***

Machine
-or-
why everyone should fall in with kinky genderqueer pagans in their early 20s
by Jennifer Pelland

Binaries suck.

Although I’m sure I don’t need to tell you that.

I started getting my education in the fallacy of binaries when several biracial friends in the early- and mid-80s taught me that A + B did not equal AB, but rather that 1 + 1 equaled 1. (In other words, a human being cannot be two diametrically-opposed halves sutured down the middle — a human being
can only be a whole, indivisible person.) That education continued in college with my own burgeoning bisexuality, although I’ll admit that before I came to that realization about myself, I was one of those annoying people who thought that bisexuals should just pick a side and not be so damned indecisive.

Then, just as I was graduating from college, I fell in with the pagans, and in Boston at that time, the intersection of the pagan and bisexual circles was a queer pagan group called Q-Moon. In Q-Moon, I met several “gender-fuck” transsexuals, as they called the movement at the time, several of whom were into sacred sexuality and BDSM. And they blew the lid off of my brain in the best possible way.

Picture a 21-year-old recent women’s college graduate having lunch with one of these new friends, who asks her, “Have you ever questioned your gender identity?” No, I hadn’t. The new friend smiles and asks, “Why?”

Whoa.

Later on during that same lunch, picture the 21-year-old’s face as her new friend says, “I really want to have a cunt, but I have nothing against my cock. And that doesn’t make me any less a woman.”

Again, whoa.

Picture a ritual in someone’s basement for that same new friend, a dedication to a goddess, involving a nude postulant,chakra anointing, and the sacred consumption of estrogen pills. Picture one member of the circle being kept to the side throughout the proceedings because she’s currently undergoing a BDSM initiation of her own, involving bondage and a horse-tailed butt plug.

Picture the 21-year-old’s brain exploding like the Death Star.

Fast-forward fifteen years. There I am, coming up with the cast of characters for a novel about love, loss, and illegal body-hacking. Of course there’s going to be a character who wants both a cunt and a cock. Of course there are going to be characters with fluid sexuality. Of course there’s going to be a character who erases gender altogether. Of course there’s extreme BDSM. Of course my protagonist, a biracial lesbian, is going to get the lid blown off of her brain by all of this. And of course I’m going to feel like I didn’t go far enough.

So I would like to take a moment to thank the wonderful people of Q-Moon for giving this cisgendered, vanilla, bisexual feminist the education of a lifetime. I honestly think I’m a better person for having been forced to explain why I’ve never questioned my gender identity. Why should people outside the so-called “normal” paradigm be the only ones who routinely have to do that? And I honestly think I’m a better person for being exposed to such a bold group of people who went out of their way to make others uncomfortable with their gender nonconformity. I may not have emulated them, but I learned a lot from them. Most importantly, from them I learned that terms like “gender” and “sexuality” are far broader than their dictionary definitions would lead one to believe, and that we do the human species a disservice by pretending that those definitions are accurate and complete.

To conclude, I’d like to encourage all young people out there who aren’t already kinky genderqueer pagans to find a similar group to fall in with during your most impressionable years. You can’t reassemble a blown mind, and that’s a damned good thing.

________________________________________

Jennifer Pelland lives outside Boston with an Andy, three cats, an impractical amount of books, and an ever-growing collection of belly dance gear and radio theater scripts. She’s garnered two Nebula nominations, and many of her short stories were collected in Unwelcome Bodies, put out by Apex in 2008.

Machine is available in paperback and as an e-book from Apex Book Company.

Galactic Suburbia is a bi-weekly (or, as they say in Australia, fortnightly) podcast, which exists to call attention to feminist issues in the speculative fiction world. In each episode, Tansy Rayner Roberts, Alex Pierce, and Alisa Krasnostein talk about news and noteworthy events, and then discuss the culture they’ve consumed. These conversations are open and fun, and often draw my attention to aspects of books and television shows that I wouldn’t have considered otherwise. I’ve been a fan for a while now, and I’ve mentioned that on this blog, in my own podcast, and during panels at conventions.

