SF at the Olympics

This article in today’s Observer annoys me in many ways. There’s the casual assumption that an intersex person who has been raised as a girl is “really” a man because some medical test says so. There’s the suggestion that Caster Semenya is only being allowed to compete (and rightly so in the eyes of the author) because she’s being forced to undergo some sort of treatment to render her less “male”. But eventually it goes way beyond this.

The main point that the author is making in this article is that some people have genetic advantages over others when it comes to sport, and that this is unfair and should not be allowed. At first sight that sounds crazy. Should we have labelled Joel Garner a “cheat” because he was taller than the average fast bowler? Then again, people have labelled Muralitharan a cheat because of his abnormal physiology.

The reason this is important, and relevant to science fiction, however, is that we are rapidly approaching the point where it will be possible to modify human embryos to add genes that are believed to lead to sporting success.

Sooner or later I’m sure there will be a version of athletics that is more akin to Formula 1, where success is very much a factor of how much effort and investment you put into the design of your equipment.

Africa in SF – The Prequel

Today I went to see the Africa in SF exhibition at the Arnolfini in Bristol. This is not my report in it. This is my post about Africa-related science fiction literature which I’m doing for the benefit of all the people who asked for my blog address afterwards. My report will probably appear on Tuesday.

A few words of explanation first. Some of these people write what appears to be fantasy, or an SF/fantasy mix. Without getting into too much theory, it is worth pointing out that a lot of apparent science fiction is fantastical because, for example, faster than light travel is supposedly impossible. Also I note Sir Arthur’s famous dictum that sufficiently advanced science is indistinguishable from magic. So I’m not worrying about distinctions here. (Regular readers, please do not derail with nitpicking over genre boundaries.)

Links in what follows are to my reviews in the case of books, and to the SF Encyclopedia for writer names.

Let’s start with Western writers who have used a future, more developed Africa as a setting. Before Ian McDonald got into the full swing of his developing economies books he wrote Evolution’s Shore and Kirinya, both set in Kenya. Mike Resnick has also written books set in Kenya, though I’ve not read them. A more recent example is Blue Remembered Earth by Alastair Reynolds.

Alternate history has also been used to imagine a more technologically sophisticated Africa. In Years of Rice and Salt Kim Stanley Robinson killed off the population of Europe and allowed human civilization to develop out of Asia and Africa, though I was disappointed that the plot merely re-told European history with the names changed. A better example is Jon Courtenay Grimwood‘s Pashazade series (Pashazade, Effendi and Fellahin) which does away with the First World War, allowing Grimwood to write cyberpunk thrillers set in a near future North Africa that is protected by the still extant Ottoman Empire.

There are many African American writers publishing SF&F, though most of their output is more fantasy-focused and often relates more to the American part of their heritage than the African. Some examples are Samuel R. Delany, Nisi Shawl, Andrea Hairston, David Anthony Durham and N.K. Jemisin.

Caribbean writers have produced some interesting science fiction. Good examples are Midnight Robber by Nalo Hopkinson and the Xenowealth series by Tobias S. Buckell (Crystal Rain, Ragamuffin, Sly Mongoose).

Moving on to Africa itself, two women writers have had notable recent success. Lauren Beukes, who lives in Cape Town, won the Arthur C. Clarke Award with Zoo City, though Moxyland is a more obviously science fictional take on South Africa. Nnedi Okorafor was raised in the US but her parents are Nigerian and she still keeps close contact with that country. Most of her books are set in Africa. Zharah the Windseeker won the Wole Soyinka Prize for Africa Literature, while Who Fears Death won the World Fantasy Award.

A useful source of what is going on with science fiction in Africa today is the Afrocyberpunk blog maintained by Jonathan Dotse from Ghana.

Science fiction is also written in languages other than English. Pierre Gevart, the editor of Galaxies magazine, tells me that he has received submissions from Francophone writers in Africa. Egypt has a thriving SF community writing in Arabic. Utopia by Ahmed Khaled Towfik was recently published in English translation.

There are bound to be other examples that I have forgotten or missed, so if the hive mind would like to contribute by all means comment below.

