basically a salt mine

I couldn’t move. An invisible, talon-tipped hand scraped against my mind. And I knew—one push, one swipe of those mental claws, and who I was would cease to exist. 

“Let her go,” Tamlin said, bristling, but didn’t advance forward. A kind of panic had entered his eyes, and he glanced from me to Rhysand. “Enough.” 

“I’d forgotten that human minds are as easy to shatter as eggshells,” Rhysand said, and ran a finger across the base of my throat. I shuddered, myeyes burning. “Look at how delightful she is—look how she’s trying not to cry out in terror. It would be quick, I promise.” 

Had I retained any semblance of control over my body, I might have vomited. 

“She has the most delicious thoughts about you, Tamlin,” he said. “She’s wondered about the feeling of your fingers on her thighs—between them, too.” He chuckled. Even as he said my most private thoughts, even as I burned with outrage and shame, I trembled at the grip still on my mind. Rhysand turned to the High Lord. “I’m curious: Why did she wonder if it would feel good to have you bite her breast the way you bit her neck?”

…

Those invisible claws lazily caressed my mind again—then vanished. I sank to the floor, curling over my knees as I reeled in everything that I was, as I tried to keep from sobbing, from screaming, from emptying my stomach onto the floor.

like, she’s understandably traumatized from the trials & amarantha torturing her, but those were also specific lone incidents meanwhile ricesand consistently drugged her/dressed her up in clothes that covered barely anything, made her dance sexually/sit in his lap/etc, let her be ogled by basically everyone, and straight up said he WOULD rape her if he didn’t know tamlin would murder him for it. and he did this every night. he invaded her mind, made her keep dancing while she vomited, and left her unable to remember anything that had happened during those nights. and i’m supposed to believe that wasn’t just as traumatizing as what amarantha did? really?

Someone also mentioned this in the reblogs of my post, and I almost addressed it then-- it’s something that didn’t really occur to me originally but is true and a great point. 

The undulating swirls, elegant, expressive linework, and unique stylization, particularly on the animals, all have a very east asian look to them. Of course, east asian art isn’t a monolith and is distinct across different cultures, but the art on these covers and the style they spring from is a bit of a hodgepodge (and I am not an expert) so we’re generalizing a bit.

(These examples are all Chinese or Japanese, or in the case of the stock illustrations, taken from art from those cultures.)

I did some googling to see if I could find the illustrator, and found out that it’s actually a Swiss tattoo artist couple.

On one level, I actually love this. The protagonist’s magical tattoo sleeve is a foundational element of the series, and that’s a great meta way to pay homage to it. (And their work is beautiful, obviously.) But it leaves us with the fact that the east asian coding is something inherent to the style of the artists they chose, who do not appear to be of that descent themselves, nor do they specifically cite anything of that nature as an inspiration in the interview I read with them: 

Who are your artistic heroes, tattooists or not? Are there any films, books, visuals, that inspire you?

“We have a lot of inspirational sources and they are quite well heralded by the many objects, posters, skulls and naturalized animals decorating the walls of the shop. It ranges from botanical, animal to religious, pagan and mythical, and definitely spiritual. It is difficult to point the finger at one book or visual; there are so many.”

Though it does seem unlikely they’re wholly ignorant of the associations.

I’m not here to pass judgement on this one way or another. Whatever the level of cultural appropriation or stylistic inspiration here, Bloomsbury commissioned them and put the art on the books knowing what they were getting, and I’m not about to blame tattoo artists for a big five publisher’s choices. (Also holy shit if you harassed these people on instagram over the covers, which apparently people did, I hate you, and if anyone says anything negative to them as a result of this post I will come to your house and pour a cup of soda on your head.)

So what’s the appeal? The cultural coding as a feature of an ACOTAR cover isn’t intentional, per se-- there is nothing in these lily-white stories they correlate to or are trying specifically to represent. But nor is it an accident; it’s a feature of this style and part of what makes it visually interesting.