Given that, I was absolutely delighted and a bit flummoxed to find OA Podcast #11 on their Honours List. They chose to recognize me along with Kirstyn McDermott and Ian Mond, hosts of one of my other favorite podcasts, The Writer and the Critic. Since several people have told me that episode #11 was their favorite OA Podcast episode, I must give Ian and Kirstyn the bulk of the credit here. They were wonderful guests.

I also want to congratulate everyone else on the Honours List. Special congratulations to Michele Lee, who is an OA member, and the first person I ever interviewed for this blog; and to Cheryl Morgan, who has been an active OA member from the start, and whose thoughtful posts often give me a new perspective on things to do with gender and spec fic. Seriously, though, everyone on the Honours List has done wonderful things, and I admire all of them.

Most exciting of all, perhaps, is this year’s winner. Nicola Griffith (also an OA member!) gets to take home a hand painted Galactic Suburbia Deepings doll for her Russ Pledge idea. Nicola called for everyone to read and talk about women’s writing, and people listened! Several book challenges and blog posts and podcast discussions started because of Nicola’s idea, and the conversation seems to be gaining momentum even now.

Two weeks ago, I was on a “How Not to Suppress Women’s Writing” panel at Arisia, which existed because of the Russ Pledge conversation opener. Andrea Hairston, who is one of the Guests of Honor for WisCon this year, was  our moderator, and we spent the session recommending books, talking about how to keep the conversation going, and exploring resources for news and other things like that (I actually recommended Galactic Suburbia there). It was a great panel, and lots of strangers stopped me later to tell me how much they’d gotten out of it. I’m so glad to see Nicola being recognized for her contribution.

Congratulations, Nicola! And congratulations to Carrie Goldman and Katie, Cheryl Morgan, Helen Merrick, Jim C. Hines, Kirstyn McDermott, Ian Mond, L. Timmel Duchamp, and Michele Lee! I think you’re all the bee’s knees, and I’m thrilled to  be in your company.

You can hear the Galactic Suburbia team explaining their choices for this award in a special podcast episode. A written explanation is here.

They’re also looking for nominees for the 2012 award, so if you see someone doing something wonderful to advance the feminist conversation, be sure to let them know!

Thanks to everyone who came to be part of the conversation in person! We had a fantastic audience, especially for ten in the morning on the last day of a con. Below, as promised, are links to everything people recommended during that session. Comments and further recommendations are always welcome, and if you’d like to say anything to me directly, my e-mail address is julia@juliarios.com.

You can subscribe to the podcast RSS feed here or use this link to subscribe with iTunes. You can also hit play on the embedded player in this post and listen to the podcast on the web, or visit the individual episode page to download this episode as an MP3 without subscribing.

Notes:

JoSelle Vanderhooft’s Work
*Jo’s website.
*SteamPowered and SteamPowered II are the lesbian steampunk anthologies Jo edits with an eye toward diverse content and viewpoints. SteamPowered III will be accepting submissions in February.
*Sleeping Beauty Indeed is an anthology of lesbian fairy tales, which includes a story by Meredith.
*Heiresses of Russ is the best lesbian stories of 2010 Jo collected co-edited with Steve Berman. Jo says Steve’s contribution (a retelling of Swan Lake) is the best short story she’s ever read.
*Bitten By Moonlight is the lesbian werewolf anthology that came up during the horror and dark fantazy recommendations part of the panel.

Meredith Schwartz’s Work
*Alleys and Doorways is the anthology Meredith edited, which contains Jo’s butch werebunny story (why have I not read this yet?).
*Meredith is also running this year’s program for LunaCon.

Don Sakers’s Work
*Meerkat Meade is Don’s home page.
*Dance for the Ivory Madonna is Don’s all-inclusive “Meta Gay” book (though no one’s been able to explain what Meta Gay means without taking at least three pages, apparently). It was a finalist for the Spectrum Award, and almost made the final Hugo ballot as well.
*Curse of the Zwiling is Don’s dark fantasy, which came up during the horror and dark fantasy recommendations part of the panel.
*Don also has a regular column in Analog Science Fiction and Fact.

