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WORK TITLE: Winter Tide
WORK NOTES:
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WEBSITE:
CITY: Washington
STATE: DC
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Au blog: http://ashnistrike.dreamwidth.org/ * https://us.macmillan.com/author/ruthannaemrys/ * http://www.npr.org/2017/05/04/526591070/remastering-the-mythos-questions-for-ruthanna-emrys
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Married; children: three.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer.
AVOCATIONS:Cooking, playing video games.
WRITINGS
Contributor of short stories to publications and websites, including Strange Horizons, Drabblecast, and Analog. Creator of the blog, Green Minds.
SIDELIGHTS
Ruthanna Emrys is a writer based in Washington, DC. She specializes in fantasy fiction.
The Litany of Earth
Emrys borrows elements from H.P. Lovecraft’s novels in The Litany of Earth. The book’s protagonist, Aphra, is recovering from being abducted by the government when a government agent approaches her with an appealing offer.
Alex Willging, contributor to the Mr. Rhapsodist website, remarked: “If you love reading about man’s cosmic insignificance in an uncaring universe, or perhaps one woman’s search for meaning in an equally uncaring America, this story and the ones to follow are definitely for you.” Writing on the Sci-Fi Addicts website, Carly Courtney commented: “The story examines themes of racism, xenophobia, the power of knowledge, and the dangers of blind faith. … Each of these themes … is culturally relevant today. We need more sci-fi authors like Emrys asking tough questions and encouraging discussion about what is right and what is real so that we can continue to move toward a better world, by showing us the wrong way to do it and the consequences of using knowledge as a weapon.”
The Deepest Rift
In The Deepest Rift, a group of sapiologists travel to Titan’s Rift, a deep canyon, to study the mantas. They want to determine whether or not the mantas’ spider-like weavings have meaning.
Greg Hullender, reviewer on the Rocket Stack Rank website, described The Deepest Rift as a “good, hard-science story.” However, Hullender added: “Although the four researchers are also romantically involved, we never actually feel anything between them.” “From the first page, it’s already clear what will happen,” noted Lois Tilton on the Locus website.
Winter Tide
Aphra returns in the 2016 novel, Winter Tide. In an interview with Petra Mayer, contributor to the National Public Radio website, Emrys discussed writing another story using elements from Lovecraft’s works. She stated: “All literature is in conversation, but playing in someone else’s sandbox puts you in a much more intense conversation. There’s a responsibility, both to speak meaningfully about things that people have been talking about for decades, and to speak beyond those things. … In Winter Tide, I wanted to talk about how we rebuild community after genocide, and how rebuilt community is always changed from what we had before. And I wanted to talk about all those readers over the years who didn’t question the Deep One concentration camps.” Emrys added: “The flip side of these darker inspirations is that Lovecraft’s Mythos is a big sandbox, with stars for grains of sand. It’s full of incomprehensibly strange life, and civilizations that rise and fall over aeons. I wanted to write someone who wasn’t terrified of that strangeness, who found the vast existential gulfs between stars comforting.”
Referring to Emrys, a Publishers Weekly reviewer suggested: “Her sensitive comparisons of Aphra’s experience … make the novel historically relevant and resonant.” A writer on the Smart Bitches, Trashy Books website commented: “All of the main characters that are human have dealt directly with racism, mass incarceration, genocide, homophobia, cultural appropriation, sexism, or a combination. This makes it heavy read but also an exciting one, not because of the plot itself, although it has many exciting moments, but because there is a sense that people who have been downtrodden will rise again. Plus, at intervals there’s food and companionship and jokes and flirtations.” Andrew Liptak, critic on the Verge website, remarked: “The takeaway is that while Lovecraft is known for his fantastic, unspeakable evils and anxieties lurking at the ends of the world, there are other dangers out there: humans themselves. In flipping the viewpoint here, Emrys addresses the horrors of discrimination and hatred within the context of a world created by an author who perpetrated such attitudes. Winter Tide bridges the gap between honoring a truly great shared world, and delivering an ironic comeuppance.” Tobias Carroll, contributor to Tor.com, asserted: “Winter Tide offers a different kind of subversion of Lovecraft’s work—one that demonstrates a more hopeful worldview, even as it offers glimpses of perspectives from which a human lifespan is a small and tremulous thing. Emrys’s empathic approach to storytelling taken together with a espionage plot make for a compelling read—and one that sets the stage for more to follow.” A reviewer on the Kirkus Reviews website stated: “Filled with people of color, queers and women, Winter Tide is a delicious, rich concoction that centers its story on its characters.” “The plot is well done, though it’s definitely not what you would call a barn burner. It’s considerate and thoughtful and interesting instead. The characters are also interesting,” noted a critic on the Vampire Book Club website. Writing on the Geek Syndicate website, Kris Vyas-Myall opined: “Winter Tide is an evocative and cerebral debut novel that takes an interesting approach to Lovecraft’s work. Building on her earlier novelette, Emrys uses these themes to take an uncomfortable look at the history of race relations in America. As such the plot and character do sometimes take a back seat to the ideas and mood but it is a book well worth experiencing.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Publishers Weekly, November 28, 2016, review of Winter Tide, p. 51.
ONLINE
Geek Syndicate, http://geeksyndicate.co.uk/ (April 4, 2017), Kris Vyas-Myall, review of Winter Tide.
Kirkus Reviews Online, https://www.kirkusreviews.com/ (April 28, 2017), review of Winter Tide.
Locus, http://www.locusmag.com/ (September 13, 2017), Lois Tilton, review of The Deepest Rift.
Macmillan Website, https://us.macmillan.com/ (August 23, 2017), author profile.
Mr. Rhapsodist, https://rhapsodistreviews.wordpress.com/ (September 12, 2016), Alex Willging, review of The Litany of Earth.
National Public Radio Online, http://www.npr.org/ (May 4, 2017), Petra Mayer, author interview.
Reading Lamp, https://reading-lamp.blogspot.com/ (September 18, 2016), review of The Litany of Earth.
Rocket Stack Rank, http://www.rocketstackrank.com/ (October 1, 2015), Greg Hullender, review of The Deepest Rift.
Ruthanna Emrys’s Journal, http://ashnistrike.dreamwidth.org/ (August 23, 2017).
Sci-Fi Addicts, http://scifiaddicts.com/ (February 17, 2017), Carly Courtney, review of The Litany of Earth.
Smart Bitches, Trashy Books, http://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/ (May 26, 2017), review of Winter Tide.
Tor.com, http://www.tor.com/ (April 3, 2017), Tobias Carroll, review of Winter Tide
Vampire Book Club, http://vampirebookclub.net/ (July 26, 2017), review of Winter Tide.
Verge, https://www.theverge.com/ (April 23, 2017), Andrew Liptak, review of Winter Tide.*
QUOTED: "All literature is in conversation, but playing in someone else's sandbox puts you in a much more intense conversation. There's a responsibility, both to speak meaningfully about things that people have been talking about for decades, and to speak beyond those things. ... In Winter Tide, I wanted to talk about how we rebuild community after genocide, and how rebuilt community is always changed from what we had before. And I wanted to talk about all those readers over the years who didn't question the Deep One concentration camps."
"The flip side of these darker inspirations is that Lovecraft's Mythos is a big sandbox, with stars for grains of sand. It's full of incomprehensibly strange life, and civilizations that rise and fall over aeons. I wanted to write someone who wasn't terrified of that strangeness, who found the vast existential gulfs between stars comforting."
