Tansy Rayner Roberts's Blog, page 37

Robotech Rewatch 65: The Great Reflex Point Conspiracy

Keep your scanner tuned to this station. Robotech is back!

Chapter 83: Reflex Point

This is exciting! Reflex Point! The whole story has been heading towards this point for so long! My expectations are very high.

The Regis muses on irony, and how protoculture allows the Invid to change into any form they like, but their extensive research has concluded that HUMANS, HUMANS ARE THE BEST DESIGN.

“We are Invid, we cannot fail, I will not allow it.”

A group of troublemakers, AKA our heroes, are startled by an explosion nearby. Hoping it might be that spunky Rick Hunter, they head towards it only to find some damaged mecha in a smoking crater.

Scott carefully surveys the damaged mecha and pronounces that there are no survivors.

“Nobody said war was pretty.” The narrator, setting the tone as always.

Proving that Scott is an idiot, a survivor promptly turns up – an intelligence agent called Sue Graham, who looks a lot like Marie Crystal but isn’t. Her assignment is to record the mission for Admiral Hunter and send him information.

Scott is furious to find out that Sue filmed the deaths of her colleagues instead of joining in the battle and getting killed alongside them. He and Lancer get aggressive and judgy at her.

Hundreds of Invid are approaching. Sue tells them all to deactivate their protoculture cells and abandon the mecha so the Invid think everyone is dead, but they are so busy not trusting her that they leave it to the last minute and only just make it into the woods.

Their Cyclones have a near miss, but the jeep and the Beta are both knocked into a ravine by the stompy Invid. Aww, ships, no. (Don’t worry, they’re fine later)

Sue has some good news, at least: there is a force of Admiral Hunter’s fleet, called shadow fighters, hanging around the dark side of the moon, ready to launch an assault against the Invid when “the time is right”. Scott repeatedly challenges her about doing her job (passing information to the local fighters to give them hope, and collecting data to send back to the fleet) rather than going rogue freedom fighter like him, which is the Only Correct Moral Choice.

Scott needs to not be in charge any more.

#TeamSue

The crew all have adorable space sleeping bags that make them look like caterpillars. Scott is angsting about Marlene Mark I, and Marlene Mark II suggests that he’s never going to be over her. She has a good point considering that he NAMED HER AFTER HIS DEAD GIRLFRIEND.

Scott and the crew are reluctantly going on a mission to collect a magic special space cannon that Sue told them about. Scott suspects that Sue has set them up so she can get some amazing footage of them getting “creamed” by the Invid.

I’m confused by their lack of distinction between a spy collecting necessary war intelligence, and a paparazzo-style media bunny. Mind you, Sue doesn’t help the situation by saying things like “Admiral Hunter’s going to love this footage” which implies she is creating entertainment for the poor bored Admiral instead of, you know, helping the war effort.

On the other hand, maybe Rick is just super bored. It’s not easy at the top.

Even the narrator complains that Sue is shooting nothing but film footage, when the Invid attack. Annie isn’t shooting anyone either! Because it’s NOT HER JOB OR HER SKILLSET.

I can’t help noticing that this episode called Reflex Point does not seem to actually have anything to do with Reflex Point. Surely they’ll get there soon, right? Right?

The leader of this particular Invid battalion is a glam rock style blond who bleeds green when he is killed. Sue is delighted to have proof that the Invid are turning themselves into humans – but Marlene is less than delighted, because she is bleeding green from a scratch on her arm.

YOU GUYS I THINK MARLENE IS AN INVID!

Marlene flees in horror, and Scott is surprisingly calm and forgiving about the whole thing, thinking more about how upset she must be than worrying about whether she was spying on them. It’s his one moment of being pretty awesome in an episode that is mostly all about him being a dick.

Sue drops dead from, I don’t know, irony, I guess, and Scott gives a grave speech about how she was the most dedicated professional he ever met in the REF, which goes to show that even when he’s being nice, he’s also a massive hypocrite.

As the episode closes without any sign of Reflex Point, the narrator works harder to get up our hopes that Admiral Hunter will be turning up any minute.

I… don’t think he can be trusted…

But they wouldn’t keep mentioning Admiral Hunter this much if he wasn’t going to turn up in the final episode, right? RIGHT?

This weekly rewatch of classic animated space opera Robotech is brought to you as bonus content for the Musketeer Space project.

Thanks to everyone who has linked, commented, or sponsored me.

You can support the blog at Patreon.

5. Octavia E. Butler & Dawn [SF Women of the 20th Century]

Octavia Butler (1947-2006) is one of the most fondly remembered SF writers in the history of the field. She has won several Hugo and Nebula awards as well as being, to date, the only SF writer to receive the MacArthur “Genius Grant.”

Many of her works look at characters who are dispossessed, whose autonomy is taken from them or compromised. Her stories acknowledge race, sexuality, feminism, and the cost of survival. An African-American writer, Butler’s highest bestselling novel is Kindred, a time travel story about black slavery and the issue of survival vs. compliance.

There’s been some recent excitement (and more than a little apprehension) at the news that Octavia Butler’s book Dawn (1987), first of the Lilith’s Brood series (also referred to as the Xenogenesis trilogy), is being developed for TV, which is why I picked this book for the SF Women of the 20th Century.

This is the point where I admit that I am terribly under-read when it comes to Octavia Butler – until recently I’d only read a couple of her short stories, so Dawn was the first of her novels that I picked up. This book is fantastic! I found myself racing through it in about three days, and while I don’t plan for this blog series to be made up of book reviews, apparently some of the posts are going to be.

