Burning Wild (Or Why I May Reconsider My Stance on Book Burning: Part I)

Burning Wild (Christine Feehan, Jove Publishing)

Dear Wild,
I’m sure you’re familiar with this little piece of  Windows Movie Maker magic; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfSyf0awhFo

But have you honestly watched that trailer?  And if you can get through the entire thing without laughing at the ridiculousness of it all... well, I’m not sure if I should commend you on your gracious nature, or if I should be concerned for your mental well being. Regardless, this is just the tip of the iceberg. We have more pressing issues to get to right now, but don’t think you’ve gotten away with this piece of painful propaganda. Oh no, that’s just for another post. Kate, I leave this trash in your oh so capably snarky hands.

Christine Feehan is a supposed New York Times bestseller. So I’m left wondering how she achieved such a title with characters who lack development and with whom the reader is completely unable to identify, as well as a plot that is basically nonexistent and which parades new “supporting” characters and settings throughout in some sort of sick attempt to see how confused the reader can get before hurling this piece of trash at the wall. True, I picked up this novel expecting it to be one of those "So Bad It's Good" reads, but this little treasure is more of the "So Bad It's Horrible" persuasion.

No, these problems will have to be saved for another day’s rant. Before an author writes a story they must conduct research regarding their topic. So before I tear into the depravity of this novel, I merely wish to raise a few questions about the author’s research.  

I’m not against science fiction, in fact I’m a huge fan, and am willing to believe that in this world you’ve created certain individuals are theriomorphs (big word for having an animal form) and due to some genetic anomaly they can turn into leopards. Fine. Your world, your rules. But if such people exist, wouldn’t they originate from the region where their animal counterpart is from?

Some examples from history:

~Norse Berserkers (note: origin for the word berserk) worked themselves into such a frenzy, which may have been aided by drugged food, that before entering into battle they were believed to be possessed by spirits of wolves or bears.

~North American folklore and native culture legend is full of tales and traditions where individuals (usually a warrior or shaman) take on an animal form via a spirit quest of masked ritual. Forms are varied acorrding to local culture and species - the coyote is common in the Great Plains region versus the grizzly bear in the North West, etc.

~The boto is a common Brazilian mythwhere in river dolphins can take the shapes of men. Another Brazilian legend holds that the seventh son of a seventh son can take the form of a horse, mule, goat, maned wolf, or a pig.

~African folklore tells of men (again usually shamans or important religious figures)  who can take the form of an animal including gazelle, hippopotamus, hyenas, jackals, lions, and leopards.

These are just a few very basic examples of theriomorphs and I encourage you read any of the multitude of books available on the subject. This is a fascinating motif and is found in some form or other in almost every culture across the world. Notice though, that no matter the culture a few similarities are present:

1. The animal form is always local to the culture, and therefore plays an important role in daily if not also religious life. (ex. wolves may be regarded as a spiritual animal but since they are also a fellow predator and potential threat you can bet that everyone thinks about them. A lot.)

2. The animal form is generally a mammal. This makes sense because we identify most with mammals above all others in the animal kingdom, because (duh) we are mammals.

3. There is usually a process or event required for the transformation from human to animal (or visa versa). Be it ritual, full moon, drugged food, spirit quest, or a particular time of year, people don’t just *poof* into animals at random. That goes more into god territory as far as mythology is concerned, so it’s kinda frowned upon if just anyone can do it.

There are other similarities, but maybe I’ll save that for a Halloween post. Moving on.

Alright, so let’s just assume that Jake (the male lead and leopard man here) doesn’t need a ritual or specific event to become a leopard. Fine. Why oh why then, is he said to come from native peoples in South America? Leopards aren’t from South America, they are from Africa and Asia. You’re on the wrong continent group!

Maybe you’re confused. That’s OK, it happens to the best of us.

Wait... you aren’t?

You centered your research around Borneo?

Well then. That’s in South East Asia. Kinda close, I mean, the clouded leopard lives there. Too bad it isn’t actually a leopard. The clouded leopard’s scientific name is Neofelis nebulosa literally meaning “new cat” and “cloud” because scientists had never seen a cat that looked like a cross between the Panthera “big cats” and Felis the “small cats”. Nice effort though.

There are lots of subspecies of leopard for you to pick from. Please just make sure you know if it’s actually a leopard before you post it on your  "Leopard Series Research Page".

Ok, so you did something you like to call research. Posted a few things about Borneo and about leopards... That’s a cute effort, but when one of your sources goes to a phishing site and the other to “Snow Leopards for Kids!” well, I can’t help it if I wonder how much time you actually spent in researching this animal you devote a whole series of your books to. I mean, there is National Geographic, African Wildlife Foundation, hundreds of scientific papers, journals, and articles written about this lovely creature. Heck, a wiki search would have given you more! Let me google that for you...Leopard!

So really, I’m begging you here. If you’re going to write about something, and your (limited) research tells you where that something is from, why do you choose to ignore the research and substitute your own reality instead? Is South America really all that  much sexier than Africa? Ok, maybe it is. But then why not call it the Jaguar series? They are found in the Americas, prefer the rainforest, and are a threatened species if that’s what you were looking for. They even look similar....

Leopard

Jaguar

So what’s the deal? Why did you decide to blur the lines of the animal kingdom?

Laziness is never to be encouraged. Especially in one who has a job others would die for. You get to go on fun trips in the name of research, write whatever your imagination can come up with, and while I’m not saying your job is easy, I would expect at least a bit more effort being put into these books.

We have more issues to discuss here, Wild. But for now I’m going to let you think about what you’ve done. And hope you’re New York Times’ Bestseller butt has a bit more respect for her readers next time and can put some real effort into her research.

~Mia