Chronicles of the Geek Gurrls

Literary Frontiers: Boneshaker

2011-11-28T12:54:00.001-08:00

by Cat Connolly

Boneshaker
by Cherie Priest
Tor Books, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-7653-1841-1

When I would think of Seattle, Washington, I used to imagine drizzling rain, indie coffee houses, and grunge rock. After reading Cherie Priest’s "Boneshaker," my idealized view of the coastal city has been scratched, gored, gnawed upon, and, in short, become more awesome. Here’s the story that changed my mind...

In 1860, the promise of Klondike gold lured many would-be millionaires to the northwest corner of the continent. Eager to mine the deep veins of gold running beneath the growing city of Seattle, the Russians offered a hefty reward to any scientist capable of creating a device that could drill through the rocky earth to retrieve said treasure (here’s the alternative history). So, one Dr. Leviticus Blue invented the Incredible Bone-Shaking Drill Engine, a brass and cog marvel of steam technology (here’s the Steampunk). On its trial run, the Boneshaker destroyed half of downtown Seattle, releasing a gaseous substance called “the Blight” that turned anyone who inhaled it into shambling “Rotters” (and here come the zombies).

The main story begins sixteen years later; the city has been walled up to keep the Blight and those it’s infected separated from everyone else, and Dr. Blue’s widow, Briar Wilkes, is a social outcast, raising her teenaged son, Zeke, on the edge of town. When Zeke takes it upon himself to sneak into the damned city in an attempt to clear his father’s tarnished name, Briar must face airship pirates, deadly Blight gas, hordes of Rotters and her own cloudy past to bring him out alive.

Now, you might be wondering, “What the heck is this ‘Steampunk’ Cat keeps talking about?” In short, Steampunk is science fiction set in the Victorian era, where technology is composed of steam, clockwork, and a nebulous substance called “aether.” Notable examples of Steampunk fiction include Alan Moore’s “League of Extraordinary Gentlemen” and the works of Jules Verne. In writing Boneshaker, the first in her “Clockwork Century” series, Cherie Priest set out to create the magnum opus for the genre, and to great acclaim: the novel was a nominee for both the Hugo and Nebula awards in the best novel category, and won the Locus Award for “Best Science Fiction Novel” in 2010.

"Boneshaker" took me on such a wild, exhilarating adventure that it spurred me to start a book club here at Watermark to share it and other books of its fantastic, eccentric ilk (coming this June – look out for it!). But if the description of “insane, zombie-infested science fiction” turns you off, fear not: this is not just another gratuitous pulp novel. Above all, "Boneshaker" is a story about a mother’s love for her son, a son’s misguided admiration for his father, and the tenacity of a people who refuse to surrender their home to inevitable destruction. And Briar Wilkes, braving undead fiends with only a gasmask and a shotgun, is one tough mom you won’t soon forget.

If my mom wasn’t already the coolest, I’d have a new heroine.

Literary Frontiers: Rosemary's Baby

2011-10-21T12:16:00.000-07:00

by Sara Crow

Literary Frontiers is a series in the blog which gives us the chance to offer our perspective on both new and established science fiction and speculative fiction books. The series will publish around twice a month, or whenever one of us can finish and post one of our most recent reading projects.

The selection this time is, appropriately for the Halloween, Ira Levin's Rosemary's Baby. Not exactly sci-fi, but can certainly fit into the fantasy/speculative fiction arena, at least with a little wiggling. Horrific urban fantasy? Sure. Okay, so I bent the rules a little because of the season. So sue me.

The review follows after the jump. Just be careful what doors you open: you may not be able to close them again.

Rosemary's Baby
by Ira Levin
Dell Publishing Co., Inc., 1967
ISBN (modern edition): 1605981109

Rosemary's Baby is a great book, but I have to say that aside from a few pages' worth of scenes and some small details, this book is almost perfectly represented by the film. Even outfits and scene direction are meticulously rendered in Polanski's adaptation. It was astonishing to see how much he lifted straight from the text. Polanski managed to capture the book flawlessly, a fact for which he's worthy of high praise, in my opinion. If I'd read the book first, I would be delighted to see the movie delivered so faithfully. However, as someone reading the book after loving the film for so many years, reading the piece almost seemed redundant. This isn't to say that I wouldn't encourage reading the book, but any reader should be aware of the fact that reading the book will give an almost identical vibe to watching the film.

