Sunday 24 February 2013

Alif the Unseen by G. Willow Wilson

Alif the Unseen by G. Willow Wilson is the story of a young hacker living in a modern unspecified Arab emirate. He spends his time as a "grey hat" hacker protecting the internet presence of dissident groups from the increasingly scary State Security, and also wooing his upper class girlfriend.

When Alif's girlfriend breaks up with him he comes into possession of an ancient text which appears to have been written by the jinn of the Qur'an. With the State Security closing in with almost supernatural efficiency, Alif and his friends embark on a difficult adventure to try and escape them and links unfold between the jinn, the book, Islam and Alif's hacker work.

It's been a good year for fantasy and science fiction with Islamic settings/themes. The last novel in Kameron Hurley's Bel Dame Apocrypha series came out this year completing a brilliant trilogy with one of the most compelling main characters you'll ever read. That one is set in a far-future world settled by Muslim-descended people with a dependence on advanced biotechnology. Bugs basically. Their whole civilization is based on bugs, and not bacteria bugs, crawly ones ... and that includes medical technology. Sutures and bandages and medicines that are live insects. I know people that can't read this one beyond the first chapter. There was also the excellent Throne of the Crescent Moon by Saladin Ahmed which is more of an Arabian Nights ancient setting with magic, but again in a Islam-based world.

I found Alif the Unseen to be a thought-provoking read for several reasons. The author is an American convert to Islam (she has written a memoir of conversion, moving to Egypt and marrying a Muslim) and her experiences shine through in this novel. The main character is a non-observing Muslim but his friend Dina is munaqaba (wears the niqab) even though her parents and friend object to her going veiled. She is essentially the perfectly devout Muslim woman against whom Alif's faith and actions are constantly measured. Of course, she is deeply devoted and deferential to Alif as well. Wilson also seems to inject herself into the book with one of the main incidental characters being a female American convert whose reasons for conversion seem to mirror the author's.

From a personal point of view much of the novel made me very uncomfortable. The explicit sexism, racism and class hierarchies presented as ordinary society in the emirate bothered me. They are presented without comment and I realize they're probably accurate representations of much of the modern Islamic world. For the characters it is just the milieu in which they move. Two of the female incidental characters in the book don't even get names; they are simply "the maid" and "the convert" in Alif's thinking. When Dina says something clever in the first part of the book he expresses admiration that she is "as smart as a man". And this is a smart well-educated boy who is active on the internet.

I can't work out whether she just wants to portray the main character as an immature sexist little s*** (which he certainly is) or whether she actually believes these are reasonable ways for a Muslim man to think about women. One of the central themes in the book is Alif's coming into wisdom through a renewal of his Faith, but none of his other attitudes see much movement despite him being saved time and again by other female characters and Dina handily outclassing him at everything but programming. It feels authentic; we're told in the media that this is the sort of behavior to be expected of Muslim men and quite frankly, that's my only meaningful exposure to them, but I was hoping that from a convert to this religion and culture that I'd see a different side of things. The book abounds with strong female characters though, and there's a difference between Alif being sexist and the book being sexist.

Then there's the religion issue. I am an atheist and my early education was as a scientist and I find big-F Faith troublesome at best. I get people who were born into a religion, I really do. I struggle to shed many of the prejudices that I was brought up with and that's without everyone in my family and community telling me not to question those beliefs. But to choose a religion, and to knowingly choose one that reduces your status simply because of your gender ... it seems like insanity to me. I saw a fascinating quote from Wilson, that choosing this religion for her was to choose interdependence over independence. Perhaps it's all a matter of degree, but I don't get that sentiment.

The discussion on religion is relevant, because this book is steeped in it. The fantasy elements are all directly out of the Qu'ran and both Islam and the concept of a holy text are key to the whole thing. The author's melding of coding with Islamic numerology is certainly in theme as well. So, given my point of view on religion, I had some problems here. To be frank, I have problems with books where the fantasy is overtly Christian as well; Passage by Connie Willis was one of these despite being a brilliant book. The issue for me is that one of the main elements of Fantasy is "What if this were true?" and I'm just not particularly comfortable playing that thought game in a world where, for billions of people, the response is "What are you talking about?! This is true!"


Even then, it's still a well-written interesting book, and one that deals with many things that don't normally get much time on  my reading list. I guess now I'd better put The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russel on there for some equal time.

Currently Reading: Song of Scarabaeus by Sara Creasy

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