New International SF Website

Via the good folks at the World SF Blog, I have discovered a new website devoted to science fiction from non-Anglophone countries: International Speculative Fiction. Run by Portguese fan, Roberto Mendes, it aims to publish stories by non-Anglophone writers, primarily in English translation. It will also publish articles and interviews focused on SF from non-Anglophone countries. Roberto has no revenue as yet, so he can’t pay, but most of us are in that boat. Here’s hoping that it is very successful.

Science Fiction and Technology – A Partnership?

My science writer friend, Jon Turney, has a very cool project underway. NESTA, an investment think tank, has commissioned him to examine the relationship between science fiction and technology. Basically they want to know whether science fiction has an influence on technological innovation, and if so how this works. My guess is that this project has its origins in Neil Gaiman’s comments about Chinese science fiction conventions at the British Library last year, and Damien Walter’s subsequent article here. I think Damien may have done a Guardian piece on the subject.

Anyway, Jon has asked me to help out. Some of you will have already heard from me, and I’m grateful to Farah and Edward for letting me browse their library while I was in London the other week. If this is of interest, please take a look at Jon’s blog and see what he is looking for. We do have some fairly specific requirements, and we do need evidence, not opinions.

If you have experience of working in an environment where science fiction has had an influence technological development then we’d love to hear from you. (And I know some of you work for people like Google, Linden Labs and NASA.)

I’m also looking for reading recommendations. Things like Francis Spufford’s The Backroom Boys, which examine the history of technology, come to mind. And of course we want specific examples of science fiction ideas that have influenced technology. We are making a particular case study of robots, and there are obvious examples such as satellites and space elevators. I’d like to find some other examples. And I’m looking for academic studies of robot stories.

If you are an SF writer you’ll probably be getting email from me in the coming months. I promise that answering it won’t be too onerous, unless you want to do more.

Please note that while this is a UK-based project we are not limiting ourselves to looking at the UK. Indeed, the question as to whether there are cultural differences that affect the way that SF and technology work together is one we may address.

Another Crowdsourced Project

Crowdsourcing is quickly becoming the preferred method of financing small press anthologies. I mentioned a couple of worthwhile Kickstarter projects last month. Now here’s something new. As it is based outside of the US it is running on Peerbackers, because Kickstarter is US-only, but other than that the idea is the same.

We See a Different Frontier is an issue of The Future Fire than will be guest-edited by my friend Fábio Fernandes. The theme of the issue will be Colonialism, and Fábio talks about the ideas behind it here. He’s doing a fund raiser because he wants to be able to pay professional rates for original fiction (a budget of around $250 per story). You can find out more about the project, and donate, here.

Some Linkage

There was no bloggery yesterday as I was in London all day. That may turn into a project of some sort, but I won’t know for a while. Now I’m catching up. Here are a few stories of interest.

Locus has launched a Kickstarter project to help digitize the vast collection of SF-related photos and ephemera that the magazine has collected over the years. Jonathan talks about it here. Please help if you can.

Yesterday Niall Harrison posted an analysis of gender breakdowns in SF&F reviewing from 2011. There are a couple of things that particularly interest me about it. Firstly I see that the number of books received by Locus in 2011 from US publishers are split roughly 50:50 between men and women, whereas books received from UK publishers included twice as many books by men than by women. Obviously there are caveats on the data, but that’s such a startling result that it has to be significant. Secondly I’m interested to know what criteria were used to select the venues for inclusion.

Via Monica Roberts I learn that a massive public outcry has forced Miss Universe Canada to change its mind and re-admit Jenna Talackova to the contest. Of course this is a classic example of how trans rights are taken much more seriously if the trans people in question are lucky enough to conform very obviously to the gender binary, but at least one trans woman is getting a chance to live her dream, and one more piece of discrimination has been swept away.

Finally a rather old post (from 2000), but one I only learned about today. It is a survey of stories from abortion clinics about the attitudes of openly anti-abortion women to whom they have provided services. Here’s a taster:

I have done several abortions on women who have regularly picketed my clinics, including a 16 year old schoolgirl who came back to picket the day after her abortion, about three years ago. During her whole stay at the clinic, we felt that she was not quite right, but there were no real warning bells. She insisted that the abortion was her idea and assured us that all was OK. She went through the procedure very smoothly and was discharged with no problems. A quite routine operation. Next morning she was with her mother and several school mates in front of the clinic with the usual anti posters and chants. It appears that she got the abortion she needed and still displayed the appropriate anti views expected of her by her parents, teachers, and peers.