That being said, I greatly enjoyed reading Levin's original work. It took me almost no time at all to read it, and I'm not sure if that was due to the fact that it was a compulsive read (which it certainly felt like, as I was taking every spare opportunity to crack open the book and read a few pages, and the narrative clipped along so neatly that it was easy to do) or because I recognized it so completely. Levin's style is tight (almost to the point of minimalism) and very easy to read. His analogies were flawless and flowed seamlessly into the story. He managed to capture a Gothic feeling in a very modern and urban setting and did so with a masterful touch. Dialogue and characterization is realistic, though I've always felt that Guy could be developed a little more fully. Levin compensates for that by arguing numerous times (straight from Guy's mouth, at a few points) that Guy is exactly as shallow as he seems.

I've always loved Minnie and Roman. I know I'm not supposed to. I know they're evil people who, just in the course of the book, fertilize a woman with Satan's seed, drug her God knows how many times, kill at least two people, and blind one man. But gosh, they come off as such sweet people. Levin captures the sometimes annoying but grandparent-like nature of both characters splendidly. They're so considerate and seem so open and friendly. The make fantastic antagonists.

I don't know that I'll read this book again cover-to-cover, but only due to the fact that doing so seems redundant. The book certainly holds a quality that would allow for a second or third read, though it's sparse enough to not need too much re-reading for depth's sake. It is definitely a worthwhile read to consider and compare with early feminist Gothic pieces, like Charlotte Perkins Gillman's "The Yellow Wall-Paper" or Virginia Woolf's "The Mark on the Wall" (or any of her other Gothic short stories) or even Edgar Allan Poe's "The Fall of the House of Usher." There's definitely space for discussion of feminism and the rights of the mother prior to and during the birth experience, as well as obvious discussions of the treatment of women and the dismissive nature of the diagnosis of "hysteria."

Entertainment Weekly rated Polanski's adaptation the tenth scariest film of all time. I'd say that, as an autonomous woman, the film might actually be tied with The Stepford Wives and The Ring for first place in my book.

I think I might have to move on to The Stepford Wives sooner than I'd intended.

Wonder Woman's Origin: Here We Go Again!

2011-10-17T07:31:00.000-07:00

by Sara Crow

According to a post on io9 lastweek, DCComics will be giving Wonder Woman a father in their November issue, and he will be noneother than the head honcho of one of the most notoriously knotted family treesin mythological history: Zeus.

Dun, dun, duuuuun... More after the break!

Now, Wonder Woman has had a fatherbefore. Hades was alluded to as a potential father in prior incarnations of the comic, but the idea was dropped rather quickly and she became the womanbirthed from her mother’s construction once again. So this idea, overall, is not new. But it still causes me some concern.

My initial response to the news isto wonder about the motivations for this move. The first issue of the reboot wassold out when I hit my favorite comic shop a couple weeks ago, so I'munfortunately not versed in the new storyline yet. I'm stuck guessing, as alifetime fan of Wonder Woman, why a move like this would be necessary.

As a character without a father,Diana is the result of the epitome of "girl power"--given lifedirectly by her mother. Some have argued that her origin is a little tooesoteric to grasp, but I always felt there was an innate beauty to the ideathat Wonder Woman is art realized, a feminine power successfully launched from the same root asPygmalion’s failing. She was this splendid realization of the concept of artgiven life. Literally.

But with a mundane origin, WonderWoman loses that tight, powerful symbolism. She becomes a product of what is going to undoubtedly be a very poor pairing (and quite probably not entirely consensual--very few of Zeus's entanglements were). At best, she'll have a super-dysfunctional father who will not add anything positive to the storyline or to Wonder Woman's backstory. Zeus is not exactly the nurturing type, after all.

