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I was enjoying Sergey and Marina Dyachenko's The Scar reasonably well, and then a thing happened and I stopped being able to take it seriously, which is probably all to the good because I kind of feel like the ending collapsed the whole point of the book out from under it. But it's fine, because I wasn't taking it seriously at that point anyway!
Most of The Scar -- an award-winning work of Russian fantasy in translation -- is very tightly focused on Egert Soll: an early modern dudebro extraordinaire whose hobbies include fighting and dueling and posturing and seducing other people's wives and generally committing extravagantly stupid feats of physical courage. Whether these extravagantly stupid feats of physical courage conclude with other people injured or dead is highly irrelevant to Egert. Basically, if you've ever read The Three Musketeers and thought to yourself, "wow, these people are all assholes of the highest degree!" then Egert Soll will seem very familiar.
Anyway, in like the second chapter Egert basically murders a hapless student in a duel incurred because Egert was attempting to seduce the student's fiancee Toria and wouldn't take no for an answer. Exit Toria, grieving and furious; enter a mysterious old man, who decides that Egert needs to be taught a lesson about toxic masculinity, and curses him to be OVERWHELMINGLY TERRIFIED OF EVERYTHING.
Most of the rest of the book is a slow psychological examination of how Egert, Most Valiant Dudebro In Town, deals with his sudden transformation into World's Most Helpless Physical Coward (spoiler: not well). Eventually, in his quest to get the curse reversed, Egert ends up in the same university town as the student he killed, and starts living a sort of weird shadow-double version of his life under the furious eyes of Toria.
As a deconstruction of the swashbuckling action-hero archetype, this is interesting! I generally agree with the project!
The part where I stopped taking the book seriously happens near but not at the end, when a bunch of Egert's old buddies drop into the university town and start mocking and bullying him for being New, Gentle Egert. Egert's FEAR CURSE compels him to do everything they tell him to do ... until the point where they're like, "OK, Egert, next step: FUCK THIS GOAT."
This, it turns out, is the line. Fucking the goat is the ONE LINE that the curse cannot compel him to cross. Instead, his internal conflict is so strong that he passes out!
Please note that earlier in the book, Egert's fear curse compelled him to THROW A WOMAN OUT OF A CARRIAGE TO BE ATTACKED BY HIGHWAYMEN, WHILE SHE WAS BEGGING FOR HIS PROTECTION, SO HE COULD STEAL HER HIDING SPOT. This was not the line! Watching people get murdered: not the line! Egert loathes and despises himself during these incidents, but the curse pushes him through these decisions without running up against internal resistance so strong that he PASSES OUT. A man can probably still be a man if he watches people get murdered and chucks a woman to highwaymen. But definitely not if he lets bullies force him to have sex with a goat.
Anyway, then I hit the ending, when Egert finally does earn his way free of the curse by proving his character development and standing up for the truth despite personal danger and being more afraid for someone else than himself ... and then IMMEDIATELY turns around to save the day by GETTING IN A HUGE SWASHBUCKLING FIGHT AND KILLING LIKE SIX PEOPLE AND BEING ACCLAIMED AS A HERO THROUGH THE TOWN!
No, it's fine! Everything's great! Egert is now definitely a better person and he and Toria live happily ever after!
Like. OK, we've just spent a whole book thinking hard about the consequences of violent swashbuckling without regard for other people's lives, and examining whether courage is really the particular virtue around which we want to build a sense of people's worth, and this is how the day is saved? REALLY? Way to sell your deconstruction, Dyachenkos!
Most of The Scar -- an award-winning work of Russian fantasy in translation -- is very tightly focused on Egert Soll: an early modern dudebro extraordinaire whose hobbies include fighting and dueling and posturing and seducing other people's wives and generally committing extravagantly stupid feats of physical courage. Whether these extravagantly stupid feats of physical courage conclude with other people injured or dead is highly irrelevant to Egert. Basically, if you've ever read The Three Musketeers and thought to yourself, "wow, these people are all assholes of the highest degree!" then Egert Soll will seem very familiar.
Anyway, in like the second chapter Egert basically murders a hapless student in a duel incurred because Egert was attempting to seduce the student's fiancee Toria and wouldn't take no for an answer. Exit Toria, grieving and furious; enter a mysterious old man, who decides that Egert needs to be taught a lesson about toxic masculinity, and curses him to be OVERWHELMINGLY TERRIFIED OF EVERYTHING.
Most of the rest of the book is a slow psychological examination of how Egert, Most Valiant Dudebro In Town, deals with his sudden transformation into World's Most Helpless Physical Coward (spoiler: not well). Eventually, in his quest to get the curse reversed, Egert ends up in the same university town as the student he killed, and starts living a sort of weird shadow-double version of his life under the furious eyes of Toria.
As a deconstruction of the swashbuckling action-hero archetype, this is interesting! I generally agree with the project!
The part where I stopped taking the book seriously happens near but not at the end, when a bunch of Egert's old buddies drop into the university town and start mocking and bullying him for being New, Gentle Egert. Egert's FEAR CURSE compels him to do everything they tell him to do ... until the point where they're like, "OK, Egert, next step: FUCK THIS GOAT."
This, it turns out, is the line. Fucking the goat is the ONE LINE that the curse cannot compel him to cross. Instead, his internal conflict is so strong that he passes out!
Please note that earlier in the book, Egert's fear curse compelled him to THROW A WOMAN OUT OF A CARRIAGE TO BE ATTACKED BY HIGHWAYMEN, WHILE SHE WAS BEGGING FOR HIS PROTECTION, SO HE COULD STEAL HER HIDING SPOT. This was not the line! Watching people get murdered: not the line! Egert loathes and despises himself during these incidents, but the curse pushes him through these decisions without running up against internal resistance so strong that he PASSES OUT. A man can probably still be a man if he watches people get murdered and chucks a woman to highwaymen. But definitely not if he lets bullies force him to have sex with a goat.
Anyway, then I hit the ending, when Egert finally does earn his way free of the curse by proving his character development and standing up for the truth despite personal danger and being more afraid for someone else than himself ... and then IMMEDIATELY turns around to save the day by GETTING IN A HUGE SWASHBUCKLING FIGHT AND KILLING LIKE SIX PEOPLE AND BEING ACCLAIMED AS A HERO THROUGH THE TOWN!
No, it's fine! Everything's great! Egert is now definitely a better person and he and Toria live happily ever after!
Like. OK, we've just spent a whole book thinking hard about the consequences of violent swashbuckling without regard for other people's lives, and examining whether courage is really the particular virtue around which we want to build a sense of people's worth, and this is how the day is saved? REALLY? Way to sell your deconstruction, Dyachenkos!