My first panel that day was "Daughters of the Female Man" with Elizabeth Hand, Chris Moriarty, Barbara Krasnoff, Gwendolyn Clare, and Matt Cheney.
I'd gotten there 15 minutes late because I was in line getting Claude to autograph some books for me. Again, them's the breaks of the arrangement of con panels.
Here's what I took away (directly or indirectly)...
- Sorry, but I couldn't help but pat myself on the back when shout-outs were given to Maureen McHugh and L. Timmel Duchamp, and folks in the audience were going, "Who?" and making the panelists repeat the names.
- Discussed was, to my delight, another instance--a real live instance that didn't take place back in the "Golden Age of Science Fiction"--where a speculative fiction writer was ahead of the curve.
- A whole host of books I need to check out, which I tried to note for myself rather than, as one audience member sort of suggested, relying on the panelists to spoon-feed me an annotated bibliography.
And these are my notes...
I make no guarantees that these will make sense. I make no guarantees against my faulty memory, sketchy hearing, or any kind of telepathic or machine-based manipulation of/interference with my senses. Anything I might've gotten wrong is purely unintentional.
Daughters of the Female Man
Hand, Moriarty, Krassnoff, Clare, Cheney
[15 minutes late]
GC: Dearth of female hard SF writers
* Better at: 2nd wave feminism (upper class whites) vs. PoC/lower class women. 3rd wave feminism tries to integrate race/class issues
**UK LeGuin was trying in the '70s
MC: SHADOW MAN by Melissa Scott
EH: Discussioin @MFA program she saw. Poets, creative nonfic, fic, etc. re: spirituality and writing --> individual voices from other communities (e.g. Islamic, Native American), but not a lot of talk re: crossover to POV different from own. **Spec fic writer in audience raised this issue.** Rxn: different thing for "lit" writers to think about.
Do panelists have "moral responsibility" to tackle feminist issues?
*BK: part of being sf/f writer.
*GC: It's a matter of realism. Would be uncomfortable to write stories non-relfective of ppl in real world.
** EH: are you appropriating? fear being accused of appropriating?
** Yes, danger of being accused. Should be more concerned about misrepresenting a minority than trying and being accused on the internet
* CM: cf. Virginia Wolfe. She was able to write about the full range of women's experience.
** cf. Tiptree--reflects real complexity of world re: gender, orientation, etc.
** cf. Kage Baker, Lisa Moore, et al. -- does not fit in "boxes."
*BK: Need to write characters as INDIVIDUALS.
** "classifying is dangerous." Otherwise, no longer human, let alone representative.
*CM: cf. Joanna Russ: "each generation of women writers has to reinvent the wheel"
** stuff is/was there, but the books went out of print. Hard to find Maureen McHugh's books. Some stuff from Tiptree you still can't find.
EH: re: reinventing the wheel--is it possible for woman writer to come up with something new?
* MC:
* GC: "final frontier" = gender neutrality
* EH: Delany's TROUBLE ON TRITON one of the best depictions of society that's incorporated gender, etc. in complex way
QUESTIONS
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On CM's pseudonym...
* CM: feedback from agents, et al.--like work, but urged different name. Big boxes: "cannot figure out how to stock it w/woman's name on the cover"
* Most fan mail writers believe she's male--often delighted to find she's female!
Libraries/Bibliographies: Best way to keep those writers/books in circulation, 'cos no one else is archiving.
*CM: access to university libraries
*BK: cf. Project Gutenberg
re: new/shocking--what about L. Timmel Duchamp, et al.
*EH: *HUGE* number of writers out there now, of every strip. So, these people need to be WRITTEN ABOUT. Unfortunately, a lot of this stuff is mediated in the Ivory Tower.
*BK:
*MC: the secret feminist cabal (merrick)
*CM: Aqueduct Press
*EH: blog about it!
re: HARD SF
*BK: isn't really "science" fiction, but it is out there. More than just "guys shooting at each other."