–Boys, reading books about girls won’t give you cooties. In the article “Women Writing Science Fiction: Some Voices from the Trenches” Susan Elizabeth Lyons asks 31 women science fiction writers four questions: when they starting reading SF; how they broke into the genre; what they think has changed since then; and general feedback on gender bias in the genre.
“I was trying to say that, really, a man and a woman, can’t understand each other because we are a man and a woman. And if we could actually swap each other’s roles, if we could actually be in each others place for a while, I think we’d both be very surprised! [Laughs] And I think it would be lead to a greater understanding. And really the only way I could think it could be done was either… you know, I thought a deal with the devil, you know. And I thought, ‘well, no, why not a deal with God!’ You know, because in a way it’s so much more powerful the whole idea of asking God to make a deal with you. You see, for me it is still called “Deal With God”, that was its title. But we were told that if we kept this title that it wouldn’t be played in any of the religious countries, Italy wouldn’t play it, France wouldn’t play it, and Australia wouldn’t play it! Ireland wouldn’t play it, and that generally we might get it blacked purely because it had ‘God’ in the title.”
Of note:
The band Coldplay claims the drum beat of this song inspired their single “Speed of Sound.”
A cover by the band Placebo was used in the TV show Bones second season episode Judas on a Pole.
The background vocal chants (“e-yo”) are very similar to classical Japanese musical theatre Noh, and the drumming pattern may be influenced by Japanese taiko. The rhythm is also very similar to Fleetwood Mac’s 1987 “Big Love” single, which also explores sexual politics in its lyrics.
Compared to other literary genres, science fiction shares many of the same fundamental ingredients [as other kinds of fiction]: ideas, words, sentences, conflict, characters, grammar, and punctuation. The differences, of course, lay in the execution of said ingredients. Science fiction and its myriad sub-genres taste far different to most people than does the usual thriller or mystery.
In fact, it can be downright bizarre, and that’s what we love about it. The genre dares to ask “what if” to the extent that our minds reach a critical mass of Deep Thoughts. But even when the speculative aspects are wrapped in beautifully crafted prose and explore concepts other than aliens and starships, many readers wouldn’t touch it with a ten foot pole.
But, are they employing the right pole for the job?
Congrats to Heather on her new Tor.com gig. I can’t wait to see what other posts she has in store.
(I personally think Mynocks are kewl. Replicants: all kinds of awesome. And you know how I feel about Cylons.)
–Girls really are just fine at math and science, thank you. Wired Science’s Dr. Anna Kushnir examines why female scientists go from a 7 to 1 women-to-men ratio in grad school to roughly 1 to 7 in professorships.
