…in SPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACCCCCCCCCCCEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

I wanted to play with high fantasy and generation ship tropes, which I see as very similar in many ways (nostalgia, focus on a fall from a previous golden era, and so forth) and do some work undermining both, and the Arthurian conceit seemed like a natural tool to use to do it.

OA: Asexuality is a strong theme in the first Jacob’s Ladder book, Dust. One of the main characters is fallow, meaning she has gender, but chooses not to have a sex drive, while some of the other characters are apparently genderless. How does sexuality work in that society, and will there be more asexuality in the next two books?

EB: I’m not sure how to answer a question like “How does sexuality work” in any given society in a paragraph. How does it work in ours? …yeah, not something you can sum up in an encyclopedia article.

I tend to see sexuality and gender as a spectrum, and I think we tend to divide it up into a lot of categories and slap a lot of labels on it when the reality is that it’s fluid, dynamic, and does not categorize easily. Forcing people to identify as X or Y ignores the fact that people change, that sexuality is an enormously complicated issue, and that any set of guidelines will inherently leave people out.

Perceval I wrote for a friend of mine who is asexual and who is constantly trying to find characters in fiction she can identify with. Mallory, the intersexed character, is somebody who has been in my head for years (and requires some serious stunt writing, as Mallory has no pronouns). Head, the neuter character, just sort of volunteered. Sie showed up and said, “Hi, I’m in charge of this castle,” and all I could do was write hir.

OA: Head barely gets airtime in Dust. Will sie appear more in the other books?

EB: Yes.

OA: Your work includes characters with all sorts of different sexual orientations and relationship models. Is that sort of diversity something you consciously strive for, or does it tend to grow naturally out of the stories as you imagine them?

EB: I think it grows naturally out of my childhood. I grew up in the lesbian separatist culture of the 1980s, which has left me deeply suspicious of identity politics (I was a childhood refugee of the Sex Wars) and I was reading Suzy McKee Charnas and Joanna Russ in grade school. It leaves a mark.

To me, worlds that do not include a range of sexual orientation and gender identification seem, well, bogus. My immediate circle of friends includes cis-, trans-, and inter-gendered persons. It includes het, gay, queer, asexual, and bi persons. It includes monogamous traditionally married couples, confirmed bachelors, and polyamorous families so vast I can’t keep track of who is what to whom, exactly.

What I write when I write about race or gender or sexuality is not prescriptive or didactic so much as descriptive: I tend to reflect what I see.

OA: The stereotype of the alcohol-fueled novelist is so last century. These days writing genius seems to be inspired more often by tea. What are some of your favorite varieties?

EB: I love flavored green teas. Ginger peach is an all-time winner, as is anything with vanilla in it. Or orange peel. Or mint.

OA: As a writer, there are certain themes and tropes you’re drawn to revisit (ethical dilemmas, winged creatures, and broken things are a few). Are there themes and tropes that particularly draw you as a reader, and do you have any recommendations for us?

EB: I love stories that reflect the ethical and emotional complexity of the world as I experience it, which manage to be hopeful and show the range of human strength without, as they say, blowing smoke up anyone’s ass about it being easy.

My favorite books include Keri Hulme’s The Bone People, Peter S. Beagle’s The Last Unicorn, Yukio Mishima’s The Sound of the Waves, Kurt Vonnegut’s Breakfast of Champions.

OA: What new projects of yours can we look forward to?

EB: Well, I’m currently working on the last Jacob’s Ladder book–that, in fact, is what I should be doing now. A secret project with photographer Kyle Cassidy, which is called Veronique is Visiting from Paris and which is very cool and nontrad-format, the ongoing saga of Shadow Unit, (an experiment in web fiction with Emma Bull, Will Shetterly, and others), a sort-of-steampunk novella from Subterranean entitled Bone and Jewel Creatures, a new epic fantasy trilogy from Tor with the working title The Steles of the Sky, and–well, um. A lot of stuff. I like to keep busy. Much to my dog’s chagrin.

***

Thank you, Bear! Join us next Friday for another Spotlight, and in the meantime, check out Dust and Chill.

Comments»

1. Asakiyume - February 20, 2010

Nice! What a lot of projects (what a lot of energy)! Great to hear someone express the fluidity of sexual identity/orientation/whatever.

2. juliarios - February 20, 2010

Yes, I really liked what she had to say about sexual identity. Fluid and dynamic are great descriptors.