Dawn (1987)

Lilith Iyapo is an African-American human survivor of a terrible war that all but wiped out life on Earth. Aliens called the Oankali have rescued the last humans, and put them into suspended animation for two centuries while they repaired the damage done to the planet (and discreetly destroyed all man-made structures and other remains of civilisation). Now they’re planning to release humans back into the wild via a carefully planned program of biological and social improvements.

There are so many fascinating themes explored in this story, which presents a harsh and at times cynical view of humanity, but is also deeply complex. When we’re first introduced to the aliens they claim to have a pretty basic Prime Directive attitude to the humans – helping them resettle the Earth, but not giving them advanced or unnecessary technology. It slowly becomes clear, however, that the Oankali’s definitions of “helping” and indeed “non-interference” are complex, and based on what they (rather than the samples of humans they have been studying) think is most appropriate.

Lilith has to learn to overcome her xenophobia (which manifests as physical and psychological repulsion) in order to work with the Oankali, and it’s implied that this reaction is common and natural. Unfortunately, learning to understand and communicate with her rescuers/captors means that she begins to change, and the aliens insist on making more and more upgrades to her biology that cause problems for her among her own people. The aspects that make it easier for her to deal with the aliens present as suspicious to her fellow humans, when she helps to train and orient them in their dealings with the aliens, and their preparations to return to Earth.

Is Lilith a traitor and collaborator, or is she doing her best to preserve her own species? How much genetic change can be done to humans before they are not human any more?

Then there are the aliens themselves – a fascinating three-gendered species who are driven by the development of gene-technology and never quite manage to understand how humans work, no matter how long they study them.

Sexuality is explored substantially throughout the book – particularly the sexual connection between the humans and the ooloi (the third gender and most powerful member of the triad family structure of the Oankali) who are chosen to bond with them. The humans pair up in traditional Adam-and-Eve style (there appear to be no gay, lesbian or openly bisexual members of the first wave of new human society) and yet their very definition of sex is challenged by the sensual and psychic/telepathic experiences these pairs share when they bond the ooloi.

Masculinities are threatened, squicks are confronted, and there are some deeply uncomfortable scenes of dubiously consensual intimacy. Consent issues, and the crossing of personal boundaries, is a major theme throughout the book. The Oankali claim always to have the best interests of the humans at heart, and plan to leave them in a better condition than they found them – cancer genes removed, eidetic memories inserted, a lush green playground for them to live upon – but there’s no denying that they are highly paternalistic, and often take advantage of the power imbalance in all kinds of skeevy ways.

(I’m reminded of the recent outcry when a guard-prisoner romance novel set in a concentration camp won a major award – there is no way that such a setting allows for true equality or consent in a sexual or romantic relationship)

Lilith’s constant struggle to communicate with the aliens feels at times like an episode of The Office – she’s hamstrung by an inability of the executive class to empathise with or believe her, because they will never value her lived experience over their own perceptions. Likewise, the humans refuse to believe in Lilith’s more extensive experience on the ship and with the Oankali, to the point of not even believing they are on a ship (to be fair, it mostly looks like a forest). She has been literally designed to be the best person to communicate between the two species, and the reader has been on that journey with her, so we share her frustration and her fears – while this is never explicitly framed as a gender issue, it’s pretty clear that many of the human men are threatened by a female leader, to the point of questioning her gender identity because they perceive her as suspiciously strong and knowledgeable.

I suspect any female political leader or workplace manager would find a great deal to sympathise with in this novel!

Having spent the last month or more re-absorbed in the works of Tiptree, coming to Butler was really exciting. Much of what I love about Tiptree’s stories was here in Butler’s novel – the fast-paced prose, the powerful ideas, the beautiful writing, the stark and complex characters. Butler, however, has a greater empathy for her characters and is far less conflicted about the idea of woman as hero – and while Butler’s imagined futures are in some ways equally bleak as those created by Tiptree, they also hold a stronger spark of hope that humans will survive and maybe, just maybe, everything’s going to turn out okay. Survival comes at a cost, and maybe the compromises we have to make will be harsh, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t roll up your sleeves and do the damn work.

I’m going to be reading more Butler. I really like the new ebook covers, and I plan to be acquiring a good set of them! A particular shout out to “Bloodchild,” a novelette which won the Nebula, Hugo and Locus Awards, and ties closely to the themes of Lilith’s Brood – I found it available for FREE on the Kindle.

Other links about Octavia Butler:

Devil Girl From Mars: Why I Write Science Fiction, by Octavia Butler

Sleeping With the Enemy: Octavia Butler’s Dawn.

Dialogic Origins and Alien Identities in Butler’s XENOGENESIS

Octavia Butler’s Xenogenesis Trilogy: A Biologist’s Response

SF WOMEN OF THE 20TH CENTURY is brought to you by Tansy’s supporters at Patreon. Patrons of the blog can earn great rewards and help the campaign reach exciting milestones to unlock more content.

1. Raccoona Sheldon & “The Screwfly Solution”

2. Diane Marchant & Kirk/Spock

3. Connie Willis & To Say Nothing of the Dog

4. Clare Winger Harris & “The Fate of the Poseidonia”

Issue #1: Bombshells (2015)

Title: Bombshells #1

Writer: Marguerite Bennett

Artist: Marguerite Sauvage

The Buzz: This one got a lot of attention around the feminist comicsverse, for the gorgeous retro art and the all-female creative team.

All You Need To Know: Bombshell art (AKA sexy retro 40’s fashion) versions of female superheroes is a common trend for variant covers, fan art, cosplay and statuettes. Like the Ame-Comi run, this digital comic combines a female-centred superhero universe with a particular art aesthetic to create truly original stories.

