[BRIEF NOTE] Thoughts on Cultural Reproduction in SF
I'm a fanboy of (for?) Canadian/British SF writer Geoff Ryman because of his The Child Garden. Taking a look at the late great Octavia Butler's Lilith's Brood, I think I'm becoming a fan of her as well. Right off the bat, Ryman and Butler seem to have two things in common.
I admit that I may be projecting from my own personal experience, since I'm not very likely to produce biological offspring via a traditional-style heterosexual marriage. Then again, these two authors really are strongly preoccupied with the transmission of culture made horizontally to one's peers, not vertically to one's descendants. Is it possible that this horizontal transmission is a major theme in GLBT-themed science fiction? I'm inclined to say so, but I've not read enough of said subgenre to be able to come to a conclusion.
My readers, what say you?
- Their major works deal with new forms of biological and cultural reproduction in environments made hostile by human prejudices and humanized by non-human technologies and beings.
- Neither author is straight; both authors produce works populated substantially by non-heterosexuals, or at least by people not wedded to traditional heterosexual moral structures.
I admit that I may be projecting from my own personal experience, since I'm not very likely to produce biological offspring via a traditional-style heterosexual marriage. Then again, these two authors really are strongly preoccupied with the transmission of culture made horizontally to one's peers, not vertically to one's descendants. Is it possible that this horizontal transmission is a major theme in GLBT-themed science fiction? I'm inclined to say so, but I've not read enough of said subgenre to be able to come to a conclusion.
My readers, what say you?