That example was from Australia. There are others from the USA, Canada and The Netherlands.

Telling your Highs from your Epics

Yesterday the #FeministSF chat on Twitter was looking at Epic Fantasy, in particular whether it is possible to have an Epic Fantasy that isn’t all about war. During the discussion someone asked what the difference is between “Epic Fantasy” and “High Fantasy”. No one had an easy answer at the time, and anyway it isn’t the sort of thing that lends itself easily to 140 characters. However, shortly thereafter I had dinner with Farah Mendlesohn and Edwards James, so I asked them for an opinion.

Before getting on to their responses, I should note that Wikipedia has an entry for High Fantasy. It isn’t very helpful as it starts of by equating High and Epic Fantasy. However, it does provide an alternative definition, which I will return to in due course.

In search of a definitive answer, Edward reached for Gary K. Wolfe’s Critical Terms for Science Fiction and Fantasy. This book dates back to 1986, and Gary admits that it is a bit out of date, but it is an excellent starting point. Gary’s definition references an ur-text: The Fantastic Imagination: An Anthology of High Fantasy, published in 1977. In their introduction the editors, Robert H. Boyer and Kenneth J. Zahorski, describe High Fantasy as fantasy set in a secondary world, as opposed to Low Fantasy which is set in our world.

Edward, Farah and I all agreed that this was a fairly useless definition as it bears no relation to how the term is used today. It is a useful categorization when looking at the structure of fantastic stories, but the term High Fantasy has always seemed to me to be more about the subject matter of the story, not about structural devices. Interestingly, however, The Encyclopedia of Fantasy (1997) also uses this definition. As I am in London at the moment, I will try to make time to talk to Mr. Clute about this.

Anyway, onwards. Farah suggested a political definition. That is, High Fantasy is all about the doings of royalty and the nobility, while Low Fantasy is all about ordinary people. That’s in interesting option, though my immediate thought was of The Lord of the Rings. Clearly there are kings and queens involved, but the central story has very deliberately been made about ordinary people — the Hobbits — who have been caught up in these momentous events.

My own preferred definition, which is cited in the Wikipedia article, is that High Fantasy concerns itself with the battle between Good and Evil, whereas Low Fantasy eschews such moral absolutism. I guess that’s a sort of theological definition.

What, then, of Epic Fantasy. Wolfe and Clute are in agreement here that Epic Fantasy must share some of the attributes of the Epic — that is, a lengthy prose poem dealing with the exploits of great heroes, and often of the foundation of a nation. Both men bemoan the fact that the term has become somewhat debased thanks to the habits of marketing people who have used the word “epic” to mean simply “very good” or even just “very long”. Epic fail, perhaps. Clute in particular is keen to distinguish the Epic from Heroic Fantasy or Sword & Sorcery. That is, many fantasy stories deal with the adventures of great heroes but, unless those characters cast a shadow on history thanks to their involvement in great events, their stories cannot be described as Epic.

It seems fairly obvious to me that while a High Fantasy (regardless of your definition) can be Epic in scale, it is not necessarily so. As to the original question, it seems to me that it would be quite hard to write a story that covers momentous historical events and significant social change without involving conflict of some sort, and at the very least the threat of war by some of those involved. A Feminist version thereof could not hope to avoid the topic of war. All it could do is show that war is neither the first, only or best recourse in such circumstances. I recommended the work of Laurie Marks and Glenda Larke.

A Trip to Manchester

Yesterday afternoon I headed up to Manchester, and in the evening gave a talk to the local trans group. Manchester has a very well-organized and active LGBT community. It is a very inclusive group as well, as far as I can see. The city is the host to the annual Sparkle festival, the UK’s national trans festival. And the organization I went to see, the Trans Resource and Empowerment Centre, has space in the Lesbian & Gay Foundation‘s offices in the city center.

As befits an organization whose name abbreviates to TREC, the Manchester folks took kindly to a talk about science fiction. I was made extremely welcome, and even the folks there who said they didn’t read SF were very polite about the talk. Afterwards we went off to a nearby pub called, rather appropriately, The Molly House, where I discovered lots of beers I’d never heard of before.

Anyone from Manchester looking for the list of books mentioned, you can find it here. I also added the following:

The Schrödinger’s Cat trilogy by Robert Anton Wilson.