Story: In “Enlisted,” Kate Kane’s Batwoman is envisaged as a League of Her Own style baseball-themed vigilante who smashes her opponents on and off the batting diamond. While the men of Gotham City are off fighting in World War II, the women back home are taking over their old jobs – including the baseball league, and fighting crime. We not only get Kate and her adorable sidekick Bette in what has to be my favourite version of these characters (yes, I mean it) but also an established romantic relationship between Kate and private detective Maggie Sawyer.

In this first issue, Batwoman not only (casually) saves Bruce Wayne’s parents thereby ensuring no need for there ever to be a Batman, she also snuggles with and swaps puns with her sweetie, and beats up a bunch of dudes. As if this wasn’t fun and awesome enough, we also get a brilliant “totally not Nick Fury cos better dressed” cameo by Amanda Waller at the end.

Art: Retro and fabulous, with a cheeky sense of humour.

But What Did I Miss?: Nothing if you start with Issue 1! Each story is told over 3 mini-issues, like many of the digital comics these days. Future stories will feature Bombshell Forties Wonder Woman and Bombshell Forties Supergirl, among others.

Would Read Issue 2?: Yep, already got a bunch of them cued up. I do love DC’s digital line, it’s been consistently fun and inventive for the last few years.

Read it if you Like: Ame-Comi Girls, A League of Her Own, Agent Carter, Batwoman

Previously reviewed this year:

Thor #1 (2014)

Spider-Woman #1 (2014)

All-New Captain America #1 (2014)

Captain America & the Mighty Avengers #1 (2014)

S.H.I.E.L.D. #1 (2014)

The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #1 (2015)

Bitch Planet #1 (2014)

Secret Six #1 (2014)

Operation: S.I.N. #1

Spider-Gwen #1

Curb Stomp #1

Jem & the Holograms #1

Silk #1

Issue #1 – Convergence Special – Oracle, JLI, Batgirl

Issue #1 – Battleworld Special: Lady Kate, Ms America & Inferno

X-Men ’92 #1

Giant-Sized Little Marvels: AvX #1 (2015)

Runaways #1 (2015)

Loki, Agent of Asgard #1 (2014)

Fresh Romance #1

All-New Hawkeye #1

Black Canary #1

The Wicked and the Divine #1 (2014)

Robotech Rewatch 65: Legwarmers of Liberty

Okay everybody up. Robotech is back!

EPISODE 81: Hired Gun



So this is the serial killer episode.

Our heroes, the dishevelled freedom-fighting Robotech bikie crew, arrive in a town where soldiers are being mysteriously killed by a figure called Dusty Ayres. Scott reluctantly agrees to help track the dude down, for no apparent reason. Even Rand and Rook think this is a surreal change in focus for Captain One Track Mind, and wonder how exactly this is going to help with the whole Reflex Point business.

Rook is assisted in an Invid fight by a mysterious long-haired stranger, and patches him up afterwards – only to discover that he has a metal arm. He’s the Winter Soldier! (sadly, he’s not the Winter Soldier)

Rand threatens the dude, suspicious as to where he got his wound from… and the dude (who is Dusty, obviously) shoots Rand’s gun out of his hand with his high-tech cyborg shooting arm.

Rook tries to recruit the mysterious stranger using friendship and let’s face it, a hefty dose of flirtation, but he lone-heroes off into the sunset instead.

Rand and Rook catch up with the rest of their crew at a bonafide Wild West saloon, just as the soldiers are sharing a picture they have found of the killer – and shock, it’s Rook’s new growly-voiced pal!

I especially love that the pic was found on some undeveloped film in an abandoned Polaroid camera. Robotech, your vision of the future is adorably analogue.

Rook confesses to Marlene that she likes Dusty, and then sets off to fix him. The misplaced sympathy of a good woman is enough to sort out any pesky serial killer issues!

Rook and Dusty face off in the rain. She halfheartedly tries to arrest him. He explains his tragic backstory: how he was experimented on by the Invid, who turned him into a cyborg. The soldiers he has been killing off are his former friends who apparently “sat by and watched” while all this happened to him.

Hmm, totally justified murder then?

The Invid attack, and Dusty unexpectedly joins the gang to fight them, then comes close to killing Rook’s friends too, until she makes an impassioned speech to stop him. He resists the urge to murder them all, then gets himself shot by a last surviving Invid, allowing everyone to mourn him as a hero. Though he was totally still a serial killer.

The mortality rate for guest stars on this show is exceptionally high, it has to be said.

EPISODE 82: The Big Apple

Does this mean New York survived the First Robotech War too? Even that time when the whole planet was irradiated by Zentraedi? Worldbuilding, your seams are showing.

Oh no, apparently it’s called Fun City.

The Regis is pretty sure that our favourite freedom fighting bikie crew is nearly out of protoculture again (true) and has set up an elaborate trap for them in a highly populated city (hmm, seems over complicated, but okay).

Lancer, Rand and Annie have avoided the Invid thus far by disguising themselves as two homeless people. They sneak their way to an old concert hall which is currently being used for protoculture storage…

Hang on, Lancer is getting all sad about Carnegie Hall no longer being used for music performances… this IS New York City. Cheaters!

When hiding from an Invid troop, Lancer, Rand and Annie are rescued by a small, sassy black kid. He takes them to meet his friends, who are a rogue theatre troupe. Yes, this is the stage school crossover episode.

The thin-moustached dancing instructor, Simon, recognises Yellow Dancer and is delighted to invite them all to the show. Which they are putting on right here in the barn.