In fact, to the contrary, Zeus is the epitome of all that is bad in the patriarchy (or in any power)--a blowhard autocrat out for his own selfish ends. He's the living embodiment of male entitlement and masculine power run amok. I can't think of a worse character to have as a father to someone as self-aware and strong as Wonder Woman. Did the writers feel they needed some source of testosterone to balance out the rampant feminism of the storyline?

Now, the "misbehaving father" angle could work. And it could work well. It could give women and girls from screwed-up families someone to ennoble their own struggle. They could see Wonder Woman as a hero who rose up from the dirt of a messy family situation to achieve a massive amount of power and success, and they could see her as a champion for that cause.

Or, it could go very, very badly. Like Starfire.

One of the initial reasons claimedfor the need for a reboot was to draw new comic readers to the medium,particularly women. However, it seems that DC missedthe boat in a significant way with their reboot of some characters and hasreally screwed up their legacy. The backlash has been harsh for DC regarding their reboot of Starfire, a character who has been beloved by girls everywhere since Teen Titans premiered on the WB almost decade ago. While the show has stopped running new episodes, it's still alive in syndication and girls still love Starfire and clamor for new releases in which the character stars. But not only is the new comic "too adult" for a younger audience, but the girls who grew up with the "girl power"Starfire from TV and are turning to the comic as adults are disillusioned,too.

I understand that DC wants to maintain what it sees as its “core market” by maintaining some of the T&A in their comics. Fifteen-year-old boys do need something to fap toon a regular basis: I get it. But it seems like a monumental failing, or atleast ridiculously bad writing, to take a character that could appeal women andmake her into a vapid sexpot. Especially considering comics have actually managed to do both in past incarnations--there are a great number of fantastic female characters who still managed to be fun to look at. But somewhere along the line, DC seems to think that it was important that comic readers, I duno, think that perhaps they have a chance with the imaginary characters they've constructed? I don't quite get it.

I can see this Zeus-as-father thing trending toward something similarly ugly, like powers-taken-away-to-increase-girl-power ugly, toward a Wonder Woman who could be weighed down by a personal history more strongly influenced by a screwed-up male role model. To me, the entire nature of her as a powerful being is tarnished by Zeus and male intervention, simply because there was a distinct lack of male intervention in her story until she meets Steve Trevor. She was supremely powerful, not the byproduct of a greater power (the Amazons, including her mother, regularly return to her for aid). Will this new backstory make her an "angry feminist?" (BIG MISTAKE) Will this make the story into "male power vs. female power?" (Another BIG MISTAKE--the original story did such a good job of showing how well men and women can do when they work together and respect one another!) Will this make her more accessible? We'll have to wait to find out, but I can say that I'll be very nervous until November.

I hate to say it, but comics as weknow them are a dying market. DC is trying to breathe new life in them byre-vamping the entire line, but in doing so they seem to be falling intomisguided old paths that limit their readership to a select few. They seem to fail to understand the market properly, or to understand that perhaps they could embrace a waiting corner of their potential readers simply by writing more female characters that women want to read and possibly even pass down to their daughters. I would hate to see Wonder Woman become a woman falling victim to her parentage. I liked her when she was clay and spirit, and hope that Zeus doesn't cripple that drive. November may define Wonder Woman's legacy. Let's hope it draws it in the right direction.

Literary Frontiers: 1000 Steampunk Creations

2011-10-11T12:19:00.000-07:00

by Cat Connolly

Literary Frontiers is a brand new series in the blog which gives us the chance to offer our perspective on both new and established science fiction and speculative fiction books. The series will publish around twice a month, or whenever one of us can finish and post one of our most recent reading projects.

This week's book is 1000 Steampunk Creations: Neo-Victorian Fashion, Gear & Art by Dr. Grymm. The review is available after the jump.

1000 Steampunk Creations: Neo-Victorian Fashion, Gear & Art

by Dr. Grymm

ISBN 9781592536917

Quarry Books, 2011

“But you weren’t using it!”