Raven Kaldera’s Work
*Raven’s website.
*Raven’s books (including Best Transgender Erotica, and Double-Edge: The Intersection of Transgender and BDSM).
*Raven’s list of Female to Male non-fiction and fiction books.

Other Recommended Works
*Everyone recommended Catherynne Valente (whose work was, at one point, described as “relentlessly queer”–there’s a quote for the next book cover). Jo particularly singled out Palimpsest and Silently and Very Fast.
*Don recommended Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum series and The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins as examples of bestselling books with prominent and complex QUILTBAG characters.
*Meredith recommended Amanda Downum’s The Bone Palace, which she said she read first even though it is the second of a trilogy, and she believes it stands alone. This book was also on the Tiptree shortlist in 2011.
*When an audience member asked about Twilight‘s influence on YA, Jo mentioned Melissa Marr’s Wicked Lovely Things, and I mentioned Justine Larbalestier and Sarah Rees Brennan’s Team Human as books with protagonists who don’t think dating supernatural creatures is a very good idea.
*Jo recommended Steve Berman in general and Meredith recommended his YA novel, Vintage, in particular.
*Jo also recommended Erekos by A.M. Tuomolo.
*Don recommended Melissa Scott, particularly Trouble and Her Friends and Shadow Man. Meredith added that Trouble and Her Friends is a good example of cyberpunk that doesn’t feel dated.
*Don also recommended Open Your Eyes by Paul Jessup.
*Simoun was Jo’s anime recommendation, which she says will appeal to fans of Revolutionary Girl Utena, and which features supernatural aircraft powered by lesbian kisses.
*Meredith recommended Lynn Flewelling’s Nightrunner series and Ellen Kushner’s Swordspoint (which is now also available as an audiobook with an exciting cast of voice actors as part of the Neil Gaiman Presents series).
*Melissa Scott and Jo both recommended the lesbian zombie novella, Eat Your Heart Out by Dayna Ingram. And this starts our run of dark fantasy and horror recommendations, which an audience member requested.
*Meredith and Jo recommended Ginn Hale’s Lord of the White Hell for dark fantasy fans.
*I recommended Lee Thomas in general for horror fans, and specifically mention The Dust of Wonderland, which won a Lambda Award.
*Meredith recommended A Companion to Wolves for fantasy fans, which led me to recommend The Bone Key for horror fans, and then all of us to recommend Sarah Monette’s work in general.
*Don recommended Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman series for dark fantasy fans.
*An audience member recommended Joanna Russ.
*Adrienne Odasso recommended Clive Barker for horror fans.
*Another audience member recommended the television series Carnivàle for horror fans.
*And our final recommendation from the panel was Maureen McHugh’s China Mountain Zhang, which Meredith started and I jumped all over, and then Jo got in on it, too.
*Raven recommends Lois McMaster Bujold’s Vorkosigan series, particularly citing Bel Thorne and Lord Dono Vorrutyer as well drawn intersex and trans characters.
*Raven also recommends Steel Beach by John Varley.
*Raven also felt it worth mentioning Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Left Hand of Darkness, Marion Zimmer Bradley’s Darkover series, and Mary Gentle’s Ilario series.

Finally, I noted on the podcast, and I’ll note again here that not all books work for all people, and that books might have problems, but still work for a lot of people, and be worth reading, considering and talking about. Opinions tend to vary greatly around books with trans and/or intersex content because every person experiences gender and orientation differently, and because there are so few of those books to begin with. All of these recommendations did work for the recommenders, but I do want to acknowledge that they may not work for everyone, and that people who disagree with these recommendations also have valid experiences and opinions. Individual experience is, after all, highly subjective. We’re open to discussion, and happy to collect more suggestions if you’ve got them.

Before we dive into the wide world of writerly education, there’s one bit of news I wanted to share. A lot of OA members have said they’re fans of Diane Duane, and cited her as an influence on their own work, so I thought I should pass on her call for help. Earlier this week someone fraudulently cleared out her bank account, and she’s scrambling to make ends meet while the bank sorts through fraud paperwork. A quick infusion of cash would be very welcome, so she’s offering a 20% discount on her personal e-book store. If you’d like to help her out and get some excellent books at a bargain price, just go over there and use the promotional code DDGOTSKIMMED.

