AKICILJ: Cambodia

[kate_nepveu]

Before I disappear into reading Harry Potter—

Is there anyone reading this who is either from Cambodia or is knowledgable about contemporary Cambodian culture, and who's read Geoff Ryman's Hugo-nominated novellete "Pol Pol's Beautiful Daughter" (pdf)? Because I read it last night and its use of Cambodia is making me uncomfortable, but I am very ignorant on the subject.

ETA: I've now booklogged this story and the rest of the nominees in the category.

Comments

[kate_nepveu]

Yes, and somehow using a real person on top of a real country seems even more problematic to me. But then I've never liked Real Person Fic.

[coalescent.livejournal.com]

I think one question is to what extent Ryman's Sith is like the real Sitha. I'm not sure I'm really comfortable with either possibility -- very similar or very different -- but I think knowing which it is would help us pin down what Ryman was trying to do with the story. Because I doubt he made that choice casually -- I don't think this is a case where a writer produced a problematic story by not putting enough thought into it, I think it's a case of Ryman shooting for something and missing. I'm just not entirely certain what that "something" is.

[kate_nepveu]

According to a news report I found, in 2002 she was taking a class in English among friends.

I've booklogged the category, with links, here: http://www.steelypips.org/weblog/2007/07/2007_novelette.php

[coalescent.livejournal.com]

Good discussion. (Although looking at your reactions to most of the other stories, we have very different tastes in many ways. [g] FWIW, I do not think the ending of "The Djinn's Wife" is meant to indicate that the daughter is going to follow in her mother's footsteps.)