Remastering The Mythos: Questions For Ruthanna Emrys
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Winter Tide
Winter Tide
by Ruthanna Emrys
Hardcover, 366 pages purchase
When Ruthanna Emrys first read H.P. Lovecraft's classic story "The Shadow Over Innsmouth," she already knew the basics: It's about a creepy New England harbor town populated by strange, froggy-looking people who turn out to be monstrous, sacrificing humans to their dark gods under the sea.
"But I was shocked when the story started with a government raid that sends the frog-monster people to concentration camps," Emrys tells me in an email conversation. "It wasn't that Lovecraft himself could write this as [much as] that for almost 80 years, people had read this story and sympathized with the protagonist who calls down that raid. My own sympathy was squarely with the interned frog-monsters," she adds.
That shock and sympathy formed the seed of a short story called "The Litany of Earth," featuring Aphra Marsh, an Innsmouth survivor, still recovering from her losses and making a life for herself in late-1940s San Francisco. In her new novel, Winter Tide, Emrys continues Aphra's story as she grapples with working for the same government that killed her family.
"All literature is in conversation, but playing in someone else's sandbox puts you in a much more intense conversation. There's a responsibility, both to speak meaningfully about things that people have been talking about for decades, and to speak beyond those things," Emrys says. "In Winter Tide, I wanted to talk about how we rebuild community after genocide, and how rebuilt community is always changed from what we had before. And I wanted to talk about all those readers over the years who didn't question the Deep One concentration camps.
The flip side of these darker inspirations is that Lovecraft's Mythos is a big sandbox, with stars for grains of sand. It's full of incomprehensibly strange life, and civilizations that rise and fall over aeons. I wanted to write someone who wasn't terrified of that strangeness, who found the vast existential gulfs between stars comforting"
How did you think about making your story accessible to non-Lovecraft readers?
I tried to treat the Mythos as I would a world of my own devising, and help readers pick things up from context. ... I always have at least one first reader who reads no Lovecraft at all, along with someone who hates his work, and someone who loves it and knows all the trivia.
I tried to treat the Mythos as I would a world of my own devising, and help readers pick things up from context. It's not fundamentally different from a wholly original world — or from historical fiction or any other genre where you start writing in a furnished room. It's not fundamentally easier either, and I went through a lot of iterations. I always have at least one first reader who reads no Lovecraft at all, along with someone who hates his work, and someone who loves it and knows all the trivia.
One advantage was that Lovecraft seems to trickle into the popular consciousness the same way that Star Trek or Pride and Prejudice do. People know the basics even if they'd never be caught dead reading/watching that thing. During the election a major paper had an editorial from the point of view of Cthulhu, expressing His opinion of the candidates, and I thought, well, I guess I'll be okay.
What do you say to people who don't want anything to do with the Mythos, because of Lovecraft's documented racism and sexism?
I think that's perfectly reasonable, honestly. Those prejudices are part of the Mythos's bones, and I would never argue with someone who found that too painful or unpleasant to be worth reading.
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That said, a lot of modern writers deal head-on with Lovecraft's bigotry. If you think you might enjoy things that would make [Lovecraft] spin in his grave, Victor LaValle's Ballad of Black Tom, Matt Ruff's Lovecraft Country, and Kij Johnson's Dream Quest of Vellitt Boe are highly enjoyable both as posthumous gyroscope production and as stories in their own rights.
Alternatively, if you want foundational mindbending horror but never want to think about Cthulhu, I can't do better than to recommend Robert Chambers's King in Yellow cycle. He basically invented the forbidden tome that messes with your mind and morality. He also appears to have had about the same politics as H.G. Wells, and his stories are full of razor-sharp social satire.
You've said the Yith are your favorite Lovecraft creations – why? Tell us a little about them and their role in this story.
The Yith are from Lovecraft's "The Shadow Out of Time." A professor wakes from a five-year fugue to discover that during those lost years, he suffered a drastic personality change and drove away his entire family. He starts to recover memories of living in a very alien body in the distant past, conversing with other "captive minds" and writing memoirs for his alien captors. The Yith forcibly exchange minds over vast spans of space and time, and through this means document every species that lives and thrives and goes extinct in the history of the solar system.
So they're basically cosmic librarians who will ruin your life — in exchange for preserving the intimate details of your existence for aeons to come. As far as deals with the devil go, that's pretty damn tempting!
For Lovecraft, I think the Yith embodied the vertigo of cultural relativism: Your species will be remembered after they're dust, but you have to admit that they'll eventually fall to dust — and that their accomplishments are trivial on a cosmic scale. For me, the core fascination is this paradoxical conflict of cultural respect and destruction. The Yith preserve the legacy of species that would otherwise be forgotten, culture and language and precious hidden truths. They're Humboldt's Parrot on a grand scale. But the cost is huge. Whole species never get to have histories, because when the Yith hit an extinction event, they pull a mass mental exchange, take over the bodies of the next species up that looks good, and send the displaced minds back to face extinction in their place.
Lovecraft tries frequently for ideas that are simultaneously attractive and repulsive. He frequently fails, because he was repulsed by so many things. But with the Yith, he nails it.
I loved the image of the Innsmouth matriarchs with their bowls of salt water, running the household and keeping everything ritually correct. How much of the worldbuilding is ol' H.P., and how much is you?
For Lovecraft, the Deep Ones stood for the scariness of interracial breeding, or of having mental illness run in your family, or of people who don't speak English, or all of the above. He didn't really bother to give them family traditions. So the cultural worldbuilding is all me.
All literature is in conversation, but playing in someone else's sandbox puts you in a much more intense conversation. There's a responsibility, both to speak meaningfully about things that people have been talking about for decades, and to speak beyond those things.
"Shadow Over Innsmouth" does contain a pitch-perfect (if not very self-conscious) depiction of blood libel. Suspicious outsiders declaim, with great confidence, about how the Innsmouth natives sacrifice children and have concourse with devilish monsters. Sound familiar? Partly through deconstructing backwards from these to-me-obvious lies, and partly just because of my own background, their culture ended up with similarities to Judaism. The home-based spiritual practice that compliments the temple-based one, that's very much a funhouse reflection of my own experience. Little everyday customs, like saving tears in a jar of salt water to bring back to the ocean, color how Aphra sees the world.
What do you want people to take away from your story?
I never know quite how to answer that question — whatever I want people to take away, I don't want them to go in thinking, oh, Ruthanna wants me to see X. My editor Carl Engle-Laird said, "Winter Tide provides me with both hope and grim determination to survive and prosper in the face of hatred." I could do worse than to want that for my readers.
You're currently running the Lovecraft Reread on Tor.com – can you recommend a good place to start for newbies?
From Lovecraft's own oeuvre, "Pickman's Model," gives a good feel for his strengths without falling too deeply into his failings. Jumping to the modern stuff, Elizabeth Bear's "Shoggoths in Bloom" and Sarah Monette's The Bone Key tell tight, psychologically intense stories that engage with issues Lovecraft shied away from.
I also asked my co-blogger Anne Pillsworth for recommendations. She writes in the small but delightful subgenre of Lovecraftian YA — I recommend her Redemption's Heir series if you like kids scrambling to control magic, deals with gods who are Dangerous to Know, and parents who aren't complete idiots. Anne says:
"Call of Cthulhu" could be good for people already conversant in science fiction and fantasy, since they're used to entering strange new worlds, and accept not understanding everything at once. For an easier gateway to the central canon, "The Dunwich Horror" has the semi-naive Armitage at its heart, plus that wonderful excerpt from the Necronomicon, which pretty much lays out the Mythosian credo of OTHERS WHO WANT TO COME BACK.