Okay! Writing workshops!

The beginning of the calendar year is one of those times when a lot of people resolve to improve and grow. If you’re a writer, you might be drawing up plans to complete big projects, or making goals for submissions counts, or you might be trying to figure out how best to learn more about your craft. There are a lot of writing classes out there. Here are a few which are QUILTBAG friendly. All of these have either been recommended by OA members, or are taught by OA members.

I’m going to list these in order of pricing from high to low. I’m not valuing any workshop or class over another, though, just to be clear.

Clarion Workshops — These are six week intensive workshops. They’re competitive, and they’ll set you back a couple thousand dollars (though there are a few scholarships available). Several OA members have praised them for the diverse and knowledgeable instructors, and the residential setting, which focuses students on learning and making connections with their peers. Many Clarion students go on to sell a lot of work. If this sounds like your cup of tea, applications are open until the 1st of March for both Clarion and Clarion West. Both workshops this year feature instructors who have written stories with QUILTBAG content themselves, so it’s safe to assume they’ll be supportive of yours if you bring it.

Viable Paradise — Like Clarion, this is a residential intensive workshop with several instructors, and it’s also going to cost you a couple thousand dollars when all is said and done. Unlike Clarion, all the instructors are there together, and the whole experience lasts one week instead of six. It’s also competitive, and many Viable Paradise students go on to sell a lot of work. If the intensive residency idea appeals, but you have a job or family you can’t leave for long, this might be a good choice for you. Applications  for Viable Paradise are open until the 15th of June.  Again, the instructors here have written (or published) QUILTBAG material, so yours will be welcome.

Lambda Literary Writing Retreat for Emerging LGBT Voices – If you want to spend time with other QUILTBAG writers, this might be a good choice for you. It’s another weeklong intensive residency program, which, again, will cost a couple thousand dollars after you’ve accounted for transportation and room and board on top of the tuition (though there are scholarships available).  Applications are open until mid-April. Lambda Literary has more information here.

Loft Classes — The Literary Loft is a Minneapolis area organization which offers lots of different classes for writers both in person and online. These are a good option for people who have less money to spend, and they’re not competitive–anyone may enroll. If you live in the area, you might consider taking Catherine Lundoff’s one day class on writing and selling QUILTBAG fiction on the 18th of February (a steal at $46.50). If you don’t live in the area, you might like Lyda Morehouse’s science fiction class, Mars Needs Writers ($425.00 for six weeks of online coursework starting on the 6th of February–video introduction here). Both of these instructors are most certainly open to QUILTBAG work. To find either class, visit the Loft site, and look them up under the teaching artists field in the search page.

Cat Rambo’s Online Classes — For the writer who wants to experience a workshop classroom environment without leaving home, this is a great choice. These classes run from $99 to $249, and Cat teaches over Google+ hangouts, which are video chats. I’m currently taking one, and can personally attest it’s been helpful. Again, this is a non-competitive open enrollment situation, so your class will likely contain people at different levels. I’ve found that perfectly agreeable, as Cat gives equal time and attention to everyone and is very good about tailoring classes to specific students’ needs. And Cat’s an OA member, so you know QUILTBAG content is welcome. You may find info on how to sign up at Cat’s blog.

That’s what I’ve got for now. If you have other QUILTBAG friendly writing education recommendations, please tell us about them in the comments!

Finally, there are still a few days left to enter the drawing for a signed copy of Natania Barron’s Pilgrim of the Sky. Just comment on this post to get your name into the hat!

Rose and Shweta have both been guests here before, so if you want to find further information about their taste in poetry and vision for Stone Telling, please check out Outer Alliance Spotlight #39 with Rose, and Outer Alliance Spotlight #71 with Shweta (who was not yet co-editor, but was guest editing an issue at that time with J.C. Runolfson).

For up to the date insights to help you figure out what to submit for this current issue, read on!