Like everything else, it comes back to imperialism.

Exoticism is a trend in art and design, influenced by some ethnic groups or civilizations from the late 19th-century. First stimulated by Eastern trade in the 16th and 17th centuries, interest in non-western art became more and more popular following European colonialism. So-called "oriental" art emanated from a type of primitive fantasy for Western society, reflecting the increasingly exotic tastes of Europe. The influences of Exoticism can be seen through numerous genres of this period, notably in music, painting, and decorative art. In music, exoticism is a genre in which the rhythms, melodies, or instrumentation are designed to evoke the atmosphere of far-off lands or ancient times. Like orientalist subjects in 19th century painting, exoticism in the decorative arts and interior decoration was associated with fantasies of opulence. Exoticism, by one definition, is "the charm of the unfamiliar." Scholar Alden Jones defines exoticism in art and literature as the representation of one culture for consumption by another. Victor Segalen's important "Essay on Exoticism" reveals a more complex and further-reaching definition. Segalen reveals Exoticism as born of the age of imperialism, possessing both aesthetic and ontological value, while using it to uncover a significant cultural "otherness." x

-----

As more Europeans traveled beyond the established routes of the Grand Tour, their experiences abroad began to influence their tastes at home. Other influences were a result of England’s massive imperial control over lands in China, India, Africa, and the Pacific. By mid-century, many non-Western forms and ornamental motifs had found their way into the vocabulary of European decorative arts.

Like Orientalist subjects in nineteenth-century painting, exoticism in the decorative arts and interior decoration was associated with fantasies of opulence and “barbaric splendour,” in the words of the English explorer, linguist, and writer, Sir Richard F. Burton (1821–1890). The arts of the East were also considered quaint and uncorrupted by industrial capitalism.

...

By the end of the century, the exotic, as appropriated by the West, had become a mass-produced commodity in itself; exotic images were used to sell everything from cigarettes to candy. However, the exotic continued to influence the appearance of the decorative arts as it fused with the organic whiplash curves of the avant-garde style known as Art Nouveau. x

I wanted to include the mention of art noveau because. Well.

But the illustration style’s relative subtlety, that the east asian influence isn’t super obvious [to white people], is important: the wolf cover of ACOTAR, in particular, also evokes a European pagan or medieval aesthetic tradition (which the artists did cite as inspiration):

Essentially, it isn’t the specific, identifiable cultural qualities that are “desirable” in the art in this context, but the sense of otherness it imbues the art with to a presumed white, western audience (hence being kind of a mishmash of east asian artistic signifiers). It’s meant to loosely communicate the general concept of faraway lands, long journeys, and foreign opulence: the most classic western conception of “fantasy.”

And it worked on me, an white person. I was so busy talking about the epic fantasy coding that I breezed right past where that coding is actually coming from.

While the Chinese friends I asked about it while working on this post were all like “oh yeah, [that the illustrations looked east asian inspired] was my first thought.” My personal biases aside, this is what happens when you load up your industry with white people, and one of the ways publishing’s homogeneity hurts it: you miss out on perspectives that might, i don’t know, warn you about how your work is going to land with other demographics.

It’s worth noting that the ACOTAR series has a messy relationship with nonwestern influences in general. The first book stays primarily in the realm of vaguely french/ english/ german fairy tale vibes, with a sprawling manor and wolf shifting and big rose gardens and corseted dresses, but subsequent books draw from anything and everything with wild abandon and often racist implications. The ambiguously nonwhite Illyrians are presented as an uncivilized, brutal, bananas misogynistic race of nomads with nothing redeeming in their culture that the Illyrian love interest has had to rise above. The various courts are weird hodgepodges of cultures with no consideration to how or why except what seems cool in the moment. Velaris, the Night Court’s idyllic capital, borrows aesthetically from middle eastern cultures while locating the bulk of its charm in how quaintly northern european its cozy wooden cabins and mountain views are. Its lore cherry-picks from beliefs and mythology around the world, from Celtic to Judaic to Egyptian, combining them at random.