Sera and Korg have a row about their next mission, leading Sera to decide it’s more important than ever that she track down Ariel/Marlene and find out WTF is going on. She thinks that the lifeforms (ie that hot boy she likes and his friends, but also any experimental dance troupes who might be hanging around) should be observed, not destroyed. Korg responds by blowing up Manhattan.

With the theatre in flames around them, Rand and Lancer try to evacuate the dance troupe, but Simon wants to go down with his theatre because the show must go on, damn it.

Legwarmers are hella flammable.

“It’s that Earth Man Who Causes The Disturbance Within Me.”

Sera tries to sum up what Lancer means to her. I hope she finds out his name soon so she doesn’t have to put all that on her tattoo.

Simon responds to the destruction and carnage by putting on a show to provide hope to the rest of humanity, because Minmei taught a whole generation that singing is a legitimate problem-solving technique in a time of intergalactic war.

Yellow Dancer sings, power ballad style. Everything that can’t be fixed by power ballads, can be fixed by legwarmers.

The rest of the crew fly in to fight the Invid over Manhattan, and hear Yellow Dancer’s performance on the radio, which clues them into how to reunite with their friends.

Scott and Marlene have a Meaningful Moment before he goes back into battle. Everyone takes this as evidence that they are going steady.

After five minutes of smug happiness, Marlene is confronted by Sera, who shocks her with the revelation that she is an Invid space princess. Headspin!

Once the battle is done and dusted, the crew bid farewell to Simon, who does not understand them prioritising this war of theirs over show business, but is prepared to tolerate it. As long as they hurry back to help him put on a show as soon as they’re done at Reflex Point.

Dancers, amirite?

In case we missed it, the crew fly over a certain statue symbolising freedom before they leave Fun City. It’s the Statue of Liberty.

Hey you guys, the Zentraedi didn’t blow up the Statue of Liberty! Wooo!

This weekly rewatch of classic animated space opera Robotech is brought to you as bonus content for the Musketeer Space project.

Thanks to everyone who has linked, commented, or sponsored me.

You can support the blog at Patreon.

Robotech Rewatch 64: Legwarmers of Liberty

Okay everybody up. Robotech is back!

EPISODE 81: Hired Gun



So this is the serial killer episode.

Our heroes, the dishevelled freedom-fighting Robotech bikie crew, arrive in a town where soldiers are being mysteriously killed by a figure called Dusty Ayres. Scott reluctantly agrees to help track the dude down, for no apparent reason. Even Rand and Rook think this is a surreal change in focus for Captain One Track Mind, and wonder how exactly this is going to help with the whole Reflex Point business.

Rook is assisted in an Invid fight by a mysterious long-haired stranger, and patches him up afterwards – only to discover that he has a metal arm. He’s the Winter Soldier! (sadly, he’s not the Winter Soldier)

Rand threatens the dude, suspicious as to where he got his wound from… and the dude (who is Dusty, obviously) shoots Rand’s gun out of his hand with his high-tech cyborg shooting arm.

Rook tries to recruit the mysterious stranger using friendship and let’s face it, a hefty dose of flirtation, but he lone-heroes off into the sunset instead.

Rand and Rook catch up with the rest of their crew at a bonafide Wild West saloon, just as the soldiers are sharing a picture they have found of the killer – and shock, it’s Rook’s new growly-voiced pal!

I especially love that the pic was found on some undeveloped film in an abandoned Polaroid camera. Robotech, your vision of the future is adorably analogue.

Rook confesses to Marlene that she likes Dusty, and then sets off to fix him. The misplaced sympathy of a good woman is enough to sort out any pesky serial killer issues!

Rook and Dusty face off in the rain. She halfheartedly tries to arrest him. He explains his tragic backstory: how he was experimented on by the Invid, who turned him into a cyborg. The soldiers he has been killing off are his former friends who apparently “sat by and watched” while all this happened to him.

Hmm, totally justified murder then?

The Invid attack, and Dusty unexpectedly joins the gang to fight them, then comes close to killing Rook’s friends too, until she makes an impassioned speech to stop him. He resists the urge to murder them all, then gets himself shot by a last surviving Invid, allowing everyone to mourn him as a hero. Though he was totally still a serial killer.

The mortality rate for guest stars on this show is exceptionally high, it has to be said.

EPISODE 82: The Big Apple

Does this mean New York survived the First Robotech War too? Even that time when the whole planet was irradiated by Zentraedi? Worldbuilding, your seams are showing.

Oh no, apparently it’s called Fun City.

The Regis is pretty sure that our favourite freedom fighting bikie crew is nearly out of protoculture again (true) and has set up an elaborate trap for them in a highly populated city (hmm, seems over complicated, but okay).

Lancer, Rand and Annie have avoided the Invid thus far by disguising themselves as two homeless people. They sneak their way to an old concert hall which is currently being used for protoculture storage…

Hang on, Lancer is getting all sad about Carnegie Hall no longer being used for music performances… this IS New York City. Cheaters!

When hiding from an Invid troop, Lancer, Rand and Annie are rescued by a small, sassy black kid. He takes them to meet his friends, who are a rogue theatre troupe. Yes, this is the stage school crossover episode.

The thin-moustached dancing instructor, Simon, recognises Yellow Dancer and is delighted to invite them all to the show. Which they are putting on right here in the barn.

Sera and Korg have a row about their next mission, leading Sera to decide it’s more important than ever that she track down Ariel/Marlene and find out WTF is going on. She thinks that the lifeforms (ie that hot boy she likes and his friends, but also any experimental dance troupes who might be hanging around) should be observed, not destroyed. Korg responds by blowing up Manhattan.

With the theatre in flames around them, Rand and Lancer try to evacuate the dance troupe, but Simon wants to go down with his theatre because the show must go on, damn it.