***

RL: I feel that Stone Telling has grown more and more into itself with each issue, and I feel that our submitters have a much clearer picture of what it is that we are looking for. Definitely I consider our last two issues to be the best so far. It is what I expected the magazine to become, and more – not unlike discovering one’s best poem in the process of writing it. I did, however, expect the magazine to be more whimsical on occasion (hence the Whimsy issue) – certainly an experience I would love to repeat!

One of the things that happened in 2011 is the expansion of the team; first, Shweta Narayan and J.C. Runolfson edited the fourth issue; subsequently, Shweta Narayan joined as a full-time co-editor . Shweta brings a unique poetic and intersectional vision to the team; it is a delight to work with her, because we are very much in tune both aesthetically and viewpoint-wise. The only downside of this is the ongoing editorial spoonie tango, since both of us are dealing with chronic health issues; Shweta’s are significantly more serious than mine, but I am also parenting a child with a disability, so the end of 2011 was especially interesting, in the proverbial sense. I am very proud of what we accomplished, despite those shortcomings, and this would not be possible without our assistant editor, Jennifer Smith. Jenn joined the team as of Issue 3. She does most, if not all of the coding and proofreading for the magazine, and lends her opinion on submissions as well.

RL: Oh yes. Shira Lipkin’s genderqueer “The Changeling’s Lament” has gone viral – people were reposting and discussing it all over the internet! It has 111,000 hits on Stumbleupon as of now. I am also very proud to have published a poem by JT Stewart in the Mythic issue.  When Shweta and Jules were guest-editing this summer, they published a powerful, immense poem by Nisi Shawl; and then I asked Nisi to reprint that poem in my feminist speculative poetry anthology The Moment of Change, Nisi told JT about me and my anthology, and we started talking. I hope that more and more of the speculative poetry community will get to know JT Stewart’s work; she is one of our elders – she co-founded Clarion West! – and I am thrilled to bring her work to more readers. I am probably most proud of publishing emerging voices, including people’s very first poems – for example Peer Dudda’s “Train Go Sorry”, Tara Barnett’s “The Star Reservation”, Koel Mukherjee’s “Sita Reflects”; and though Sofia Samatar had one poem accepted (“The Year of Disasters”, forthcoming at Bull Spec and reprinted in the Moment of Change), I think that “The Sand Diviner” was technically her first published poem. Her science poem, “Girl Hours” opens Issue 6; it is tremendous. I have no doubt Sofia will become an important voice in the genre.

Another thing I am very proud of is changing the scene  somewhat regarding queer speculative poetry. When I read for issue 1 I was very upset about what I perceived as dearth of queer speculative poetry in the inbox. I talked about it non-stop, and when Shweta joined the team, we both talked about it non-stop. Over time, the number of queer submissions in our inbox grew – some were even written with the thought of submitting to us, such as Alex Dally MacFarlane’s “Sung Around Alsar-Scented Fires” and Tori Truslow’s “Terrunform” in the Science/Science Fiction issue. It gives me warm fuzzies to think that we have encouraged such excellent queer poetry to come into existence.

RL: We hope never to see another homophobic poem in the inbox ever again. Unfortunately, homophobic poetry does occasionally land in our inbox, as (somewhat more frequently) does poetry with racist undertones. One again, with feeling: we are anti-racist and queer-friendly!

As to what we hope to see: the full spectrum of queer viewpoints. Really looking forward to some bisexual, genderqueer and trans* poetry; really looking forward for gay and lesbian viewpoints as well.. For this issue, we would actually love to take a look at things that fall outside the heteronormative paradigm. We want to read about poly relationships, for example.  Clueful treatments of power exchange -  again, clueful treatments of power exchange would be great to see. I have not yet read a speculative poem that treats asexuality; perhaps I am missing something – but would love to see that.

RL: Well. I am starting to be worried about gender balance. The submissions pile seems to be more or less equally divided when it comes to gender (though I have not run the numbers), but a lot of times it feels like many of the guys are submitting work that is great, but would better fit some other magazine. So yes, I want to see more wonderful work from guys that fits the magazine. In general, I hope to get poems that will grip me from the first line and never let go, that will stay with me for months and years.  I want the magic. Send it to me, please.

