I used to love this book when I was a teen but I haven't read it for a VERY long time because I had the growing suspicion that if I were to read it again I would discover that some of Orson Scott Card's execrable prejudices had made it into the narrative. The other day I pulled it off my bookshelf with the thought that maybe it was finally time to get rid of my copy, but I glanced at the first page and all of a sudden I felt the need to reread it again first, something I thought I'd never do.
And having now done so...I was absolutely right about the execrable prejudices, and I'm mad about how much I still care about this terrible book. Look: the premise underlying the whole book is that the worst possible thing for human history would be Christopher Columbus NOT voyaging to the Americas. You can't escape the fact that the very premise of the book is insultingly, enormously racist - and then it piles on more racism and sexism and so forth on top of that, in the reading of it.
Pastwatch is a group of researchers in a post-environmental-catastrophe future, who develop technology to be able to look into the past. And as they do so, they begin to realise that maybe it would be possible to change the past in order to bring about a better future with less suffering and unhappiness. The story of the researchers is alternated with sections of historical fiction about Christopher Columbus, the figure the researchers eventually settle on to be the centre of their plans.
When I was a teen, I didn't notice most of the terrible things this book does and loved it for the things it does do well. And there ARE some very good things about it!
I loved all the characters in the Pastwatch sections and how dedicated they are to understanding other kinds of people, to promoting the importance even of the overlooked and oppressed, to listening to anyone and engaging from a basis of equality. I loved Tagiri especially, her compassion and her oddness, and how it's her oddness specifically that allows her to do the things she does instead of conformity being valued. And as a white person I had the privilege to be able to have it be nice to think of Columbus as a fundamentally good person who merely got some things wrong. It's comforting to think of a world where people are willing to redeem themselves even if they do evil things, that they can learn better and do better, that we can all make a better future together. And the writing is engaging and readable, and the very idea of Pastwatch is just endlessly interesting to think about.
BUT. There's such a big but there.
It is so racist! In that way where it is clear that the author thinks he's doing amazing at being an ally by including such racial diversity amongst his characters.
The very idea of writing a book where noted colonialist, slaver, and murderer Christopher Columbus is one of the GREATEST PEOPLE TO EVER EXIST IN HUMAN HISTORY is just breathtaking to start with.
(Why yes, the book DOES explicitly say that there's nobody else who can compare to Columbus' greatness other than the Noah figure!) (And yes, the Noah myth IS prioritised over the other flood myths of the region when discussing the historical reality behind the myth!) (And no, the idea that plenty of overlooked people could have been just as great if they hadn't been prevented due to circumstances beyond their control is never thought of!) (And obviously the idea that "great" could possibly mean anything other than "influential" is never considered!) (and yes I have reached semantic satiation on the word great and it doesn't sound like a word anymore! :P)
cut both for spoilers and for discussions of racism, sexism, ableism, and christianity-centrism
But then we also get into things like:
Columbus was clearly just a product of his time! No discussion of course of the way that throughout history there have always been people who know better than to dismiss people of other races as subhuman, and although "product of his time" may be an explanation it is not an excuse.
Indigenous peoples of Mesoamerica "would never have given rise to the democratic and tolerant and scientific values that eventually emerged from European culture." YIKES. And this is put into the mouth of a Mayan character no less.
No cognitive dissonance between the above and the fact that it's in our version of reality, where white colonialism succeeded, that the planet of the Pastwatch people is ruined beyond hope of saving!
The main Muslim character volunteers for the role of terrorist bomber in order to be a martyr!
There's a secret cabal of powerful people controlling the earth and the flow of information from behind the scenes!
The plan for creating a new and better version of history involves converting the whole of the Americas to Christianity!
There's a throwaway dismissal of autistic people having any worth! (I NOW HEADCANON HUNAHPU AS AUTISTIC AND NOBODY CAN STOP ME)
There's a comment casually equating abortion with murder!
There seems to be an underlying assumption that women are more emotional and men are more rational/scientific! And yes the book also shows that both approaches have value, but that fundamental biological determinism is still there. Complementarianism time!
There's hints of that weird thing some varieties of christianity have about previous relationships ruining you for future ones, and especially for women, in Diko's rejection of Hunahpu: "Let me come to whatever husband I do have without the memories of another husband or another lover to encumber me."
Despite Tagiri's interest in the history of her family and in the lives of slaves, the book as a whole absolutely upholds the Great Man view of history. I mean, Columbus obviously, yes, but also the whole narrative is taken up with the notion that just a few really impressive people are the ones who really matter in shaping history. There's even an unnecessary and unquestioning valorisation of Heinrich Schliemann as a great man worth emulating, for some reason.
It is strange, reading this book that I haven't read in like...13-15 years probably, wherein I am so intimately familiar with every sentence in the book from having read it so often when I was young, and at the same time seeing all the content through such a different lens now. It's uncomfortable to think how influential this book was on teen me, and how despite the truly awful stuff this book is saying I'm still filled with huge nostalgia for it. I can't in good conscience recommend that anyone else read this book, but at the same time I don't think I can bring myself to get rid of my copy of it just yet.
