More Fu Manchu notes
May. 9th, 2004 08:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
indriMostly of interest to myself, of course.
According to the introduction (and de facto apologia) of the book, IFM is a fix-up, i.e. it's been cobbled together out of various short stories. This is pretty clear in its structure: so far we've had a classical locked-room mystery reminiscent of "The Speckled Band", an outing to an opium den and a variant of the locked-room as impregnable-moated-grounds. We've also had a femme fatale who has inexplicably fallen in love at first sight with the personality-free narrator, poisonous ants, rare orchids, a toxin unknown to science and a fearless missionary who saved women from death "or worse" in the Boxer Rebellion.
The plots are silly, the individual stories are poorly linked, the prose is frequently histrionic and, at this early stage, the characters are not particularly interesting, but there is something in the way the author builds suspense and mood that could account for the book's appeal. And there was one touch to a scene of an escape from drowning that was satisfyingly macabre.
The book's racism is explicit and unrelenting. The mysterious Doctor is said to be the very embodiment of The Yellow Peril. It's mentioned in the introduction that the author knows nowt about Chinese cultures, which is pretty clear. The Asian characters, it's argued in the introduction, might as well be evil aliens from outer space for all the resemblance they have to real people. This isn't quite true (remember the furore over the "Asian" aliens in one of the Star Wars movies?) but I'm pressing on with my reading as Fu Manchu plays an important role in The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Volume 1.
The question of racism in LoEG is more vexing. When I lent my copy of LoEG to my friend the Comic the last time I stayed with him in Sydney, he objected to its depiction of Chinese people. Frankly, it's the English (and more broadly, all Brits) who are the most savagely depicted in LoEG, especially as embodied in Edward Hyde, but at least some of the English characters are sympathetic, while we never meet any sympathetic Chinese characters. I don't think Moore is racist -- his misanthropy is equal-opportunity -- but it might be hard to tell from this volume alone.
One moment of unexpected amusement in IFM was afforded by the narrator's astonishment that anyone could climb 35 feet up an ivy-covered building. The protagonist has to explain that nimble dacoits are in the employ of Dr Fu-Manchu (I had to google for dacoit; it refers to a robber from India or Burma/Myanmar who works as part of a gang). I mentioned this to SO, who pointed out that he could climb 35 foot up an ivy-covered building, although possibly not if he were dressed as an Edwardian gentleman..
I'm still at US$25 in the Writercon auction. Maybe I should bid on myself. I have a plot bunny, sadly not a Ciao! one, but something really foolish and stupid. I shall try to resist.
According to the introduction (and de facto apologia) of the book, IFM is a fix-up, i.e. it's been cobbled together out of various short stories. This is pretty clear in its structure: so far we've had a classical locked-room mystery reminiscent of "The Speckled Band", an outing to an opium den and a variant of the locked-room as impregnable-moated-grounds. We've also had a femme fatale who has inexplicably fallen in love at first sight with the personality-free narrator, poisonous ants, rare orchids, a toxin unknown to science and a fearless missionary who saved women from death "or worse" in the Boxer Rebellion.
The plots are silly, the individual stories are poorly linked, the prose is frequently histrionic and, at this early stage, the characters are not particularly interesting, but there is something in the way the author builds suspense and mood that could account for the book's appeal. And there was one touch to a scene of an escape from drowning that was satisfyingly macabre.
The book's racism is explicit and unrelenting. The mysterious Doctor is said to be the very embodiment of The Yellow Peril. It's mentioned in the introduction that the author knows nowt about Chinese cultures, which is pretty clear. The Asian characters, it's argued in the introduction, might as well be evil aliens from outer space for all the resemblance they have to real people. This isn't quite true (remember the furore over the "Asian" aliens in one of the Star Wars movies?) but I'm pressing on with my reading as Fu Manchu plays an important role in The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Volume 1.
The question of racism in LoEG is more vexing. When I lent my copy of LoEG to my friend the Comic the last time I stayed with him in Sydney, he objected to its depiction of Chinese people. Frankly, it's the English (and more broadly, all Brits) who are the most savagely depicted in LoEG, especially as embodied in Edward Hyde, but at least some of the English characters are sympathetic, while we never meet any sympathetic Chinese characters. I don't think Moore is racist -- his misanthropy is equal-opportunity -- but it might be hard to tell from this volume alone.
One moment of unexpected amusement in IFM was afforded by the narrator's astonishment that anyone could climb 35 feet up an ivy-covered building. The protagonist has to explain that nimble dacoits are in the employ of Dr Fu-Manchu (I had to google for dacoit; it refers to a robber from India or Burma/Myanmar who works as part of a gang). I mentioned this to SO, who pointed out that he could climb 35 foot up an ivy-covered building, although possibly not if he were dressed as an Edwardian gentleman..
I'm still at US$25 in the Writercon auction. Maybe I should bid on myself. I have a plot bunny, sadly not a Ciao! one, but something really foolish and stupid. I shall try to resist.
no subject
Date: 2004-05-10 06:32 am (UTC)Have you read any of his other stuff? V for Vendetta (in which I think it's proved pretty conclusively that he's not racist), From Hell?
Joss and co have of course read all these things, and if you sit through David Fury's terribly boring episode commentary for Primeval, he even references Promethea's influence on that scene where Buffy channels all the Slayers and turns bullets into birds.
British comic writers
Date: 2004-05-10 07:06 am (UTC)I think LoEG works for me because I find the character of Mina very appealing and because I enjoyed reading much of the source material as a child. It's a vast crossover fanfic really. But I'll admit that the senseless violence quotient often gets a bit high.
The Buffy link was actually what made me plump for Promethea on Saturday. I'd been going to get a cartoon account of a journalist's trip to Afghanistan (just in case I wanted more news to be depressed by) but then thought, what the hell.
The other two UK comic writers that I've read a fair amount of are Neil Gaiman and Warren Ellis. Sometimes I find Gaiman's work to be a little too soft for my taste and Ellis's too harsh (I almost always feel ill after reading a volume of Transmetropolitan no matter how cynically brilliant it is). I think Moore (lunatic though he may be :) more often hits the spot.
Re: British comic writers
Date: 2004-05-10 07:58 am (UTC)I haven't read any of Gaiman's comic book work, but was fairly well up on Warren Ellis until recently. Transmet does indeed requite a strong stomach, as does everything written by Garth Ennis. Have you tried Preacher?
Re: British comic writers
Date: 2004-05-11 04:47 am (UTC)I enjoyed Gaiman's one-volume Mr Punch, which is a sad kid's-eye view of family and innocence. His Sandman series is good but varies from formulaic to truly inspired. I suppose I feel slightly disappointed by him because he can great but often opts to be safe and unchallenging.When he gets beyond that, he's fantastic: I still count issue seven (in volume one) as one of the most satisfyingly horrible stories I've ever read.
One other English comics writer I've read is Brian Talbot. I thought The Adventures of Luther Arkwright was very memorable whereas I read and then forgot that I'd read the sequel, Heart of Empire. I'm told that The Tale of One Bad Rat is his masterpiece but I haven't read it yet.
Mmm, more reasons for me to go back to the comics shop...
Re: British comic writers
Date: 2004-05-11 08:21 am (UTC)I liked Luthor Arkwright too, but, like you, found Heart of Empire a disappointment.
Re: British comic writers
Date: 2004-05-15 11:56 pm (UTC)