Adventures in Teaching: Trauma and Realism in (Some) Weird Novels
Today was the last day of teaching for my survey course in American Literature. As with all my literature courses, I included quite a few works of SF/F on the reading list, from “classic” SF like Joe Haldeman’s The Forever War to contemporary weirdness like Flight by Sherman Alexie. This year, I realized there were a few unintentional trends in the works I’d selected. First, almost every text I had my students read directly or indirectly addressed sex. I’m not going to talk about that today, except to say that my students and I were quite amused that our small representation of American Literature seemed to suggest that all American Literature will talk about sex at some point. That’s probably not true, but it’s amusing nonetheless. The more interesting unintentional theme is that of trauma and its representation through weirdness / magical realism / anti-realism. This became apparent only recently, when we finished reading Flight by Sherman Alexie, a definitively non-realist novel about a time traveling / body-switching Native American foster kid who must discover himself through a myriad of other people’s experiences. As the last novel for the course, it resonated quite well with several of the other recent texts, something I hadn’t expected at the time. The angst and blunt honesty of the main character, Zits, on
Confessions of a Comics Junkie: The Racial Politics of Mutations (or, Mutant Passing)
One of the reasons I have always preferred Marvel over DC is the fact that it’s world, however absurd at times, at least tries to explore what might happen if a bunch of people with extraordinary powers popped up in our neighborhoods. In short, humans have a tendency to freak out. In a weird, unexpected way, the Marvel Universe (Earth 616, not the other versions, which I’m not currently following) is an exploration of evolutionary change, the likes of which we haven’t seen because the last major change in our species “group,” as far as we know, was before written records. I’m talking about the Neanderthals.[1] We’ll never know exactly how humans reacted to those funny-looking humanoids, though we’re pretty sure there was some violence, some sex, and probably some group hugging in certain parts of the world. And in a similar way, we don’t know exactly how humans would react to the rise of mutants; instead, we
168. Science Fiction, Then and Now w/ Sarah Zettel and Mike Reeves-McMillan
http://media.blubrry.com/skiffyandfanty/dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/archive.org/download/SandFEpisode168SarahZettelAndMikeReevesMcMillan/SandF%20–%20Episode%20168%20–%20Sarah%20Zettel%20and%20Mike%20Reeves-McMillan.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Android | iHeartRadio | Podchaser | Podcast Index | Email | TuneIn | Deezer | RSSScience fiction past, present, and future, oh my! Authors Sarah Zettel and Mike Reeves-McMillan join Stina Leicht and Shaun Duke to talk about how they perceive science fiction to have changed since their younger days. They talk zombies, narrative traditions, the cyclical nature of isms in SF/F, and mountains more! We hope you enjoy the episode! Note: If you have iTunes and like this show, please give us a review on our iTunes page, or feel free to email us with your thoughts about the show! Here’s the episode (show notes are below): Episode 168 — Download (MP3) Intro and Discussion (0:00 – 1:17:06) Sarah’s Website Mike’s Website Indie Books Worth Reading Book View Cafe You can also support this podcast by signing up for a one month free trial at Audible. Doing so helps us, gives you a change to try out Audible’s service, and brings joy to everyone. Our new intro music is “Time Flux” by Revolution Void (CC BY 3.0). That’s all, folks! Thanks for listening. See you next week.
The Sound of Thunder (On Young Adult SF/F)
This weekend is the Austin Teen Book Festival. I’m excited about attending — not only because a number of the authors making an appearance at the festival share the same literary agency I do and our agency is a pretty tight little community on its own, but because I find YA inspiring and energizing. Also? My next series may be categorized as YA.[1] [listens for the groans] There are reasons for this. I worked at BookPeople in the Teen Book section for six years. Therefore, I have a background in Teen Fiction. My agency specializes in younger fiction (YA, picture books and mid-grade.) But the biggest reason why is because… that’s where it’s all happening. It’s where the LIFE of SF and F is these days. It’s where all the really cool ideas are encouraged and welcomed and nurtured, and where, by the Gods, authors are even paid for their work. Adult SF and F seems to be dying. Here’s where I type “Don’t Panic” in small friendly letters. DON’T PANIC. Or wait… maybe you should. Let’s think about this. The adult markets have been
Announcement: The World SF Tour Begins in 2014 (Here We Come!)
