Alice Law goes to Hell for a recommendation letter, or does she?
A MacGuffin, according to Merriam-Webster is “something (as an object) in a film or story that serves to set and keep the plot in motion despite usually lacking intrinsic importance.”
Let’s talk about Katabasis by R.F. Kuang.
Alice Law, the main character, ostensibly goes to Hell in for a recommendation letter. The plan is to rescue the soul of her doctoral adviser so he can come back to life and ensure her chances of a tenure-track job.
It’s all spelled out in the third sentence of the book. Check it out below.
“It was a terrible gruesome accident that killed Professor Jacob Grimes, and from a certain point of view it was her fault, and so for reasons of both moral obligation and self-interest-for without Professor Grimes she had no committee chair, and without a committee chair she could not defend her dissertation, graduate, or apply successfully for a tenure-track job in analytic magick-Alice found it necessary to beg for his life back from King Yama the Merciful, Ruler of the Underworld.
– Katabasis, Chapter 1, page 1
I feel confident that the whole “Alice goes to Hell for a degree and tenure-track job” is a classic example of a MacGuffin plot device.
The narrator even gives us the MacGuffin proof outright in the text of Katabasis. Look at what Alice says below.
“But it had never been about the recommendation letters.”
– Katabasis, Chapter 21, page 330
What she says right afterward is very important, but I’m not including it here because it’s an extreme spoiler!
What do you think? A MacGuffin or no?
Check out this post on Instagram!
Annotate With Sara 