#41// mirror, mirror on the wall

...perfect to cozy up with

Dear Reader,
Ever since the pandemic began, I find myself in pockets of slumps. I want something that’ll keep me occupied for months, something that has no beginning, or end, something to always return to. Perhaps this has something to do with life being on pause with no end in sight. These urges (or slumps, whatever you call them) make me look for big books, comic series, TV shows that are non-bingeable but still very good, and so on.
 

Read

Over the summer, I was completely enchanted by The Mirror Visitor series by Christelle Dabos, translated from French by Hildegarde Serle. My introduction to the series was many years ago when the first book, A Winter’s Promise, fell into my hands and conjured up a magical, wintry, atmospheric world. The Earth has broken into 21 floating celestial islands called Arks after an event known in history as the Rupture. Each Ark is ruled by an immortal ancestral spirit and the people blessed with special powers. For example, the Anima Ark, home to our heroine Ophelia, is ruled by Artemis. The people of Anima can read an object’s history by touching them. Objects are alive—Keeping an object as a pet is a norm; Ophelia has an animated scarf; a coat hanger might huff if you haven’t hung your coat properly. In this fascinating world lives the clumsy, kind Ophelia with differently coloured eyes—one blue as the day, and one black as the night—framed by thick rimmed glasses that change colour according to her mood.
 
Ophelia is a mirror visitor and can travel between two mirrors on which she has been a reflection before the mirror travel. She can also read and study objects, and works as a museum curator. She is betrothed for a political marriage to Thorn of the Dragon clan from the wintry, icy Pole. She travels with her aunt to her fiance’s cold city of Citaceleste. Thorn, like his city, is cold-hearted. He is narcissistic, misogynistic, with not an ounce of warmth. His powers are a strong memory, and claws with which he can cause physical harm to his opponent telepathically. The guardian spirit of the Pole, Lord Farouk is a forgetful spirit and hence every decision of his is written in a book. He is often bored, indulges in the pleasure of the flesh, and affects those around him with his headache-inducing strong powers. He wonders about God, and the missing pages in the Book of Farouk. Apparently all the ancestral spirits have these missing pages or gaps in memory, because of which they are unable to remember their origins, mission and relationship with God.
 
Unlike the Anima Ark where everybody lives in harmony like a big family, the Pole Ark is classist and divided into clans according to their powers and importance. The Pole is also a heavily patriarchal society compared to the matriarchal Anima (don’t forget the Anima has archaic marriage laws). Ophelia, away from her family and liberal world, is in for a shock at the customs of the Pole. She soon realizes that she is at the heart of a deadly plot and there’s so much that she simply doesn’t know. A marriage can often result in exchange of powers, and of course better diplomatic relationships between the Arks. Thorn hopes to inherit her powers, decode the Book of Farouk and raise his status from a bastard to a distinguished member of the court.

 

The other day someone on Twitter pointed out that The Jetsons, a beloved cartoon series on the Cartoon Network featuring futuristic life in 2060s imagines the woman of the household to be a homemaker. Fans and non-fans argue in the replies why Mrs. Jetson isn’t any different from a homemaker in 1960s  which was when the show premiered. Maybe it was ‘too much’ to imagine a different woman in a futuristic world? Similarly, even after a Rupture and magical powers, women in this world do not seem to be any different from the ones in our world. There are women with powerful skills, women entrepreneurs, women in charge of departments but in most cases critical decision-making rests on the men (and Ophelia; she is after all the heroine).
 
In Book 2, The Missing of Clairdelune, Ophelia is awaiting her arranged marriage to Thorn which will enable them to inherit each other’s powers. She is now master storyteller at Farouk’s court, but longs for a different career. Lord Farouk keeps questioning his agency, and whether he is a puppet to a higher power. He is also expecting a child with Thorn’s aunt. I listened to Book 2 almost entirely on audio (and read again some chapters because they were phenomenal). Here we see an expansive, fascinating world of the Pole. The Mirage clan makes mirages of sunsets and sunrises, like impressionist paintings in the sky. Nobody knows what’s the lie and the truth. Except perhaps Nihilists who can see through mirages. There are clans that are respected and those that are condemned. There are womanizer aristocrats, egoistic clans, dreams, music, glorious tea sessions, and lots of mirror travel.
 
My favourite section in The Missing of Clairdelune are Mother Hildegarde’s sandglasses which enable you to travel into a dream you want. (This is the section I re-read entirely, if you must know). Like dream drugs, they whisk you away into childhood memories, lascivious moans, lovemaking—Ophelia on witnessing the behind-the-scenes calls it “the most grotesque phantasmagoria”. Ophelia is investigating a most surprising event that happened in the Pole. Several visitors to the embassy vanish without a trace. She wonders if this has anything to do with God and the family spirits. There are flashbacks of the spirits’ memories—the planetary explosion, the floating shards that become Arks to support humanity, and a mysterious presence of God that almost always vanishes away when we get closer to the memory. It was a mad thrill to read through this book, and perhaps it is my favourite among all four.
 