Legwarmers are hella flammable.

“It’s that Earth Man Who Causes The Disturbance Within Me.”

Sera tries to sum up what Lancer means to her. I hope she finds out his name soon so she doesn’t have to put all that on her tattoo.

Simon responds to the destruction and carnage by putting on a show to provide hope to the rest of humanity, because Minmei taught a whole generation that singing is a legitimate problem-solving technique in a time of intergalactic war.

Yellow Dancer sings, power ballad style. Everything that can’t be fixed by power ballads, can be fixed by legwarmers.

The rest of the crew fly in to fight the Invid over Manhattan, and hear Yellow Dancer’s performance on the radio, which clues them into how to reunite with their friends.

Scott and Marlene have a Meaningful Moment before he goes back into battle. Everyone takes this as evidence that they are going steady.

After five minutes of smug happiness, Marlene is confronted by Sera, who shocks her with the revelation that she is an Invid space princess. Headspin!

Once the battle is done and dusted, the crew bid farewell to Simon, who does not understand them prioritising this war of theirs over show business, but is prepared to tolerate it. As long as they hurry back to help him put on a show as soon as they’re done at Reflex Point.

Dancers, amirite?

In case we missed it, the crew fly over a certain statue symbolising freedom before they leave Fun City. It’s the Statue of Liberty.

Hey you guys, the Zentraedi didn’t blow up the Statue of Liberty! Wooo!

This weekly rewatch of classic animated space opera Robotech is brought to you as bonus content for the Musketeer Space project.

Thanks to everyone who has linked, commented, or sponsored me.

You can support the blog at Patreon.

4. Clare Winger Harris & “The Fate of the Poseidonia” [SF Women of the 20th Century]

Clare Winger Harris was the first female short story writer to publish ‘scientifiction’ in the pulp magazines under her own name, rather than a male pseudonym. Her second published story, a space opera called “The Fate of the Poseidonia,” won third place in a contest run by Hugo Gernsback for stories inspired by a particular piece of artwork by Frank R Paul, and was duly published in Amazing Stories in June 1927.

Gernsback said of the story:

“That the third prize winner should prove to be a woman was one of the surprises of the contest, for, as a rule, women do not make good scientification writers, because their education and general tendencies on scientific matters are usually limited. But the exception, as usual, proves the rule, the exception in this case being extraordinarily impressive. The story has a great deal of charm, chiefly because it is not overburdened with science, but whatever science is contained therein is not only quite palatable, but highly desirable, due to its plausibility… We hope to see more of Mrs Harris’ scientifiction in Amazing Stories.”

Men expressing surprise that women should have any interest in science fiction as creators or indeed as readers was to be a longstanding theme of the SF pulps, especially in the letter columns. The existence of women in SF is one of those things that is discovered over and over again, like a Groundhog Day themed episode of your favourite TV show.

“The Fate of the Poseidonia” was one of the stories featured in Justine Larbalestier’s excellent book, Daughters of Earth: Feminist Science Fiction in the Twentieth Century, which paired classic SF stories by women with in depth critical essays. Jane Donawerth’s essay, “Illicit Reproduction: Clare Winger Harris’s “The Fate of the Poseidonia,” placed the story into the context of the pulp magazines and the sporadic appearance of women in those early days, and also discusses the social and technological significance of the story, including a deep thread of 1920’s era racism.

The story itself is narrated by George Gregory, who loses his girlfriend Margaret to a suspiciously Native American-looking rival, Martell, only to discover that Martell is a) a Martian and b) involved in a conspiracy to steal water from the Earth in order to save his own planet. After the ocean liner The Poseidonia goes missing, including Margaret and her parents as well as a full complement of passengers, George receives a final message from Margaret assuring him that the danger to the Earth is past, though he will never see her again…

A large part of the anxious tension in the story revolves around the fear of nasty foreign aliens stealing white women, there’s also a thread of anxiety about technology, and in particular the sinister presence of a television among the possessions of Martell. This was highly topical, as John Logie Baird’s first worldwide demonstration of how televisions worked had only occurred a few months before this story was published – it would be another year before television broadcasts happened in America (on the radio station owned by Hugo Gernsback), and 10-15 years before sets began to be commonly used in people’s homes, as depicted in “The Fate of the Poseidonia.”

In August 1931, (Mrs) Clare Winger Harris had a letter published in Wonder Stories, in which she made a list of popular SF themes. This is generally believed to be one of the earliest attempts to classify the important tropes of SF. Her categories are:

1–Interplanetary space travel.

2–Adventures on other worlds.

3–Adventures in other dimensions.

4–Adventures in the micro or macro-cosmos.

5–Gigantic insects.

6–Gigantic man-eating plants.

7–Time travel, past or future.

8–Monstrous forms of unfamiliar life.

9–The creation of super-machines.

10–The creation of synthetic life.

11–Mental telepathy and mental aberrations.

12–Invisibility.

13–Ray and vibration stories.

14–Unexplored portions of the globe; submarine, subterranean, etc.

15–Super intelligence.

16–Natural cataclysms; extra-terrestrial or confined to the earth.

This letter was a coda to Harris’ career as a science fiction writer; her last published short story appeared in 1930. The reason given for her retirement as a writer was to raise and educate her children, though I haven’t yet found any direct sources for this; her entire body of work (eleven short stories) was completed over the previous half decade starting when her sons were 8, 10 and 11, which surely raises the question of why it suddenly became impossible to combine motherhood and writing five years later. Did her 12, 14 and 15 year old sons lose the ability to make their own sandwiches overnight? Why does history not ask more questions about these important details?

