Franklin’s Lost Expedition and... Sci-Fi Romance Novels?
Developing an interest in the Franklin Expedition has opened my eyes to whole genres and sub-genres of literature I didn’t even know existed. One of the most fascinating of these, and certainly the most entertaining, has been the emerging sub-genre of romance specifically about members of the Franklin Expedition.Real-person fiction (RPF) has existed in public knowledgesince at least the late medieval and early modern eras, if not earlier. In the early 14th century, Dante Alighieri wrote about meeting many well-known classical and contemporary figures in The Divine Comedy. In the late 16th and early 17th centuries, William Shakespeare, too,wrote a great deal about real people, mainly members of the royal family. But it wasn’t until the 1960s that RPF really began to expand and gain traction. This occurred alongside the increasing popularity of traditional fictional-character fanfiction and the development of what we know today as modern fan culture. This is somethingwe have fans of the original Star Trek series, many of whom were housewives and stay-at-home mothers, to thank for (LLAP, ladies <3).Skipping ahead to the 1980s, the Franklin Expedition, which had been a subject of interest for some time in the UK and Canada, became more widely known when forensic anthropologist Owen Beattie excavated the Franklin-era Beechey Island graves of John Hartnell, John Torrington, and William Braine and found their bodies incredibly well-preserved. He completed the autopsies begun shortly after their deaths in 1846 by Harry Goodsir (mentioning him now as he’ll be important later...), the assistant surgeon on the HMS Erebus, the lead ship of the Franklin Expedition. With modern scientific knowledge, Beattie was able to determine that many of Franklin’s men likely died of overexposure to lead from their food, which was contaminated in production and worsened over time, and from various vitamin and heavy metal deficiencies due to their inadequate diet, things which would not have been understood at the time of their demise.Beattie's account of the gravesite excavation and the autopsies he performed were also incredibly detailed and lovingly described in his book Frozen in Time (first published in 1987 and reissued several times since then). Beattie’s descriptions of the Beechey Island “ice mummies,” as they are now widely known, and particularly the body of 19-year-old stoker John Torrington, went on to inspire Margaret Atwood to write her short story “The Age of Lead,” about a woman who had been in love with a man who died of a mysterious illness and now finds herself reliving her time with him while watching Beattie excavate Torrington’s grave on a TV documentary.Atwood’s short story might not technically be RPF, but it was a masterful opening to what would become a long line of romantic and borderline-romantic fiction about the Franklin Expedition, the most well-known of whichis probablyDan Simmons’s 2007 novel The Terror. This book largely focuses on Captain Francis Crozier, the captain of the HMS Terror, the expedition’s second ship. After the death of Sir John Franklin, Simmons’s Crozier is tasked with leading the expedition and leading his men through the Arctic all while battling not only the elements and their own failing wits, but a bearlike creature called the Tuunbaq, which has been killing men off one by one.In 2018, AMC released a limited series of ten episodes inspired by Simmons’s book. The series is certainly more palatable than the book was, and (in my opinion) much better. The showrunners made the characters more likable, while still making their prejudices and biases abundantly clear, and they were given greater emotional depth, something which Simmons is not very good at doing as an author.The AMC series introduced the world of The Terror and the history of the Franklin Expedition to a wider audience, and its rich characterization of key players created a strong jumping-off point for RPF and plain old fictional-character fanfiction authors alike (I would argue that both are applicable to varying degrees as many of these fan works exist in a weird gray zone between being based on the fictionalized version of the character as presented in both versions of The Terror and based on historical research into the lives of the actual men). There is a strong Terror fandom, for instance, on Tumblr, and as of the morning of May 30, when I am writing this post, there are 6,807 works based on the AMC series on the fanfiction website Archive of Our Own (AO3).There are also two romance novels about members of the Franklin Expedition which were inspired by AMC’s The Terror, and I suspect—or rather, I hope—there are more to come.These books are unique from one another. They are about two different characters and set in two very different universes. But they also share a few similarities, including the existence of time travel, bringing one singular guy from the expedition to the 2020s and leaving the rest to die