OA: When is the reading period for that issue?

RL: We have opened to submissions on the 25^th of December, and will stay open to submissions until February 20^th.

OA: You’re editing a book of feminist poetry. Can you tell us more about that? And is there anything else you’d like to share with us?

RL: I talked a bit about the Moment of Change above. It’s the first anthology of feminist speculative poetry, and it is about time! I am actually done with the actual editing, and the full ToC is here. The anthology is wonderful, even if I say so myself – it is intersectional, vibrant, diverse, and magical. There are many queer poems in it, even though I had to work hard to get some of the perspectives – but I am so proud of the result. There will hopefully be an event at WisCon 2012, which is when the book will be coming out. 

***
Thanks, Rose! For anyone who might be interested in submitting to Stone Telling (and I, personally, would love to see lots of OA members in the QUILTBAG issue), here are the magazine’s guidelines.

We’re wrapping up the year with the second half of our Steampunk Extravaganza. Conni Covington and Natania Barron join me to talk about ConTemporal (a steampunk convention that’s happening in June of 2012 in North Carolina), Natania’s new book, Pilgrim of the Sky (a steampunk interdimensional travel adventure with a bisexual protagonist), and what steampunk is all about.

After the interviews, I read an excerpt of A Spell of Passion Or Fear by T.C. Mill (a gay steampunk romance in a dystopian Greek city, the Kalliopolis). This book is forthcoming, and we’ll update you as soon as we have more information on how you can order it.

Lots of good conversation and exploration of steampunk as a genre, as an aesthetic, and as a mirror of our current society in this podcast. And! We’d love to hear your take, too! If you have any thoughts, please share them in the comments. As an added bonus, each commenter will be automatically entered into a drawing to win one of two signed copies of Natania’s Pilgrim of the Sky.

To enter, all you have to do is comment on this post anytime through the 16th of January. We’ll be drawing the two winning names on the 17th. You don’t have to be a podcast listener to win, and any comment will get you a chance (one per person, regardless of how many comments you leave). You don’t have to have any deep thoughts about steampunk in order to win, though we’d be happy to see them if you do have some!

You can subscribe to the podcast RSS feed here or use this link to subscribe with iTunes. You can also hit play on the embedded player in this post and listen to the podcast on the web, or visit the individual episode page to download this episode as an MP3 without subscribing.

Notes:

Stuff I wanted to call to everyone’s attention
*The conversation about H.P. Lovecraft, which Nnedi Okorafor started, and which I posted about earlier in the month. I’d love to see more responses to this topic. If you have one, please share it!
*Catherine Lundoff’s collection of recommended QUILTBAG books first published in 2011–well worth a look, and also a great place to share your favorites.

Steampunk Stuff
*ConTemporal, the steampunk convention set on an airship which travels through space and time, which will be docking for the weekend of June 21st-24th 2012 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
*Studio Foglio, ConTemporal’s comics guests of honor.
*Cherie Priest, ConTemporal’s literary guest of honor (whose novel, Boneshaker, is one of Natania’s steampunk recommended reads).
*Sara Harvey and JoSelle Vanderhooft, literary guests at ConTemporal who have written and edited awesome steampunk stories with QUILTBAG content.
*Clay Griffin and Susan Griffith and John Claude Bemis, literary guests at ConTemporal who have written steampunk trilogies about vampires and American tall tales.
*Steampunk, edited by Ann and Jeff Vandermeer, another recommendation from Natania
*“Just Glue Some Gears On It (And Call It Steampunk)” is a Barbershop Quartet and rap video criticizing the trendiness of steampunk from a steampunk purist’s perspective.
*Natania’s Pilgrim of the Sky launch party is happening on the 28th of January in Durham, North Carolina.