In 1947, Clare Winger Harris published her own short story collection Away From Here And Now: Stories in Pseudo-Science, using a “vanity press” and it was here that she claimed the status of the first female science fiction writer in the United States – while not technically correct, her assumption of this record was pretty reasonable given that she was the first “out” female writer of the genre. Despite the oddness of her sudden retirement, it’s nice to see that she retained great pride in her achievement and her role in the history of science fiction.

“The Fate of the Poseidonia” is available to read free online, with an introduction by J.M. Stine.

SF WOMEN OF THE 20TH CENTURY is brought to you by Tansy’s supporters at Patreon.

1. Raccoona Sheldon & “The Screwfly Solution”

2. Diane Marchant & Kirk/Spock

3. Connie Willis & To Say Nothing of the Dog

Issue #1: The Wicked and the Divine (2014)

Title: The Wicked and the Divine (2014)

Writer: Kieron Gillen

Artist: Jamie McKelvie

The Buzz: Since it started last year, The Wicked and the Divine (Image Comics) has been gaining attention, award nominations and general kudos. Universal Studios have optioned the right to a TV series. The Gillen-McKelvie team collaborated on the critically acclaimed Young Avengers run, as well as their cult book Phonogram.

All You Need To Know: This is an original comic based around the concept that every 90 years, a group of 12 gods called The Pantheon are reborn into the bodies of bright young things who are adored, loathed, live fast and die after 2 years of glory. It last happened in the 1920’s and now it’s happening again in the new millennium, with the Pantheon reborn as 21st century rock stars and celebrities.

Story: “I see a wannabe who’s never got past the Bowie in her parents’ embarrassingly retro record collection. I see a provincial girl who doesn’t understand how cosplaying a Shinto god is problematic at best and offensive at worst. I see someone who’s been convinced that acting like a fucking cat is a dignified way for a woman to behave!”

Issue #1 introduces Laura, obsessive fan of rock goddess Amaterasu, who gets a chance to hang out with the band – in particular, the deeply creepy but stylish Luci (father of lies) on the night that an angry journalist tries to find out what makes the Pantheon tick.

It’s Luci(fer) with her David Bowie haircut and bright white suit who draws all the oxygen in this first issue – and despite her unfortunate habit of murdering snipers with a click of her fingers, it’s hard not to be on her side when she’s hauled up in court afterwards, in order to smugly plead ‘Act of God.’

I have no idea where the story’s going, but I’m fascinated to find out. Love the premise, the adult sexuality and the sparkling, acid dialogue.

Art: Jamie McKelvie should draw all the faces. I loved his work in New Avengers and it’s gorgeous here, his women in particular: strong and bright and full of character.

But What Did I Miss?: Nothing at all, though you may as well buy the whole first trade rather than mess about issue by issue. It’s currently at 2 trades and counting and definitely feels like a graphic novel than a serial.

Would Read Issue 2?: in a heartbeat

Read it if you Like: Sex Criminals, Saga, Young Avengers.

Previously reviewed this year:

Thor #1 (2014)

Spider-Woman #1 (2014)

All-New Captain America #1 (2014)

Captain America & the Mighty Avengers #1 (2014)

S.H.I.E.L.D. #1 (2014)

The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #1 (2015)

Bitch Planet #1 (2014)

Secret Six #1 (2014)

Operation: S.I.N. #1

Spider-Gwen #1

Curb Stomp #1

Jem & the Holograms #1

Silk #1

Issue #1 – Convergence Special – Oracle, JLI, Batgirl

Issue #1 – Battleworld Special: Lady Kate, Ms America & Inferno

X-Men ’92 #1

Giant-Sized Little Marvels: AvX #1 (2015)

Runaways #1 (2015)

Loki, Agent of Asgard #1 (2014)

Fresh Romance #1

All-New Hawkeye #1

Black Canary #1

Robotech Rewatch 63: Chill City

Keep your scanner tuned to this station. Robotech is back!

This review is best consumed while humming your favourite musical number from Frozen.

EPISODE 79: Frostbite

After Rand and Lancer have made their moves, it’s finally Scott’s turn to get romantic with Marlene. (Lunk doesn’t count, because large men in Robotech are generally only allowed to have love affairs with beef steaks)

It’s a snowstorm (yes, we’re back in snow, after last week’s desert antics), so our crew are all wrapped in slankets, and attempting to slowly move their mecha via a complicated sledding arrangement. Instead of, you know, being inside the nice cozy metal suits Not surprising that the episode title is Frostbite with this kind of ridiculous cold weather behaviour. Stay inside, chaps! It’s chilly.

Rand spots a city preserved beneath the ice, and suggests they get down somehow to raid it for supplies despite Scott’s disinterest in setting up shop as an archaeologist.

The ice makes the decision for them, cracking under the weight of the Alpha and sending them all down without any injuries whatsoever.

The city, which does include massive skyscraper buildings (always the architectural style of choice underground) is running on a generator plugged into the earth’s core or something, so is warm and snuggly, plus full of delicious food and other marvels, like fully stocked bridal stores and shoe shops.

Apparently it used to be called Denver, and was evacuated shortly before the Invid invasion. (After miraculously surviving the First Robotech War, which as you might remember, included the complete irradication of all man-made cities)

Rand and the girls have a party in a convenience store, enjoying the flavour of delicious canned Vienna sausages. Mmm, gourmet.

Scott, as ever, want to make absolutely certain that no one has any fun. After the others blow him off, he gazes mournfully at a wedding dress display and remembers that his Marlene also thought he was a very boring person (she uses the term fussbudget).

