#science fiction and fantasy

slumbermancer:

slumbermancer:

slumbermancer:

there needs to be a programming language that uses “THUS” as some kind of keyword or operator

like i cant think of any genuine use cases for something like this, because i haven’t given it more than 3 seconds of thought 

i just made a typo while doing this android assignment & thought it would be extremely funny to have a language let you say “AND THUS CURRENTLY_IN_USE IS TRUE”

HERE LURKS THE PUBLIC RITE, “SET_DESCRIPTION”
WITH NO KNOWN RETURN.
BEGIN!

• SO IT IS KNOWN: THE STRING, “DESCRIPTION”, SHALL APPEAR.
  
• AND THUS: MY “DESCRIPTION” IS NOW “DESCRIPTION”.

THUS ENDS THE RITE, “SET_DESCRIPTION”.

You know what this reminds me of? The Young Wizards Series by Diane Duane. 

Because you know, it’s technically fantasy, and the kids are “Wizards” who do “Wizardry”, but Wizardry in that setting is like…basically just taking some energy/power from themselves to fuel it but then using what can only really be summed up as ~the source code~ of the universe (known as The Speech) to reprogram it.

Has anybody tagged @dduane in this yet lol

Previously, I talked about the linguistic and racialized gaps in fantasy worlds, specifically with respect to the construction of magic and magic systems. I’ve been pondering a lot about that still: how do we emancipate magic? Do we racebend, as in the case of a Desi Harry Potter? Do we rewrite histories to reflect the diversities of lived experiences across the world? Or do we still yet create new worlds of our own where Whiteness (and the Western world) is not the baseline for existence?

To be clear, I think it’s probably all three, happening simultaneously. In a chapter discussing the existence of a racebent Hermione who is Black, Elizabeth Ebony Thomas says:

“Today’s readers are using the tools of social media to make meanings that are not just independent of authorial intent but that can also deliberately contradict it—which is to say that meaning itself is in the process of becoming outsourced and jointly imagined.”

EBONY THOMAS, ELIZABETH. “HERMIONE IS BLACK: A POSTSCRIPT TO HARRY POTTER AND THE CRISIS OF INFINITE DARK FANTASTIC WORLDS.” IN THE DARK FANTASTIC: RACE AND THE IMAGINATION FROM HARRY POTTER TO THE HUNGER GAMES, 156. NEW YORK: NYU PRESS, 2019.

The idea of crowdsourcing meaning is endlessly fascinating and amusing to me; fan communities have been doing it long before it became a mainstream process. However, as often as queer readings are crowdsourced in fandoms, racialized readings are still marginalized to a large extent.

As Thomas says:

“While the production of transformative fanwork and vigorous discussion show that fans are invested in alternate worlds, there is a vast gulf between the acceptance of slash celebrating homosexual relationships between White cisgender male characters and the disdain for racial and ethnic diversity in many fan communities. This shows that not all alterities are created equal and creates an ontological dilemma that must be reconciled.”

EBONY THOMAS, ELIZABETH. “HERMIONE IS BLACK: A POSTSCRIPT TO HARRY POTTER AND THE CRISIS OF INFINITE DARK FANTASTIC WORLDS.” IN THE DARK FANTASTIC: RACE AND THE IMAGINATION FROM HARRY POTTER TO THE HUNGER GAMES, 157. NEW YORK: NYU PRESS, 2019.

Fandom, I think, is at a crossroads in some ways; reconciling this ontological dilemma can be as simple and as complex as recasting Hermione as Black. It involves admitting that fandom has a racism problem, and decolonizing not just fan spaces, but the fannish, participatory self as well.

“But ultimately, emancipating the dark fantastic requires decolonizing our fantasies and our dreams. It means liberating magic itself. For resolving the crisis of race in our storied imagination has the potential to make our world anew.”

EBONY THOMAS, ELIZABETH. “HERMIONE IS BLACK: A POSTSCRIPT TO HARRY POTTER AND THE CRISIS OF INFINITE DARK FANTASTIC WORLDS.” IN THE DARK FANTASTIC: RACE AND THE IMAGINATION FROM HARRY POTTER TO THE HUNGER GAMES, 169. NEW YORK: NYU PRESS, 2019.

I’ve been thinking a lot about magic this week.

As an SFF writer (both in fandom and outside of it), almost all of my work involves building fantastical worlds and magical systems that are both realistic and believable. Systems in fiction more often than not depict systems in real life. “Magic” for me, as an urbanized and educated kid growing up in the Global South has translated to what can be captured within the confines of the English language—spells from Harry Potter or rituals from Supernatural,which draw their linguistic roots from Latin and the Judeo-Christian tradition.

