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Why The Raven Cycle isn’t getting any diver$ity cookie from me.

This contains mild spoilers, and text from The Raven King.

The way Henry was introduced in BLLB was unforgettable. We saw him making an offhand rape comment. This is pretty common. See All For the Game series by Nora Sakavic where their lone!good!moc could be seen making the same proclamation throughout the series. I am willing to let it slide, maybe, this is not about race.

Moving forward to The Raven King, we get to know Henry Cheng better. He’s half Chinese and half Korean. His mother Seondeok is a Korean dealer of illegal antiquities. White authors can’t seem to write East Asians without associating them with mob, yakuza, and mafia? Another example: All For the Game series by Nora Sakavic

This is the part where it gets nauseating. 

“Principles? Henry Cheng’s principles are all about getting larger font in the school newsletter,” Ronan said. He did a vaguely offensive version of Henry’s voice: “Serif? Sans serif? More bold, less italics.”

Blue saw Adam both smirk and turn his face away in a hurry so that Gansey wouldn’t see, but it was too late.

“Et tu, Brute?” Gansey asked Adam. “Disappointing.”

“I didn’t say anything,” Adam replied.

It was explicitly stated Henry’s second language is English. I’m going to assume Ronan is mocking the way Henry speaks, the intonation or accent of his voice. Whichever fucking way I look it is racist. Nobody even called Ronan out. The gross thing, the author made it into an “inside joke” for pynch.

This didn’t end right there. We have another pynch scene where they made a punchline out of Henry’s ethnicity.

“Adam made puerile jokes at Henry’s expense (He’s half Chinese? “Which half?”) and sniggered clannishly; Blue called them on it (“Jealous, much?”): Gansey told them to put aside their preconceptions and think about him.

Really? This made into the final publication? Minority’s ethnical identity isn’t a subject for crass puns.  Blue and Gansey’s meek intervention is not going to pacify me. I’m not here for this. Once again, this become a “cutesy” pynch scene.

These vile ~scenes~ about Henry’s otherization serves no purpose. It doesn’t contribute anything to the plot. You can reason out the narrative is implying Adam and Ronan are jealous (of Gansey’s new attachment to Henry,) but the author could’ve made a different approach of executing that. This is deliberate.

Another troubling scene with Henry and Blue

It was this: Blue, teetering on the edge of offence, saying, I don’t understand why you keep saying such awful things about Koreans. About yourself. And Henry saying. I will do it before anyone else can. It is the only way to not be angry all of the time.

Great another Korean character written by white author who might or might not be experiencing internalized racism. Sounds familiar? See Ellen Oh’s intake of Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell.

I see a lot of bloggers here are now clamoring for Henry, maybe it’s because he’s greatly sculpted, or because he’s Asian and his characterization speaks to you. If your reason is the latter, I have news for you. There are plenty of Asian authors specifically Chinese, and Korean, who are out there doing a spectacular job at it. Here are some of them; Jenny Han, Renee Ahdieh, Cindy Pon, Malinda Lo, Ellen Oh, Maureen Goo, Marie Lu, Lydia Kang, Amy Zhang, Celeste Ng, S. Jae-Jones, and more.

Take Me Home, Country Roads by John Denver except it’s playing from your neighbor’s radio that you can hear from your back porch, which you sit out on to relax in spite of the loud buzzing from the lightbulb and the hoards of moths that flock to it on summer evenings like this.

“Between any two beings there is a unique, uncrossable distance, an unenterable sanctuary. Sometimes it takes the shape of aloneness. Sometimes it takes the shape of love.”

— Jonathan Safran Foer, Here I Am (via weltenwellen)

the quote “while i’m gone, dream me the world” becomes so much more tragic if you realize gansey knew he was going to die and he was literally going to be gone forever and he knew how self-destructive ronan was and he didn’t want ronan to ever stop dreaming or lose his magic because of him even if he was dead

people who know gansey is going to die: me, you, gansey, adam, blue, the women of 300 fox way, millions of readers 

people who don’t know gansey is going to die: ronan

Gansey: *worries that adam will find out he and blue go out just the two of them to look at the stars and not kiss*

Adam: *worries gansey will find out he and ronan go out just the two of them to plan a fucking fake murder*

POSITIVE THOUGHTS ON THE RAVEN KING

ok ok i feel like starting with the negatives is mean so lets put in some good stuff too even though i already said what i didn’t like

orphan girl eating things she shouldnt be eating

loose quote: 

“what r u doin w/ ur future ronan?” 

“i was thinkin of becomin a farmer c:”

BARN TIME WITH THE LYNCH FAN OMG i loved it

the KISs. THE KISS. i know i said something about the pynch was bothering me but over all i loved the kiSSES.

what we saw of the whole henry/gansey/blue dynamic. i want them to travel the world together my adorable bebs. 

artemus hiding in the tree. sensitive tree man.

neeve advising piper to not do things and piper being all ‘ok but i literally do what i want c:’

henry in general, i love his character, i like that his native language is thought. 

GROCERY STORE WORKER BLUE COMIN TO THE RESCUE * U * MY HERO.

any interactions between blue and ronan tbh. i love them. they are my babies.

i was going to move on but honestly blue and ronan are so pure and honest, i love it. i love the scene of ronan and blue in the kitchen while the boyfriends were sharing secrets, pondering the meaning of love and whatnot.   

what i wanted out of that was a big sleep over with the gang at the barns but.... fanfiction will happen. im counting on y’all... or me. depending on how i feel. 

oooo whatelelsslelselse.

CABESWATER LOVES THEm

like i already knew that quote before but it’s still my favourite thing? cabeswater loves them cabeswater will do anything for them cabeswater will give life back to one of them in the best way it can since they all wished for it. i love you too cabeswater.

ronan ‘i dreamt up cabeswater’ lynch

ronan ‘i dreamt up my lil brother too’ lynch

sir richard campbell ‘for gods’ sake’ gansey III in response to the above mentioned ronan lynch.

“THE HEAD IS TOO WISE. THE HEART IS ALL FIRE” im putting that on my body one day. 

thats all i can think of right now. there will be a second wave that comes with the reread. 

i can’t get adam parrish: spontaneous sleeper off my mind like…..

adam routinely falling asleep on gansey’s shoulder whenever he sits shotgun in the pig

ronan being put on ‘crash watch’ during latin because everone knows that adam hates sleeping in class but sometimes it just happens

(crash watch includes taking adam’s notes, waking him up ~gently~, and being a good boyf)

adam and persephone having naps in cabeswater after he finishes his training for the day

sometimes blue encourages adam to sleep when they hang out. usually he ends up sprawled over her lap and snoring loudly as she watches sitcoms, and usually orla or persephone document it in the form of like 60 pictures

blue had one printed and taped to her wall

noah and adam staying up late and talking and talking until they end up cuddled on adam’s bed (adam is lil’ spoon ofc)

adam sleeping in the hondayota during his breaks 

ronan and adam staying up studying for finals and adam eventually slumping over and crashing on ronan’s lap (ronan’s face is so red google earth can see him through the roof of st. agnes)