Softened by the memory of his fiancee, Scott turns his romantic attentions to the alien redhead that he named after her (not creepy at all, Scott). He takes her to a department store where she spins around delightedly in heels, and he can’t tell the difference between her and his memory Marlene despite the fact that they LOOK COMPLETELY DIFFERENT. Different faces, hair colour and height. Scott, you’re an idiot.

Scott taking a romantic interest in a lady is actually worse than when he is being the fun police. It involves fake accents and a lot of blushing. Ugh, make it stop.

Squeee, I forgive everything, we now have a Minmei soundtrack!

Stage lights, flashing, the feeling’s smashing…

Rand and Rook, meanwhile, are having a way less fun date, in which he gets angry at vintage arcade games, and she yawns a lot.

Annie finds a bridal store, dresses up like a kid in her mother’s clothing, and literally throws herself at Lunk. Lancer thinks this is hilarious and photo-worthy, and not further evidence that someone needs to have a firm chat with that girl about appropriate romantic behaviour and consent issues.

Marlene and Scott continue to have awkward weird flirting interactions, and then he decides to kiss her and she starts screaming about the Invid coming which is, frankly, something of a relief.

But bad news for Denver.

Prince Corg leads the Invid attack force to make sure that no one gets to enjoy department stores ever again. There’s a whole bunch of fighting which comes to a head when Corg faces down Marlene, and her very presence appears to make his space armour go fzzt and boom. That’s a useful defensive skill you’ve got there, Marlene!

Later on, as they fly off in a vague sort of triumph – because apparently it’s okay to fly now and not to try to walk in the snow carrying their equipment on sleds – Scott finally puts together that maybe, just maybe, it’s a bit suspicious that Corg didn’t kill Marlene.

IS SHE A SPY?

EPISODE 80: Birthday Blues



It’s Annie’s birthday. Does that mean we finally get to find out how old she is?

No, it does not.

Also we’re back to desert terrain with no snow in sight. The scenery is giving me whiplash. After a bunch of fighting and sneaking through the forest, the crew hole up in an abandoned town where Lunk starts playing with a new project: Roman candles! They can’t use any of their mecha without the Invid spotting them, so have to go low-tech for a while. They’re also hoping to set off a fake protoculture signal to distract the Invid at some point.

Annie is miserable at her lack of a birthday party, reminiscing about her old life. It looks like her family had a very wealthy household, but the only family member we meet is her mother who was distant and often left her alone on her birthday.

The crew are kind of horrid, setting up an elaborate plot to surprise Annie with a party, but making her feel abandoned and miserable leading up to it which is the thing that is terrible about surprise parties always.

When they pull out the cake, Annie freaks out and runs out in tears, which is a perfectly reasonable response to being psychologically tormented by the only people in the world that you care about. But it turns out that’s just so she can wish on a star to celebrate her happiness.

I feel this sends mixed messages about surprise parties.

Annie has a wonderful party, showing off a tiny pink chiffon dress made for her by Rook (why, Rook, never knew you were so domestic). Rand insists on her kissing all the men at one point. Don’t be creepy, Rand. That’s Annie’s job.

After Annie crashes out of exhaustion and happiness, the menfolk meet outside to gossip about Marlene and whether or not she’s going to murder them all in their sleep. They think not, which seems to be grossly underestimating her.

Rand then “accidentally” spies on the girls during their communal sauna. Apparently it’s his turn to be the creepiest person in team for this entire episode?

Marlene laments that she doesn’t know her purpose in life, because of her amnesia. Annie declares that her purpose is to find a man, obviously. Like Rook has. Rook is unsettled by the idea that anything to do with Rand would be her purpose in life.

The boys set off Lunk’s Roman candles and write Annie’s happy birthday message in the sky, while simultaneously freaking out the Invid and sending them packing, for now at least.

Woo, fireworks!

The episode finishes up with Lancer singing a song about how this is the final battle. Because, I don’t know. I guess we’re getting close to wrapping up this sucker?

This weekly rewatch of classic animated space opera Robotech is brought to you as bonus content for the Musketeer Space project.

Thanks to everyone who has linked, commented, or sponsored me.

You can support the blog at Patreon.

Friday Links Can Temper Steel

I was fascinated by this article about a trans woman’s history with the art of blacksmithing – how she originally used it as a kind of ‘free masculinity points card’ to make herself seem like a less “girly/queer” teen male, but then after her transition found that it worked against her because the idea of a woman blacksmith was perceived as socially radical. Despite history. BECAUSE HISTORY, PEOPLE!

Seriously, there is a reason we don’t crowd-source history (except on Wikipedia, sigh). People always think the olden times were more gender essentialist than they actually were. And I say this having spent a year at college in a blacksmithing club with my three best (female) friends.

Octavia Butler’s book Dawn is being developed for TV – the interview with the producer covers issues to do with diversity and how badly it has often been handled in film & TV. His attitude sounds very promising, with quotes like “I think that perception in Hollywood that we have to enter from a white male perspective has been proven wrong, especially recently.”

Another vaguely promising Hollywood interview comes from Paul Weitz, writer-director of new Lily Tomlin vehicle Grandma about how he realised he was only telling stories about dudes, and is now all about telling stories about interesting women. Mostly if it means he gets to work with Lily Tomlin, who is amazing. Grandma, which is Tomlin’s first lead role in a film since 1988, is about a cranky bohemian lesbian grandmother on a road trip with her granddaughter to help her raise money for an abortion.