(Note: if you’re just arriving to this post, you can find episodes for the World SF Tour under the Interviews tab; additionally, posts and other materials will be listed under the World SF Tour label.) For those who hung out with us over the course of this year’s Worldcon, you’ll have heard us talk about our 2014 schedule or seen our magic “We’re All About World SF in 2014” super special t-shirts (pics coming soon). But all of you at home missed the big announcement: The Skiffy and Fanty Show is proud to announced our 2014 World SF Tour. What does this mean? One of the things we care a great deal about on this show is diversity in SF/F. But we’re all based in the U.S., which means it is easy for the show to get stuck on what’s going on here. Since 2014 is the same year of the World Cup (Brazil!), a huge international competition, we decided to celebrate SF/F from all over the world at the same time. The World SF Tour will consist of discussions about World SF, the SF/F literary traditions in non-U.S. spaces, and related topics, along with interviews with SF/F authors from as many places as we can fit on a single season of the show. So far, we know we’re going to talk to South African, Japanese, Irish, Canadian, and Israeli authors, critics, translators, and publishers. That list of countries will get much longer (we’re working on authors and fans from the Middle East, Central and South America, other parts of the African continent, the Caribbean, and so much more)! How can you help? Share this news with the community. The biggest challenge will be reaching writers, editors, translators, and fans from other parts of the world. Let’s face it: the Earth is actually quite a big place, with over two hundred individual countries and more languages than we can count on our figures. So if you know somebody from Nigeria, South Korea, New Zealand, Qatar, American Samoa, etc. (or someone who knows a lot about the SF/F in X country), let them know about what we’re doing! Authors, publishers, editors, filmmakers, and translators from all over the world should contact us at skiffyandfanty[at]gmail[dot]com and tell us about yourself. Do you have a book coming out next year? A movie? Do you work with translators to or from a language? Contact us! We’re going to try to cover as many topics, peoples, and countries as we can, but we can’t do that without people to talk to! So that’s the big announcement. Long live World SF! ————————————————————- Note: We’ll still have American guests; when we say “the world,” we mean “the world” and not some essentialized version where there’s the “United States” and “Everyone Else.” The U.S. isn’t the center of the universe, so a true World SF tour has to acknowledge the contributions of writers from as many places as we can possibly fit in a year.
151. SF/F By Women (Our Favorites) w/ Susan Bigelow and Emma Newman
http://media.blubrry.com/skiffyandfanty/dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/archive.org/download/SandFEpisode151FemaleSFFAuthorsWSusanBigelowAndEmmaNewman/SandF%20–%20Episode%20151%20–%20Female%20SFF%20Authors%20w%20Susan%20Bigelow%20and%20Emma%20Newman.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Android | iHeartRadio | Podchaser | Podcast Index | Email | TuneIn | Deezer | RSSGenre’s women, writing influences, and “literary” bits, oh my! Susan Bigelow and Emma Newman kindly join us to discuss our favorite female genre authors, the profound influence reading has on developing writers, reading outside genre, and their own work. We hope you enjoy the episode! Note: If you have iTunes and like this show, please give us a review on our iTunes page, or feel free to email us with your thoughts about the show! Here’s the episode (show notes are below): Episode 151 — Download (MP3) Intro and Discussion (0:00 – 1:00:02) HuffPost on the Wikipedia American Novelists (minus women) Fiasco Roundup of “Anonymous Protects (Jim C. Hines) Susan’s Website Susan’s Twitter Emma’s Website Emma’s Twitter Tea and Jeopardy! Angry Robot Books Candlemark & Gleam (publisher) The Reading List Cyber Circus by Kim Lakin-Smith Parisol Protectorate Series by Gail Carringer The Night’s Masque Series by Anne Lyle The Vorkosigan Saga by Lois McMaster Bujold The Valor Series by Tonya Huff A Stranger in Olondria by Sofia Samatar Handbook for Dragon Slayers by Merrie Haskell “Collateral Memory” by Sabrina Vourvoulias Ink by Sabrina Vourvoulias (our interview here) Andre Norton (everything) C.J. Cherryh (everything) Saga of the Exiles by Julian May Nalo Hopkinson (everything) (our interview here) Karen Lord (everything) (our interview here) Kingmaker, Kingbreaker Duology by Karen Miller After the Apocalypse by Maureen McHugh The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin “The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas” by Ursula K. Le Guin Joanna Russ (everything) The Extra Reading List Myal by Erna Brodber Stina Leicht (Everything) (our interviews here, here and here) The House of the Stag by Kage Baker Wicked Gentleman by Ginn Hale The Young Wizards Series by Diane Duane Lauren Beukes (Everything) (our interviews here and here) “The Girl Who Was Plugged In” by James Tiptree Jr. Dawn by Octavia Butler “Bloodchild” by Octavia Butler “Speech Sounds” by Octavia Butler Parable of the SOwer by Octavia Butler Dust by Elizabeth Bear The Last Survivors Series by Susan Beth Pfeffer July’s People by Nadine Gordimer Jo Walton (Everything) Kate Elliott Mary Gentle Laura Anne Gilman Barbara Hambly Kameron Hurley Kay Kenyon Karin Lowachee Linda Nagata (our interview here) Martha Wells Check out Susan and Emma’s books! They are awesome! You can also support this podcast by signing up for a one month free trial at Audible. Doing so helps us, gives you a change to try out Audible’s service, and brings joy to everyone. Our new intro music is “Time Flux” by Revolution Void (CC BY 3.0). That’s all, folks! Thanks for listening. See you next week.
