Erin Go Home

Okay, before I go off on my crazy rant for the day, let me just point out that The Rejectionist is doing a week long feature on Science Fiction and its use in forwarding civil rights and what not. So, minority authors, strong women in SF, that kind of thing. Sci-Fi is certainly a great genre for it, it has a history of social commentary made by expanding societies' flaws to their ultimate, absurd conclusions. Even when written by white men who probably didn't give two hoots about one particular group or another. See, for instance, George Orwell. Or Anthony Burgess.

With that out of the way, I will now rage. One trend I see a lot at my agency is people sending me things that aren't at all unusual and thinking they must be the only ones who have ever thought of it. One that has been especially upsetting of late is books set in Ireland. That's right. I bet you didn't know there was a horrific dearth of books in or about Ireland, or following Irish characters.

I feel compelled to say that I couldn't care less one way or another about Ireland. I live in NY which has a lot of them. I went to a college which was heavily Irish Catholic. My sister in law is Irish. Erin Go Bragh! Let me tell you, there's only one country in the world that really loves Ireland. And that's the US. For God's sake, the Irish are poor, bitter, miserable, hated by their neighbors, constantly fighting for their rights and territory. The only reason they don't all just jump into the ocean is to spite the brits who've been waiting for that to happen since the middle ages, when they painted the Irish as having green skin. And the Irish in this country love the place. Oh sure, few of them have ever been. And they might've forgotten that their families left because everyone was starving to death since they had nothing but blighted taters to munch on for who knows how long. Still, they love the place to death. Consequently, America loves the place to death.

Me, I'm totally indifferent. Cute girls, terrible food. Drunken pissants, but beautiful scenery. But Ireland's got to be the second most common setting for novels submitted to my agency. And only if you count the entire US, throughout its history, including territories to be a single place. I see more books about Ireland than NY. We're the bloody empire state people. How about some respect? Also note, NYC is publishing capital USA. I'm just sayin' flattering my state might soothe my righteous anger. Did I mention I'm Italian? People tell me I remind them somewhat of a taller, fatter Joe Pesche.

So if you want to set your novel in Ireland, go right ahead. But please don't tell me it's "underepresented" "unexplored" "unutilized" "ignored" or any other such bullshit. How many books you think I get taking place in Zimbabwe? Or even China (a country which fascinates me and provides more than a sixth of the entire world's population)? Truth is, in four months I have not seen a single query that takes place in either. Best I got was a single memoir from South Africa and the ocassional book about a US Suburbanite who is half Korean and struggling with identity issues. I dealt with no fewer than five books about Ireland today alone. You want to tell me your setting is different or unique, you better be sure it really is, because my patience is wearing thin when it comes to overzealous, unorigial braggarts.