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Northwest Passages: Cherie Priest
Novelist Cherie Priest loves and lives genres, from goth to steampunk. Her new book Boneshaker is set in her "alternate history" world of, loosely, Civil War-era Seattle.
Boneshaker is also the name of a machine designed to mine gold from the frozen north. But on its test run it digs tunnels under Seattle, releasing a poisonous blight gas. Sixteen years later, a curious society still survives in the now walled-off city. Everyone keeps busy trying to avoid the flesh-eating zombies. Boneshaker follows the son of the machine's inventor as he enters the Seattle underworld to find answers about his family'spast. And it follows his mother, who goes in to save him.
Most of Priest's earlier work fell in the "southern gothic mystery" genre. Boneshaker is a "steampunk" novel, which Priest explains as
a style, of books, of clothes, of video games and movies, that draws its inspiration from old science fiction stories of Jules Verne, H.G. Wells, and Mary Shelley, set in a place and time where steam is the dominant form of high technology. It's a retro futurisma reaction to the school of design that says all tech must look flat and shiny and inscrutable; it's a rebuttal of disposable culture and wasteful consumption.
She claims Seattle as the epicenter of West Coast steampunk, with a different flavor than East Coast or British steampunk. She a bit tired of explaining the basics. Beyond aviator goggles and flying machines, Priest told me steampunk offers an alternative social structure:
If you want to talk 19th century, you have to talk class status and structures. I think when you're talking about revival or alternative history, you get to re-write the rules that marginalized your ancestors.
I asked if that means trying to say how thing should have been.
Saying what it could have been. Maybe it was, maybe it wasn't. There's a true story about a former slave woman who ran mail out West. She led an epic, wild, crazy life. She's buried somewhere. She's not in the history books. So what else is left out? When you take this fantastic element and apply it to history, you have a little sense that you're reclaiming past stories. Maybe this didn't happen, but things like it did. Or could have.
Just to be clear, Priest is not saying zombies could have roamed the streets of Seattle. (And for the record, she's sick of emails setting her straight on historical details she deliberately messed up!) If you're a steampunk fan, why? If you've read Boneshaker or any of Priest's other work, what do you think? What would you like to ask her?
Tagged as: books · cherie priest · northwest passages · steampunk
Photo credit: Caitlin Kittredge
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I will check it out! NW Passages is focused on fiction, poetry and memoir. But that's not the only time we talk with writers! Thanks.
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I am tired today because I HAD to stay up until the wee hours chasing Briar and Zeke as they finished their nail-bitting adventure which left me craving more. I rushed out after work today so that tonight I could start Fathom. I am quite sure it will be just as fulfilling. Cherie Priest carves a tale so creative, imaginative, and enjoyable, that you won't realize how much you have been sucked in until its over. It is a heartfelt story about being honest with who you love, not taking them for granted, coming to terms with your painful past and embracing the future. As a fan of Steampunk Anime, I found my way to the proverbial alter of Cherie Priest from a picture that Wil Wheaton took of his bookshelf and posted on Twitter. On that self was Boneshaker, which someone commented was about Seattle. As a fellow Southern woman, newly relocated to the PacNW, I was sold. What else is there to love when you read on the cover zombies, Seattle and Steampunk. I am a devotee for life. Just don't go Anne Rice on me.
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"I am a devotee for life. Just don't go Anne Rice on me."
Hah! But what do you mean?
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Anne Rice, the founder of the "real" vampire fiction following and royalty of the Goth movement, became a re-born Catholic and now writes Christian-themed fiction.
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I had the feeling with Boneshaker that I was reading part 1 of a series. It lays the groundwork for any number of sequels, while remaining perhaps too open ended.
My favorite aspect of the book (besides the term 'Rotters'; perfect!) was the multicultural cast and the aknowledgement of a rigid class distinction. I feel strongly that steampunk liturature works best when it addresses these issues. In fact, I feel that is what puts the punk in steampunk: the chance to expose and address the seamy underbelly of the 19th century.
I would love to see a sequel entirely from the point of view of the Chinese characters who live within the city.
If I had one complaint though it would be the fact that Briar is almost entirely defined by her relationship to the three men in her life, her father, her husband and her son. I find that I can't remember any other defining characteristics of "the Widow Blue". Was this intentional?
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I thought Boneshaker was a fun read, and I too am hoping you will see fit to return to this version of Seattle for more adventures. It doesn't have to be a continuation of the story line for me..it's more about the setting and the different communities that live there.
One thing that I got out of Boneshaker was it has a kind of linear quest-like feel that would make a really good screenplay. Is there hope that we might see a Boneshaker film? -
How do you make a jump from "southern gothic mystery" to Steampunk?
(Not complaing, of course, as I loved Boneshaker, and am eagerly awaiting the next 2 books.)
