Charlie Jane Anders's Blog, page 11

Jedi Knights and Vulcans Both Suck Now. What Happened?

Jedi Master Plo Koon and T'Lyn, a Vulcan character on Star Trek: Lower Decks

Something strange happened to both Star Wars and Star Trek around twenty-five years ago: both franchises suddenly became disillusioned with their spritual, selfless bands of heroes.

The Jedi knights and the Vulcans had been an essential part of these iconic universes from the very beginning, and twentieth century viewers would have come away with a mostly positive impression of them. That changed drastically in the late...

News Flash: Trans People Have Internalized Transphobia!

Trans Solidarity March in Washington DC (Photo by Ted Eytan, Creative Commons)

A dozen years ago, Julia Serano called me up and asked me to speak at Girl Talk, a then-annual event that focused on trans women's inclusion in queer spaces (and particularly queer women's spaces.) Girl Talk was a really cool conversation, which usually featured a mixture of trans and cis women speakers.

I told Julia that I'd be happy to take part, but people might not like what I had to say. We talked through it and ...

There's No Queer Liberation Without Fighting Capitalism

This pink flag that says QUEERS AGAINST CAPITALISM has been hangging in my apartment for as long as I can remember. It comes from some rally/event I attended in the 2000s I guess.

Back in 2005 or 2006, I wrote a short story called "How I Went Back to the Closet." It was basically about my feeling that queer liberation would never really be possible until we defeated capitalism. Queer joy, in fact, would always be partial and provisional as long as plutocrats held any sway over our lives.

In "How...

11 Books That Changed How I think About Space Opera

A detail from the cover of Stainless Steel Rat: Deluxe Edition from 2000 A.D., by Carlos Ezquerra and Kevin Cosnell, based on the characters created by Harry Harrison

We are living in a new golden age of space opera. People have proclaimed the death of this vital subgenre many times over the decades -- but like a deep space probe upgraded by godlike aliens, space opera keeps coming back. (See my article in Esquire for more details!) I recently wrote a whole space opera trilogy, full of all my fa...

7 Hot Takes About Star Trek

Hey everybody, happy Star Trek day! I'm just barely recovered from COVID now and haven't had time to write a new newsletter, so please enjoy this repost of a previous edition. New newsletter coming next week....

1. The Federation is most interesting when it has an ideological foil.

The original Star Trek pitted Captain Kirk against fake gods, rogue Starfleet officers, and sadistic computers, but the show was often concerned with a Cold War-style rivalry between the Federation and two warlike po...

The Internet Is About to Get a Lot Worse

We've all watched in horror as red states have banned books in schools and libraries. We've seen teachers fired merely for reading a book about gender identity, or for discussing their own families. We've seen school libraries turned into discipline centers. People who claim to support parental rights and liberty have been waging a war against supportive parents and free expression, and the ultimate goal is to push LGBTQIA+ stories and lives back into the closet, by any means necessary.

For now ...

One Thing (Almost) Every Aspiring Writer Needs

I'm regularly asked what advice I have for newbie writers, and I usually say stuff about trying to find community by joining a writing group, going to workshops, reading at open mics, posting online, etc. I might talk about various strategies for building an audience even if you're not traditionally published, and maybe I'll mention something about finding a routine that works for you, whether you write every day or once a week, or whatever.

But there's one thing I don't talk about enough, which...

Stuff I Love Right Now

I usually include a recommendation at the end of every newsletter for a piece of music, a book or a TV show/movie. I haven't been doing that lately, because things got super hectic, and the newsletter itself became a bit sporadic.

So here is a list of things I've been loving lately! (Note: Want my recommendations for recent science fiction and fantasy books? Go here.)

De Volta Aos 15 (Back to 15)

I'm super obsessed with this time-travel show (see pic above.) It's a Brazilian Netflix show in whic...

If you see me on Twitter, it's not me

Thank you to everyone who just subscribed to my newsletter! I really appreciate it, and I promise that I will be putting out new posts at least once a week from now on. To long-term subscribers, I can only say that I'm sorry about the radio silence of late: I was desperately trying to finish a novel, and was also traveling and attending too many conventions.

I have a dozen nearly completed newsletters in my drafts folder on Buttondown, but since many of my new subscribers found me thanks to my ...

The Year of the Woman... and What Happened Next

Hey y'all... sorry I haven't published a new newsletter in a couple weeks. I'm desperately trying to get my new adult novel to my editor before I fly to Readercon next week. I wanted to re-up this newsletter from a few years ago, because I think it's instructive to think about times in the past when we seemed to be making major progress, only to face a horrific backlash. Though honestly nothing in my lifetime can compare to the backlash we're experiencing now. The thing that really stands out to...