March 2009

  • Star Trek Babies - Why?

    By erika on 3/27/09 2:11pm
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    I've been thinking a lot about the trailer for the upcoming Star Trek movie. (It's hard not to - it's plastered all over the few time slots and channels that I watch.) Mostly what I think is, "Why?"

    Allow me to summarize the trailer:

    "Hi, I'm James Kirk! KABOOOOOM!!! I'm Doctor McCoy! BLAM!!! I'm Mr. Spock! KAPOWIEEEE, ZOOM! [brief clip of sexy scene between Kirk and unknown female; we note again that Starfleet uniform includes boxer shorts] PEW PEW PEW!!!"

    The trailer is laughably transparent. This is Star Trek shown through the diffracting prism of big budget action movies like "Pearl Harbor" and "Armageddon." The trailer promises us that things will be blown up, and that our favorite characters will perform bizarre and unlikely stunts.

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  • Hugo Award Nominees Announced

    By erika on 3/20/09 1:58pm
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    The Hugo Awards committee has announced its nominees for 2009, and I have to agree with Neil Gaiman and John Scalzi: I pity the awards voters this year!

    The nominees for Best Novel are:

    * Anathem, by Neal Stephenson
    * The Graveyard Book, by Neil Gaiman
    * Little Brother, by Cory Doctorow
    * Saturn's Children, by Charles Stross
    * Zoe's Tale, by John Scalzi

    This is the first year I can remember when I've already read almost all of the nominated novels. (The only one I haven't read yet is Saturn's Children, although it's on my stack.) Yay, me!

    Some thoughts:

    Anathem

    This book is a huge literary accomplishment. I was amazed by its scope and reach, and floored by the way that Stephenson continues to tie all of his books together. After reading Anathem, it behooves the reader to go back and re-read both Cryptonomicon and System of the World (which I consider to be one massive novel, instead of three big novels, much less nine regular-sized novels).

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  • Happy Birthday, William Gibson!

    By erika on 3/17/09 2:23pm
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    On March 17th, 1948, William Gibson was born in South Carolina. Wired has an excellent overview of Gibson's life in their article here.

    Just the thought of William Gibson makes me feel both nostalgic and very old. How could something I once considered so cutting edge be so fusty? Kids these days, most of them have never even heard of Neuromancer, much less read it. And I no longer recommend it to them, because I'm sad to say, it has not aged well.

    william gibson neuromancer

    Pictured with this article is my own tattered copy of Neuromancer, which I bought at the Chicago O'Hare airport in 1984 at the age of 12, when I was traveling back home from a visit to New York State. The visit had not gone well. I dove into the book on the airplane to escape from my life. What I found in Neuromancer blew my little twelve year old mind.

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  • Sci Fi Channel To Be Rebranded "SyFy Channel" - Not An April Fool's Joke

    By erika on 3/17/09 12:27pm
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    The Sci Fi Channel recently announced that it would rebrand itself as "The SyFy Channel." Although admittedly this has more to do with their inability to brand a common term like "sci fi," their meaningless re-shuffle has raised the hackles of geeks across the internet. (The American television-watching internet, that is.)

    Various marketing people have stepped up to proclaim that the rebranding will allow the channel to widen its audience. By not painting themselves into a corner, the network is now free to explore fantasy and the wider realm of speculative fiction.

    These are the statements which really stick in our collective craw. Some may remember a time when the Sci Fi Channel actually showed science fiction. In recent years it has devolved into the network that airs giant blocks of terrible monster films, sprinkled with bits of shows like ECW Wrestling, Ghost Hunters, and (notably) Battlestar Galactica.

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  • Homosexual Female Characters in Science Fiction

    By erika on 3/13/09 12:30pm
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    In doing the research for this series of articles, I have found that lesbians outnumber gay men in science fiction by about a factor of ten. I suppose it would be disingenuous of me to pretend that I don't understand why this is. Given science fiction's classic target demographic, and given that demographic's propensity to consider lesbians "hot," and gay men "icky."

    IO9 recently posted a list of female-dominated cultures in science fiction novels, and the comments on the post are an excellent example of this. (Note also the commenter who asked if there were any worlds filled with gay men, and the resounding silence in response.)

    Certainly I can see how there would be a tendency for the media industry to green-light novels with the possibility for lesbian sex, and take a pass on novels with sex between gay men. After all, the media is in the business of selling things that its audience wants to buy.

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  • ...And What It All Means

    By erika on 3/12/09 10:09am
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    Yesterday, I crowned Captain Jack Harkness the first openly gay male leading character. Having spoken to a lot of people and done a lot of research since I went on this jag, I feel that's a definitive statement of fact.

    Now it's time to dig a little deeper into the broader significance. It must be said, and so I will say it: Captain Jack, charming as he may be, is hardly a model citizen. This wouldn't be such a big problem if he wasn't the first and only openly gay male leading character in science fiction. EVER.

    Don't get me wrong; I like Captain Jack, and I'm enjoying "Torchwood." That being said, it occurs to me that Wales must have a pretty lax set of regulations regarding sexual harassment in the workplace. Even though he is created and played with the best of intentions - a stellar "gay pedigree" if you will - he represents all the fears of the unevolved straight man come to life.

    First, a step back. For those of you new to the scene, Captain Jack was created by Russell T. Davies, who took over the Dr. Who helm and brought the new series to life.

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  • Homosexual Male Characters in Science Fiction: A Follow-Up

    By erika on 3/11/09 11:42am
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    Barring the introduction of any further evidence (leave a comment if you have some!) I will now definitively announce Captain Jack Harkness as science fiction's first openly gay male leading character. And one of the few openly gay male characters at all. Isn't that something?

    Let's break it down:

    Science fiction: for the purpose of this discussion, "science fiction" is defined narrowly. No fudging the rules by broadening the category to "speculative fiction."

    This is because on the issue of homosexuality, the horror and fantasy genres are cleaning our collective clock. Sadly, science fiction remains in the dark ages with regards to sensible, grown-up discussions of sexual orientation.

    Openly: yesterday we discussed the case of Lt. Felix Gaeta from "Battlestar Galactica." Gaeta was "outed" by the show, in one brief scene, in a webisode series which few people have seen.

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  • Top 3 2 2.5 Gay Male Science Fiction Characters

    By erika on 3/10/09 1:16pm
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    I've been catching up on the Dr. Who spinoff series "Torchwood" this week. It's awfully fun, aside from the occasional cringe-inducing stumble in the scripts. (Is it just me, or is Gwen the worst cop in Wales?) But it got me thinking about gay characters in science fiction, and how there really aren't any, aside from Captain Jack Harkness.

    I went looking online to see if my memory was simply failing me. I found a lot of "top 10 gay science fiction characters" lists, but they all had to stretch their definition of "science fiction." For example, the After Elton website stretched their definition of science fiction to include "Zorro, the Gay Blade" and John Constantine (the real one, from the comics, not the movie).

    One character which didn't make any of the "top 10" lists I found is Lieutenant Felix Gaeta.

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