ACOTAR, in other words, readily uses real-world exoticism as shorthand for “fantasy” flavor... so that its new covers do too is actually kind of appropriate, in a twisted way.

And i KNOW I said were done talking about Charlie Bowater and we’ve already mentioned her once in this post, but since we’re here, both ACOTAR and Maas’s other series, THRONE OF GLASS, have generated discourse (TOG moreso) by coding a side female character as east asian: 

not in the text 

but via official Charlie Bowater art 

many books into the series.

Sparking posts and threads from asian fans positing that representation that was retconned in with no effort on the author’s part is far more insulting than no representation at all. (See also: some grumbling about the Grisha TV show, although it’s important to delineate that legitimate debate from racists who are just big mad that their fav isn’t white now)

Of course it’s great for a fanartist or fic author to expand their headcanons, and it’s also good to see evidence that publishers are feeling pressure to produce not-all-white casts, but the fact that Maas (and bloomsbury) not only decided to “diversify” a character’s race late in the series but relied on sanctioned art to indicate it rather than putting the legwork in in the books, is. Yeesh. Both characters are also Dragon Ladies in some capacity so that’s not...... ideal. (I’m pretty sure Amren’s east asian features did eventually appear on-page in the third book of ACOTAR, not sure about Manon in TOG). 

ANWAY.

In conclusion, I don’t necessarily take back what I said about the covers in my last post-- I still think the new covers are “good” designs and nice pieces of illustration, on whole and divorced from context, and I still think many of the negative reactions to them have to do with the departure from the sparkly romantic coding. But also, you can’t really divorce a design from its context, and it is inappropriate* to use distinctly east asian stylistic elements to indicate the ambiguous presence of whitebread “Fantasy,” particularly while actually east asian stories and authors struggle to get published and marketed in an overwhelmingly white industry.

(*What we’re NOT gonna do is latch onto this as a justification for why something we Don’t Like is in fact AN OBJECTIVE EVIL WHAT MUST BE RAZED FROM THE EARTH. Cut that shit out. Respectfully expressing your opinion is one thing but if I see anybody harassing Bloomsbury employees or  some random tattoo artists from Switzerland to change the covers back because bookcoversalt said they’re ~PROBLEMATIC i swear to god. cup of soda.)

Special thanks to Gina, Em, June, and Nicole for help with this post ✨

i like to think that nothing is a rule in fantasy. calling “anachronism!” is pointless. everything is made up and nothing is real! when we meet captain cully, he offers schmendrick a taco, you know. (of course tlu is already established as a weird pastiche universe, so maybe not the best example.)

BUT ALSO, everything is made up and nothing is real. you do not have to sketch vague impressions of inns and taverns and manor lords just because that’s what you do, in fantasy. but sarah j maas is all in on this aesthetic. there are tithes and arranged marriages and everyone carries a sword. sarah j maas also sometimes barrels through the set, punching maas-sized holes in the flimsy backdrop. her characters use flushing porcelain toilets, eat barbecue, and purchase clothes by going to Ye Olde H&M where you are able to find “tunics” and “jerkins” in sizes S through XL. on hangers. on racks

Women’s War has two editions that are both worth examining imo, but i have to say, my first thought when I saw the titles and the covers was.... this book is so white. I’m not here to judge the book contents, but like. The Title and the Deeply European aesthetic are just. Mm. Feminist, you say. Something makes me doubt that there’s anything intersectional about this book.

ANYWAY. This is the first thing that strikes me about the illustrated edition: the big figure and the little figure are facing the same fucking direction and it’s not balanced and I do not like it. They’re otherwise pretty? But then when you see them next to each other it feels like they just ran out of ideas. Other gripe: CLEARLY LATE MEDIEVAL/RENAISSANCE CLOTHING and YET.

BEACH WAVES.

Ahem.

