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ladybusinessThe history of SFF by women and other marginalized people is constantly being erased, and it means that in the great conversation that is SFF our voices are muted and our contributions fragmented. I want to talk about some of the older books that still mean a lot to me and that I find myself returning to again and again. These books are my signposts in the landscape of SFF.
I sometimes hesitate recommending older books because I don’t want people to assume that they have to read older things and because a lot of them have problems with how they represent marginalized groups. I’d be the first person to tell you that you don’t have to read the "canon" of SFF, whatever that means to you; there are a lot of older books that are full of microaggressions or even just plain agressions. You don’t have to spend your time with books that hurt you!
Still, I want our history to be preserved. I don’t want marginalized voices to be talked over again and again, so here is a list of older books that matter to me—a part of my personal canon. These books shaped who I am as a reader and how I read SFF. They’re books that I still think about, full of interesting worlds, people and ideas; books that I want to see talked about; and books that I think should be influencing works written today. Some of these are books I love but haven’t read recently so I’m not going to promise that they are unproblematic, but these are all books that have a lot of value for me.
I’ve added content notes based on my memories of these books, but it's possible that there are things I would warn for now that I’ve forgotten so I encourage everyone to proceed with caution and look up more detailed warnings if you need them.
The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin — It's hard to pick just one Le Guin to include on this list. I've been reading her work for almost as long as I have been reading. I read Catwings at seven or so and Earthsea not too much later, but I decided on The Dispossessed because I love the societies that Le Guin built in this book. Little details like the character who is proud of losing pencils keep coming back and making me think about my own society in new ways.
Woman on the Edge of Time by Marge Piercy — This book is both utopian and dystopian at the same time. The narrative focuses on a woman in a mental hospital in the 1970s and the utopian future she visits. The mental hospital bits are extremely grim, but the utopian bits are really good (if a bit wonky about race). There’s babies born from artificial wombs and gender equal child care. I would like to see more current books responding to ideas in this one!
A Door Into Ocean by Joan Slonczewski — This book contains my very favorite fictional ecosystem. It's about a planet of purple women with eco-tech and their relationship with the planet next door which wants to steal their resources. It's full of great worldbuilding and interesting characters.
Slow River by Nicola Griffith — This another book I love in part because of its fictional ecology, which features bioremediation and sewage treatment via carefully managed genetically engineered bacteria. But it’s also about complicated broken families and finding your place in the world. (Content note: abusive relationships and child sexual abuse.)
The Fortunate Fall by Raphael Carter — This book is amazing. I’m not generally a cyberpunk person, but I love, love, love this book. I really don’t want to say too much about it because part of the pleasure is discovering what’s going on along with the main character, but the worldbuilding is so good! It really digs into the social consequences of changing technology in interesting ways.
China Mountain Zhang by Maureen F. McHugh — This is book about a gay Chinese Americian man in a world where China is a world power and the US isn’t. It's not a book about saving the world—it's a book about ordinary people worrying about getting by in a complex world. It’s also a kind of fragmented book—switching viewpoints and not always offering resolution. It's also a book about spaces: how we design them, how we live in them, and how we reuse them. (Content note: suicide.)
A Woman of the Iron People by Eleanor Arnason — This is one of the best anthropological science fiction books I’ve read, featuring first contact with really interesting and well described aliens. This is a book that helped me understand social worldbuilding and how much I love it.
Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand by Samuel R. Delany — I'm mad that I didn’t find out about this book until my 20s. Somehow I read tons of books by white dudes as a teen that were published around the same time as this but never found any Delany. Anyway, there’s so much in this book! Aliens, complex family structures, and unusual uses of pronouns!
I sometimes hesitate recommending older books because I don’t want people to assume that they have to read older things and because a lot of them have problems with how they represent marginalized groups. I’d be the first person to tell you that you don’t have to read the "canon" of SFF, whatever that means to you; there are a lot of older books that are full of microaggressions or even just plain agressions. You don’t have to spend your time with books that hurt you!
