Sci-fi and Heroic Fantasy discussion

This is our discussion of the story:


"Cimmeria: From The Journal of Imaginary Anthropology" by Theodora Goss

This story can be read for free on-line @Lightspeed.

This story is part of the The Best SF&F of the Year, vol 9 (2014) group anthology discussion.

★★★★
Synopsis: A group of U.S. scientists invent the history, culture, etc. of Cimmeria which comes to live at the Black Sea, bordering modern Scythia. One of the scientists marries Cimmeria’s Khan’s daughter – a twin who isn’t considered as a twin but one person living in two bodies.

We dream countries, and then those countries dream us.

Review: Cimmeria is the homeland of Conan, the Barbarian, and I always located it to the cold North, not to the Black Sea. But here it is, modern and alive and very funny to read. On the other hand it is also philosophical about the nature of twins – one is a “shadow”, a silenced and ignored victim, it might even be considered as a vampire because it lives off the live of her counterpart instead of having a live for her own.

I resisted this story at first ... it seemed in some way to want to have its orientalist cake & it it too -- revel in an exotic, but clearly real-world-based setting but also critique the Western academic tourism ... but as the story of the narrator's marriage emerged, I was thoroughly drawn in, and overall I thought there was a good mix of pretty unusual story plot-wise and thought-provoking concepts.

Hmmm. This makes twice I've failed to wrap my head around this story, first when it appeared in Lightspeed, and now in this collection. The fact that Hillary and Andreas liked it makes me think I've missed something fundamental. Sigh.

At first the idea that a group of anthropology grad students could design a fantasy city so well as to actually bring it into existence so they could even visit it seemed amusing. But after 10 pages or so the amusement wore thin and I couldn't find any other merit.

★★

I'll just drag my knuckles over to the next story now...