Early on in the series, I imagined that 21, being a very large number, was simply a number Dabos came up with. But in The Memory of Babel we are introduced to all the 21 Arks which makes me appreciate the author’s plotting/planning skills. Fear not, we focus on the major Arks involved in the story only, so it isn’t overwhelming. The Ark of Babel is presided by twins, Pollux, saint of aesthetes, and Helen, saint of ascetics. There’s outlandish behavior, and quietness, yin and yang. What sets Babel apart from the other Arks are its conservative rules. Several words are banned, censorship is the norm, clothes are censored, working officials have to swear to the spirits that they did the ‘right’ things (If contradicted, you might have a bloody bad ending). Two things stand out for me in The Memory of Babel. One being an infant’s POV (Farouk’s daughter born in Book 2) who can be at two places at the same time, travel and witness what happens in secret passageways between Arks, but of course not communicate because she is a baby—beyond fascinating I tell you. Secondly, Babel features huge libraries and there are books being banned. A big secret links a children’s author whose books are banned, and the Rupture, and the family spirits. I am skipping why Ophelia is here at the Babel Ark to avoid spoilers. She is working her way towards a career under a disguise with a goal in mind. This continues onto Book 4, The Storm of Echoes where Ophelia and Thorn are very close to finding the truth about God, and what the ancestral spirits had forgotten.
 

It is remarkable how the series would peel its layers according to the reader. You could binge it as a YA fantasy, or closely inspect the themes of coexistence, racism, superiority complex, blind devotion, hierarchical power systems, God, organized religion, censorship, freedom of expression. You can feast on a unique, fresh, imaginative world of floating shards, and be taken aback when you meet Artemis and Odin. The Arks have different cultural mappings mixed with new laws—you might find glimpses of Russia, or France, or Egypt, but with their own new set of rules, as you travel through the Arks. Dabos’s world is dark, vibrant, enchanting, real, and utterly fascinating. Her leisurely pace holds you in its charm and I bet you would not be able to read another book until you finish listening to everything Dabos has to say. Yes, a good idea to cozy up with this quartet for the latter half of 2022.

But all is never well in anything, right? I had my share of eyebrow-raises and cringe over the four books. For example, how could you love a man who has turned his claws on you? Isn’t that simply physical abuse in translation? I found the romance in the book to be wilted, bland and devoid of any emotion. How tedious to read about a spark of love that’s never there? Anything—a curse, an unbreakable vow, rivalry, ego, colleagues on a mission—other than a forced romance please.

This series is equipped with good world building. But it falters in the explanation of why some things come to be. Often you'll find yourself reading to answer the 'why why why' in your head to be told 'it's just like that'. But...this explanation worked for me. The storytelling and the characters and of course the world, are strong enough to keep you invested in the story. You simply move on quickly to the next subplot or problem, satisfied with the explanation or rather the lack of it.
 
Fans of The Mirror visitor series are divided on whether they liked the ending. You’ll be gnawing your way through forums and Reddit groups in no time, once you begin reading. I fall into the category of people for whom the ending didn’t work. Perhaps that is too harsh of a statement to make on a series that I really really enjoyed. I was literally running through the pages from Book 2, as if somebody is after my life. But towards the last quarter of Book 4, when I should’ve been finally happy for the reveal and the finale, I came to a halt. I had to push myself to read through the chapters. They left me confused, a tad disappointed, and a little angry because THAT buildup makes me expect something HUGE on a whole new plane. But do not make me turn you away because there is an equally strong group that thinks the ending tied up the loose ends.
 
I would keep A Winter's Promise for a cold night or a wintry month, The Missing of Clairdelune for a week when I want to forget everything and be immersed in a highly imaginative, unique storytelling, The Memory of Babel for a day when I want to mix some philosophical thinking into my reading. I loved the mix of engineering and magic, reality and philosophy, theology and scientific questioning—Truly happy to have been floating on these Arks with family spirits, clans, and magic.

Watch

If you haven’t watched Neil Gaiman's The Sandman on Netflix—an excellent example of how stories can be adapted/changed to suit different mediums—what are you waiting for? My #1 show of the year. And I love all the deviations from the original comics.
PS: I would not recommend your cat watching it because
 

Amazing Links

My review of a short story collection that’s a must-read in today’s India (Open mag)
14 ways of looking (The Offing mag) via Alipore post
Tiktok audio memes and brain-feel (NYT)
How design of our cities reflect caste, class anxieties  (The Swaddle)
Comic: About mourning doves and trying again (Catapult)

Until next time,
Resh x

(This newsletter may contain affiliate links which might earn me a very small commission at no extra cost to you)

If you liked this newsletter, the best way to show support would be to forward the subscribe link to a friend or share via your favourite social media.