Shared: Guest Post Roundup, and Phase 2
I mentioned awhile back that I'd discovered some of my favorite authors had livejournals, and friended them. Well, one of them, Jim Hines, recently hosted a great series of guest posts about representation in science fiction and fantasy.
Which is a subject near and dear to my heart―even leaving aside the trans part, I'm positively starved for science fiction featuring female heroes. It's gotten to the point where I simply can't bring myself to care about another movie or book or whatever featuring a man's story. Like the recent Lego movie―I've heard it's actually unexpectly good. I DON'T GIVE A FUCK. I gave them all already. I have no fucks left to give.
I didn't get into anime because I think Japan is awesome. It's not. I wouldn't want to live there. But there's almost nothing in western media like Bubblegum Crisis, or Môretsu Space Pirates. Just imagine an American TV producer's reaction to the premise of Aria: "A slice-of-life series about a girl living on terraformed Mars who wants to become a gondolier in a transplanted New Venice." The moon would stop in its orbit before that got greenlit in the US. But the anime got 3 seasons.
And gender is just one facet of the issue. When's the last time you saw an albino who wasn't a villain?
So, anyway, I thought these articles were worth reading and spreading around:
Originally posted by jimhines at Guest Post Roundup, and Phase 2
I want to once again thank everyone for the guest blog posts last month. They were amazing and powerful and thought-provoking. I know that you got me thinking about things I hadn’t considered before, and judging from the comments, I wasn’t the only one. Here’s the full list of posts:
There were several other posts I wanted to mention in this roundup.
The frustrating thing about blogging is that, for the most part, any given blog post has a very short lifespan. They get their moment in the spotlight, and then wander backstage to the archives. I wanted to find a way to keep these essays alive for anyone who wanted to read and share them. Which is why I spent the weekend sending contracts out to my guest bloggers and a couple of additional individuals for Invisible, an electronic anthology that will collect these essays in a more permanent form. I’m still working out the details, but each contributor will receive a token payment for their essay, with the rest of the profits going to Con or Bust. The essays will remain online for free, but the anthology will be $2.99, which seemed reasonable for a collection of this length. Here’s the cover I’ve been working on. Feedback is very much welcome. The contributor names are pixellated out because I haven’t received all of the contracts back yet.
I’m excited about this. If all goes well, I’d love to make it an annual thing, both the guest blog posts and the electronic anthology.
Mirrored from Jim C. Hines.
Which is a subject near and dear to my heart―even leaving aside the trans part, I'm positively starved for science fiction featuring female heroes. It's gotten to the point where I simply can't bring myself to care about another movie or book or whatever featuring a man's story. Like the recent Lego movie―I've heard it's actually unexpectly good. I DON'T GIVE A FUCK. I gave them all already. I have no fucks left to give.
I didn't get into anime because I think Japan is awesome. It's not. I wouldn't want to live there. But there's almost nothing in western media like Bubblegum Crisis, or Môretsu Space Pirates. Just imagine an American TV producer's reaction to the premise of Aria: "A slice-of-life series about a girl living on terraformed Mars who wants to become a gondolier in a transplanted New Venice." The moon would stop in its orbit before that got greenlit in the US. But the anime got 3 seasons.
And gender is just one facet of the issue. When's the last time you saw an albino who wasn't a villain?
So, anyway, I thought these articles were worth reading and spreading around:
Originally posted by jimhines at Guest Post Roundup, and Phase 2
I want to once again thank everyone for the guest blog posts last month. They were amazing and powerful and thought-provoking. I know that you got me thinking about things I hadn’t considered before, and judging from the comments, I wasn’t the only one. Here’s the full list of posts:
- Parched - Mark Oshiro
- Boys’ Books - Katharine Kerr
- Clicking - Susan Jane Bigelow
- The Princess Problem - Charlotte Ashley
- Autism, Representation, Success - Ada Hoffmann
- Gender in Genre - Katie
- I Don’t See Color - Michi Trota
- Evil Albino Trope is Evil - Nalini Haynes
- Options - Joie Young
- Representation without Understanding - Derek Handley
- Non-binary and Not Represented - Morgan Dambergs
There were several other posts I wanted to mention in this roundup.
- Aging Children, I am one, by M. Fenn
- Lesbian Genre Fiction: The Importance of Having All 31 Flavors, by Heather Rose Jones
- The Power of Representation: SFF Saved My Life, by Nonny Blackthorne
- Spending Time with Old Sci-Fi, by James Ebert
- Disabilities in the Media and the follow-up post, Confession: I’m Part of the Problem, by Datista
The frustrating thing about blogging is that, for the most part, any given blog post has a very short lifespan. They get their moment in the spotlight, and then wander backstage to the archives. I wanted to find a way to keep these essays alive for anyone who wanted to read and share them. Which is why I spent the weekend sending contracts out to my guest bloggers and a couple of additional individuals for Invisible, an electronic anthology that will collect these essays in a more permanent form. I’m still working out the details, but each contributor will receive a token payment for their essay, with the rest of the profits going to Con or Bust. The essays will remain online for free, but the anthology will be $2.99, which seemed reasonable for a collection of this length. Here’s the cover I’ve been working on. Feedback is very much welcome. The contributor names are pixellated out because I haven’t received all of the contracts back yet.
I’m excited about this. If all goes well, I’d love to make it an annual thing, both the guest blog posts and the electronic anthology.
Mirrored from Jim C. Hines.