as they historically did, and these guys somehow not dying of some modern illness they’ve never been exposed to or infecting someone else with some formerly eradicated 19th century illness upon arrival.The first piece of Terror-fanfiction-cum-RPF-romance to be published following the release of AMC’s The Terror was Jennifer Reinfried’s In Eternity. This book centers around a former rock guitarist with a master’s degree in history named Annie Ross (seemingly named after the wife of Sir James Ross, a Royal Navy officer who led a rescue mission to find Franklin’s men, only to discover they had all died before his arrival) whose world has been destroyed by demonic wraiths that destroy everything in their path, and which have seemingly killed every other living thing—plant, animal, person, and even bacterium—on the planet.Annie and her friends survive the apocalypse by hiding in an underground government bunker where her friends’ mother used to work, and there they find a room filled with books on the Franklin Expedition, including a diary written by assistant surgeon Harry Goodsir, and a time machine. Annie becomes convinced that Harry has supernatural powers and that he may be able to help them save the world, so she talks her friends into going back to 1848 to rescue him and bring him to 2020.Reinfried’s book is clearly derivative of The Terror, following many of the same plot lines but with a few different characters (She can’t copy absolutely everything! There is a big reveal at the end of The Terror, which definitely would have counted as plagiarism if she’d copied it, even if she got away with copying nearly everything else). Her Goodsir is also obviously based on the character as played by British actor Paul Ready in both characterization and appearance, with a Scottish accent tacked on because the historical Goodsir was Scottish, despite his portrayal as an upper-middle class Englishman in The Terror.In Eternity was a somewhat annoying read because of how blatantlyit was based on The Terror. Not only that, so much of the plot didn’t make sense, the sci-fi was disappointingly sci-less, the main character’s lack of knowledge of history and music were frustrating to me as someone who knows both history and music well, and the villain was unfortunatelykind of laughable. This book could have been an AO3 fanfiction. Nevertheless, I did finish reading it rather quickly, and if Reinfried ever publishes the rest of the series, I will probably read the other books as well.Earlier this month, a second Franklin Expedition- and Terror-inspired sci-fi romance novel was published, titled The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley. This book, unlike Reinfried’s self-published In Eternity, was published by a well-known publishing house, Avid Reader Press, which is an imprint of Simon and Schuster.Bradley’s book is written in a way that reads almost like an anonymous confession or a tell-all memoir about a corrupt government agency by one of its former lower-level officials. Known only as “the bridge,” and identified as a former government translator of Cambodian descent, the narrator of this novel is assigned by her superiors to help assimilate a 19th century man to our modern world. That man is Graham Gore, First Lieutenant of the HMS Erebus, who was rescued shortly before his death in 1847.And, of course, things get, uhh, interesting, rather quickly between Gore and the bridge. She notes on their first meeting that they are instantly attracted to one another, which she seems to recognize as inappropriate. Nevertheless, she proceeds with the job, and proceeds to engage in a number of inappropriate or unapproved behaviors with him, including smoking, drinking, recreational drug use, and, yes, eventually sex, all while painting a very clear picture of an unsavory power imbalance between the two of them as she is the holder of the information he needs in order to succeed in assimilating into modern society, and she has been tasked with protecting and teaching him what behaviors are acceptable. However, I would argue that this was all deliberately done by Bradley as the book is also an ambitious commentary on imperialism.Though Bradley's goals aren’t always met as effectively as they could be, what she presented was deeply engaging and thought-provoking, and I’m hoping that the BBC television adaptation of the book, which has already been announced, will be able to realize her goals in the same way the AMC adaptation of The Terror helped to clarify and refocus Dan Simmons’s story.I also hope, as I have already said, that this is just the beginning of what will be a whole new subgenre of romance, historical and science fiction, and modern literature as a whole because these books are so fascinating to me. I could probably read 129 Franklin Expedition RPF sci-fi romance novels and never get tired of them.Related: Feel free to check out my post on additional literature pertaining to the Franklin Expedition from this past February....
Why is Gary such a misfit?