The photobashed cover is interesting, compositionally, but it feels like the crown was mushed together from multiple things...badly. Not in the sense that the photoshop job is bad, they just don’t coordinate. Also I can’t quite tell if the floating white ball is a pearl or the moon?? And that’s a problem. Mostly because how the fuck is a singular pearl relevant to the premise? Whatever.

CCity does not celebrate fat women or curvy girls except insofar as having a big chest and a big butt. Nowhere does anyone comment on Bryce having a tummy, or squooshy thighs, or even large muscular thighs (in fact, much is made of the fact that her slim limbs or whatever HIDE the fact that she’s muscular). Bryce doesn’t have squooshy arms! She doesn’t have broad shoulders or large biceps!

‘Sarah Janet finally gave us body diversity’ no. Like, I’m glad for you if you see yourself in Bryce’s body type, but let us not give Sarah Janet credit that Sarah Janet does not deserve. Until I hear Hunt comment on liking Bryce’s soft and squishy belly or even her big-ass muscular thighs, all we have is that her muscle is unexpected because it’s hidden in slim limbs or whatever and that Hunt likes her ass.

That being said, if we GET Bryce, muscular girl who also likes pasta and has belly fat and arm fat and maybe a double chin in some pictures if she’s not working the angle (or just a double chin! Why not!) I will say well done. I will! Even if it’s a retcon!

The same goes for even A/elin who came from a kingdom whose people had been oppressed but still contemplated the possibility of conquering the world and bringing “books and music” when in fact, Orrynth’s library was destroyed because of an invading ruler who wanted to conquer her kingdom. She knew how M/aeve abused her oath and instead of taking that as a cautionary tale, she still allowed people (Rowan and A/edion) (and forced L/orcan) to take the blood oath.

Don’t even get me started on B/ryce being half-human and sympathising with the very people that have enslaved her kind for 15,000 years (demonising the humans who have resorted to violence out of desperation in the process), or spending the whole book talking about how she would never date an alphahole and still going on to fall for one anyway.

well this would actually be a really fun thing to do and imma speculate on how i’d go about doing so…

this is for t0g and, first of all, i’d start with cutting subplots. there are way, way, way too many, and not all of them are necessary to the overarching story plot. by cutting subplots, i would also reduce the cast because there is no way we need all these characters as well. the romances would be trimmed down: Sam would probably not exist (sj/m no longer thinks about him anyway, and his story doesn’t exactly affect the future books) and Dorian would never be a love interest for sardines in the first place (Chaol might, but i think that’d be unrequited bc he’s secretly in love with Dorian, who he can’t have). the main villain would be the king of Adarlan, who would actually get a name and a personality, and have more ambitions than Be Evil For Reasons. and there would be a helluva ton more diversity, from ethnicities, sexualities, genders, disabilities, etc etc. 

so, t0g would still have the competition, though i don’t think i’d make sardines the only female participant bc sj/m clearly only did that to showcase just how feminist she herself is. in fact, the competition would be the main plot of book 1 and i’d trim out the unnecessary fuckery sj/m shows toward Kaltain. Kaltain, sardines, and Nehemia would become a kickass trio who work to solve the subplot of the murder mystery, but there would be more monsters than just the few that exist. one subplot i’d cut here is the mystery with Queen Elena bc i really hate stories where some ancient queen comes along to mysteriously tell the protagonist what they need to do but forces them to figure out their mysterious directions for the sake of “stakes” and “mystery” (it’s one reason i disliked Snow Like Ashes, especially bc it’s so predictable why this ancient queen is helping the supposedly no-name protagonist). these monsters would directly relate to the king of Adarlan, as he would be controlling them to ensure that magic remains scary enough so that no one would even think about bringing it back. 

that’s another thing i’d do: change the king’s motives regarding magic’s nonexistence. here, he’s terrified of magic and/or hates it because of some traumatic experience he had with it, which opened his eyes to how magic was being misused but ofc he goes about fixing that the wrong way. 

