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If you know me at all (and most of you don't) I really, really love Naomi Novik. I can go on a really long ramble about why I like Naomi Novik, but frankly I haven't thought about it too far beyond "I'm a dragon and the Temeraire series makes me sigh wistfully and yearn for the sky". You know how it is with dragons. Dragons cool.
Calling her my favorite author is probably a bit of a strong claim, I'm sure (given some time) I could probably think of others (namely K.A. Applegate for her influence on our barely-remembered childhood) but she is currently my favorite author. Our job affords us a lot of freedom to listen to whatever we like while on the job, so I recently re"read" the entirety of the Temeraire series as well as Spinning Silver, an excellent book about some really fucked up and fun eastern European fairies (technically it's an adaptation of Rumpelstiltskin but you wouldn't know it to read it). The audiobook versions of both are fantastic, I highly recommend them. I also blitzed through Buried Deep, her short story anthology, which also fucked severely and had an. Interesting opening story that is both deeply trans and weirdly cis. I'll talk about it another time.
Then I got to Uprooted, her other book.
We've read Uprooted before, years and years ago. We knew what we were getting into going in, but it still kept surprising us and not in a good way! Compared to both Temeraire and Spinning Silver it is deeply rooted in cishet perspectives on gender, sexuality, and romance, which is really saying something considering that the Temeraire series is set primarily in Napoleonic Great Britain. Coming from an author whose roots (hah) are in gay fanfiction about Victorian novels about Napoleonic British sailors, it was kind of a surprise! Not that much of a surprise, but a surprise.
Uprooted was published in 2015 and, like Spinning Silver after it, takes place in eastern Europe. It's Polish rather than Russian (taking place along the border of the countries of Polnya and Rosya), but has similar vibes (ie; magic is real but rare, and natural magic is frequently dangerous). It follows Agnieszka as she is whisked away by a wizard named the Dragon (not an actual dragon, strike one) to his tower to be taught magic, which is vaguely akin to alchemy in that it's pseudo-scientific (though the specifics are never explored). The problem is that Agnieszka seems to be just awful at magic. Everything she does is either too strong or too weak, and she doesn't really grasp why everything is so rigid. Turns out, she's good at a different kind of magic that's more vibes-based and musical, likened to wandering through the woods to make a path rather than following a road someone laid down earlier.
This is reading off the bat pretty quickly as "logical and scientific man meets idealistic and natural woman", and it doesn't really stop reading like this throughout the entire book. Agnieszka is kind of just. Like this, the entire book. Very reactive, wears her heart on her sleeve, very idealistic, and easily swayed. The Dragon, meanwhile, is emotionally withdrawn, practical to a fault, frequently berates her irrational behavior, and disdains his fellow wizards. I think it goes without saying that this is...pretty standard gendered magic bullshit, and pretty standard cishet concepts of men and women. It's especially apparent in the job market and marriages, but it kind of subsumes every part of our lives in the US, whether we like it or not.
We do later find out that there are female wizards, quite a few of them (though most of them are off screen with one major female witch (besides Agnieszka) and 3 major male wizards), and they all follow this more scientific mode of magic. It's where Agnieszka is from that makes her magic how it is, rather than who she is. Unfortunately, we don't actually see the other wizards who are like Agnieszka, as they are dead by the time the story begins and their writings are mostly discarded by wizard academia as being worthless (since they don't fit into the rigid structures of mainstream magic). This could, genuinely, be a really interesting class divide between the peasantry and the nobility. Wizards can come from anywhere (the other major female witch was born a slave, in fact), but once discovered are ennobled and taught by other nobles, generally adopting their attitudes and biases.
Unfortunately, this doesn't materialize! We don't actually find these insights into broader wizard culture until about halfway in, and by then there's so much plot happening that we don't really get to chew on the implications of it being a class issue rather than a gendered issue. The overall takeaway still reads as a gendered issue, since the initial impression plays so much into existing biases about what men and women are "supposed" to be like and the book does an insufficient job of challenging its own setup. Agnieszka ends up not trying to change things, but abandoning the entire system to go live in the woods like Baba Yaga. Which, fair, mood, but as an ending it also fails to challenge the idea that this is a systemic distinction rather than something inherent to Agnieszka.
My second major complaint arises from the character of Kasia. Kasia is strong, witty, smart, and brave, serving as Agnieszka's foil and inspiration. Kasia is Agnieszka's childhood friend, and Agnieszka frequently looks to her for support or strength. I cannot begin to impress upon you, dear reader, exactly how much casual homosexuality exists between these two. I do, genuinely, understand that kissing another person's cheeks is a standard greeting between friends in many cultures, but Novik chooses to simply describe it as "kissing" between Agnieszka and Kasia. Additionally, the pair are childhood friends, and Agnieszka goes out of her way on several occasions to save Kasia's life. The two are in general very casually intimate, and Agnieszka's thoughts frequently turn to Kasia in times of distress. I'm not the best at remembering specific details in situations like these, but trust me when I say that the pair read as love interests.
Novik is no stranger to writing homoerotic relationships. Temeraire has one between the main character, Laurence, and his close friend and ally, Tharkay. One hinted at post-series ending is Laurence moving to a remote estate in Scotland with Tharkay, and the pair are on a first name basis with each other (which, in Napoleonic Britain, is Kind of a Big Deal). The flagship short story in Buried Deep features a passionately homosexual couple, and her origins are in gay sailor fanfiction. She was not new to homosexuality then, and she isn't now! She didn't do this on accident!
However!
The ending strongly implies that Agnieszka gets together with the Dragon! A man who she admits, multiple times, has incompatible life goals with her, even up to the end of the book! Kasia is sent off to the capital and she and the Dragon live together in Agnieszka's home valley, day saved! What! Why!
To be clear, in a vacuum I don't think that their romance is entirely out of the blue or badly signposted (though I do think it is a little, just no worse than most). Sharing magic (a thing she and the Dragon do repeatedly) is said to be roughly as intimate as sex, and the two fuck 1.5 times (the first time the Dragon says no, the second time to mutual completion) and the pair's relationship does generally grow from disdain to respect to affection. My personal issue, and why it reads as particularly cishet, is that it exists in combination with my first point (about magic being split between science and folklore) and Kasia's existence (as a clearly signaled love interest from the beginning).
My big question is...why? Why did this happen? Temeraire isn't this cishet; women serve in the Aerial Corps of Britain from the beginning and even get a larger role in it near the end; and Spinning Silver is entirely about women existing within and stretching the boundaries of their societal roles and gaining power because of and despite those roles. Uprooted is about...a woman doing earthy, naturey, feelings-based magic in a broadly male-dominated magical world run by science and then fucking off into the woods about it and marrying some dude. I have no idea either.
Maybe it was executive meddling, maybe she was scared that 2015 USA couldn't really deal with a lesbian romance, maybe it was just kind of a whiff. Who knows! The book is really interesting otherwise, genuinely. I think the magic system is kind of basic, but fun, and the primary antagonist and message about breaking the cycle of violence and revenge is compelling and worth thinking about. It's got a neat book that turns people into beasts, which is appealing for personal reasons. I can't recommend it above any of her other work, but like. It sure is there! Give it a read if you want, give me your thoughts if you've already read it. Next time I'll talk about the weird magical trans necklace from Buried Deep, it's real fucking weird and really fucking funny.