Since Anne thoughtfully considers which stories ease you into the pool, I'll close by heading for the deep end and recommend one of Lovecraft's collaborations with Hazel Heald. "Out of the Aeons" is a wild ride with lots of chewy cosmic ideas, secret pre-human history, extraterrestrial document forgery, a genuinely creepy central conceit, and internecine museum politics. It uses the word "cyclopean" eleven times. It's fun. It reminds me why I still read Lovecraft — even aside from his ability to irritate me, oyster-like, into producing stories of my own.
RUTHANNA EMRYS
Ruthanna Emrys
Jamie Anfenson-Comeau
Ruthanna Emrys lives in a mysterious manor house in the outskirts of Washington DC with her wife and their large, strange family. She makes home-made vanilla, obsesses about game design, gives unsolicited advice, occasionally attempts to save the world, and blogs sporadically about these things at her Livejournal. She is the author of The Litany of Earth. Her stories have appeared in a number of venues, including Strange Horizons and Analog.
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Name: ashnistrike
Birthdate: Sep 27
Location: Washington DC, Dist. of Columbia, United States of America
Website: http://ruthannaemrys.com
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Hello, and welcome. You've reached my irregularly updated blog. A sampling of reasons why it is irregular:
1) I write fiction: you can find some of it online at Strange Horizons (http://www.strangehorizons.com/2007/20071112/ghosts-f.shtml) and Drabblecast (http://www.drabblecast.org/tag/author-ruthanna-emrys/)--and on this journal, where I reprinted a story from Analog for Pixel-Stained Technopeasant Day (link to be updated after LJ import). My most recent stories, The Litany of Earth, Seven Commentaries on an Imperfect Land, The Deepest Rift, and Those Who Watch, are available at Tor.com (http://www.tor.com/author/ruthanna-emrys/). Winter Tide, a novel following Aphra Marsh's story after "Litany of Earth," will be out from Macmillan's Tor.com imprint on April 4, 2017.
2) I write non-fiction: you can find some of it at Green Minds (http://greenmindsonline.wordpress.com/), my old blog on the psychology of sustainability. With Anne M. Pillsworth, I co-write a Tor.com series on rereading Lovecraft (http://www.tor.com/tags/H.%20P.%20Lovecraft%20reread).
3) I have a large, complicated family. They're hard to count because they move so quickly, but I'm fairly certain there are at least 3 children, at least some of the time. I definitely have a wife, who is wonderful and the main reason I ever have time for all this other stuff.
QUOTED: "Her sensitive comparisons of Aphra's experience ... make the novel historically relevant and resonant."
Winter Tide
Publishers Weekly. 263.48 (Nov. 28, 2016): p51.
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Winter Tide
Ruthanna Emrys. Tor.com, $25.99 (368p) ISBN 978-0-7653-9090-5
Marbled with references to the fiction of H.P. Lovecraft, this inventive dark fantasy crossbreeds the cosmic horrors of the Cthulhu mythos with the espionage escapades of a Cold War thriller. It's 1948, and Aphra and Caleb Marsh, descendents of the amphibious Innsmouth folk imprisoned in the aftermath of Lovecraft's "The Shadow Over Innsmouth," are tapped by FBI agent Ron Spector to study Innsmouth artifacts now stored at the Miskatonic University library in Arkham, Mass. Spector hopes to determine whether prying Russian agents may have learned the secret of magically forcing their minds into the bodies of American politicians and scientists. Emrys elevates her story above traditional tales of Cold War paranoia by making Aphra's reacquaintance with Innsmouth culture her introduction to a personal heritage that she had been blocked from accessing. Emrys's characters are more openly comfortable with the supernatural than Lovecraft's horrorstruck mortals, and her sensitive comparisons of Aphra's experience to those of other confined and displaced peoples make the novel historically relevant and resonant. (Apr.)
QUOTED: "All of the main characters that are human have dealt directly with racism, mass incarceration, genocide, homophobia, cultural appropriation, sexism, or a combination. This makes it heavy read but also an exciting one, not because of the plot itself, although it has many exciting moments, but because there is a sense that people who have been downtrodden will rise again. Plus, at intervals there’s food and companionship and jokes and flirtations."
Winter Tide by Ruthanna Emrys
by Carrie S · May 26, 2017 at 4:00 am · View all 17 comments
Winter Tide by Ruthanna Emrys
Winter Tide
by Ruthanna Emrys
APRIL 4, 2017 · TOR.COM
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GENRE: Horror, Science Fiction/Fantasy
Winter Tide is the first novel in the Innsmouth Legacy series (it was preceded by a novella, The Litany of Earth). It’s one of a wave of recent books that re-imagines the legacy of H.P. Lovecraft in a feminist and otherwise inclusive and progressive light.
It’s probably possible to enjoy this book without knowing anything about its inspiration, but here’s a refresher on the original Innsmouth story. “The Shadow Over Innsmouth” was written by H.P. Lovecraft (1890 – 1937). Lovecraft was a creepy dude who was racist, and when I say, racist, I mean that even his contemporaries were all, “Dude, maybe dial it down.” Here is an incomplete list of people and things that Lovecraft disliked:
Jewish people (except his wife, who had “assimilated” to his satisfaction)
Homosexuality
Anyone who didn’t fit his definition of “white,” which was most people, including the Welsh
Immigrants
The theory of relativity
Lovecraft had a good quality, which was that he could tell stories that were creepy in a way no one had seen before. He’s most famous for his Cthulhu mythos, which consisted of a series of stories about terrifyingly indifferent gods. In one of these stories, “The Shadow Over Innsmouth”, the human inhabitants of Innsmouth, Massachusetts interbreed with gods of the sea to become “fish-men.” This results in “the Innsmouth look,” which involves bulging eyes, pale skin, and narrow faces. The narrator of the story reports his suspicions of human sacrifice to the authorities. Everyone who lived in Innsmouth disappears and they are rumored to be locked in internment camps. From the point of view of the story, justice is served, although for reasons I refuse to spoil, the ending is either happy or sad depending on what you make of it.
Winter Tide flips the script by making one of the inhabitants of Innsmouth the heroine of the story. In the world of Winter Tide, the Innsmouth population was indeed incarcerated in camps, some time around 1900. They were moved to deserts, where they were forbidden to read and write. Many were subject to medical experimentation and torture. They were denied the salt they loved and needed.
By 1942, almost all of the Innsmouth people have died and the camps are almost empty. Two of the last survivors in the camp are Innsmouth children Caleb and Aphra. Their parents die, along with almost everyone else, in the camp. When the American government decides to incarcerate Japanese-American citizens (an actual historical event that lasted from 1942 – 1946) they move Japanese-Americans into the almost vacant camps. A Japanese-American family takes care of Caleb and Aphra and continues to raise them after the war, along with their own children.
The main part of the story begins in 1949, when Aphra is approached by FBI Agent Ron Spector. He tells Aphra that the FBI suspects the Russians of trying to learn how to take over people’s bodies, and that they are using secrets stolen from Miskatonic University’s collection of arcane lore to do it (Miskatonic, in Lovecraft’s mythology, is a university of all things mysterious and supernatural). Aphra agrees to help Spector stop the Russians from acquiring the secret of body swapping.
That’s the plot – but most of the story involves Aphra building a team that consists almost entirely of H.P. Lovecraft’s worst nightmares. In addition to Caleb and Aphra, the team consists of a gay bookseller and a gay FBI Agent, Aphra’s Japanese-American sister by (informal) adoption, a Yith (ancient being) in the body of an older female math professor, a young woman studying at the university, and a Black woman. I believe one of the characters makes a brief reference to being Jewish. The team progresses from tentative allies to found family (one of my favorite tropes).
