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
Daren Walker
asked
Ann Leckie:
Hi Ann. I hope you and your family had a good Christmas and new year! Just a quick question - are you at the point yet where you know what your next novel is going to about? If so, any idea on a time frame for when you expect it to be published? I was just mulling over what novels I'm looking forward to in 2016, and I wondered whether I'd have the pleasure of reading your next novel this year.
heartmint
asked
Ann Leckie:
It's implied in Ancillary Sword that nuclear families and unrequited love (and therefore strict monogamy) are not really things that the Radchaii concern themselves with. Could you elaborate a bit on that? Are romantic/sexual relationships generally casual? Are there usually more than two adults raising children together?
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