Nicola and I have a new joint essay called “War Machine, Time Machine” just published in Queer Universes: Sexualities in Science Fiction, edited by Wendy Gay Pearson, Veronica Hollinger and Joan Gordon.
Queer Universes is an academic publication from Liverpool University Press. We ourselves are not academic (smile), but we do a great job in irreverent footnotes. You’ll see.
Here’s a little excerpt of one of my parts of the essay:
I despise conscious theme, the great battering ram on the literary war machine. It subverts story. It renders characters nearly non-dimensional. It makes for some truly terrible dialogue. Good writers smile a polite ‘no’ when the theme tray is passed around, and instead allow theme to emerge from a well-told story about people who engage us because their choices, fears and hopes seem real, even if they are as strange to us as the surface of Pluto.
It’s vital for people who live outside of the dominant culture to find themselves reflected in positive ways within that culture. When those images don’t exist, we create them. It’s important and essential. But the goal should be to expand the boundaries of art, not establish new and increasingly granular rules and categories (never-het-dykes, bears, BDSM femmes, Log Cabin leathermen…) by which to label one another. I want people to write stories about strong women, people of colour, people of varied sexual orientation or physical condition, in order to make space in the cultural discussion for such people — not to set up a gay and lesbian table in the corner, as my stepbrother’s first wife did at their wedding reception so ‘Nicola and I would have people to talk to.’
— From the essay “War Machine, Time Machine” by Nicola Griffith and Kelley Eskridge, in Queer Universes.
As much as I like myself and Nicola, I don’t think our essay alone is necessarily worth $85 (especially since we will regain the right to re-publish it on our websites early next year). But if you’re at all interested in queer theory, gender theory, and the expression of LGBTI etc. experience in speculative fiction, then there’s a lot in this book that will appeal. Please encourage your local library to order a copy — the editors would appreciate it, and so would we.
Congratulations to Wendy, Veronica and Joan, and thanks for including us.