOTHING. NOTHING AT ALL. Certainly not killing babies! Did I mention we are a giant straw-man argument about THE PROBLEM OF DIVERSITY AND UNIVERSITY TOLERANCE.
JORY and ASNER: We are here to be Sheri S. Tepper's mouthpieces and tell Danivon when he is wrong, which is always.
FRINGE: *is hardcore and dedicated, but also female and compassionate, therefore conflicted*

BOARMUS: Meanwhile, the entire world is being threatened by beings of ENORMOUS EVIL.
BEINGS OF ENORMOUS EVIL: Yes! We are sociopathic megalomaniac undead . . . UNIVERSITY PROFESSORS.
BOARMUS: . . .
UNDEAD UNIVERSITY PROFESSORS: We have set up a network of thingamabobberwhatevers all over the world to allow us to manifest as terrifying giant blobs, commit wanton murder, and have complete control of everything!
BOARMUS: A network of thewhatnow?
UNDEAD UNIVERSITY PROFESSORS: We aaaaaare as gooooooooods!

(SHERI S. TEPPER: Did I mention while I am at it I thought I should also make some straw-man arguments about organized religion?)

DANIVON, FRINGE, BERTRAN and NELA: So shouldn't we be encountering some plot right about now? How about, say, some DRAGONS?
JORY: I actually do have an invisible dragon that can do everything, but it's not plot-relevant just yet.
DANIVON, FRINGE, BERTRAN and NELA: . . . . right.
FRINGE: Well, I've illegally rescued a little girl from being raped in a religious ritual, so I guess I've gone through my character growth. JUST LIKE ZASPER SAVED YOU DANIVON so please stop yelling at me about being weak and female.
UNDEAD UNIVERSITY PROFESSORS: Now we are going to to kidnap Fringe and the twins and lock them in a cave and torture them until they tell us what man's destiny is!
EVERYONE: . . . why?
UNDEAD UNIVERSITY PROFESSORS: Because that is what gods do, silly!
BERTRAN and NELA: I guess our upbringing as fundamentalist Christians has prepared us for this! Shame about the fact that the torture is probably going to kill us.

DANIVON: Fringe! I have realized I love her! I must go rescue her!
JORY: Actually instead how about we encounter a vaguely Muslimish culture where every single woman is abused and tortured and kept locked in a tower, and set them all free? :D
BECCA: OH SHERI S. TEPPER.

ZASPER: Danivon, I have turned up to help you rescue Fringe. Let's go!
FRINGE: Well, you rescued me fine, but in the meantime Bertran and Nela have been taken apart while alive and screaming and turned into deconstructed sentient body parts in boxes and they don't seem too happy about it.
BERTRAN and NELA: Celery alien, if you were going to come finally grant our deus ex machina wish, NOW WOULD BE A GOOD TIME.
DANIVON: Okay, Fringe and the boxes, you guys take the helicopter and go meet up with Jory and Asner and the rescued oppressed pseudo-Muslin women in deus ex machina land. We'll trudge through The Land Where Men Are Oppressed to add some extra plot.
ZASPER: Well done, son. *dies*

SPEAKING OF PLOT: And then Fringe actually got chomped up by an alligator and died, except something magical and deus ex machina-y that had nothing to do with the celery aliens happened, and then Fringe came back to life and Bertran and Nela were resurrected as respectively an otter-person and a bird-person and the dragons were actually aliens and it was all very confusing.
BERTRAN and NELA: I know we dreamed about swimming and flying, but we did not actually want to be otter people and bird people!
DEUS EX MACHINA: Oops, sorry. Here, now you are a super manly man and a super feminine woman, better?
BETRAN and NELA: Yes, much. :D

(SHERI S. TEPPER: See how much better the world would be if we all just understood each other? That is what the deus ex machina device does by the way! It makes EVERYONE UNDERSTAND HOW EVERYONE ELSE IS FEELING. The fact that it can rebuild people better, stronger and faster is just a side effect.
BECCA: I am not sure that would solve as many problems as you think . . .)

JORY: Hey, Fringe, guess what?
FRINGE: . . . WHAT NOW.
JORY: Actually Asner and I are mass hallucinations and have been dead all along! But if you take my invisible dragon and achieve a transcendent state to save humanity, you just might be able to stop the evil undead university professors.
EVIL UNDEAD UNIVERSITY PROFESSORS: *look up from their wave of destruction and terror* Did someone call us?
FRINGE: Okay, okay, I will achieve a transcendent state to save humanity!
EVIL UNDEAD UNIVERSITY PROFESSORS: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
DANIVON: FRIIIIIIIIIIIIINGE!
BECCA: Dude, you should have figured out this was going to happen, this is by my count at least the third Sheri Tepper book that ends this way.

