Since childhood, Mélodie Joseph, who launched the first volume of the tetralogy on Wednesday The sower of winds, reads a lot of fantasy and science fiction. Quoting cloud castleby Diana Wynne Jones, as the first book to have made her love fantasy, the first-time novelist particularly enjoyed reading At the crossroads of worldsby Philip Pullman, the series Harry Potterby JK Rowling, and The iron Throneby George RR Martin, following a suggestion from a friend.
“I believe that these books have really influenced my vision of narratology, of the construction of stories, confides the Montrealer born in Martinique and who grew up in Saint-Martin, in the French West Indies. Recently I read The books of fractured earthby NK Jemisin, I have also read Naomi Novik, who has written several books, but my favorite fantasy author is Robin Hobb with her series The Kingdom of the Ancientswhich includes the royal assassin. »
Surprisingly, when she decided to send her novel to several publishing houses, in Quebec and in France, Mélodie Joseph did not address the notion of literary genre: “In the cover letter where I described my story, I I wasn’t talking about afrofantasy or afrofuturism at all. I was just saying that it was about a character who is on a personal quest, for memory, for identity. I also focused on the fact that later in the series, there would be a quest for revenge. »
Unknown origin
This character is Olive, a frail and amnesic 10-year-old orphan, whom Neige, a solid fellow who doesn’t talk a lot, belongs to the people of the Solitaires, finds in Limbo. At the end of the novel, 13-year-old Olive, who was not destined to be the central figure in the novels, discovers that she has a gift that she must master.
“I did several versions of the story and in one of them, Celeste was the main character and met Olive during one of her travels. When I wrote the first version, I realized that the most interesting character was Olive and not Celeste. At that point, I thought I’d rewrite this time around from Olive’s point of view and see how it turned out. That’s how I came to choose the rest of the story, but Celeste, which was also the working title, remains important to the story. The original title was system of winds ; speaking with my editors, Geneviève Blouin and Mathieu Lauzon-Dicsõ, we came to an agreement on The sower of winds. »
First Quebec Afrofantasy novel, The sower of winds, the second volume of which should appear in the not so distant future, thus makes the young novelist a pioneer. “I didn’t have the idea to become a pioneer or anything else, but to write about something that interests me, to write something that I want to read. This is always what motivates me, both in writing my thesis and my novel. »
before the novel
In 2019, enrolled in a master’s degree in communications at the University of Montreal, Mélodie Joseph wrote a thesis on a science fiction short film by a Kenyan director and on an album by a famous African-American singer, Feminism and Afrofuturism in Pumzi by Wanari Kahiu and Metropolis by Janelle Monáeunder the direction of Tamara Vukov.
“I was really interested in the representation of black women in all things sci-fi and fantasy. Very quickly, I noticed that black women were not very represented in these genres, so I wanted to write a memoir on the subject. I talked about it with Tamara Vukov, who introduced me to Afrofuturism. I then started researching to see if I could find more portrayals of black women on this side. »
If this artistic, musical and literary movement appeared in the middle of the 20e century, it was not until 1993, two years before the birth of Mélodie Joseph, that the term Afrofuturism appeared in a brief essay by white author and journalist Mark Dery, “Black to the Future”, published in the ‘anthology Flame Wars: The Discourse of Cyberculture.
I didn’t have the idea of becoming a pioneer or anything else, but of writing about something that interests me
“When we think of fantasy and science fiction, we have certain images in mind, those of a medieval, European universe, as in The iron Throne. What is interesting with Afrofuturism and Afrofantasy is that it diversifies this image, brings new stories, different writing, from different countries, from different origins. »
Caribbean influences
Fantasy novel with steampunk accents evoking Avatarby James Cameron, Underground Railroadby Colson Whitehead, and Around the world in eighty daysby Jules Verne, The sower of winds transports us to a planet where aurochs and smilodons evolve, where we travel in aircraft, where toxic vapors threaten to erase the traces of ancient civilizations.
“For a lot of technology, I based myself on the XVe century, then I adopted the fantasy point of view for the four archipelagos. I wondered what would be important to develop if I lived in such a world, in such a different environment. There is no ocean, people live on islands floating in the air, inevitably, it is on the aviation side that we had to develop. »
So far from ours, the universe depicted by Mélodie Joseph recalls problems that are specific to us. Thus, the characters judge the appearances, belonging, skin color and stature of the people they meet. The Archipelagos, for example, despise and fear the Solitaires, whom they call the monsters.
Not belonging to any of these peoples, Olive feels like a stranger wherever she sets foot: “I didn’t really try to reflect on racism, but tried to analyze how, when and in what circumstances this kind of hatred is kindled, how this question of nations and equals emerges. »
With her friend Astra, whom she meets later in the story, Olive understands that history is written from the point of view of the conquerors when she gradually learns about her origins in unofficial documents that the Archipelagos want. keep secrets.
“I put a small part of my personal experience into this aspect of the story. As I got older, I learned more about the history of slavery. As I come from the Caribbean, my ancestors were slaves. I learned a different version of history that was written by people who had slaves, but also by other African people. I realized that for everything, there are several stories. We all have a different point of view, but history can also be written by intentional or unintentional political will. What provokes or can lead to hatred, segregation, inequalities, is the construction of history which has put itself forward, which has hidden itself, which has denied itself. So that’s why it was important for me to emphasize that aspect in the novel. »