Today’s essay is the final Tansy Rayner Roberts essay examining the Terry Pratchett novels revolving around Sam Vimes. From his beginnings as a morose drunkard barely keeping the Night Watch functioning, to happily wedded with a beloved son and a City Watch that can basically function without him - it’s a remarkable series of books, and a rather poignant suggestion of how (external) optimism and love can combine with (internal) sheer bloody-mindedness might make changes in a grumpy anti-hero.
In her essay about Jeanette Winterson’s novel The Stone Gods, Crystal Koo explores what it means for individuals to have agency in the face of overwhelming systemic and societal-level problems. She explores this fascinating novel - in which two characters find one another across three different space-time contexts - to consider whether personal love, as demonstrated by Billie and Spike, can be the sort of intervention that Winterson seems to suggest it can be.
In his first essay, Amritesh Mukherjee looked at the origins of Indian feminist science fiction and some of the threads being followed in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. In this second part, he looks at the themes being interrogated over the last 25 years: questions of memory, exodus, and a particularly Indian historical and cultural context. Once again, I make no apologies for adding to your To Be Read pile…
Miranda Jensen’s essay is an exploration of what science fiction and fantasy are for, why authors and publishers are still exploring old ideas and tropes, and whether readers can or should expect work that is different or original. It’s a challenging essay: what is the place, the role, of imaginative literature? Are we comfortable with the unfamiliar - the ambiguous?
Afrofuturism as a genre and way of thinking about music, literature, and other creative efforts has been around for several decades now, and people like Praise Afolabi keep pointing to different and important ways that creators in that space are exploring and using identity to point both to the past and the future. In this essay, Afolabi explores why it’s important that Afrofuturist texts present ways of remembering a/the past - which, as the excerpt above points out, was ruptured for much of the African diaspora by the slave trade. Referencing in particular Octavia E. Butler, Nnedi Okorafor, and Samuel Delany, Afolabi shows how memory and history are important - and collective, not just individual.
Sam Vimes has always been one of my favourite Pratchett characters - for all that’s a bit uncomfortable, what with him being a copper and all. Last July Tansy Rayner Roberts brought us the first Vimes/ Ankh Morpork Watch trilogy in “Upwardly Mobile,” and now we’re looking at just what Vimes gets up to when he’s become a nob of the city. This means Roberts looks at Night Watch, which is definitely in contention for My Favourite Discworld (along with Soul Music), so this essay is very much up my alley - and I hope it resonates with you as well.
illuminating the discussion about why representation matters, Leo Astrum’s essay about how Andrew Joseph White presents the possibilities for trans characters in two of his novels is fierce, heartbreaking, and necessary. Comparing these two novels is particularly fascinating because one is set after today - so various paths used to exist but don’t any more (feels familiar) - while the other is set in the past, when some paths aren’t available yet. Astrum explores three different possibilities for gender transitioning and affirmation, and how each plays out in the two novels.
Over the last several years, African - and particularly Nigerian - science fiction and fantasy have increasingly come into view for the English-speaking and -reading public, but it’s fair to say it has a long way to go until it is widely regarded as mainstream. This essay from Abraham Aondoana makes the convincing case that that’s exactly where it should be: that literature and films and comics from Nigerian creators should be part of what white Australian, British, and American consumers - and people everywhere else, of course - are seeking out, enjoying, and learning from. As with so many of these essays, sorrynotsorry if you come away with an extensive reading list.
I dip my toe into urban fantasy only occasionally; it’s not that I dislike it, but that there are so many other subgenres I am interested in. However, the question of “where are the middle-aged and older women” is certainly a question I’ve been musing for some time, so Tracey Ambrose introducing me to Paranormal Women’s Fiction was a delight. It’s not all about older women, but that’s definitely the focus, and Ambrose explores just why such a focus, and the sorts of stories being filed under this heading, are fun, exciting, and important. If you’ve been looking around for new work to explore - work with a variety of female characters living interesting lives - this may well give you a starting point.
This essay is the first of two about the history of feminist science fiction by Indian authors. Starting with a remarkable 1905 novel, Sultana’s Dream, Amritesh Mukherjee follows a range of themes through the late 20th and early 21st centuries, showing how Indian feminist SF is shaped by its social and cultural context. Like me, you may well find yourself with quite the reading list by the end of it.