The Drowning Girl by Caitlín R. Kiernan.

Also if the lady who asked about Marxist SF writers should happen to drop by, I recommend China Miéville, Ken MacLeod and Kim Stanley Robinson.

This morning I did a quick tour around the city center taking photos. They turned out to be mainly graffiti, statuary and trains.

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Triton Fly-By

On Friday I’ll be giving a talk on trans characters in SF&F to a trans group in Manchester. It will be pretty much the same as the one I gave in Bristol, but I’ve been thinking quite a bit about Samuel Delany’s Triton and I’d like to know what other people made of it. Inevitably this post is spoilery, hence the fold.
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Leading Ladies

Ian Sales has an interesting project on his blog today. He’s putting together a list of SF books that are told exclusively from the point of view of female protagonists. There are actually quite a lot, and pleasingly a few by male writers. If you are looking for reading ideas, click here and see what’s available.

Women in SF: Chicken or Egg?

The UK has an excellent resource for women writers called Mslexia. It is always full of interesting advice for writers. Up until recently it is has been pretty crap as far as SF&F is concerned, but even that has changed. I saw my friend Juliet McKenna in there a while back, and they have Rhian Bowley blogging for them on SF&F issues now.

Why do I mention this now? Well last year the featured topic for their writing competition was “In the year 2212”. I sent something off to make sure that they got a decent level of response. I had no expectations of getting it published — you all know how crap my fiction is — but I figured that it was important that they knew people were interested.

Well, the rejection letter arrived today, and right up front it says, “We were disappointed that our postbag was so lean for this topic…”

*headdesk*

What can you do? Mslexia has concluded, “it seems women are less interested in this subject matter then in other themes.” Maybe they are right. Maybe women writers in the UK know how little chance they have of getting published writing SF so they don’t bother, even in women-only spaces. Either way, the end result will be that Mslexia will be discouraged about doing SF-related features in future, and the lack of them will discourage their readers from being interested in SF. It’s a feedback system, locked into a downward spiral. I wish I knew how to break out of it.

The Truth About The Gender Industry

Yesterday’s Daily Malice contained a lengthy article purporting to expose the evils of Britain’s “Gender Industry”. Unfortunately, as is common for the Malice, their journalists knew very little about the subject and got much of it wrong. In particular they fingered the Portman and Tavistock Clinics as leaders of this industry, when in trans communities this organization is known as deeply conservative and often acting in ways directly opposed to the interests of trans people. For an example, in 2002 a group of their staff wrote to the Daily Telegraph as follows:

The recent judgment in the European Court of Human Rights, in which a post-operative transsexual person was granted permission to marry in his adopted gender role, is a victory of fantasy over reality.

If there is someone that these people deem worthy of treatment, you can bet that the case is very clear cut.

The reality of care for trans people is very different. There are probably a few surgeons who make good money, though I’m guessing less than they could get in more glamorous specializations. Organizations that care for trans people are often heavily dependent on charity, which in turn relies on actual trans people for donations, and they are chronically underemployed. Medical professionals are constantly at risk of being hit with malpractice suits from conservative colleagues should they be deemed guilty of treating trans people with compassion and respect.

Of course the British people, and indeed concerned persons all around the world, do need to know more about this clandestine and hugely profitable gender industry. I have therefore taken it upon myself to indulge in a little investigative journalism. Here is the awful truth of how cunning trans people have made fortunes by replacing “real” men and women with “fakes” in work that does not conform to traditional gender stereotypes.

One of the first gender entrepreneurs in the UK was Roz Kaveney. A struggling journalist and aspiring writer, Kaveney was introduced by her friend, Neil Gaiman, to an equally ambitious American screenwriter called Joss Whedon. Whedon had a plan to create a TV series based around the cult movie, Buffy the Vampire Slayer. However, he was unable to persuade any Hollywood actresses to star in the series. They felt that taking the role of a kick-ass, vampire-killing heroine would be damaging to their public images, and to their long-term careers. Whedon therefore asked Kaveney to supply a group of trans women to act in the series.

When Buffy became a surprise hit, Kaveney was suddenly in great demand in Hollywood. Every studio wanted a similar series, and Kaveney’s company, Trans R Us, was the leading supplier of suitable actresses. Kaveney’s products later went on to star in TV series such as Alias, and in movies such as the Underworld and Resident Evil series.

