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language: French
country: France
year: 2017
form: novel
genre(s): science fiction
dates read: 27.5.23-3.6.23
this isn’t the only issue I’m having with this book (Sabrina Calvo’s Toxoplasma, which is good in many ways but failing in others, including dramatically in this case) but I do think it’s kind of. hm. wildly disconnected to write a book about a revolution turning Montréal into a liberated commune under siege by the federal government and never once mention…Kahnawake (they’re right there! hello!) or the Oka Crisis.
the one Indigenous character is Mi’kmaw, described as “d’une réserve micmaque pas loin” (?? où ça exactement lol) and also as “un petit animal sauvage tout mimi, qui pourrait te bouffer sans que tu comprennes” (fucking YIKES). aside from the obvious racism, kind of get the impression that Calvo hadn’t grasped that Mohawk and Mi’kmaq are not the same. given that one of the few instances of sacre was “calîsse” [sic], it’s becoming increasingly clear that much less research went into this book than should have.
it pretty much seems like the sum total of what Calvo knows about Indigeneity and Indigenous people is:
and that’s it. literally in a scene just after a group of Mohawk warriors with a description straight out of Pocahontas attacked some federal troops the major Indigenous character says: “C’est dans mon sang [d’espérer/de croire qu’un meilleur futur est possible] tu vois, c’est mon héritage. Pour nous, on pense toujours qu’il y a une nouvelle rivière quelque part.”
that’s just straight-up “Just Around the Riverbend”. Sabrina!!!
Sabrina Calvo’s Toxoplasma is conceptually impeccable: a revolution in Montréal has created a vaguely-anarchist Commune, under siege by the federal government; three months in, things are balanced on a knife’s edge. against this backdrop, Nikki, a video store employee (very vaguely implied to be trans; Calvo herself is, so I think the implication is probably intentional and not just me overreading), begins investigating the killings of small animals in her neighborhood. this draws her — and her (ex-)girlfriend Kim, a hacker/virtual “coureuse de bois” (this is the book’s own term, which, hmmm) who navigates the pirated network that connects different parts of the Commune and links the Commune with the outside world — into a complex series of events on the eve of the federal government’s final push, assisted by local fascist militias, to reconquer the city. it’s part dystopia, part (ambiguous) utopia, part cyberpunk thriller, part surreal, fantastic exploration of dreams and alternate political and historical possibilities (notably, it appears to be set in a timeline where Betamax is the dominant form of visual media storage, rather than DVDs).
the biggest issue, as I noted above, is the treatment of Indigeneity, and to a lesser extent the failed attempt to localize the novel in Montréal, belied by its constant use of Euro-French slang and anglicisms. this is a substantial problem, because the book draws more and more on Indigeneity as it goes on: the Mi’kmaw hacker Mei becomes a main character, we get “Iroquoi legends”, the “Three Sisters” become a major plot element, etc. this is bad! it’s a very good book otherwise (like, can’t emphasize enough that aesthetically and even technically this rules), but this is a big problem.
Calvo notes that she was inspired by the tabletop RPG Tribe 8, set in a fantastic future Montréal and produced by a Montréal-based game design company in the late ’90s, and it kind of seems like that was the beginning and end of her knowledge of the city.
it’s worth reading, then, I think, but worth reading with those very big caveats.
moods: dark, emotional, grimy, hopeful, mysterious, reflective