Imperial Radch (spoilers spoilers everywhere!) (rats don't look)

... a.k.a. Ancillary Justice & Ancillary Sword & the upcoming Ancillary Mercy - has anybody here read them? They seem like the kind of stuff people here would like, interesting gender stuff, identity things, what-does-it-mean-to-be-a-human, hella worldbuilding.. it's so good. guys. it's so good.

+ breq and seivarden are such beautiful disasters.

 

I read the first one and loved it. Second one's on my to-read.

 

Dude, yes. I love the headtrip of wondering about characters' gender when it's never specified - that characters come off very differently depending on the gender you ascribe to them. And the Radch's glove thing. And the ongoing question in Ancillary Sword in particular about what parts of Breq are inherent to her physical body / that body's previous identity, and which parts of her are the ship, and that she's so lonely because she doesn't have her other bodies to comfort and take care of her... sighs happily.

And Breq and Seivarden are such beautiful disasters. I ship unrequited Seivarden->Breq so hard, she's so loyal.

Much fandom squee. I actually liked Ancillary Sword more than Ancillary Justice, though ymmv.

 

I was alarmed to discover that - my brain decided to gender all the characters in a binary way, right, without my permission or anything, which was very frustrating - I gendered all the antagonists male, except maybe Anaander. And Seivarden read as male to me, for some reason.
My absolute favorite is Tisarwat, though. putting spoilers.. in a spoilertag:

Spoiler

darling depressed lavender-eyed teenage dandy with an ages-old dictator shoved unceremoniously into her brain.

 

Spoiler

I believe Seivarden is explicitly described in-text as male, in Ancillary Justice. I'm using feminine pronouns because that seems to be the Radchly preference even if they're male 'she's. :D

But I know, right? And I'm consistently reading Awn as female, because she's empathetic and less-violent, even though I don't think that's ever specified in-text.

Poor Tisarwat. I loved her crush. And I wonder what she's going to do as she grows into her own person more; is she going to keep being a dandy, or will she change her body to be more like "herself"? Poor depressed darling.

 

Spoiler

Yeah, I like that the fandom uses she/her/hers for everyone, and I continue to do that also. It was so weird reading the tie-in short story and having actual different gendered pronouns (due to the narrator not being Radchaai.) Oo, have you read it? (link)

+ even though I felt very bad for Tisarwat once I figured out what was happening, Breq realizing that she was Anaander and intimidating the hell out of her was REALLY SATISFYING. Anaander Mianaai (spelling?) can fuck right off, basically.

 

omg, I haven't read that one. ALLOW ME TO DEVOUR IT AT HIGH SPEED.

Spoiler

I figured she was a spy, but not that she WAS Anaander. Lady's a terrible, terrible dictator. At least... some of her. I really want her backstory now. And, like... ever wondered what she'd do if one of her clones came out intersex/autistic/all that other stuff that's (maybe) more prenatal environment than genes? Genes leave a lot open to change. Although the answer can't be good. 8|

 

Spoiler

I read it a little while ago, but I figured original-Tisarwat went through basically the same process original-Justice-of-Toren-One-Esk-Nineteen went through, but faster and rougher, and then had Anaander's consciousness put in there where One Esk Nineteen had the ship's AI. And it seems like they were able to undo most of it, but Tisarwat still has those weird moments where it's like "she was acting much older than she was..." and you're like, oh, that came from being an ancient dictator for a little bit, 'kay. :D

ETA: also, no, I can't.. see that going well. Poor Anaanderclones.

 

Spoiler

I was reading her more as a hybrid - that the fast, rough brainmelting didn't successfully remove all of Tisarwat, but there was definitely a big chunk of Anaander still in there. A confused, unhappy Anaander, addled by teen hormones and misery. The question of identity is really interesting though.

Well, the more cheerful corollary: Does Anaander indeed go fuck herself? (Probably. :|)

 

the sudden shift in tone to the :| is amusing the hell out of me, for some reason.

 

WELL, IT'S TRUE. Probably. XD

 

At the very least, Sievarden is consistently read as male by non-Raadchai in the first book, including by medical personnel; and the Raadchai are not actually physically hermaphrodites or anything, they actually do have sexed bodies for the most part. It's just considered as wholly unimportant in the culture.

I know that people who don't like the books are constantly complaining that Breq's inability to recognize gender doesn't make any sense; that when operating in a gendered culture, she should be able to learn the gender-markers that that culture uses pretty easily. But I suspect it's that she simply can't. She's unable to learn the skill; either ship AIs have an explicit programming block on that ability, or it's just that having been brought up not noticing such things, she just can't learn the trick now.

 

Yep, I'd forgotten how her gender was specifically noted. Easy to forget, when it's not reinforced by pronouns all the time.

It's also true that Breq is traveling through many different cultures while avoiding getting too close to anyone, which might be affecting matters. I wonder if it may also be related to her past as a ship, in that as a ship there was never any question about the biological sex of anyone she was monitoring, since she was aware of their physical status at all times. So she never had to learn gender markers at all, until she was all alone.

 

REVIVING THIS THREAD TO SAY

1. if u sign up for ann leckie's newsletter you can get the first chapter of ancillary mercy! GET PSYCHED
2. i'm totally going to try to do an Artificial Academy game with Imperial Radch characters, it's gonna be great. Anaanders Anaanders everywhere

updated 3: nooo i need a windows computer and i definitely cannot do this on the family PC
):

 

Oh cool (wrt the newsletter)

It may be for the good of humanity you don't do an Artificial Academy because just how many Anaanders would you have to have? How do you know which one went all yandere and killed another Anaander?

 

I was just going to fill the extra slots with lots of Anaanders and make at least half of them yanderes, yes. It would have been excellent :3

 

@bluefox you may not have a windows computer but i know a person who does
(that person is me)

 

..... :D

 

ok, I got over my deep shame and installed this anime waifu game on the shared PC. Radch High is off to a great start.

edit: never mind, anxietybrain does weird things and got all het up about ~pornography~ and also I had too much caffeine today so overall I rate this experience "unpleasant and weird"

 

SO LIKE -

a while ago there was a discussion on Ann Leckie's (the author's) tumblr about how the garseddai gun works, and whether its weird mechanics would allow you/Anaander to protect yourself from it with, e.g., a sheet of paper held more than a meter from your body

I made a very silly comic ft. Anaander modeling the various ideas

the last panel has the line "tisarwat didn't predict this" as a joke

due to tiny fandom Ann Leckie saw it and thought it was funny and her blog title (which for a long time was "no good at titles") IS NOW "TISARWAT DIDNT PREDICT THIS"

I've made it big, guys