Assorted Other Stuff
*Jennie Breeden, a comics guest at ConTemporal, who also takes a leafblower to kilt-wearers at Dragon*Con.
*Conni recommends Germline by T.C. McCarthy, even though it has nothing to do with steampunk or QUILTBAG themes. She just really liked it.
*Conni also recommends Broken and Fly Into Fire by Susan Jane Bigelow, noting that the main character of Fly Into Fire is a transwoman, but her being trans is not the main point of the story.
*The Society for Creative Anachronism (or SCA) is made up of people who are interested in historical accuracy in their medieval costumes and reenactments.
*John Henry is the American folk hero who raced a steam powered hammer and won.
*Natania mentioned The Biltmore Estate as a Victorian era anomaly for having state of the art indoor plumbing with pull chain toilets back when it was first built.

I’m always happy to see great collections of QUILTBAG recommendations, so I wanted to open things up to everyone reading this. Did you have any particular favorites in 2011? What were they, and why did you love them?

Part 1 is here.

Part 2 is here.

Part 3 is here.

Thanks to Charles Tan for letting me know this video existed!

This whole idea of celebrating and supporting QUILTBAG civil rights, and fair representation of QUILTBAG writers and characters in speculative fiction, is not in competition with other rights movements.

There’s this thing called intersectionality, which basically suggests that all oppressed groups intersect in some way, and if we’re working toward fairness and equality for one group of people, really, we need to be working toward fairness and equality for all people. We’re all in this together. This is one reason why I think the conversation Nnedi Okorafor recently started is really important.

Nnedi is a woman of color, and her World Fantasy Award winning novel, Who Fears Death, is set in a future Africa with a protagonist who is a woman of color. Given that, it’s pretty understandable that Nnedi might feel uncomfortable with the World Fantasy Award’s form: a bust of H.P. Lovecraft. Her post is worth reading in its entirety, but in the interest of continuing the discussion with context, here’s some of the heart of it:

This is something people of color, women, minorities must deal with more than most when striving to be the greatest that they can be in the arts: The fact that many of The Elders we honor and need to learn from hate or hated us.

…

If Lovecraft’s likeness and name are to be used in connection to the World Fantasy Award, I think there should be some discourse about what it means to honor a talented racist.

Now, Lovecraft wasn’t just a racist. He was also a misogynist, and probably a homophobe as well. Sarah Monette talked a little bit about this in the 13th episode of the OA Podcast (on misogyny, around the 17:28 mark, she said, “I mean, Lovecraft has two female characters with names, and one of them is an inbred, passive receptacle for a monster, and the other one is a monster herself.”). And yet, Lovecraft is a giant influence on many modern fantasy and horror writers with much more progressive ideals. His work, his style, and his meshing of things both beautiful and dreadful, have seeped into modern American culture so much that Cthulhu, a tentacled horror, is widely recognized and reinterpreted in text, film, visual art, game, and plush toy forms (to name a few). A quick check on Amazon shows 683 items tagged with Cthulhu, and 515 tagged with Lovecraft. Like Narnia and The Lord of the Rings, the Cthulhu mythos has permeated pop culture enough that there are likely a lot of people who enjoy the references without ever having consumed the original source material, much less considered the author’s politics.

But many of the modern writers who cite Lovecraft as an influence have indeed considered those politics, and their work often engages in dialogue with them. Elizabeth Bear’s 2009 Hugo winning  “Shoggoths in Bloom” (with an African American protagonist, who considers Lovecraft’s shoggoths in the context of slavery and the oppression of minority groups) is one example, and Sarah Monette’s The Bone Key (which explores issues of gender and sexuality with several named female characters and a gay male protagonist) is another.

Does any of this change that Lovecraft was a racist, or that his published and celebrated works include a lot of horribly racist content? No. Some argue that he seems to have had a change of heart at the end of his life–there’s a letter from 1936 in which he wrote, “The liberals at whom I used to laugh were the ones who were right—for they were living in the present while I had been living in the past.” Of course, the context of that statement is economics and not racism, but it does imply that he was human, and had the capacity to change and grow, which is somewhat reassuring. It doesn’t undo the horrible things he wrote, though.  And while I can’t deny that his work was compelling and remains widely influential, I have to say, I’m not sure why we need a bust of his head commemorating one of the more progressive awards out there (past winners include China Miéville, Ellen Kushner, and Margo Lanagan, among others).