My dad heaved a sigh of annoyance as he beheld the Frankenstein-reject doll I held in my gloved hands, its plush body covered in what used to be a hose ring, blunted screw “claws”, and other household repair items. Despite my father’s chagrin at my naiveté regarding the sanctity of “dad’s tool box,” that first absurd creation launched a love affair with knickknack monstrosities, all cobbled together from the bits and caprices I would pick out of dusty cabinets or excavate from the neighborhood park. Imagine my joy when I discovered a whole cultural movement based on the concept that broken or discarded baubles are an ideal medium for crafting works of art.

What’s the aforementioned cultural movement, you ask? Oh, just the coolest thing since Tesla coils: Steampunk. If you’re a neophyte to the genre, the back of this book puts it succinctly: “Steampunk is a burgeoning counter-cultural movement: a genre, community, and artform. The Steampunk movement seeks to recapture the spirit of invention, adventure, and craftsmanship reminiscent of early-nineteenth-century industrialization, in part to restore a sense of wonder to a technology-jaded world.”

Dr. Grymm’s anthology of cog-and-brass artistry, “1000 Steampunk Creations: Neo-Victorian Fashion, Gear & Art” is a splendid visual collection of works by crafty people around the globe. The mediums explored in the book, all beautifully photographed, include jewelry, costumes, modified appliances, sculpture, and prop weaponry used by live-action role players. Take a close look at the photos, and you will notice that almost every component of the artwork is made from discarded bits of metal, plastic, and leather—all things that are cheap and easy to find. Add some shiny baubles, old watch parts and perhaps some antique ephemera from granny’s button box and you can make your own Steampunk artifact.

Being a Steampunk aficionado, I found this book to be an excellent reference for my own inventions. There are objects employed in some of the art that I would never have expected to see used, such as the dismembered limbs of Kewpie dolls, old lamp bases, broken walkie-talkies and rusted kitchen appliances. The people at the DAV probably thought I was crazy when I bought all the brass items in their housewares section, but now I can craft that kettle-powered ray gun that I’ve always wanted.

Oh, the possibilities which await me! The cogs of my creative mind have already begun to spin. Forgive me, Dad, but I’m going to have to raid your tool shed once more...

Literary Frontiers: Oryx and Crake

2011-09-30T11:21:00.000-07:00

by Sara Crow
(Find me on Goodreads!)

Literary Frontiers is a brand new series in the blog which gives us the chance to offer our perspective on both new and established science fiction and speculative fiction books. The series will publish around twice a month, or whenever one of us can finish and post one of our most recent reading projects.

The selection for our inaugural post is Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood. I'll be making my way through Year of the Flood before the holiday season. Atwood is currently working on her final book in the series, which at this point will be entitled MaddAddam, and we'll be reviewing that title when it's released as well.

The review is available, just for you, after the jump (to Warp?)! Make it so!

Oryx and Crake (MaddAddam Trilogy #1)
by Margaret Atwood
Anchor books, 2004
ISBN-13: 978-0385721677

It's unmistakable that Oryx and Crake is a unique and glorious work of literary science fiction (no matter what Atwood herself whats to say about its genre assocations), a piece of work that is inexorably linked to technology and the future. I can understand Atwood's resistance to the classification, but she'd positively keel over if she was ever qualified under the other possible genre in which this book could fit: romance.

Because this is, at its core, a multifoliate romance, in the love triangle between Oryx, Crake and Snowman. But it's also the story of the love that grew between Snowman and the Crakers. Snowman shows a depth of love for Crake's creation that is only fully realized in the last few pages of the book.

Atwood has incredible skill at crafting characters with depth that still retain incredible mystery about them. Crake's motivations, for example, are thrown completely into question at the climax of the book. We never really understand Oryx's motivations or desires--since we understand the story only from Snowman's perspective, his other desires tend to overshadow a drive to actually understand Oryx as she is at the time he's with her rather than understanding her within the context of her past.

I haven't read many reviews of this book yet, but I'm sure that many of them classify this as a "Mad Science" sci fi--a morality tale about science and progress run amok. But the story isn't about "mad science" in the traditional sense, with a megalomaniac bent on world domination or scientists believing they can engineer everything in life taking control and ruining society through their greed or arrogance (though there is a little of that in the obvious global warming consequences written in as a subtext and the already existent culture of genetic modification established from the early pages of the novel). No, the driving destructive obsession in this story is much more personal--the exclusive possession of a woman. I'll restrict myself from saying too much more, out of the fear that I'll end up divulging a spolier or two, but suffice it to say that the end of the world comes, to paraphrase T.S. Eliot, with BOTH a bang and a whimper, and while science is the catalyst, the real source of downfall is much more ancient.