CELERY ALIENS: Hey, Bertran and Nela, we showed up with your deus ex machina!
BERTRAN and NELA: . . . seriously?
CELERY ALIENS: . . . wait, the world was already saved?
BERTRAN and NELA: Ayup.
CELERY ALIENS: Well, crap.
DANIVON: Well . . . Nela, you're pretty hot now that you're no longer a hermaphroditic conjoined twin, so I guess we'll hook up?
NELA: 'kay.

SHERI S. TEPPER: So now you see 'diversity' was just a keyword for 'BEING A BYSTANDER TO OPPRESSION.' We all have a moral obligation to interfere wherever our sense of ETHICS tells us we should!
BECCA: But isn't the other half of this book a screed against fundamentalist religion, which teaches a version of ethics that you clearly disagree with completely . . .?
SHERI S. TEPPER: Well obviously I didn't mean those people.
BECCA: *FACEPALM*

Comments

[furikku.livejournal.com]

I am having trouble with the idea that someone used the name "FRINGE OWLDARK" seriously.

I assume you are not making this up.

[skygiants]

To be fair, she did come up with the name 'Fringe Owldark' herself as a teenager.

. . . her original name was Fringe Dorwalk, though, which is not all that much better. SO.

[genarti]

I'm glad you said this so I didn't have to.

[libitina]

I have only tried to read The Fresco. You saw my grump-filled post halfway through? It turned into so much rage and fail that I didn't have the heart to write up the last half... mostly because it involved total spoilers and, "You're clearly trying, but I don't think I want you on my side. Argh!"

It's clearly a pattern. Thanks for that warning.

Also, thank you for writing this up - I find that I rather enjoy it when you suffer for art.

[skygiants]

Sheri Tepper is always trying SO SO HARD, and you always just kind of want to pat her gently on the head and aim her at an issue nobody cares anything about to prevent embarrassment for all.

HAHAHA YOU'RE WELCOME.

[elspeth-vimes.livejournal.com]

...

...

It's so...Tepper.

[skygiants]

Purest essence of Tepper!

[genarti]

OH SHERI S. TEPPER WHAAAAAT.

I've only read one of her books, I think, Grass, back in high school. (I quite liked a lot of it at the time, except I wanted it to be a different and more conventional book than it was, I think, and then the ending confused the hell out of me.) Somewhere in Vermont I have Beauty kicking around that I've never gotten around to reading.

I kind of want to, and kind of am terrified to.

[skygiants]

This one is actually kindofasortofasequel to Grass! 'Jory' is, if I interpret correctly, actually 'Marjorie' who is the protagonist of the other, but Grass didn't stick in my head anywhere near as much as this one did so I could be remembering wrong.

AHAHAHA BEAUTY. That one was my first Tepper. It . . . . was very exciting at the time! In retrospect, it is, once again, very, very Tepper. "And all horror novels are evil and doomed to burn in hell why . . .?" "BECAUSE THE PATRIARCHY!"

[yakalskovich]

A long, long time ago, when Big Ben was a little watch, I came across a book called 'Grass' in the library, and read it.

It was about some eco-something, a very complicated system that in the end turned out to be all the same species in different stages of metamorphosis. Crack. Yes.-

[skygiants]

This one is actually a sequel to that one! Kind of. Sort of. In a way that doesn't really involve much sequel-ing except that the protagonist of that one, who presumably ascended and became enlightened, appears as one of the helpful mass hallucinations of enlightenment in this one. As far as I can make out.

[winding_path]

I don't know the book or the author, but I loved your write-up.

Celery? Really?

[skygiants]

They actually call him "Celery" because that's what he looks like and they can't pronounce his name! Which at least is something I think was intended to be funny, to give Tepper credit where it's due.

[ivy-chan.livejournal.com]

I think I'd like to try this out, but I keep on having WHAT DID I JUST READ? flash through my head, and this is only the write-up.

[skygiants]

By the time you're in the middle of a Sheri Tepper book, you just kind of find yourself going with it out of self-defense!