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Having finished Boneshaker (as well as Scott Westerfeld's Leviathan and in the middle of George Mann's The Affinity Bridge) what steampunk authors/material do you like to read and would recommened?
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Cherie Priest’s “Boneshaker” truly seems to be for those who can stomach “flesh eating zombies” and the like!! I for one am not into “steampunk” novels but I am sure for those who enjoy reading such, they’ll find it quite interesting! I am too comfortable watching movies in my lcd hdtv. With so much of terror and violence around us everyday, I’d rather relax with a simple thriller – suspense or anything else, to just while away the time!!
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Cherie
A Seattle artist, Phil Foglio has much you'd likely find interesting. Google Studio Foglio.
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I don't read genre fiction. I don't know if I am missing something. If my imagination is kaput, or what? I suppose I can't get into a world that is so many degrees away, of make-believe, from this one. I feel like there is so much to be told about the here and now, so much not understood, so much to explore---why bother with a fantasy? I am not sure what this wall is. Perhaps genre fiction is inherently too plot driven, because it has to spend so much time convincing you of the fantastical details of a new world. In some ways it seems like it is too 'escapist,' and I don't want to escape exactly. I want to experience what exists currently from different angles. Is there anything Cherie Priest could say that would help us approach the work differently? Or is it just different strokes?
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First, I think it's a huge misconception that genre-fiction must be plot-driven. The best works of speculative fiction are far from it, and have as rich of characters and issues as you would come across in "literature." Secondly, zombies aside, many of these stories are really about a group of people surviving in desperate times, which I think is entirely relevant to present society. Speculative fiction in fact has a long history of providing the cautionary tale (if you take a more negative view of the future), or as inspiration for technological innovation (if you prefer a more positive light). Just look at the invention of satellites as an example. In fact, I know a number of cutting-edge scientific researchers who were first inspired to pursue their careers out of a childhood love of so-called genre fiction, so clearly it's doing something right. Personally, I don't find stories placed in fantastical worlds to be escapist or irrelavant at all. Although I do agree that speculative fiction has a steep learning curve in general - if you're not used to the conventions, then perhaps it's earier to get hung up on the details that seem so strange, rather than looking a little deeper at the underying themes in the novel. Just my two cents.
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Thanks, that is very interesting. Admittedly, I don't like genre fiction, but I guess I am not certain why? Which is what I am trying to discover. I just have no interest in reading it, and when I do, I am left not feeling much either way about it. It seems to bore me, I suppose I think of the fabricated elements as kind of trite, or almost gaudy. Sort of like with design, things with lots of embellishment, and lots of baubles, are often a distraction, or a superficial attraction, whereas I prefer the cut or structure to be the first priority. I am not sure if literature is somehow different from the other arts, but it does seem as though realism tends to be the gold standard, even with much of the cutting-edge. I think in many ways the same could be said about movies. Perhaps the telling of stories is somehow different from the visual arts. Language is inherently precise, even when poorly written, words have fairly clear definitions, documented in dictionaries, whereas visual input is always interpretative. I suppose my feelings may be 'wrong' and perhaps fantastic fantasy combined with emotional connection could be an enhanced experienced, sort of like the 3-D of literature.
Later.... after the weekend, it occurred to me, that it is about emotions. Life is life, because of emotions, we are who we are because of our feelings. Really emotions are what makes us human, are what make the experience of life feel real, feel worth experiencing. The problem with writing that relies too much on an artificial world, so different from our own, is that there is nothing to replace the human emotions with, no new emotions are created for this new world. So, only part of the new fictional world is new, but it still contains the same emotions we already feel in this world. So, why bother? The joy we get from fiction is generally that it tells us something about ourselves or others around us. And genre plots and half-new worlds seem superficial and unnecessary, because they can't really go beyond our own experiences, they can't reach us in some new way. Often because of this, they just end-up seeming like pure entertainment.
P.S. I am not saying genre fiction could never be great, but I just think generally it isn't, because it is almost impossible to overcome the obstacle of making a new world speak to us emotionally, the way this one can.
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I saw a art exhibit at Powells city of books about robot named boilerplate. At the time I had not heard of steampunk, but it seems to me that is a good example of steampunk. Oh course there is a book as well "BOILERPLATE: History of a Victorian Era Robot"
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This is more a suggestion for a future show than commentary about today's show. Portland is the home of Timber Press, arguably the premier imprint for gardening books in the nation. Many of their authors live in Portland, myself included. Their executive editor, Tom Fischer, is transplanted (successfully and happily) from the Boston area, a delightful man, wonderful writer, and accomplished gardener. Which is a long way to get to this question, why don't you feature a garden-writer or two on your Northwest Passages show? Good garden-writing can be as opinionated and "literary" as any other form of writing. It, too, can transform and inspire. Check it out.