Her commercial success allowed Kaveney to return to her first love, writing. Realizing that no self-respecting “real” woman would write romance novels featuring kick-ass, monster-killing heroines, she began to write novels featuring characters similar to Buffy. The idea took off, and soon Kaveney found books by her pen names, including Laurell K. Hamilton, Carrie Vaughn and Kim Harrison were becoming best-sellers. Pretty much all of the early output of the paranormal romance and urban fantasy genres was penned by Kaveney herself. However, despite her success, women writers were willing to follow her example for fear of a public backlash, or being blacklisted by published who deemed their work insufficiently feminine. Unable to find suitable talent within the trans community, Kaveney hired a number of male ghost writers to write her books for her. Successful authors such as Tim Pratt, Daniel Abrahams, Ian McDonald, Sean Williams and John Scalzi all got their start ghost writing for Kaveney.

Although Kaveney is believed to be the first British trans woman to become a millionaire through her business interests, her wealth and fame is far eclipsed by that of the health industry mogul, Christine Burns. Around 2004 the Blair government began to run into problems recruiting staff for the National Health Service. Their program of gender equality in education had been so successful that all young women studying medicine now wanted to be doctors rather than nurses. Unfortunately a high profile study by the Royal College of Psychiatry had proved conclusively that male hospital patients are unlikely to recover successfully unless they have pretty young women to look after them. The shortage of female nurses looked set to result in a major health crisis.

Some of the shortage was made up through immigration, but Burns approached the government with the idea of transforming aspiring young male nurses into women. The idea proved very effective in solving the nurse shortage, and Burns was awarded an MBE for her services to the NHS. Indeed, so successful has she become that other companies in the UK health sector poured millions of pounds into Conservative Party coffers in the hope that they could win an election and put a stop to Burns. The NHS reforms championed by Andrew Lansley are the end result of this campaign. NHS staff, many of whom owe their jobs to Burns, are vociferously opposing the reforms. It remains to be seen whether Burns’ commercial empire will survive the assault.

Gender entrepreneurs have been successful in many other walks of British life. For example, the entertainment industry has long held that women simply aren’t funny. In any case, feminists have no sense of humor so there would be no sense in catering to them by providing women comedians. However, the general trend in society towards equal rights did require at least a semblance of balance. As a consequence, Bethany Black has built a substantial business out of supplying trans women comics, including Ellen De Generes, French & Saunders, and Jo Brand. You didn’t think they could be that funny if they were “real” women, did you, people?

The gender industry has been much slower on the uptake when it came to trans men, but one notable business has been built in sports. Back in 2006, Delia Smith was worried about the poor performance of her Norwich City football club. An internal enquiry had identified that a major problem was the team’s yellow shirts. They were deemed “too girly”, and as a consequence top flight players were unwilling to join the club. The enquiry recommended a change of strip, but Smith is a committed traditionalist who was unwilling to abandon not only the club’s colors, but also their nickname of The Canaries. Even the club badge would have to be changed. She turned instead to gender entrepreneur, Juliet Jacques, herself a life-long Norwich fan, and asked her if she could turn top quality female players into men.

The project took a long time to bear fruit. Amongst the teething problems was the fact that large doses of testosterone made trans men prone to fits of anger and violence. Some early models such as Robbie Savage and Joey Barton have become notorious for their poor disciplinary records. Eventually, however, the years of research paid off and Norwich is once again back near the top of the Premiership.

Meanwhile, determined to make the best of her initial failures, Jacques tried selling some of her early models to rugby clubs. This proved ideal, and although rugby is a much less wealthy sport it provided a healthy income for Jacques and her company. At one point she supplied the entire squad of the top Parisian team, Stade Français. This deal came to an end thanks to events in Italy.

In 2010 a newspaper owned by a rival media company exposed the fact that all of the prostitutes at one of Prime Minister Berlusconi’s famous orgies were actually trans women supplied by wealthy Italian gender entrepreneur, Vladimir Luxuria. As part of the fall-out from this, it was revealed that the Italian rugby captain, Sergio Parisse, a Stade Français player, was actually a trans man. The scandal spread back to France, and the Parisian club ended their deal with Jacques. The team has languished in the lower reaches of the French league ever since.