Oryx both confounds and disturbs me. She's a fascinating character, someone a product of her past, at least according to Snowman, though she seems to hold no malice over it. Her characterization is so blank and stoic as to be impressed on me as something of a statue, an object like Pygmalion's statue, given life throughout her lifetime only by the male gaze and obsession over her. Her desires otherwise seem to be inert. In another context, I'd consider this to be a failure on the author's part, but Atwood's intent seems to be to throw up a veil throughout this story and show characters from a very limited viewpoint to draw out particular points, so I can't help but see the same with Oryx.

The story is, after all, told from Snowman's limited perspective, and though he was at the epicenter of the events, he seems to be simultaneously oblivious throughout the process. He sees Oryx's grace, beauty, generosity and love, but he doesn't see her as a person. In his obsession over his own moral indignation at what he perceives as the travesty of her past, he neglects to see how he attempts to sculpt her present, conforming her to his own parameters, trying to possess her just as presciently (perhaps even more so) as the people who exploited her beauty in the past.

It was a fantastic point of storytelling to choose to narrate this story in simultaneous flashbacks and present-moment impressions. Since we're seeing this story from Snowman's perspective, it can be enraging to be entombed within that one head, but the revelations are so much more engrossing as a result. We see simultaneously the actions and their consequences in a way that telling the story in a more linear way would prevent. It's so difficult to actually handle flashback elegantly, and Atwood achieves the balance of her flashbacks with marvelous care.

This story is a tragedy on so many levels, and I ended up being completely engrossed by the scale of each aspect of the unfolding events and their simultaneous consequences as I read. I would highly recommend this work to other readers, with the caveat that this story carries horrifying weight. Oryx and Crake is a deep tragedy, for the characters, the population and to the Earth itself. The reader must enter this work aware of the challenges of reading such an emotionally distraught narrative and be ready to watch every house of cards built both by the author and by our own society fall around them. If the reader's not ready for that trauma, it might be best to pursue another novel. But to readers who've braved Atwood's other heavy works, most particularly A Handmaid's Tale, which was an emotional trauma in itself, Oryx and Crake will be a highly recommended, albeit emotionally challenging, read.

Isabel Samaras: The Geeky Glory of the Classic Form

2011-09-08T08:34:00.000-07:00

by Sara Crow

While wandering through my favorite quirky odds and ends shop a couple years ago, I glanced at a shelf and had to do a double-take. At first, I thought I'd glimpsed an image of classic art--a renaissance painting whose title dangled on the edges of my memory. It was an image of a lone woman in an outdoor scene, holding a silver platter, a fire dancing on its surface. A goldfinch looks on from a nearby branch. I looked again. This wasn't just any woman--this was the Bride of Frankenstein! At that moment, I fell entirely in love with Isabel Samaras's work and have been crazy about it ever since.

This is what I'd seen.
Song of the Goldfinch, by Isabel Samaras

Warning: "Adult" images after the break. You've been warned. So no bitching if you see boobies, 'kay? We're all big kids here.

Isabel Samaras is a name that every geek gurrl should know in order to be eligible for her geeky gurrl membership card. Isabel lives and works in San Fancisco, creating unique pieces that commonly meld the unlikely subjects of classic art and popular geek culture.

Secrets of the Batcave

"Sci-fi showed me there were 'alternate realities,' places and times where things could be different. Fate and history weren't boring straight lines--they were flexible and alive. They could be changed," she comments in her book, On Tender Hooks. Isabel began to imagine some of her favorite shows in these "alternate realities:" What if Batman and Catwoman actually got together? What if Gomez & Morticia enjoyed a wild night with Herman & Lily? The possibilities seemed endless!