The first time I heard Gary Gulman’s stand-up was on Spotify, and his bit “Undone by a Semicolon” grabbed me: I wish I knew there was going to be this much typing! He regrets horsing around in typing class because his whole life is the computer. Appearing on countless late night talk shows, he recalls the “harrowing” tale of how the states came to be abbreviated with two letters. Who does that? Listen to Gary Gulman States' Abbreviations Bit to appreciate Gulman’s wit, command of language, and ability to turn a phrase that rivals another wordsmith and Pulitzer Prize winner, David Foster Wallace. Gulamn is in DFW’s league. He’s that good.Randi’s (Gibson) new book suggestions brought me to Gulman’s memoir misfit. Praise for the book that chronicles his life from first grade through twelfth grade—with a page or two inserted between grades chronicling his years-long struggle with crippling depression provide context for his awkwardness, quirkiness and humor—is heaped on the funny man from comedy greats themselves including Amy Schumer, Judd Apatow, Seth Meyers and This American Life host Ira Glass, who said of Gulman's memoir, “[misfit]is about how a soft, football-hating kid like him ended up playing the sport—and tells lots of stories, too…he really was a little boy destined to become a comic.”In the 80s, “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous” was an early reality TV show featuring windbag Robin Leach sucking up to rich people who showed off their lavish (read: gaudy) homes. Gary parodied that show narrating descriptions of his own home (he wasn’t rich, and he detailed the amount of stuff in his house that his mom lifted from various jobs) called “Lifestyles of the Broke and Hopeless.” His narration is funny and clever: “Let’s visit the bathroom, where this bar of soap is actually a sliver of Dial [soap] fused to a bar of Ivoryyyyyy. This bottle of Prell’s life has also been extended through an infusion of shower water. It’s now certain to last these losers anotherten shampoooooos.” The cassette tape of that parody went viral at his school way before the virality of YouTube and Tik-Tok encouraging the stand-up hopeful to make people laugh. But it was first grade where he made his first joke that cracked up the class—and the teacher. During story time Mrs. Burns asks: “What is a chick?” The smartest girl in the class, Lori-Ann McGloughin, answers: “It is a baby chicken.” Future joke writer Gulman pipes up, too: “Or a girl!” Everybody laughed, including the teacher. Gary decided then that he would spend the rest of his life “chasing that high!” And I’m amazed at his memory! He remembers all his teachers’ names, random classmates, and people that he hasn’t seen since age five.But he was not a happy-go-lucky kid. Suffering from undiagnosed depression, he acted out and struggled to make friends. He loved basketball and played for hours at the end of his driveway. He began eighth grade with two ambitions:Make the basketball team.Don’t get murdered.He succeeded, but playing on a team proved problematic and escaping classroom and schoolyard bullies was a daily thing. During practice, scoring baskets was easy but come game time and Gary choked. A bully, whose name he doesn’t reveal for fear of retaliation even some 40 years later, warned he would “kill him,” so Gary never walked alone in school and took varied routes home from school, but eventually he took the beating, and to this day he has no idea why the kid was after him. Of growing up in the 80s, he quips, “One way to look at my childhood is to think of Charlie Brown…if Snoopy had died.” His signature sad sack story that ends with a punch. He amuses audiences with his HBO special “The Great Depresh,” and while relating his struggles he’s at once dark and funny, “I look at the sunset and think: Yeah, you gave up, too.” And dryly reports that “eating ice cream with a fork is an unofficial symptom of depression.” His clever syntax reminds me of the genius filmmaker Charlie Chaplin who said: “Life is a tragedy when seen in close-up, but a comedy in long-shot.” To wit, Gulman’s suffering was tragic, but with time, perspective, therapy, and medication, he’s found a way to laugh through it. And talking about depression openly and reaching thousands of people is way more helpful than hiding from the mental illness that a quick Google search revealsaffects around 280 million people worldwide.Listening to and watching Gulman’s stand-up isn’t a prerequisite for reading this wonderfully-remembered, hilarious, and candid memoir, but it does remind the reader that he recovers from his depression, as well as the hell of school where his father insisted on holding him back in first grade because “he’s not mature enough to move on.” misfit is a quick read, especially if you were a kid in the 70s/80s because his minutiae-like recall of Ralph Lauren, IOU, and Air Jordans will have you pining for the good ol’ days, even if for Gulman they weren’t so good.Watch his CBS Saturday Morning Interview "Misfit", and I dare you not to wanna pick up his memoir that talk show host, Seth Meyers claims of Gulman, “Gary is thoughtful and funny in a way few others are.”Thanks to Randi at SAC who sent me a text announcing Gulman’s stand up tour, Scott (my husband) and I will experience Gulman’s live show at the Terry Theatre in Jacksonville on Friday, September 20, 2024! Interested?Get tickets here: https://www.axs.com/events/560591/gary-gulman-ticketsMisfit by Gary GulmanISBN: 9781250777065Publication Date: 2023-09-19"One of my favorite books of all time." Amy SchumerA tour de force of comedy and reflection about the perilous journey from kindergarten to twelfth grade and beyondâe*from the beloved stand-up comic and creator of The Great Depresh For years, Gary Gulman had been the comedian's comedian, acclaimed for his delight in language and his bracing honesty. But after two stints in a psych ward, he found himself back in his mother's house in Boston--living in his childhood bedroom at age forty-six, as he struggled to regain his mental health. That's where Misfit begins. Then it goes way back. This is no ordinary book about growing older and growing up. Gulman has an astonishing memory and takes the reader through every year of his childhood education, with obsessively detailed stories that are in turn alarming and riotously funny. We meet Gulman's family, neighbors, teachers, heroes, and antagonists, and get to know the young comedian-in-the-making who is his own worstâe*and most persistentâe*enemy. From failing to impress at grade school show-and-tell to literally fumbling at his first big football gameâe*in settings that take us all the way from the local playground to the local mall, from Hebrew School to his best (and only) friend's rec room, young Gary becomes a stand-in for everyone who grew up wondering if they would ever truly fit in. And that's not all: the book is also chock-full of '80s nostalgia (Scented Markers, indifference to sunscreen, mall culture). Misfit is a book that only Gary Gulman could have written: a brilliant, witty, poignant, laugh-until-your-face-hurts memoir that speaks directly to the awkward child in us all....