The other major element of the book is Aphra and Caleb’s return to the deserted town of Innsmouth. Not all of their family lived on land. Caleb and Aphra are amphibious (“human, just a subspecies”) and will one day mature into a form that lives in the ocean. Their hope is that they may have some family still left in the Atlantic. As they struggle to reclaim their heritage, they both have to figure out how to move forward with their lives.
The pace of this book is very slow, but I loved the characters and atmosphere so much that I didn’t care. The fogs of San Francisco and the mists of the Atlantic frame the story in a beautiful Lovecraftian symmetry. There are spells and tentacles, intrigue, and a suitably creepy library at Miskatonic University. Basically, the Lovecraftian tone, the feel of the thing, is dead on, no pun intended.
This book takes the great parts of Lovecraft’s world building (general weirdness, a sense of our insignificance in the scale of the universe, tentacles, fogs, creeping horror, references to many Lovecraft stories) and uses it to work towards social justice. All of the main characters that are human have dealt directly with racism, mass incarceration, genocide, homophobia, cultural appropriation, sexism, or a combination. This makes it heavy read but also an exciting one, not because of the plot itself, although it has many exciting moments, but because there is a sense that people who have been downtrodden will rise again. Plus, at intervals there’s food and companionship and jokes and flirtations.
I am very much looking forward to further books, but I’m honestly not that wrapped up in what actually happens. I just want to hang out more with Aphra and her found family, not to mention her family under the sea. It’s a great story and a seamless subversion of Lovecraft’s most repellent views while simultaneously being a tribute to his greatest accomplishments.
QUOTED: "The takeaway is that while Lovecraft is known for his fantastic, unspeakable evils and anxieties lurking at the ends of the world, there are other dangers out there: humans themselves. In flipping the viewpoint here, Emrys addresses the horrors of discrimination and hatred within the context of a world created by an author who perpetrated such attitudes. Winter Tide bridges the gap between honoring a truly great shared world, and delivering an ironic comeuppance."
Winter Tide subverts Lovecraft’s legacy with sympathetic monsters and terrible humans
4
A relevant novel that addresses the horrors of discrimination and hatred
by Andrew Liptak@AndrewLiptak Apr 23, 2017, 10:00am EDT
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Photo by Andrew Liptak / The Verge
In recent years, the reputation of horror author H.P. Lovecraft has come under fire. On one hand, he’s responsible for an entire branch of cosmic horror that remains extraordinarily influential with writers and filmmakers today. On the other hand, he was emphatically, vocally racist and anti-Semitic, which has given some contemporary fans pause when honoring his legacy. Ruthanna Emrys found a different way to draw on Lovecraft’s legacy: in her debut novel, Winter Tide, she makes humans the real monsters.
In 2014, Emrys introduced Aphra Marsh in her Tor.com novelette The Litany of Earth. It’s helpful to read before Winter Tide; it provides a bit of context for the world, and for Aphra’s situation. It’s free online, and included in the ebook edition.
In this alternate history, Lovecraft’s Deep Ones and other creatures are real, and the U.S. government has taken notice. Aphra and her people appear human early in life, before transforming to live in the oceans. In 1928, the government locks her and her family up because of their otherworldly qualities and beliefs. They’re imprisoned in the desert, far away from the seas where they lived. When the Second World War breaks out, they’re joined by Japanese-American citizens interred after the attack on Pearl Harbor.
Aphra and her brother are released after the war, the only remaining survivors from Innsmouth. In The Litany of Earth, Aphra meets FBI agent Ron Spector, who enlists her help to track down a cult, and in Winter Tide, the pair are reunited when it becomes clear that the Soviet Union is looking into dark magic to gain an edge in the early days of the Cold War.
Tor.com
While Aphra is extremely reluctant to help the agent, given her history, she’s persuaded that Spector represents a new attitude toward her people, and an opportunity to return home. Along with her brother and a couple of friends, she sets off for Miskatonic University in Arkham, Massachusetts, and begins to look into the Soviets’ research. Meanwhile, Aphra and Caleb contend with the loss of their community and their place in the country.
Emrys plots out an impressive book that updates Lovecraft’s creations with added nuance and empathy. While the plot is engaging, her attention to the characters is what makes Winter Tide stand out amid decades of Cthulhu-mythos works. She blends in real history, such as the internment of Japanese citizens and the casual racism of the 1940s. Her book is as much about systemic prejudice as it is about Cold War politics. For instance, FBI members deeply distrust Aphra and her companions, having conflated their differences with the dangers facing America.
There’s a great exchange in the book that highlights the attitudes of one of the FBI agents, Barlow.
Out in the hall, he turned to me. “Miss Marsh. You’re from Innsmouth.” A statement, not a question.
I swallowed the fear that welled up at his words; it was hardly a secret he could use against me. “I’m certain my files say as much.”
“And it was Ephraim Waite’s old case that brought us out here in the first place. Your people knew the body snatching trick— and even if the raid in ’28 was an overreaction, you were never exactly loyal Americans. The Waites and the Marshes… pretty closely related, right?”
What stands out in this conversation is the ingrained assumptions of guilt, purely by racial and family association. Ephraim Waite (another familiar Lovecraft character) might be distantly related to Aphra’s family, but the association is enough to make Barlow deeply suspicious of her motives, even though she’s working toward the same goals he is. The racism here is palpable, and it creates sympathy for Aphra that would have been alien to Lovecraft.
Winter Tide joins a small group of books that have been inverting Lovecraft’s tropes and legacy recently. Paul La Farge’s The Night Ocean directly addresses his racism. In other cases, books such as Matt Ruff’s Lovecraft Country, Nick Mamatas’ I Am Providence, and Victor LaValle's The Ballad of Black Tom all use familiar elements from Lovecraft’s stories, but reframe them in such a way that the people he hated the most are the sympathetic parties. These books owe a great deal to Lovecraft, but reject his beliefs.
The takeaway is that while Lovecraft is known for his fantastic, unspeakable evils and anxieties lurking at the ends of the world, there are other dangers out there: humans themselves. In flipping the viewpoint here, Emrys addresses the horrors of discrimination and hatred within the context of a world created by an author who perpetrated such attitudes. Winter Tide bridges the gap between honoring a truly great shared world, and delivering an ironic comeuppance.
QUOTED: "Winter Tide offers a different kind of subversion of Lovecraft’s work—one that demonstrates a more hopeful worldview, even as it offers glimpses of perspectives from which a human lifespan is a small and tremulous thing. Emrys’s empathic approach to storytelling taken together with a espionage plot make for a compelling read—and one that sets the stage for more to follow."
Lovecraft’s Depths, Reimagined: Winter Tide by Ruthanna Emrys
Tobias Carroll
Mon Apr 3, 2017 2:30pm Post a comment 2 Favorites [+]
On the surface, Ruthanna Emrys’s novel Winter Tide seems to be a part of a greater trend in fantastic and horrific fiction: a work that utilizes the imagery and cosmology of H. P. Lovecraft while critiquing some of his more odious beliefs. Victor LaValle’s The Ballad of Black Tom is another work that comes to mind that does thing; in a 2000 comic crossing over his series Planetary and The Authority, Warren Ellis featured a brief appearance from Lovecraft that led to the book’s heroes being repelled by his virulent racism. And Emrys’s novel falls firmly into the world of the Cthulhu Mythos: the events of The Shadow Over Innsmouth are part of its DNA, along with nods to some of Lovecraft’s other works. And the book’s cast features a cast of heroes who are far removed from the straight white men at the center of many of Lovecraft’s stories.