Isabel started by creating her wonderful, kinky worlds on lunch boxes she discovered in Spanish Harlem in New York City. After moving to San Fancisco, a friend suggested she begin creating work on (appropriately enough) TV trays, launching a series of pieces that you probably wouldn't find sitting in the corner waiting to be used at Grandma's house (or maybe you would--I guess it depends on the coolness of your grandma!).

Perpetua (The Bride)

Vina (The Longing)

Eventually, Isabel began to be inspired not only by the potential for these "alternate realities," but also by the work of the great masters, and began to re-imagine her favorite TV characters in the style of these classic and beloved artists. She also began to widen her subject matter, moving from portraying TV characters to the classic characters of Universal monster films (as seen in my first experience with her work in Song of the Goldfinch). These pieces were, in many cases, her own take on some classic works, not with the recognizable characters of the Universal films, but by taking the idea--the Bride of Frankenstein, in the case of the image above--and making an original piece in a classic style with a subtle nod to the inspiration.

This is where Samaras is at her best, in my opinion--when she subverts the expectations of an image, taking something we expect to be classic art and throws in subtle nods to horror and popular culture and more, implying depth to stories people are usually happier to ignore as "trite." These examinations of the characters and their stories create a real relevance that can cause her audience to re-think their initial dismissal of some of the stories that make up the mythologies of the twentieth century, putting them in conversation with history and elevating them in the process.

The Bluebird of Happiness

I also love when she manages to create an entirely unique work in a classic style that is gleefully subversive. As Samaras points out in her blog article about creating "The Bluebird of Happiness," pictured in all its naughty glory to the right, porn has existed as long as the captured image itself (LOVE the goat/Pan porn in particular--oo that's fun to say!). I love this painting specifically because it celebrates female sexuality in the style of an era that was particularly repressed, and I love the fact that she illustrates this so splendidly by literally putting the sexuality of the image "undercover." This is one of those fantastic "double-take" paintings that she's so great at creating that also manages to express a subject that's still pretty taboo in our society--a woman's right to enjoy the sexual experience (ohmygod, women have ORGASMS!? Seriously!?).

Mocking Box: The Rap Wars

Samaras's most recent work shows an emphasis on this conversation between what would be considered "classic" art and unexpected elements of popular culture. Her most recent show, "Heavy Gretel," displays this shift in interest from pop culture to the world of fairy tales that she's been making over the past year or so in art that depicts not only the Hansel and Gretel myth, but everything from Red Riding Hood to a naughty depiction of "The Tyger" by William Blake. Even the fairy tale creatures themselves have been "remixed." Check out her great article in the most recent issue of Hi-Fructose, at pretty much every conceivable newsstand and Barnes & Noble that carries anything more than People and TV Guide for more about Isabel and her art, or find her all over the internet:

Isabel on the Interwebs
Isabel's Blog, "i feel it too: Notes from the studio"

And if you love what you see, you absolutely MUST pick up her book, On Tender Hooks. Or, if you're lucky enough to be in the San Francisco area, do what I can't and look up her work and experience it personally. Art is ALWAYS better in person, and I will be jealous of you forever if you get to experience her work in person in all its geeky glory!

Be a Woman.

2011-08-12T12:23:00.000-07:00

by Sara Crow

I found this poem while I was doing research for the section of my book that takes place in Topeka. While I was zipping through the microfiche of mid-19th-century newspapers at the Kansas Historical Society, I came across this awesome poem in the Quindaro Chindowan, No. 52, Saturday, June 12, 1858. Yes, 1858. Feminism didn't start in the 20th Century, darlings! ;)

Clarina Nichols, Associate Editor of the
Quindaro Chindowan.

Be a Woman.
Oft I’ve heard a gentle mother,
As the twilight hours began,
Pleading with a son, of duty,
Urging him to be a man.
But unto her blue-eyed daughter,
Though with love’s words quite as ready,
Points she out this other duty,
“Strive, my dear, to be a lady.”

What’s a lady? Is it something
Made of hoops, and silks, and airs,
Used to decorate the parlor,
Like the fancy rugs and chairs?
Is it one who wastes on novels
Every feeling that is human?
If ‘tis this to be a lady,
‘Tis not this to be a woman.