The gender industry is by no means confined to Europe. Indeed, it is currently playing a major role in US Politics. Back in 1998, Newt Gingrich was scouring Hollywood for a rugged, right-wing actor who could be groomed to be the next Ronald Reagan. Arnold Schwarzenegger was ineligible due to being foreign-born, and Gingrich found the majority of male Hollywood stars — people like Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio — to be a bunch of effeminate metrosexuals entirely unsuited for political office. Then he met up with gender entrepreneur, Calpernia Addams, and American politics changed forever.

The project was put on a back burner during the Shrub Presidency, and when it was revived early attempts to produce potential female candidates from right-wing males proved disastrous. The subjects were unable to successfully integrate their new female identities with the level of misogyny required of them. Projects such as Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann were notable failures. However, Addams then came up with a new idea. Combining the successful work of Juliet Jacques on trans men with the assistance of top quality Hollywood cosmetic surgeons and make-up artists, she began to develop a series of trans male replicants. These could take the place of under-performing Republican politicians and push the party line that Gingrich wanted. Products such as Rick Perry, Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum have proved very successful with Republican voters in recent months.

Unusually Gingrich, who had tired of the hurly-burly of political life, also opted to have himself replaced by a replicant. His new career as mild-mannered investment consultant, “Bernie Madoff”, went very well until his business ran into trouble during the recent financial crisis. The real Gingrich has therefore been forced to watch from jail as his trans replicant hits the presidential campaign trail.

The hot young talent in the gender industry is Paris Lees. Tall and slender herself, Lees quickly realized that the standard shape for catwalk models doesn’t work for women. They simply don’t have, well, shape. So Lees began a modelling agency for trans women. Her initial products, Lea T and Andrej Pejić, have been hugely successful. Given Lees’ energy and business acumen, it seems likely that she’ll be the major supplier of catwalk models for years to come.

There have long been rumors in fandom that I am fantastically wealthy, and I can now reveal that much of my income has come from a burgeoning business in gender derivatives. The idea is deceptively simple. Rich couples are able to take out an option on the gender of future children. If a pregnancy turns out to be for a child different from what they wanted, the option pays out and they can afford gender reassignment surgery. Some of my customers have instead opted to have the unwanted child adopted, and to choose a new child of their own. This has led me to become close friends with prominent people in the celebrity adoption industry such as Madonna and Angelina Jolie. Many of my best clients come from European royal families. Indeed, Kevin and I will be attending the Monaco Grand Prix in style this year. Look out for us in the Royal Box during the trophy presentation.

Thanks to my interests in the gender industry, I am now financially secure and able to indulge in a little philanthropy. I have decided to help out the campaign for gender equality in the science fiction and fantasy community. It is well known that no “real” man would ever give up his place on a panel in favor of a woman. However, by licensing the trans replicant technology from Calpernia Addams, and severely toning down the testosterone doses, my staff have managed to create a range of male writer replicants with an interest in gender equality. As you might have guessed, one of our first products is Paul Cornell.

Unfortunately the real Paul Cornell didn’t take kindly to being replaced. He has converted to Catholicism and is currently studying at a remote monastery in the Calabrian Mountains in Southern Italy. He is a member of a new militant order of Catholic monks founded by Pope Ratty and financed by Berlusconi and prominent Mafia leaders. Penis Dei is devoted to saving the world from the Transgender Menace by hunting down trans people and selling their stories to British tabloid newspapers. Their headquarters are believed to be in Ireland, where they disguise themselves as mild-mannered, fun-loving bookmakers.

I would like to thank Julie Bindel and her tireless colleagues at the pressure group, Trans Empire Watch, for their help in preparing this article.

The management accepts that certain details presented in this article may be somewhat less than entirely factual, but they have been retained for artistic effect. We assert that the Truthiness quotient of this article is no less than that of some articles about trans people published by the Daily Malice. Furthermore we assert that, in the world of the UK’s tabloid newspapers, the concept of “truth” is entirely fungible and often used to indicate that the material in question is entirely made up.