But Emrys is doing something subtler here as well: for all that this novel incorporates elements of Lovecraftian horror, the story she’s telling isn’t a fundamentally horrific one. Instead, it’s a kind of supernatural procedural—and one in which Emrys makes the subversive decision to treat figures who might have been deemed monstrous in Lovecraft’s work as the heroes, and the mysterious beings and ancient gods that were the source of so much dread as a means of transcendence.
The book’s narrator and protagonist is Aphra Marsh. (Marsh, and several of the other characters in Winter Tide, first appeared in Emrys’s novelette “The Litany of Earth.”) She grew up in Innsmouth, and is part of a human subspecies who will eventually transform into a body more suited for undersea life. For the first part of her life, she lived with her family in relative peace—something that changed in 1928.
“Someone lied about us, about what we did in our temples and on beaches such as this. The government believed them: when I was twelve they sent soldiers, and carried us away to the desert, and held us imprisoned there. So we stayed, and so we died, until they brought the Nikkei—the Japanese immigrants and their families—to the camps at the start of the war.”
The juxtaposition of the fate of Innsmouth’s residents with the very real historical crime that was the internment of Japanese-Americans during the Second World War is one of the bigger pieces of backstory in the novel. But it also aligns Aphra with those who have been wronged by the power structures of the United States—something that becomes a running theme in the novel. Aphra has a working relationship with an FBI agent, Ron Spector, whose purview includes the occult. As Winter Tide opens in late 1948, he finds himself under scrutiny from his supervisors as well: “I got a whole interrogation about whether I was planning to leave the country, whether I considered myself an Israeli citizen,” he tells her.
Ron asks for Aphra’s help investigating the possibility that Soviet agents are researching methods of swapping bodies, the better to carry out acts of espionage. After The Shadow Over Innsmouth, Lovecraft’s “The Thing on the Doorstep” is the other major touchstone here. Though the novel opens with Aphra living a peaceful life in San Francisco, she soon crosses the country and returns to New England, delving into the question of whether spies have infiltrated another location familiar to Lovecraft readers: Miskatonic University.
Here, the mysteries increase: there are rival factions from the U.S. government making their presence felt; a group of students with a dangerous interest in the occult; and, in the nearby ocean, members of Aphra’s family who have undergone a metamorphosis and now live incredibly long lives below the surface of the water. Some of these mysteries are solved by the end of the book; others lurk in the background, running concerns that will likely make their presence felt in future books featuring Aphra and her friends and associates. The supporting cast here is particularly well-drawn: Emrys manages the subtle task of making these characters feel like they have vibrant lives when the don’t appear on the page.
In some of the scenes at Miskatonic, Emrys excels in showing how the stuff of cosmic horror in the hands of one writer can be turned into a source of comfort in the hands of another. At one point Aphra and her brother Caleb step inside the campus’s church, where they’d been advised to visit a particular shrine.
“A stone altar stood empty except for a single candle. If I let my eyes unfocus, the half-abstract carvings resolved into great tentacles reaching from the altar to enfold the little grotto. The artist, I realized, had placed those who knelt there within the god’s embrace, while making the god invisible to any who did not know to look.”
It’s a scene that, in a different Lovecraftian tale, might well lead to a moment of horror, a realization that things are not as they seem, and menacing forces are afoot. For Aphra, this space is reassuring; it’s part of the faith from which she draws strength and peace . And while there are monstrous creatures to be found in the pages of Winter Tide, they aren’t necessarily the ones that readers may expect.
That’s par for the course for this novel. Winter Tide offers a different kind of subversion of Lovecraft’s work—one that demonstrates a more hopeful worldview, even as it offers glimpses of perspectives from which a human lifespan is a small and tremulous thing. Emrys’s empathic approach to storytelling taken together with a espionage plot make for a compelling read—and one that sets the stage for more to follow.
Winter Tide is available from Tor.com Publishing.
QUOTED: "Filled with people of color, queers and women, Winter Tide is a delicious, rich concoction that centers its story on its characters."
'Winter Tide' by Ruthanna Emrys
By Ana Grilo on April 28, 2017
In the acknowledgements section of Winter Tide, Ruthanna Emrys talks about three types of readers when it comes to H.P. Lovecraft’s work: those who love it, those who hate it, and those who would prefer not to read it given that author’s racism and anti-Semitism. Much as I understand the author’s influence in SFF, I am one of those who’d rather not read Lovecraft’s work – but I am somewhat attracted to reworks of it, especially the more recent subversions/revisions of his work (the excellent Hammers on Bone by Cassandra Khaw comes to mind).
Winter Tide by Ruthanna Emrys is one such subversion: it offers a Lovecraftian tale with Lovecraftian mythos, without Lovecraftian racism. In fact, knowing that author’s views on people of color, I’d expect he’d be horrified by it, which makes me positively gleeful that it exists in principle. It helps that’s a pretty good book on its own and approaching it as someone who is not overly familiar with Lovecraft’s oeuvre, I don’t think I missed out on anything. The elements of Lovecraft mythos are explained well enough within the story in a way that it’s perfectly clear. Beyond that, this is essentially a story about identity, found families, wrapped in a cozy mystery. With magic. And monsters. Except the monsters are not exactly who you expect them to be.
In here, Lovecraft’s Deep Ones are not horrendous monsters to be destroyed. They are only one of three different species of humans, inhabitants of the ocean who spend their early lives as humans on land, before transitioning. Back in the 20s though, the US Government rounded up the people from Innsmouth – at least those who survived the raid – and interned them in camps. Only two children survived: Aphra and Caleb Marsh. They are ultimately forgotten and when WWII breaks out, the two are joined in the camp by Japanese-American citizens who have also been rounded up by the government and then released when the war is over.
As the story starts, it’s post WWII and the Cold War is brewing. The US Government, worried that Russian spies are gathering information about magic secrets that could allow them to take over bodies, recruit Aphra and Caleb to help. FBI agent Ron Spector convinces Aphra to travel to Miskatonic University to find the truth in its files (and in doing so, a chance to rescue some of her people’s diaries and books which are now stored at the University).
Continue reading >
More than a book about magic or monsters, this is a story deeply concerned with the question of identity and knowledge, of history and tradition and, above all, with the connections between people. Aphra doesn’t travel alone: there is her brother Caleb with her, and she brings along her fellow student of magic Charlie (a wounded war veteran) and her heart-sister Neko, from the Japanese-American family who all but adopted her and Caleb. Upon their arrival, their group grows to include not only Dawson, an African American woman who also works for the government, but also Audrey, another student who grows incredibly close to Aphra. This group forms a connection that is in many ways deeper than blood and more interesting to read than anything else.
One thing I was a bit worried about before diving into the story was the fact that the book is set in a specific historical period, depicting real, historical, systemic racism and sexism. Given that the story is also about the plight and persecution of Fantasy monsters, I worried about how elements of real versus fantasy would unfold. I am not a huge fan of Fantasy monsters being used as stand-in metaphors for real-life racism and sexism, and I am glad to report that the author was able blend both threads together in a way that didn’t give more weight to the Fantasy.
Filled with people of color, queers and women, Winter Tide is a delicious, rich concoction that centers its story on its characters. I really enjoyed it, and I want to read more about Aphra and her found family.
In Booksmugglerish: 8 out of 10
QUOTED: "The plot is well done, though it’s definitely not what you would call a barn burner. It’s considerate and thoughtful and interesting instead. The characters are also interesting."