Amanda Palmer wrote a really important open letter/essay about how crowdfunding her art has been questioned differently now that she’s pregnant (because somehow paying an artist for their work becomes morally questionable when there’s a possibility they might spend some of the money on nappies, what the fuck) and confesses how confidence sapping it is to be combining motherhood with being an artist, and how terrifying it can be. It’s a raw, painfully honest piece and worth reading because so many women do end up in an identity crisis of sorts once they become a vessel for a new baby, and in an artistic career (where believing in yourself is an essential part of the business model) it can be devastating.

G. Willow Wilson followed up Palmer’s essay with her own anger and frustration at the ongoing myth that women can’t be creative during pregnancy or the early years of their child’s life, citing her own personal experience in a series of tweets: the work she achieved during her pregnancy and while nursing her newborn, and how she felt she had to hide it from the industry in which she worked.

Aliette De Bodard has set up a reviewing site for works by women, people of colour and other marginalised writers who might not be getting as many reviews as they should elsewhere. It’s called Those Who Run With the Wolves which is awesome. Recent reviews cover work by Andrea Hairston, Naomi Novik, Kate Elliott, Ekaterina Sedia and Marina Dyachenko.

Tricia Sullivan (whose blog is powered by bloody-mindedness, excellent title!) has written a heartfelt, resonant post about why women walk away from science fiction, and why they might be hesitant to come back. Her own experience as a writer feeling invisible in her own industry is really powerful stuff.

I’m kind of done with post-Hugo commentary now, but had to give a shout out to Lizbee’s No Award Storify from the night. I love you, No Award.

New Tropes vs Women!

3. Connie Willis & To Say Nothing of the Dog [SF Women of the 20th Century]

I first heard about Connie Willis at Aussiecon Three in 1999 – my first worldcon, held in Melbourne. I didn’t go to the Hugo ceremony, because it wasn’t something I knew anything about (I had been a published author for exactly one year, and was completely at sea about international fandom etc.) I spent the evening with my fellow Random House authors, and heard the results come in by rumour and word of mouth. Maxine McArthur, whom I’d only just met, was super excited that Connie Willis won the Best Novel Hugo for To Say Nothing Of the Dog.

(To put 1999 into context, Willis was the only female Hugo winner that year in any category, though the John W Campbell Award for Best New Writer was awarded to Nalo Hopkinson)

The following year, I went to my first Swancon, where Connie Willis was the Guest of Honour, and read aloud a chapter of her fascinating, then-in-progress novel Passage, which hooked me entirely. I bought up copies of her books over the next several conventions (until Passage came out, I never saw her on an Australian bookshop shelf) and I soon fell in love with To Say Nothing Of the Dog all on my own.

I can’t prove this, but I’m pretty sure that Connie Willis is the author who has enticed me to read or watch more popular culture than any other. She’s the reason I hunted down Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers movies, the reason I cared at all about watching It’s A Wonderful Life (to compare it to Miracle on 42nd Street), she’s the reason I know what screwball comedy means, and thanks to To Say Nothing of the Dog, she’s the reason I read Jerome K Jerome’s Three Men and a Boat and, rather more significantly for me, the entire works of Dorothy L Sayers.

To Say Nothing of the Dog is a romance, an arch comedy of manners, and one of my favourite time travel novels of all time. It’s set partly in a future which feels archaic now (as the more recent publication of Blackout/All Clear showed: a future without mobile phones or any other instant communications technology makes for a bewildering read), in which time travel is not only possible, but an academic oddity, controlled and regulated by historians.

Ned is a hapless protagonist, who has to time jump to the 1880’s to fix an emergency situation, and is ill-prepared for the subtleties of Victorian social history up close and personal. Especially when a severe case of time lag causes his personality to develop Extreme Sentimentality. Verity is a ruthlessly practical heroine, whose speciality is 1930’s detective fiction (hence the Sayers) and has highly suspicious thoughts about the butler. There’s a cat, a whole bunch of jumble sales and seances, and a bishop’s bird-stump which… could be anything, really. Hijinks ensue!

To Say Nothing of the Dog is a love letter to the Victorian era and its literary fascination with brainless aristocrats. It’s cozy and clever, with a few sharp edges along the way. It’s a wonderful place to spend time, the kind of book that deserves a lazy re-read with an endless supply of tea and cake.

It’s also, with a touch of surreal glory, dedicated “To Robert A. Heinlein, Who – in Have Space Suit, Will Travel, first introduced me to Jerome K Jerome’s Three Men in a Boat, To Say Nothing of the Dog.”

Connie explained the connection in a little more detail in an interview published in the book Giants of the Genre: “In that book, the very first chapter, the father won’t talk to Kip because he is reading Three Men in a Boat, which he has read a thousand times. So I immediately went and found the book and read it and it has always been one of my favourites.” Her book wears its influences on its sleeve and, like so many Willis stories, lures in readers to take an interest in those influences too.

Deftly light, clever and sarcastic, this novel also delves into more serious notes about time travel, the effects it might have on people and history, and the big question of what we mean by ‘history’ anyway. It’s a whodunnit where the crime is changing the time stream rather than a murder. It’s also one of Connie Willis’ most celebrated and beloved books, though readers who prefer to cry rather than laugh tend to hold to her epic The Doomsday Book instead, featuring the same conceit of time travelling historians, but 50% more likely to have you sobbing on the floor of emotional overload.

Best read with: Gaudy Night by Dorothy L Sayers. And cake.

Connie Willis has won eleven Hugo Awards and seven Nebula Awards over the course of her career, and is still going strong. She was presented with the Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award in May 2012.

SF WOMEN OF THE 20TH CENTURY is brought to you by Tansy’s supporters at Patreon.

1. Raccoona Sheldon & “The Screwfly Solution”

2. Diane Marchant & Kirk/Spock