In the introduction to The Dark Fantastic—Race and the Imagination from Harry Potter to the Hunger Games, Elizabeth Ebony Thomas describes the lack of diversity in popular fantasy media for kids as an “imagination gap”, created by the lack of diversity in childhood experiences and teen lives depicted in kids’ media. She goes on to further argue that

“[w]hen youth grow up without seeing diverse images in the mirrors, windows and doors of children’s and young adult literature, they are confined to single stories about the world around them and ultimately, the development of their imaginations is affected.”

EBONY THOMAS, ELIZABETH. “INTRODUCTION.” IN THE DARK FANTASTIC: RACE AND THE IMAGINATION FROM HARRY POTTER TO THE HUNGER GAMES, 1-14. NEW YORK: NYU PRESS, 2019.

For me, this imagination gap has often manifested itself in a linguistic gap—one that has Othered me and my work, both within my own culture and that of the larger tradition of fantasy writing. English is a poor language to write in; it doesn’t make space for non-white vernacularisms very easily. And magic already exists in my culture—English just calls it “exotic”.

What are some of the racialized imagination gaps you have experienced? How is “magic” perceived within your fandom spaces?

Hi, I’m Meredith! I write lgbt+ science fiction/fantasy and romance, and as you may have heard,  my publisher has, tragically, closed.  In the time since then, my wife Aveline and I have been hard at work getting everything back up as self-published work, and while it’s not all up yet, it’s getting there!

The following books are back up and available for purchase as ebooks (paperbacks not yet available)!

• Smoke Signals (Urban fantasy, romance, M/M, dragon, billionaire) - A harried CSR for a games distributor gets put in charge of the video game collection of a grumpy and self-centered billionaire who is a literal dragon. At least the dragon is cute… in an apex predator sort of way. Includes soft cats, cooking shows, and knitting! Fun and upbeat.-Buy here
• Beauty and Cruelty (Urban fantasy, romance, F/F (side M/M and F/M/F)) - The Evil Fairy joins Sleeping Beauty in her (kind of meta) plan to save their people. Fairy tale endings? In THIS economy? Featuring Woke Beauty, polyamorous swans, & people caught in a capital-S Story. Upbeat & adventurous. (Rainbow Awards 2016 Winner Best Lesbian Debut; 2nd place Best Lesbian Fantasy Romance.) - Buy here
  
• Empty Vessels (Paranormal, urban fantasy, romance, M/M, polyamorous, eerie) - A psychic young man knows he has to overcome his anxieties to protect the local monsters from something terrifying lurking in the night. Along the way, he finds romance in unlikely places, between the ghost that keeps him company and the deer-antlered man running the mysterious antique shop. Monster kissing, flirty horned boys, mindscapes, and creepy dolls. Now with new cover by @rubydart​!  -Buy here
• The Cybernetic Tea Shop (Retrofuture sci-fi, romance, asexual homoromantic F/F) - A mechanic with a bad case of wanderlust meets a homebound robot stuck in the past. In accepting the things they cannot change and finding the courage to change the ones they can, both of them need to understand what it means to ‘move on’.  Tea, AI, and kindness. Soft and warm.-Buy here
• Only Human (Paranormal, romance, zombies but not gross, necromancy, M/M) - When an excitable human nerd gets hit with a necromantic curse, he finds himself getting close to his doctor’s receptionist, a kindly frankensteinian zombie with body issues. It’ll definitely take some communication to make this unusual relationship work. Coffee shop dates, curses, would-be mystery writers, and fans loving fans! Sweet and steamy.-Buy here
• How Saeter Robbed the Underworld (Fantasy, mythology, romance, M/M, trickster) - After a hard day, a young man’s fathers tell him a strangely relevant story about messy relationship between two demigods, children of  the gods of Envy and of Love, and how they trick the underworld out of a very special prize. Found family, daring rescues, shape-shifting tricksters, and Norse-inspired mythology.-Buy here

You can learn more about my and Aveline’s writing overatour website  to keep up to date about what’s out and what’s yet to come, or follow our joint writing twitter for news about what we’re working on, links to new releases (or re-releases), and similar things! And hey, feel free to follow our personal twitters too –meredithakatzandavelinereynard!

Thanks to everyone for the support and love during this rough time. Whether you buy our books, leave a rating or review, or just share this post, you’re being a huge help. We’re looking forward to bringing you all new, exciting things soon!