Review: Winter Tide by Ruthanna Emrys (Innsmouth Legacy #1)
Posted by Beth on Jul 26, 2017 in Fantasy, Reviews | 0 comments
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Winter Tide by Ruthanna Emrys // VBC ReviewWinter Tide (The Innsmouth Legacy #1)
Ruthanna Emrys
Published: April 4, 2017 (Tor)
Purchase: Book Depository or Amazon
Review source: copy provided by publisher in exchange for an honest review
Reviewed by: Beth
Rating (out of 5): 3.5 stars
Aphra is…not like the other humans around her. Oh, she can mostly pass for one, but it’s the telling little details that give her away as a monster. Not monster as in the slobbering, fanged hungry beast—but monster as different. Not totally human. And isn’t that how humans always see “other”? As monsters?
In this case, her people were rounded up and put into camps by the government. Eventually, living in the desert caught up with these people who were dependent on water, and they all died. Except Aphra and her brother. Now, she lives in San Francisco and works in a small bookstore, where she can keep her eyes open for texts relating to her people. Until the government comes calling and needs her help.
Ruthanna Emrys explains that Winter Tide was written because so many readers wanted more about Aphra after writing her novelette The Litany of Earth. Not having read that, I came to Winter Tide a newbie to both Emrys AND Aphra. However, at no time did I feel like I had missed out on some important piece. In fact, it wasn’t until after the story was over that I found out about the prior novelette. I would like to go back and read that, but it isn’t necessary to enjoy the current book.
The story is set in the United States but one that is both the same and different in very important ways. As discussed above, anyone “other” is still regarded suspiciously. WWI has been and gone, as has WWII, and now the Cold War with Russia is spiraling. But in this world, ancient creatures still exist, and magic can be found if one works hard enough at it. And in this story the true monsters are not the monsters at all.
The plot is well done, though it’s definitely not what you would call a barn burner. It’s considerate and thoughtful and interesting instead. The characters are also interesting—I found myself surprised in several instances with the character development. Aphra is a strong female lead, who has found herself in the unenviable position of being the last known female of her kind, as well as one who was traumatized by the government and ends up attempting to assist them in order to further her own knowledge. It’s a fine line to walk on the believability scale, but Emrys does a good job on that tightrope.
Overall, I enjoyed the storytelling in Winter Tide, and I liked the thoughtful commentary embedded within the story. After all, what truly makes a monster? How we appear to the public at large? Or how we act to those we view as outsiders?
Sexual content: none
QUOTED: "Winter Tide is an evocative and cerebral debut novel that takes an interesting approach to Lovecraft’s work. Building on her earlier novelette, Emrys uses these themes to take an uncomfortable look at the history of race relations in America. As such the plot and character do sometimes take a back seat to the ideas and mood but it is a book well worth experiencing."
BOOK REVIEW: Winter Tide
Posted by Kris Vyas-Myall in Book Reviews, Books, REVIEWS | Comments Off on BOOK REVIEW: Winter Tide
Title: Winter Tide
Author: Rutanna Emrys
Publisher: Tor
Published: 4/4/17
RRP: £21.15
“An innovative gem that turns Lovecraft on his head with cleverness and heart.” —Cherie Priest, author of Boneshaker
Two decades ago the U.S. government rounded up the people of Innsmouth and took them to a desert prison, far from their ocean, their Deep One ancestors, and their sleeping god, Cthulhu. Only Aphra and Caleb Marsh survived the camps, emerging without a past or a future.
Now it’s 1949, and the government that stole Aphra’s life needs her help. FBI Agent Ron Spector believes that Communist spies have stolen dangerous magical secrets from Miskatonic University, secrets that could turn the Cold War hot in an instant and hasten the end of the human race.
Aphra must return to the ruins of her home, gather the scraps of her stolen history, and assemble a new family to face the darkest of human politics and the wildest dangers of an uncaring universe.
There are two interesting recent trends in writing; well-respected short fiction writers releasing fantastic first genre novels (such as Yoon Ha Lee, Ken Liu or Mary Rickert), and the use of Lovecraft to explore the history of racism in America (e.g. The Ballad of Black Tom or Lovecraft Country). This intersects both of these as Ruthanna Emrys – an author I have been following since the brilliant Litany of the Earth1 came out on Tor.com – continues the reflexive Lovecraftian universe she put together in that earlier tale.
Whilst there is a bit of a thriller style plotline to drive the tale along this, for me, was a story of mood and ideas. This is technically a tale of godlike beings from beyond time, and Red Scare style body-swapping, but that is really window dressing. At its heart it is a story that launches itself at the way America has treated those that it considers to be aliens or outsiders and how culture and history, family and home is destroyed. In particular, it takes aim at the history of Japanese internment during World War Two but also touches on elements of many other events in US (and Western) history.
This could be problematic but, I would contend, Emrys is skilful in navigating this as she puts the citizens of Innsmouth as another group directly involved in these events rather than taking someone else’s history and appropriating for other purposes. As such, Aphra regularly has to navigate prejudice and micro-aggressions which are both specific and universalistic e.g.:
“’I am as human as you. Just a different kind.’ And truly sick of having to repeat that assertion to people who supposedly respected me.”
Or
“’Would it be so bad to tell people? … It might shut them up’ ‘…people have studied us more than enough.’”
Although these situations are the encounters between People of the Water (e.g. the former people of Innsmouth) and the People of the Air (e.g. the dominant American group), the treatment of various different groups as being less than human or treated as some object of curiosity is a common stain across Western history.
Whilst these are the main ideas it employs, the real area in which it excels is in mood. Throughout we get such a great sense of loss and longing evoked, as the place and people Aphra and Caleb thought they would be around for centuries are completely washed away, and the understanding of their culture and religion has been demonised by People of the Air telling falsehoods.
At the same time, there is introduced a fascinating counterpoint. That is a real belief that The People of the Air may well wipe themselves out soon with nuclear war and be replaced by The People of the Water. So whilst The People of the Air may be doing their best to obliterate the history of other groups, it is seen as inevitable that they will really be the ones who fall and are replaced. Not by conquest but by their own hands. For as they survive by destroying others we have the sense they will inevitably destroy themselves.
Further within this, much of the motivation Aphra has is to recover the past that has been lost to her, as she attempts to reassemble what has been stolen in their past by White Americans. What were once important or religious artefacts are now put into research libraries for the perusal of academics. Once again, this has been all too common a practice in Western history but it is often something which is overlooked for how much emotional harm it can cause to displaced communities and why these items would have such significance.
What I love about the way Emrys goes about this is that she is explicit but not didactic. It would be all too easy to turn this into an angry essay but as we are pulled along with Aphra’s journey it becomes more powerful because we experience the world as she does, and get to feel how this would impact upon her.
However, as there is such a focus on mood and ideas I do feel that some other elements may have fallen by the wayside slightly. Outside of Aphra many of the characters are a bit bland. Even Neko and Caleb, who get the most development, can sometimes feel a bit short-changed. Much like the more thriller-esque elements of the plot alluded to earlier they are really here to serve the ideas and not vice-versa. This is a style of writing I enjoy but it is not one that is necessarily for everyone.
Winter Tide is an evocative and cerebral debut novel that takes an interesting approach to Lovecraft’s work. Building on her earlier novelette, Emrys uses these themes to take an uncomfortable look at the history of race relations in America. As such the plot and character do sometimes take a back seat to the ideas and mood but it is a book well worth experiencing.