It Just Keeps Getting Worse: My Experience with A Little Life
Have you ever read a book that you hated and loved at the same time? I finished A Little Life and I can’t stop thinking that it was the best book I’ve read in a very long time, but I also have the urge to throw it against a wall. How do you recommend a book to others that made you want to cry repeatedly? How do you tell people to read something that will make them contemplate their existence and the true impact of their lives on the lives of others? You can’t. This is just me telling you about the book. The decision to read it is entirely your own.You shouldn’t feel sorry for me about the big feelings I’m having about this story. It’s my own fault. I should have learned my lesson already about books from BookTok after the whole Haunting Adeline debacle, but I didn’t. I watched a video of a woman being filmed while reading A Little Life. She was so emotional. Her reading of this book looked like an experience. I was intrigued. Before starting the book, I asked at a recent book club meeting if anyone had read it. It was no’s all around. Yet one participant said she’d heard the book referred to as “trauma p*rn”. That should have served as a warning and not an enticement. Yet here I am. And even with all the compiled trauma, I still found myself invested in the story and falling in love with the unfortunate characters. It’s hard to describe why the book is so endearing without spoiling the story, but love is at the core of it all. The strength of this book is how it leads you through the many different forms love can take. And in just the same way, it drags you through the adverse experiences of sadness, despair, and anger. This book does something that not many books can do. It makes you feel. It’s not always pleasant, but it sticks with you in a way that is rare. I don’t regret A Little Life. It will take time for me to process the entirety of the story and my true feelings about it. I’m anticipating that, eventually, I’ll recover enough to find the courage to watch the film adaptation of the stage play.And then I can traumatize myself all over again. (Please send help). A Little Life by Hanya YanagiharaCall Number: Orange Park Popular Fiction ; PS3625.A674 L58 2015ISBN: 9780385539258Publication Date: 2015-03-10NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST SHORT-LISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE Brace yourself for the most astonishing, challenging, upsetting, and profoundly moving book in many a season. An epic about love and friendship in the twenty-first century that goes into some of the darkest places fiction has ever traveled and yet somehow improbably breaks through into the light. Truly an amazement--and a great gift for its readers. When four classmates from a small Massachusetts college move to New York to make their way, they're broke, adrift, and buoyed only by their friendship and ambition. There is kind, handsome Willem, an aspiring act∨ JB, a quick-witted, sometimes cruel Brooklyn-born painter seeking entry to the art world; Malcolm, a frustrated architect at a prominent firm; and withdrawn, brilliant, enigmatic Jude, who serves as their center of gravity. Over the decades, their relationships deepen and darken, tinged by addiction, success, and pride.Yet their greatest challenge, each comes to realize, is Jude himself, by midlife a terrifyingly talented litigator yet an increasingly broken man, his mind and body scarred by an unspeakable childhood, and haunted by what he fears is a degree of trauma that he'll not only be unable to overcome--but that will define his life forever. In rich and resplendent prose, Yanagihara has fashioned a tragic and transcendent hymn to brotherly love, a masterful depiction of heartbreak, and a dark examination of the tyranny of memory and the limits of human endurance....
How reading has influenced my writing
Kelsey Rodgers is a student on the Palatka campus and a regular attendee of the Book Club. She writes poetry and has an interest in novel- and screen-writing. Kelsey made her debut as a guest blogger in early April. This is her second post on the Book Blog.Poetry has brought an abundance of comfort to me as a writer. Sometimes I like to revisit old poems I wrote as a teenager. Reading these fills me with a weird sense of nostalgia, as well as an understanding of myself. My most recent return to my old poems, however,seemed different. I could not help but to be shocked at the difference in my writing compared to the present day. My poems from the past lack the core elements of imagery and abstractions that I’ve become accustomed to using. So, what happened? What caused it to change?I’ve heard that reading can help improve your writing skills all my life, but I never took that advice seriously until I decided on being a creative writing major. I am a member of the Palatka campus SJR Book Club. This fall term will mark 2 years of attendance. Book Club has helped me form a routine of setting aside time for reading. I decided to also revisit some of my pastreads from the meetings.I was surprised to realize how much inspiration was taken from these books. My abstract style mirrored the nature of Julia Armfield’s writing in Our Wives Under the Sea. Similarly, my use of religious allusions could be compared to the ones of Adam and Eve found in Jenny Hval’s Paradise Rot. These books subconsciously inspired me to explore literary devices I hadn't previously employed. Falling in love with reading has made me fall in love with writing in return. I am excited to read more books and see what new writing adventures awaitme!...