Theodora Goss (another World Fantasy Award winner) has also posted about this, and (in addition to a brilliantly specific example of how she reads Lovecraft with a critical eye, and what she sees in his work despite the unpleasantness) she offers a suggestion for a new award form, which sounds pretty great to me:

I think the award should be different each year, and it should be designed by a contemporary fantasy artist. Imagine winning an award designed by Shaun Tan or Charles Vess or Omar Rayyan! That would also recognize the wonderful work being done in fantasy art, which is such an important part of book publication in this “genre” (a word I use for convenience, since I don’t think fantasy is a genre).

What does it mean to honor a talented racist? I don’t have a good answer. I think it’s good to recognize and respond to the sources which help shape our work. I think it’s good to remember and examine both their strengths and their flaws so that we can continue improving, evolving, and growing as artists and as humans. But it does trouble me to have this symbol on an award. Partly, I think it’s that when we choose to commemorate someone with a bust like that, we’re implicitly approving of everything about them, whether we intend to or not. And partly, it’s a broader issue for me. The World Fantasy Award is not about one person. It’s not an award for the work most like Lovecraft’s, it’s an award for the best fantasy works of any given year. Fantasy covers a lot of ground, and not all of it is tinged with the Lovecraftian influence. Why narrow the form of the award down to honoring one person? The Hugos and the Nebulas manage to do all right without being busts of anyone’s heads, after all.

What are your thoughts? How do you feel about Lovecraft, the World Fantasy Award, and Nnedi’s call for discourse? Have you seen other posts in this conversation which particularly moved you? Have you written one of your own? I think it’s a very good thing to talk about, and I would really love to hear from others.

Although this episode has an explicit tag, most of it is fine for everyone to consume. If you are concerned about exposing your delicate ears to a bit of salty language, however, you should avoid listening to the very last excerpt (from Patty Templeton’s story).

You can subscribe to the podcast RSS feed here or use this link to subscribe with iTunes. You can also hit play on the embedded player in this post and listen to the podcast on the web, or visit the individual episode page to download this episode as an MP3 without subscribing.

Notes:

Awards!
*The Gaylactic Spectrum Awards writeup is here. The OA sends hearty congratulations to all!
*Elisa Rolle’s Rainbow Awards list is here. So many OA members to congratulate! Excellent job all around! Particular congratulations to JoSelle Vanderhooft and Catherine Lundoff, Cecilia Tan, Lauren Burka, Lee Thomas, Lee Benoit, and Kyell Gold!

Zen Cho’s Links
*Zen’s blog, which has links to all her stories.
*Eileen Chang‘s stories were part of the inspiration for Zen’s story in SteamPowered II.
*Malaysian and Singaporean writers: Jaymee Goh, Stephanie Lai, Fadzlishah Johanabas, Ika Koeck, Alfian Sa’at, Eeleen Lee, Joyce Chng.
*Ken Liu and Aliette de Bodard are not Malaysian or Singaporean, but Zen recommends their work, too.

Shveta Thakrar’s Links
*Shveta’s blog.
*“Lavanya and Deepika” is Shveta’s retelling of “The Beautiful Twin and the Ugly Twin” in Demeter’s Spicebox.
*Shveta recommends the Hindu myth comic books from Amar Chitra Katha.

Patty Templeton’s Links
*Patty Templeton’s blog.
*The Foxfire Books seek to preserve and celebrate the culture of Southern Appalachia.
*Naked Girls Reading is a group of women who like to read in the nude (yes, this page does contain pictures of naked women). They also give out a Literary Honors Award, which Patty won in 2010.

More About SteamPowered II
*Jaymee Goh interviewed every contributor for this volume on her blog. See the collected interviews here.
*The Skiffy and Fanty Show (a podcast co-hosted by OA member, Shaun Duke) had an LGBTQ themed episode with SteamPowered editor, JoSelle Vanderhooft this month.