Luke Johnson
asked
Ann Leckie:
What influenced your decision to use she/her/herself as the 'default' pronouns for the Radchaai?
Ann Leckie
There were a lot of thoughts that went into the decision--my (and presumably the majority of my potential readers') unfamiliarity with the various gender-neutral pronouns that have so far been proposed was one. I do think it would be good for those to be used more in fiction in general, though. I would love to see them used more.
And while "they" is a perfectly good gender-neutral singular pronoun, the potential confusion when you're dealing with multi-bodied people is enormous.
I also had been thinking a lot about the concept of the masculine default--when it comes to pronouns that's often expressed as "the masculine embraces the feminine," as though "he" could somehow actually be gender-neutral. It can't, of course. And using "she" in that way to a certain extent points that out, in a way that's less easy to see when you're using the standard default as though it's neutral. The drawback of course is that "she" can't be gender-neutral either. But really, any choice I made was going to have problems, and I was going to have to own whatever drawbacks my particular choice came with.
And of course the question of how Ursula K LeGuin handled pronouns in The Left Hand of Darkness was on my mind. That was definitely something I thought about.
And while "they" is a perfectly good gender-neutral singular pronoun, the potential confusion when you're dealing with multi-bodied people is enormous.
I also had been thinking a lot about the concept of the masculine default--when it comes to pronouns that's often expressed as "the masculine embraces the feminine," as though "he" could somehow actually be gender-neutral. It can't, of course. And using "she" in that way to a certain extent points that out, in a way that's less easy to see when you're using the standard default as though it's neutral. The drawback of course is that "she" can't be gender-neutral either. But really, any choice I made was going to have problems, and I was going to have to own whatever drawbacks my particular choice came with.
And of course the question of how Ursula K LeGuin handled pronouns in The Left Hand of Darkness was on my mind. That was definitely something I thought about.
More Answered Questions
Mattison
asked
Ann Leckie:
I've really enjoyed your writing in the Imperial Radch series, both the eloquence of it and how you manage to put in interesting bits about relationship dynamics and ethical decisions in an unjust world without breaking the story. So I'm very happy to hear there will be another book in that universe. I was wondering if you'd decided when the story line will occur, concurrent with existing novels, before or after?
Hailey
asked
Ann Leckie:
On the reddit AMA, you mentioned a book written by a woman who became convinced she did not exist, in reference to identity and ancillary-related mental states. You didn't recall the woman's name in the thread, but I would love to know the title/woman's name if you think of it again? Thanks so much! (PS Ancillary Mercy is AMAZING)
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