midnight robber
written by nalo hopkinson (2000)
genre: speculative fiction, bildungsroman
during the fall quarter of my senior year, i had the most riveting introduction to the genre of speculative fiction! i had the opportunity to take ENGL192SC: Speculations in Color under Dr. Cathy Thomas in the UCSB English Department. though i am a fiction writer, i’d never gravitated towards the genre of science fiction or fantasy.
i attribute that to the fact that i cannot write fantasy or science fiction pieces. my imagination is not so large that it can create entire supernatural worlds and pull characters and plot into existence. because of this, i used to stray away from science fiction novels for my own personal reading; i normally find myself in the realm of historical fiction.
however, i’ve always recognized the importance of science fiction to tell stories that transcend the realities of what we see in our world. after reading midnight robber and taking ENGL192SC, i was both mind-blown and inspired by the possibilities of science fiction, but more broadly speculative fiction. this novel is heavily influenced by afro-caribbean/afrofuturistic culture and contains cyberpunk elements.
in the end, this novel inspired my final project for the class, and later my published research for my fellowship. [side note: that fnal is published on my writing list as lilith’s legacy!]
i realized after reading midnight robber that there was a crucial element to the novel that enhanced the novel’s purpose as a bildungsroman: cultural myth-making is essential to understanding, re-developing, and re-defining the overarching female identity.
the novel is about a young girl named tan-tan who lives on a planet named Toussaint, populated by descendants of Caribbean immigrants on Earth, with her mother and father. tan-tan undergoes one traumatic event after another and is constantly being robbed of her self-identity and self-agency. you really can’t help but read through and wonder when (or if) she’ll ever reach a place of safety, and each page is even more jarring than the last.
but, in the beginning of the novel, it is introduced that tan-tan’s favorite Carnival character is the Midnight Robber, and she continuously references that character in her most fearful and terrifying moments. throughout the novel, Midnight Robber seems to blend with tan-tan as she begins to identify with his craftiness and characteristics, and she puts her own spin on the character, calling herself the Robber Queen.
by the end of the novel, tan-tan fights for her self-identity and fully embodies this character of the Robber Queen. from this novel, i remembered countless other cultural mythologies about women who did not fit into the norm and suffered terrible fates, or embodied monstrous characters, including: the White Lady from Quezon City, Deer Woman from the Central Plains Tribes in Oklahoma, Lilith in Jewish folklore, La Llorona from Aztec legends… the list just keeps going!
overall, midnight robber made me realize how important these stories are to re-defining the contemporary female identity, preserving culture through generations, and deconstructing patriarchal labels that are meant to subordinate.
