Sabrina
Vourvoulias
A
fascinating book based on a truly remarkable concept that posits a US
government which requires all Hispanics to be tattooed, an action
which allows and leads to
further legal restrictions ~ and worse ~ on that population. What
seemed at first an utterly implausible idea became, as i reflected on
it, surprisingly possible, though not actually likely.
Having
lived in the United States for some twenty years, immersed in what is
truly one of the most racially aware, if not racist, cultures in the
world, i found myself appreciating the underlying truths on the book:
The general fear of the unknown, by Americans in general, because it
is different, is clear; the amazing passivity with which huge
numbers of Americans allow their government to assume a larger and
larger rôle in their lives, despite their constant lip service to
the ideals of small government, no matter what that intrusive
government does; also, to be fair, the individual kindness or
loveliness of many Americans individually rather than en
masse (as much as a
cliché as it is to say it, while i find the American people in
general rather unpleasant, many of my best friends are Americans ~
indeed, i married one). It is part of the novel's interest that the
group which is being oppressed is not that group in actuality most
discriminated against, African-Americans ~ or whatever the currently
correct term is ~ but Vourvoulias has chosen to make the fasted
growing ethnic group in the US her victims; this has raised a number
of challenges for her, some of which she has risen to quite well,
including the matter of a word for the group ~ the titular “ink”
~ which is universally used within the book.
In
mine opinion, however, she has been less successful in her treatment
of African-Americans themselves, as there is, if i recall correctly,
only one identifiably Black character, and there is really no
difference between that character and the other non-Inks other than
the colour of the skin. The United States is, as mentioned above,
one of the most vocally egalitarian, yet practically non-egalitarian,
societies in the world, yet the true underclass of the society is
that of the African-Americans; they are the group most closely linked
with the idea of prejudice, the most underprivileged group, the class
closest to the position of the Inks in the novel. I suspect that
Vourvoulias found that it would be impossible, if she even thought
about trying, to use Blacks as her victims, and anyone she may have
run the idea past would have dissuaded her.
Another
facet of the book which i found rather distracting, though i can see
(or, at least, imagine) that some readers would probably find it one
of its strengths, is the intrusion of the generally unseen world of
magic into the world of reality. There are several ways in which
Vourvoulias allows these worlds to intersect; each of them is, to me,
either confusing or annoying. The most consistent manner is that
several of the Inks have some form of dæmon or alter ego which
occasionally comes to the fore, most notably during times of stress
or conflict, in particular when she shows them in conflict with evil
dwarves which, while not appearing to actually be alter egos of
anyone, are intimately linked with the pain and anguish caused by the
government's Ink policies. The most acceptable (to me) intrusion of
magic is the ability of one of the non-Inks who helps subvert the
government's policies to manipulate the land around him and actually
cause it to change, shape or characteristics, to enable people to
hide or do things they otherwise wouldn't be able to.
In
the end, i'm afraid that Vourvoulias has tried to put too much into a
novel which will not carry it. As much as i enjoyed the plot, the
conception, the characterisations (and the characters), i found the
book as a whole a bit more than i could comfortably read. I would
like to have seen the idea developed without some of the extra
themes, the magic, or the importance of story-telling. This could
have been a superb work of speculative fiction, had it not left so
many questions dangling ~ how did the government bring in the Ink
policies? what was the political landscape which permitted these
developments? do Latins or Hispanics from other than Central and
South America (Spain, Portugal, Italy) have to have tattoos? The
single idea of the tattoos is so powerful, in mine opinion it should
have been allowed to develop fully. A success then, for me, but not
as successful as it might have been.
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