Calling London

There is an interesting event happening in London on March 1st that people who can be there of an evening might like to attend. My futurologist friend Jon Turney is involved in a discussion panel at UCL entitled “Science fiction, science future: A conversation about what’s around the corner”. Details are as follows: Date: 1 March | Time: 6pm | Location: JZ Young Theatre, Anatomy Building, University College London, Gower Street, WC1E 6BT | Price: Free – there is no need to book. For further information, see Jon’s blog.

UK Government OKs Sex Ed. Guide Based on Gor Book

From the department of “you couldn’t make it up”…

In theory the UK has an Equality Act that bans discrimination against people on the grounds of their sexuality. In practice, of course, homophobic organizations (mostly religious) will do anything they can to get around this, and some Tory ministers are only to happy to help them.

As The Guardian reports today, Catholic faith schools in Lancashire have been handing out copies of a booklet called “Pure Manhood: How to become the man God wants you to be”, written by an American fundamentalist preacher. The booklet includes statements like this: “the homosexual act is disordered, much like contraceptive sex between heterosexuals. Both acts are directed against God’s natural purpose for sex – babies and bonding.” It also insists that, “scientifically speaking, safe sex is a joke”.

Trade unionists have complained to the Education Minister, Michael Gove, that the booklet is homophobic and should be banned, but Gove insists that school curriculums are exempt from the Equality Act, and that consequently schools are free to teach any sort of bigoted nonsense they want.

Weird ideas about sex, however, are not the only strange things in the booklet. All sorts of aspects of macho-ness are explored, including the need for real men to kill animals to prove their virility. There is a particularly bizarre passage about how to kill a wolf by sacrificing a goat. I won’t go into the gory details. The important point is that, as this blog post reveals, that piece of text was lifted from the book Beasts of Gor by John Norman.

So, I ask you, would you want your children taught about sex from a booklet written by someone who gets his ideas from Gor novels? Apparently Mr. Gove thinks that’s OK.

Time To Go Gaming?

Most of the time I am reasonably happy that just reading books is keeping me up with cutting edge developments in science fiction. Certainly film and TV seem mostly to be following the curve. But I always worry that I might be missing out on something, and this article suggests that I really ought to get back into video games.

I have heard a lot of good things about Mass Effect before, specifically the fact that Commander Shepard can be played as either male or female with ease. However, the article suggests that Bioware’s game designers are a lot more sophisticated than just worrying about gender.

Sadly I have two problems. Firstly I own neither a PS3 nor an XBox, and I suspect that my PCs are all inadequate for game playing. Also, my hand-eye coordination is so poor that any sort of action game is pretty much closed to me. So I suspect I would be wasting my money on the game. Can anyone comment?

Ireland v. Aliens

No, this is nothing to do with the Six Nations rugby tournament. The tireless James Bacon has emailed to let me know that there is an Irish science fiction TV show in development. What’s happening is that RTÉ, the national broadcaster, is running a contest for budding program makers. It is called Storyland, and what happens is that the competing programs post short “webisodes” online for people to vote on. The winning series gets help with filming. You can find out more about it here.

Now it so happens that one of the eight projects competing this year is an SF series in which Earth has been conquered by aliens and Ireland (well, a small part of Ireland) is fighting back. Naturally Irish fandom would like help voting up the series so that they can have their own SF TV series. It looks like you have to be on Facebook to vote, which is pretty sucky, but I suspect that most of you are anyway. To vote, or just to view the webisodes of Victory, click here.

Personally I love the fact that the alien spacecraft looks a bit like a giant crucifix if you see it from the right angle.

Science Fiction in Egypt

The Arabic Literature (In English) blog has an interesting post up today that lists several recent Egyptian novels with an SFnal theme (only one of which is currently available in translation) and also reports from the opening of an art exhibition that mixes Egyptian and SF styles.

And that reminds me that the SF&F Translation Awards have added some new prizes to their fund-raising draw, including signed books from George R.R. Martin. Details here.

Science Fiction Food

As I have been talking a lot about haggis this week it seems only appropriate to terrify you all a little bit more with a couple of links about science fictional food.

First up, the excellent Peggy Kolm has a post up on Science in My Fiction explaining why food pills, the staple diet of so many SF heroes of the past, are not a good idea.

The title of Peggy’s post mentions Soylent Green, but the post doesn’t say much about it. That honor goes to Eugene Byrne who provides an excellent explanation as to why cannibalism may become very fashionable in the near future.

Now, wouldn’t you rather be eating haggis?