so t0g would end with sardines winning the competition, figuring out who’s behind the eradication of magic and who’s controlling the monsters (they find out who the monsters are being created and controlled by through Cain, as he was one of the original people to be transformed into a monster), the monsters would be killed with Dorian and Chaol’s help and sardines, Kaltain, and Nehemia would now have possession of the spell that created these monsters in the first place, and the king is backed into a corner because now he can’t create monsters to do his dirty work and ensure that people are too afraid of magic to bring it back. however, when sardines won the competition, the king placed the ring on her finger that controls her (so the rings would 1, come into play much sooner and 2, actually have an important role in sardines’ ambitions to be free of the king). thus, he uses sardines as his scare tactic: monsters don’t exist any longer, but sardines is the king’s champion and, as she would be known as a ruthless assassin bc she actually has grey morals and actually follows through on her assassin status, she would be sent after anyone who even so much as thinks about magic. and, bc sardines is being controlled by the ring, she has no choice to kill as he commands. 

so, c0m’s main plot with sardines would be twofold: doing as the king commands (killing people who want magic) and trying to be free of the king. what the king doesn’t know is that, when sardines kills the people the king sics her on, she does kill them but she takes the magic that alerted the king to them in the first place. she hides that magic in that secret apartment she has and tells no one but her closest allies (Chaol, Dorian, Kaltain, and Nehemia) about it, as they’ve all come up with a plan to stop the king once and for all, because it becomes apparent (especially with the rings as proof) that he’s scared of magic, yes, but he relies on it too much to truly give it up. and they’re definitely going to use that to their advantage by trying to find a way to use his magic against him, largely because his magic is borrowed from dark creatures (probably not the Valg bc those guys are pretty boring, ngl) he promised human souls to in exchange for letting him “borrow” their magic. 

unbeknownst to the king, however, is that the sardines crew is stealing the rings that the king is sending out to his trusted advisers (that he clearly doesn’t trust very much, considering he wants to control them with dark magic) in order to melt them down to create a knife that can kill the king’s body so the creatures can take his soul when he doesn’t give them the human souls they demanded. why doesn’t he give them the human souls? because he’s using their souls and the dark magic to create those rings in the first place, which Kaltain and Sorscha find out (as they’re geniuses with spying and quickly become best friends). 

i’m torn between Chaol and Dorian being endgame or Chaol, Dorian, and sardines being endgame in a polyamorous relationship, bc that anon the other day made me warm up to it. Sorscha would be the crew’s main healer, since she dabbles in reading illegal books on ancient healing with magic. Nehemia and Sorscha of course fall in love in the process, since there are some ancient texts that Sorscha can’t read that Nehemia can, bc Nehemia is a princess and was thus raised speaking several languages, as royalty are supposed to. and yep @polysorscha and i still really ship sorschemia and i will ship it until the day i die. sardines, as the protagonist, would be the one to wield the blade that kills the king, but she would have to storm the castle with her allies, much in the way that sardines and Dorian fought together at the end of q0s. 

c0m would end with the king being killed, Dorian becoming the king with Chaol as his captain of the guard (which Chaol is actually happy about now because he loves Dorian), sardines being freed from her contract as king’s champion but taking up the mantle of training a division of Chaol’s forces for stealth work while Kaltain teaches them about spying. Nehemia and Dorian would have either a very close political alliance or a political marriage to make Eyllwe and Adarlan allies. ofc Nehemia and Sorscha are still together and Dorian and Chaol (and maybe sardines? i dunno, i’m leaning toward having sardines remain single bc, in my version of the story, that feels right) are still together. magic would be returned in waves in order to protect those who have magic in their bodies (such as shapeshifters) so they’re not punched in the face with it, and in order to warm the people up to it because the king was fairly successful in making people fear magic by using his monsters and then sardines. there would also be far more regulation of it to make sure the stuff that made the king eradicate it never happens again.