Tor.com interview

[sartorias]

Went live yesterday. Sigh, as usual, I wince at my own incoherence--I wish I wasn't so visually oriented . . . ah well, we are what we are.

Anyway, if anyone makes it through the whole thing and wants to talk about any of it, well, here's the place.

Comments

[queenoftheskies]

I read it yesterday and thought it was an awesome interview. It was like being there, listening to you talk. You're always so excited about your topics and knowledgeable about everything.

[sartorias]

Thanks for the kind words!

[asakiyume]

I was just going to say that I saw this just this morning, thanks to charlesatan's link roundup! And I loved what you said about what the new women authors are trying to do, there at the end, and I was also interested in what you had to say about where you placed Dobrenica and why you left it vague--well, that whole interview question, actually.

And the stuff you had to say about society in Sartorias-deles, I've heard you mention before, and I find it fascinating, and I hope one day to talk to you about it all at length.

[sartorias]

We shall get our time to talk next month!

[cmcmck]

The women who interest you are at least mostly alive now- for those who interest me, I have to get back through a gap of 3-400 years!

Where are you, Brilliana Harley, now that we need you? :o)

[sartorias]

Heee! Oh, I also like women's voices of long ago. Ninon d'Enclos! Mary Wortley Montague! Hildegarde von Bingen and Christine de Pisan! But I thought this context required some names of interesting women writing right now, doing interesting things.

[serialbabbler]

I commented directly on the Tor blog yesterday, but I wanted to reiterate that I really appreciated the inclusion of an asexual protagonist in Banner of the Damned. I don't need to read about characters like me, but it's pretty nifty on the rare occasions when I get the chance to do so. I especially liked the fact that that aspect of her wasn't presented as a broken bit or as the result of trauma. :D I might not be most readers, but I'm still a reader.

[sartorias]

Thank you!

[cmcmck]

'that aspect of her wasn't presented as a broken bit or as the result of trauma.'

Ooh! Here you hit on something that maddens me. I've yet to read (or see, come to that) a convincing characterisation of a trans woman who isn't a victim or a prostitute or both, nor one that admits that trans guys exist as anything other than victim.

I'm a trans woman for sure, but I'm neither of the things I mention, nor are the vast majority of that small community.

Saints preserve us from 'what everybody knows'!

[sartorias]

This is a vexing thing to me, too.

[merriehaskell]

Supposing, too, that powerful women who control the propagation of magic take steps that they feel is beneficial in the long run, and institute a secret program of selective murder? Rapists, especially those with a taste for underage or non-consensual sex, would be turned into stones or trees. These individuals wouldn’t be able to pass on the proclivity, whether genetic or cultural or familial.

This paragraph just floored me. It's so... well. YES. I've long wished I lived in your worlds, but I couldn't put my finger on why. Now I think I know.

[sartorias]

That shoe will eventually drop, or smoking gun go off . . .

[alanajoli]

This floored me as well, and I'm curious if you've done any fiction that revolves around that development. It seems a little like Minority Report but in the opposite direction.

[sartorias]

I've got snips and snaps written down, but nothing concrete--only through historical reference.