The sequel to this essay will come out in June, as a subscriber essay.
With this essay we’re back to Terry Pratchett’s witches, and the men in their orbit. In particular, Tansy Rayner Roberts is examining the reasons for why a series of men disrespect the Lancre witches, and the results of such action (which are predictable if you know Granny Weatherwax, although perhaps not how you would expect). Roberts looks at the beauty and skinniness being equal to talent in the opera world, the use of faux respect by bullies, and how sometimes apparent passivity can be a weapon.
I match my love of science fiction with a love of astronomy: I love my telescope(…s), and I love reading about space exploration history, and I love new developments in astronomical science. So Jason Collins’ essay is totally up my alley, and I hope it will likewise appeal to all of you. In his essay, Collins explains the upcoming Africa2Moon mission, and how it reflects the concerns and ideas of Africanfuturism literature. There are a few essays looking at Africanfuturism and Afrofuturism coming up across this year, so this essay is a great way to start us off.
Christine Yunn-Yu Sun is herself a translator, and she brings a keen eye to this essay about the choices and politics of translation that is often left very much in the background when discussing translated works. She uses the anthology The Way Spring Arrives and Other Stories for this examination - a book published simultaneously in English and Simplified Chinese. In particular, Sun examines some word choices in a couple of stories, and suggesting what those choices (and even omissions) might say about the translation project.
I can’t begin to tell you how much I enjoyed learning about this book early SF novel from Japan. In this essay, Eli K.P William details the novel’s plot and puts it into its historical context, explaining why it should be regarded as science fiction and also just how the author is doing exceptionally clever things politically and socially. It makes me quite sad there’s no English translation! And it’s interesting to think about how people have been using science fiction to comment on contemporary issues for a very, very long time…
Joseph Campbell and his theories about The Hero’s Journey have had an immense impact on the way particularly Western authors think about storytelling, and also the way consumers approach those stories. Even if you haven’t heard of Campbell, you almost certainly have expectations for how a hero’s story will run, and will be surprised if there’s great deviation. In this new essay, Donna Glee Williams unpacks some of the impacts of Campbell and his ideas, and suggests ways that deviating from those might do all of us the world of good.
Kelly Link is one of fantasy’s most renowned short-story authors (her debut novel came out last year to immense celebration). This essay explores just two of her short stories - and don’t worry, if you haven’t read the stories, they’re linked in the essay: I really think you’ll find it worth your while to click on through. Priya Sridhar explores both the surface and some of the possible metaphorical or figurative meanings behind the stories, illuminating a few of the very clever things that Link is doing in her fiction.
Yes, it’s an essay about Terry Pratchett’s Discworld, but not as you know it. This one comes from Freyja Stokes, “the first person to complete the Sir Terry Pratchett Memorial Scholarship at UniSA” - ! The focus is on Mrs Palm and representations of sex work. I have read every Discworld novel and I still learned more about the depths of Pratchett’s genius (I did not know what Mrs Palm’s name referenced), as well as about the history of sex work in our world. I hope you’ll find this essay as insightful as I did.
Like the author of today’s essay, the Ancillary series has become a near-annual read for me: lazy summery Januaries when I feel the need for something familiar, I revisit Breq and her quest for personal justice that becomes something much bigger than that. This current essay fulfils one of my ambitions for this journal: to publish an essay that explores this marvellous series. Moth Paulson looks at the question of “justice,” how Ann Leckie presents it in the empire of the Radch and how those ideas reflect contemporary issues in our own world. Even if you haven’t read the series (and I cannot praise them highly enough, but I know time is limited), the ideas examined here are worth reading and thinking about.
I have to admit that I’ve only read a few stories by Premee Mohamed. I’ve enjoyed what I’ve read but I’ve also been pretty freaked out by it: her work shades a bit too much into the horror for me. (Given the number of awards she’s won, other people clearly also agree that she’s a great writer.) Eric de Roulet’s essay presents the ways in which Mohamed explores experiences of imperial subjugation, and resistance to it. De Roulet gives detailed real-world examples of how both totalitarianism and empires work, and shows how Mohamed’s work reflects and examines these. It’s powerful stuff.