I do think she's worth trying at least once though, if only for THE EXPERIENCE.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

In other words, an entire world created to be a giant straw-man argument against a policy of not interfering with other countries and different cultures.

HEEEE!

Tepper, so freaking weird! Your description of her - a giant helping of very impassioned preachiness filtered through PURE CRACK - is right on the money. I read this book ages ago and it was just as bizarre as you say. Though I kind of like her names.

I would happily join you on some Tepper re-reads. Generally, her fantasy has more crack and less preaching, which I approve of.

[skygiants]

I kind of want to reread the Great Game ones! I remember those being my favorite as a kid, and I do genuinely like it when she plays around with fantasy story-tropes.

. . . on the other hand I also masochistically kind of want to read some of the more problematic sff ones to see just how many times she really does pull the same ending of "female character sacrifices herself and ascends to state of enlightenment, male love interest sulks unworthily!" I remember it happening in Plague of Angels and Shadow's End as well as this one for sure.

[themadpoker.livejournal.com]

Oh Sheri S. Tepper. I remember I read Beauty when I was young and had pretty much no critical distinguishing skills other than 'books based on fairy tales are awesome!' It was an interesting day when I ran across a synopsis of the story a few years later and had my mind blown. Wait, WHAT happened in that book? But fairytales!

[skygiants]

Hahaha, that was pretty much exactly my experience with Beauty, which was definitely my gateway Tepper. "Look, some cool inversions of fairy tales - wait, WHAT?"

[ashen_key]

This book was my first, and so far only, introducing to Tepper.

Oh, god, the CRACK. And the LECTURING. Complete with a side of 'oh, fuck you, too' with the Muslim-inspired place.

[skygiants]

The thing is, if it weren't for the lecturing, it would be quite easy to sit back and enjoy the crack! It's just that you have to keep dodging these lecturing anvils falling on your head. (And oh my god, right? It gets worse when you realize this book was published shortly after the Gulf War. SHERI TEPPER, NO!)

[batyatoon]

Iiii don't think I have ever read any Tepper!

After this review I am not sure this is likely to change. o.O

[skygiants]

Tepper is most certainly AN EXPERIENCE. I will totally admit to a level of fond nostalgia for her, though. (And to be fair, some of her early stuff, which I do mean to reread one of these days, is significantly less anvilish if I remember right.)

[sublunarfields.livejournal.com]

Hm. Wow, that was weird. I've read one book by Sheri S Tepper (The Gate to Women's Country - I think) and I don't remember it being that weird. Of course it was quite a long time ago. Maybe I've forgotten stuff or maybe I'd see it differently now, but at the time, I kind of liked it.

[skygiants]

If I read Gate to Women's Country - which I may well have, I read a lot - it didn't stick in my head very well, but, uh, the ones that tended to stick were the EXTREMELY BIZARRE ones. Self-selection, I guess. >.>

[fahye.livejournal.com]

Becca, MY LIBRARY HAS HEAPS OF THEM. Given that I am prepared to sacrifice one (1) book's worth of reading time to this woman's crack, WHICH ONE SHOULD I READ??

[skygiants]

Oh man, WHAT A DECISION! It depends whether you want the weirdest experience, or the one most likely to be enjoyable? I think what you'd like best is The True Game series, which is about a whole world where psychics are sort of assigned roles like chess pieces and play out war games, and if I remember right is significantly less didactic than some of her other stuff. If you want the weirdest, most INTENSELY TEPPER-ESQUE experience, then you should go for Beauty, The Most Cracked-Out Sleeping Beauty Retelling Ever Written; The Family Tree, The One Where Angry Plants Are Just Literally Taking Over The World, Do You See What She Did There With The Pun; or A Plague of Angels, which has GANGSTERS and PLAGUES and VILLAGES where EVERYONE IS ASSIGNED A FAIRY-TALE ARCHETYPE and a TRAGIC ORPHAN whose BRAIN will be used to pilot a SPACESHIP and probably more plot crammed in that I'm forgetting to mention.

REPORT BACK!

[lacewood]

I have never read Sheri Teper. Now I'm wondering if I will ever be brave (OR BORED) enough to venture forth into the wilds...

[skygiants]

Whatever else you may say about Sheri Tepper, she is RARELY BORING.

[pseudo_tsuga.livejournal.com]

Hermaphroditic incestuous conjoined twins. I'm not sure whether for the better or worse, but my life is changed by that sentence.

[skygiants]

And the thing is, they're the sane ones.