Short Story Review - Twenty Lights to the Land of Snow (Michael Bishop)

First published in 2012 in "Going Interstellar"

(This review contains spoilers)

“Twenty Lights to the Land of Snow” is a short story by Michael Bishop, where a future community of Tibetans and their Buddhist followers flee persecution in a spaceship bound for the planet Guge. When the Dalai Lama dies suddenly, a young girl called Greta Bryn Brasswell is chosen to succeed him. The story follows the course of Greta's life as she tries to cope with this new responsibility.

One interesting aspect of this story is that there isn't much in the way of plot; instead it only gives the reader little glimpses into Greta's life. A few times the story teases what could become the main plot (hinting the Dalai Lama was actually murdered, Greta finding out her mother had an affair, etc) but doesn't follow up on it. The story is a slow-burner and seeks more to establish a contemplatative tone, rather than a plot.

It achieves this effect through the way Greta's life is presented to the reader. Her life is shown in little vignettes, none of which last very long. Although the story is very personal and shows a lot of Greta's fear and excitement, the episodic narrative maintains a certain distance between her and the reader. This is fitting given her elevation to Dalai Lama, but I also felt it created some problems.

Greta herself was a fascinating character at the beginning, especially in how her feelings towards her title kept changing. The story opens when she's seven, and at that age her sulky refusal to accept her title feels like a child refusing to go to bed. As she becomes a young woman, this turns to a genuine fear of the weight of responsibility. However, this doesn't stop her being resentful when a boy named Jetsun is named the Dalai Lama by a rival group of monks. Greta's contradictions humanise her greatly, as they reflect the uncertainty that comes from responsibility.

All the other characters are fairly forgettable, with the exception of Greta's parents. Her mother's pressuring her into accepting her title came across as emotional blackmail, and seems downright cruel when we learn the circumstances behind Greta being chosen. Greta's father, it turns out, only joined the expedition out of love for his wife, but has since become disillusioned with Buddhism, which he regards as an “oceanic dettachment”. I found something tragic in his character, having made a momentous choice that he can't back out of. Greta's shock at learning of her mother's infidelity and her father's disillusionment adds to the feeling of dettachment in the prose, as she realises her parents are nothing like how she imagined them.

The story tries to maintain a happier view of family: Greta acts as a maternal figure to a girl called Alicia, and later has a daughter whom she dotes on. But I found these parts of the story comparatively hollow and saccharine.

I also felt Greta changed far too rapidly in the second half of the story after she is formally sworn in as the new Dalai Lama. Her acceptance of her role and her decision to have a child felt far too sudden and didn't seem to fit with what we'd seen of her before. Her more serene manner towards the end also makes her less interesting as she has less to struggle against. This disconnect, while fitting for the subject matter, comes at the cost of interesting characterisation. And while the story is clearly aiming for an emotionally subdued tone, I felt it was missing something by not having a proper resolution between Greta and her parents.

In conclusion, I would say “Twenty Lights to “The Land of Snow”” starts off as an interesting coming-of-age story, but suffers from an abrupt shift in characterisation and becomes less interesting once its protagonist stops developing.