Rating: 5/5
Reviewer: Kris Vyas-Myall
Whilst not essential it may be useful to read Litany of Earth before this novel, it is still available for free from Tor.com at:
http://www.tor.com/2014/05/14/the-litany-of-earth-ruthanna-emrys/
Review: The Litany of Earth by Ruthanna Emrys
Labels: H.P. Lovecraft, Horror, Reviews, Ruthanna Emrys, Short Story, Tor, Urban Fantasy Posted by DarkChaplain at 9/18/2016
You probably know I'm a sucker for Lovecraftian Horror. Somehow, whenever I try to dabble in hobby writing myself, it turns into that type of story, and Lovecraft's dark visions of cosmic horror might have been as big an influence on my tastes in fiction as Tolkien and Poe were growing up. So yes, I'm excited to read new spins on his legacy, even though, sadly, a lot of authors miss the mark by an aeon and try to turn it upside down, or try to counter Lovecraft's often xenophobic tendencies in his works. Thankfully, this is a good one!
The Story:
"The state took Aphra away from Innsmouth. They took her history, her home, her family, her god. They tried to take the sea. Now, years later, when she is just beginning to rebuild a life, an agent of that government intrudes on her life again, with an offer she wishes she could refuse. "The Litany of Earth" is a dark fantasy story inspired by the Lovecraft mythos."
Disclaimer
After buying this story and procrastinating on getting started, the novel sequel to it appeared as an ARC in my mailbox. While I made the purchase independently, I read it with that knowledge in mind.
The Review:
The Litany of Earth is the first story written by Ruthanna Emrys that I've read so far. The idea of a somewhat-sequel to H.P. Lovecraft's The Shadow Over Innsmouth caught my attention while browsing Amazon for Kindle short stories, and I picked it up.
However, this story was/is also available to read for free on Tor.com, in case you don't want to spend a buck on this story (though I'd say it is well worth that much, at least).
The Litany of Earth plays on Lovecraft's themes and the horrors of Innsmouth in way that feels familiar as far as the Mythos is concerned, yet is decidedly different from HPL's works. It puts us into the story of Aphra Marsh, a survivor of the raid of Innsmouth and the traumatic experiences resulting in it. She is a Deep One, has the "Innsmouth look" (long-limbed, ugly, bulging eyes etc) and suffered from the persecution of her kin.
Emrys aims to give the cults, described as Aeonism here, in a more sympathetic light, like a religion like any other with its nutters and good people searching for more. She succeeded in making the cultists here more than extremists willing to throw their lives away to doom the world, and give them more depth, which I liked a lot.
While not nearly as bleak or hopeless as a classic Lovecraft (nobody actually goes insane, or commits suicide out of desperation or paranoia, for example), it still expands on the Mythos in multiple directions, to the point of elaborating on the Yith and other Mythos beings, and the inevitable death of the Earth.
It is delivered in a way that doesn't feel out of place in the context of the story, or makes light of Lovecraft's ideas and concepts, like many stories by other authors I've read on the matter sadly did.
As a result I'd consider this a worthwhile extension to the Mythos, written by somebody with a noticeable degree of passion for the subject, even if it is a stylistic departure.
A bonus for me was the likeable cast of characters (which, with Lovecraft, I don't normally expect). Aphra herself is intriguing and gives the whole topic a more esoteric feeling, and tying her into the Innsmouth raids was a cool core concept. She lives with a japanese family who also suffered ethnical persecution, so there's a certain degree of understanding and trust there which makes Aphra's situation appear more grounded. Her employer, a bookstore owner and collector of occult books, gives the story the opening to delve into the matter of magic and talk about the Mythos's larger themes. The cultists, too, offer a look at the Aeonist movement, zealotry and desperation of the common human.
The one thing that I didn't enjoy as much was the abrupt ending. I was surprised to find that the story was over already. I didn't feel lost, or that plotlines weren't wrapped up sufficiently, but I'd have liked to see a little more happen before the curtain call. Still, I enjoyed the ambiguity in it, and figured that would be the logical conclusion, so I am satisfied with it.
Seeing how much I enjoyed The Litany of Earth, I am looking forward to reading more of Emrys's lovecraftian horror / Mythos stories in the future. I'll probably start with Winter Tide, since hey, it's already in my mailbox and continues the story of Aphra Marsh and co. If it is anything like this short story, it'll be a nice treat for Lovecraft fans like me.
QUOTED: "If you love reading about man’s cosmic insignificance in an uncaring universe, or perhaps one woman’s search for meaning in an equally uncaring America, this story and the ones to follow are definitely for you."
The Litany of Earth by Ruthanna Emrys: Dwelling in Darkness and a Mother’s Love
ON SEPTEMBER 12, 2016 BY ALEX WILLGING
Art copyright © 2014 by Allen Williams. “The Litany of Earth” copyright © 2014 by Ruthanna Emrys.
Art copyright © 2014 by Allen Williams.
Lately, I’ve been reading a little more in the way of H.P. Lovecraft. I’ve always found the cosmic horror genre interesting, having heard a lot of great material from games like Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Reqiuem and podcasts like Welcome to Night Vale. But I haven’t read all that much, apart from a single novella by Ruthanna Emrys.
Based on the Lovecraft story The Shadow over Innsmouth, “Litany” tells the story of Aphra Marsh, a young woman living in exile in San Francisco after her family and all the other Deep One worshippers were forced out of Innsmouth. Now living in the aftermath of World War II, Aphra deals with the world after her family was separated and brutalized in relocation camps, much like her Japanese-American neighbors. When approached by a federal agent, she gains an opportunity to reconnect with people who also practice “the old ways,” but what she finds may not be the eldritch faith that she recognizes from her childhood.
It should go without saying (yet here I go anyway) that Emrys did her homework on drawing all the appropriate parallels to Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos. She makes homage to characters like Obed Marsh and Abdul al-Hazred, as well as to the extensive mythology and menagerie of the Old Gods and what lies in store for humanity eons from now.
What stands out, though, is how sympathetic Aphra is. To most human beings, her background is terrifying and foreign. And yet, she has an earnest need for faith and prayers to the Old Ones, as much as anyone persecuted by the US government might feel after years of forced relocation and experimentation. This could have easily been a story about a young Japanese woman dealing with life after internment, trying to reconnect to her Shinto roots, and it would still be compelling.
Emrys also conjures up some fascinating imagery, drawing a connection between the fog and rain of San Francisco to the dreary ocean waves at Devil’s Reef and Innsmouth. In true Lovecraftian fashion, she does more to evoke a sense of horror and ancient rites through limited descriptions from Aphra’s point of view, favoring the poetic over the objective.
I’m pleased to hear that Tor got such a good response from the novella that they’re setting up to publish two novels by Ruthanna Emrys that will continue to follow the journey of Aphra Marsh during the Cold War era. I would definitely give those books a read when they come out, with Winter’s Tide due out next April. If you love reading about man’s cosmic insignificance in an uncaring universe, or perhaps one woman’s search for meaning in an equally uncaring America, this story and the ones to follow are definitely for you.
“The Litany of Earth” is available to read on Tor.com.
QUOTED: "The story examines themes of racism, xenophobia, the power of knowledge, and the dangers of blind faith. ... Each of these themes ... is culturally relevant today. We need more sci-fi authors like Emrys asking tough questions and encouraging discussion about what is right and what is real so that we can continue to move toward a better world, by showing us the wrong way to do it and the consequences of using knowledge as a weapon."
‘The Litany of Earth’ A Lovecraftian Sci-Fi Short Story: Review
17 Feb 2017/Carly Courtney/0 Comment
Books, News
the litany of earth. Underwater pillar.
