Uncreated Conscience

Internets! You should check this out.

Dear internet, you have probably seen me tweet about Cindy Pon and Malinda Lo‘s joint venture Diversity in YA, but I want to take the time to mention it again and explain why it is important to me.

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NAAMAH'S CURSE by Jacqueline Carey

I make it no secret how much I adore Jacqueline Carey and her Kushiel books. I have read every novel set in that universe. There have been 7 books to date.

Carey writes with lush, descriptive (but not overwrought) prose, develops a killer fantasy world that is both heartbreakingly realistic and a place to which I want to escape, portrays wonderfully nuanced and sexy relationships between all her characters, and has created my favourite feminist heroine of all time: Phèdre nò Delaunay, a kinky, bisexual, sexually masochistic courtesan-cum-spy.

Yep.

NAAMAH’S CURSE is her latest book (available for pre-order), the second in Moirin’s trilogy, the first being NAAMAH’S KISS. And right on the heels of my race-in-fiction week: LOOK AT THE COVER.

I might love her even more now.

Pretending to be Edie Sedgwick.

So I have a confession to make.

For most of my life, I refused to identify myself as Asian-American.

I know, right? In hindsight it seems silly, because, well, look at me. Or rather, look at who I wished I looked like. I’ve always wanted to be a gamine pixie sprite, with big eyes and short hair. Essentially, I wanted to be Edie Sedgwick. Or Audrey Hepburn. Or Natalie Portman. (I also wanted to be green-eyed and blonde, but that’s another story.)

I was never one to deny my ethnicity–in fact, I’m quite proud of it–but for a very long time, I struggled with how to describe myself. Because the word “Asian” comes with a lot of baggage and the term “Asian-American” even more so.

Why? Oh so many reasons. I’ve written before on the need for a cultural conscious shift because the way “people like me” (a loaded phrase in itself) are represented in fiction and media contributed a lot to my existential angst.

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