Still, I want our history to be preserved. I don’t want marginalized voices to be talked over again and again, so here is a list of older books that matter to me—a part of my personal canon. These books shaped who I am as a reader and how I read SFF. They’re books that I still think about, full of interesting worlds, people and ideas; books that I want to see talked about; and books that I think should be influencing works written today. Some of these are books I love but haven’t read recently so I’m not going to promise that they are unproblematic, but these are all books that have a lot of value for me.
I’ve added content notes based on my memories of these books, but it's possible that there are things I would warn for now that I’ve forgotten so I encourage everyone to proceed with caution and look up more detailed warnings if you need them.
The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin — It's hard to pick just one Le Guin to include on this list. I've been reading her work for almost as long as I have been reading. I read Catwings at seven or so and Earthsea not too much later, but I decided on The Dispossessed because I love the societies that Le Guin built in this book. Little details like the character who is proud of losing pencils keep coming back and making me think about my own society in new ways.
Woman on the Edge of Time by Marge Piercy — This book is both utopian and dystopian at the same time. The narrative focuses on a woman in a mental hospital in the 1970s and the utopian future she visits. The mental hospital bits are extremely grim, but the utopian bits are really good (if a bit wonky about race). There’s babies born from artificial wombs and gender equal child care. I would like to see more current books responding to ideas in this one!
A Door Into Ocean by Joan Slonczewski — This book contains my very favorite fictional ecosystem. It's about a planet of purple women with eco-tech and their relationship with the planet next door which wants to steal their resources. It's full of great worldbuilding and interesting characters.
Slow River by Nicola Griffith — This another book I love in part because of its fictional ecology, which features bioremediation and sewage treatment via carefully managed genetically engineered bacteria. But it’s also about complicated broken families and finding your place in the world. (Content note: abusive relationships and child sexual abuse.)
The Fortunate Fall by Raphael Carter — This book is amazing. I’m not generally a cyberpunk person, but I love, love, love this book. I really don’t want to say too much about it because part of the pleasure is discovering what’s going on along with the main character, but the worldbuilding is so good! It really digs into the social consequences of changing technology in interesting ways.
China Mountain Zhang by Maureen F. McHugh — This is book about a gay Chinese Americian man in a world where China is a world power and the US isn’t. It's not a book about saving the world—it's a book about ordinary people worrying about getting by in a complex world. It’s also a kind of fragmented book—switching viewpoints and not always offering resolution. It's also a book about spaces: how we design them, how we live in them, and how we reuse them. (Content note: suicide.)
A Woman of the Iron People by Eleanor Arnason — This is one of the best anthropological science fiction books I’ve read, featuring first contact with really interesting and well described aliens. This is a book that helped me understand social worldbuilding and how much I love it.
Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand by Samuel R. Delany — I'm mad that I didn’t find out about this book until my 20s. Somehow I read tons of books by white dudes as a teen that were published around the same time as this but never found any Delany. Anyway, there’s so much in this book! Aliens, complex family structures, and unusual uses of pronouns!
forestofglory.
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Date: 2019-07-23 04:24 am (UTC)I know I get irritated with the 'women don't write sci-fi' opinion that pops up now and then.
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Date: 2019-07-23 07:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-07-23 09:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-07-23 09:14 pm (UTC)I'm definitely putting the Raphael Carter book on my list. I'd love to see a cyberpunk novel that isn't quite such a hot mess of bad takes. China Mountain Zhang also sounds amazing.
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Date: 2019-07-23 09:33 pm (UTC)Have you read Russ's How to Suppress Women's Writing? Its frustratingly relivent more than 30 years after she wrote it.
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Date: 2019-07-23 09:40 pm (UTC)Ah yeah I didn't mean to suggest that you thought that, they were just the projects that I'd seen recently and that there seemed to be at least a tiny movement towards it. But yeah, enlessly frustrating that it's needed and that men's books of the same era are treated as the canon.
I haven't no, one hand mean to, on the other hand know that I'm going to be constantly screaming in frustrating throughout, so building up the mental fortitude.
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Date: 2019-07-24 04:29 pm (UTC)Well the Russ is really short, but yeah its very frustrating. Its ok not to read it!
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Date: 2019-07-25 03:48 pm (UTC)I probably will just because it’ll feel like I'm missing context and only having half a discussion without it.
Sent from my iPhone
no subject
Date: 2019-07-24 08:13 am (UTC)