“The Litany of Earth” by Ruthanna Emrys Combines the Tragedy of Japanese-American Internment Camps with Lovecraftian Lore
In April, fans of Lovecraft will experience a reawakening.
"The Litany of Earth"
Click here for Ruthanna Emrys’s twitter.
Ruthanna Emrys, Lovecraftian scholar, fiction writer, and environmentalist is preparing to debut her first novel through Tor Publishing. Already racking up stellar critic reviews, Winter Tide will be available for purchase on April 4, 2017 from Tor and Amazon.
Her short story (about 12,000 words), “The Litany of Earth” illustrates a short period of time in the life of Miss Aphra Marsh, a young woman who works at a book store in San Francisco. Throughout her narrative, it’s revealed that Miss Marsh is a descendent of the strange people from the mythical town of Innsmouth, Massachusetts, from the H.P. Lovecraft novella “The Shadow Over Innsmouth.”
For those who aren’t familiar with Lovecraft lore, those strange people are the children of humans and Deep Ones, a fishy-humanoid race of ocean dwellers that practice magic and eventually gain immortality as they experience metamorphosis (around middle age) and transform into Deep Ones, capable of living underwater.
Yasser Bahjatt Hopes to Better the World Through Science Fiction. Yasser Bahjatt, a TEDx host, engineer, and science fiction enthusiast has dedicated his life to the advancement of both Arabian culture, and the rest of the world’s culture through encouraging interest in gaming and science fiction. Bahjatt and his partner, Ibraheem Abbas, launched a media company called Yatakhayaloon that aims to inspire Arabian authors and readers to create and embrace science fiction, because as his research has indicated, a strong cultural interest in science fiction correlates with a society having a higher rate of technological and social advancement.
“The Litany of Earth” Pulls No Punches
The story seems to take place shortly after World War II, as the world is still recovering. Miss Marsh lives with a Japanese-American family called the Koto’s, who it appears she met in a desert internment camp. The Deep One-hybrids (like the Marsh family) were taken from their culture and home and imprisoned in the desert, soon to be joined by Japanese POWs and Japanese-Americans who came under suspicion during the war.
Immediately, I was drawn into the narrative, as I believe science fiction that tackles real world tragedies and injustices is necessary for the social progression and cultural evolution of us as humankind. The Deep One’s only known city, located in Devil’s Reef, was torpedoed by the US Government, presumably destroying everything and everyone in it.
The Conflict
Miss Marsh’s family is all but dead, with her mother being tortured and experimented upon in a cage in the desert at the hands of “The State,” her father was shot, and her brother is in an unknown location searching for any remaining religious texts not destroyed or stolen by the aforementioned state. Miss Marsh is just settling in and being comfortable in her new life working for Mr. Day, the book shop owner, and living with the Koto’s, when an FBI agent shows up and threatens to ruin everything.
The agent, named Spector, chases Miss Marsh down as she’s walking home through the dense, salty fog of San Francisco, and tries to blackmail her into helping the very institution that decimated her family and culture.
The story continues as Miss Marsh ends up at the house of a family that “practices the old ways,” which the reader can safely assume by this point is the religious magic of Cthulhu and the Old Gods. We soon find that they attempt to practice this magic in hopes of achieving immortality and walking into the surf to join the Deep Ones beneath the waves. Unfortunately, not all of the congregation has purely spiritual motivations, and Miss Marsh immediately makes an enemy of Mildred Bergman, a vile, judgmental aging human woman.
Mildred refuses to see Miss Marsh for what she is, and repeatedly insults her until it results in violence. Mildred harbors not only doubt of Miss Marsh’s true nature, but eventually reveals to have a jealous hatred of her kind. She seems to believe that the Deep One-hybrids are intentionally hiding the secret of immortality from humanity to keep them weak, and hates that Miss Marsh was born into a life she desperately wants for herself. Miss Marsh knows that despite their praying to Cthulhu and their clumsy attempts at ritual magic, walking into the waves will only bring them death.
Final Thoughts on “The Litany of Earth”
The story examines themes of racism, xenophobia, the power of knowledge, and the dangers of blind faith. Power, in the form of fear, is used as a weapon to kill and imprison the Japanese-Americans during WWII, and power, in the form of faith, is used arrogantly and ignorantly to seek immortality at the cost of others. Each of these themes, I believe, is culturally relevant today. We need more sci-fi authors like Emrys asking tough questions and encouraging discussion about what is right and what is real so that we can continue to move toward a better world, by showing us the wrong way to do it and the consequences of using knowledge as a weapon.
QUOTED: "Good, hard-science story."
"Although the four researchers are also romantically involved, we never actually feel anything between them."
Thursday, October 1, 2015
The Deepest Rift, by Ruthanna Emrys
Tor.com, June 24, 2015; 7,802 words
Rating: 3, Good, ordinary, story
On planet Duranga, a novice research team struggles to prove that the communication system of the "mantas" they study amounts to an actual language.
Mini-Review (click to view--possible spoilers)
Pro: Good, hard-science story. The question of language vs. mere communication is a big one, and the examples in the story (bee's dance, adding to lexicon, new concepts, etc.) are real ones. The fact that Sapphire is deaf is likely a subtle reference to the fact that for many years linguists denied that ASL was a true language. Likewise, the heavy emphasis on protocols aimed at preventing self-deception is probably a reference to the recent history of animal-language research, where a number of people reported results that didn't stand up.
Beyond the technical bit, the fact that the researchers make their own decision to stay together as a team amounts to a victory of sorts, and it's quite appropriate that we don't learn whether they got a good review or not for their work.
Con: Although the four researchers are also romantically involved, we never actually feel anything between them. The stakes in the story never seem to be very high--at worst they move to new jobs with new teams. There's something objectionable to the idea that a "hunch" is something to pursue even when the data say otherwise. It's a bit surprising that the government has no mechanism to handle teams that want to stay together.
Posted by Greg Hullender at 10/01/2015 12:38:00 PM
Labels: 2015, Novelette, Rating: 3, Review, Ruthanna Emrys, Tor.com
QUOTED: "From the first page, it’s already clear what will happen."
Lois Tilton reviews Short Fiction, late June 2015
— posted Saturday 27 June 2015 @ 11:02 am PDT
Looking at a miscellaneous bunch of ezines, not finding any real stars in them. Hoping to have the digests in for July.
“The Deepest Rift” by Ruthanna Emrys
An interstellar setting called the inhabited worlds, which apparently means inhabited by both humans and nonhumans. Titan’s Rift is the deepest canyon in all these worlds, and in it live flying creatures called mantas. The narrator and her team of sapiologists [love that word] are attempting to prove there is significance in the patterns they form, weaving sculptures of thin wire filaments like spider silk that the observers believe are evidence of sapience. Unfortunately, the evidence they’ve gathered so far isn’t conclusive. Now an AI proctor has come to assess their progress.
A disappointingly predictable piece that slights a promising SFnal premise, being more concerned with the narrator’s personal matters than the science. The members of the research team are all lovers, and it’s clear that remaining together is at least as important to them as their research. And the narrator is deaf, seeing bias against her in the attitudes of others.
I want to point out that for all her advantages, she works without touch, kinesthesia, all the subtle senses that aid human reason. And yet she judges me deficient. But it’s the wrong argument, and I hold my fingers and tongue still.
From the first page, it’s already clear what will happen: the team will discover the evidence it needs; the discovery will be made possible through the narrator’s enhanced non-hearing senses; the team won’t have to break up; no one will have to make any hard choices; things will work out just fine.