Mother, then, unto your daughter,
Speak of something higher, far,
Than to be mere fashion’s lady –
“Woman” is the brighter star.
If ye, in your strong affection,
Urge your son to be a true man,
Urge your daughter no less strongly
To arise and be a woman.

Yes, a woman – brightest model
Of that high and perfect beauty,
Where the mind, and soul, and body,
Blend to work out life’s great duty –
Be a woman – nought is higher
On the gilded list of fame,
On the catalogue of virture,
There’s no brighter, holier name.

Be a woman – on to duty,
Raise the world from all that’s low,
Place high in the social heaven
Virtue’s fair and radiant bow.
Lend thy influence to each effort,
That shall raise our nature’s human.
Be not fashion’s gilded lady,
Be a brave – whole souled – true woman.

[ALPHEUS.

Bitch did it Before I Could: Tribute to Wednesday Addams

2011-08-12T11:40:00.000-07:00

By Sara Crow

Bitch Magazine recently posted a tribute to Wednesday Addams in the Pop Pedestal section of their website. They beat me to it! I'm sure I could come up with more to say, but we'll start with their great little tribute for the time being.

Besides, I have a couple other articles in the works at the moment.

I'd love to hear what everyone else loves about Wednesday Addams, too. Let us know in the comments!

Speaking of the Wollstonecrafts...

2011-03-25T16:54:00.000-07:00

see more Historic LOL

An Auspicious (Monstrous) Anniversary

2011-03-11T19:15:00.000-08:00

by Sara Crow

On this date in 1818, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley published her first edition of a novel that would rock the literary world to its core--a book about the monstrous, about being an alien in a human world, and about living a life beholden to an even more monstrous majority.

During the dark and cold summer of 1816, known throughout Europe as "The Year Without a Summer" due to the ash spewed across the globe from the cataclysmic eruption of Mount Tambora halfway across the planet in Indonesia, Shelley and friends were stuck inside at a summer home rented from friends. Shelley's dark tale was written as a part of a contest between herself, her husband, her sister, and their mutual friends, John Polidori (author of "The Vampyre," a concept he actually lifted from Byron's tale that night), and Lord Byron, in an attempt to help them all write through the chill and the rain and avoid their own boredom-induced madness.

Frankenstein: A Modern Prometheus recounts the story of Doctor Victor Frankenstein, who discovers the spark of life and uses it to "give birth" to a new form of life with body parts filched from the freshly-dead. Chaos and moral ambiguity ensues.

And no, before you ask, Frankenstein is NOT the name of the monster. So stop calling the Monster Frankenstein, okay? Good. Moving on.

Shelley's first edition had an entirely different tone than subsequent editions. Published when she was 19, the first book was published in three volumes, completely lacking author attribution. The book was controversial for its moral ambiguity, but extremely popular, and caused an uproar when it was revealed that the author was, in fact, a woman.

One of the first reviewers, a writer for the British Critic, managed to unmask the author as a woman (though her specific identity, at this point, was still unknown), and recounts his horror at the revelation:

"If our authoress can forget the gentleness of her sex, it is no reason why we should, and we shall therefore dismiss the novel without further comment."

(Excerpted from Frankenstein: A Cultural History. See link below to pick it up from Amazon.)

A book of such scientific acumen, dark tone and philosophical consideration, by a woman!? Unthinkable. Not to mention the frightening undertones of feminism, authored by the daughter of one of the most notorious feminists of the French Revolution.

Mary was a revolutionary, unabashed in her representation of her imagination and unafraid to follow a very un-feminine literary career. One on a very long list of my heroes.

The original edition is available through WorldCat. Open Library has a TON of editions of the book (perhaps all of them) listed, including the numerous revisions made during Mary's lifetime.

A few other sources for study:

Illustration from the 1831 edition.

Frankenstein: A Cultural History by Susan Tyler Hitchcock
This one isn't as good as it could be, but it's a pretty comprehensive look at Frankenstein's history. I really don't think it says enough about the feminist overtones or the roots, implications and symbols of the story itself, however--it just pretty much documents the instances of Frankenstein's appearances throughout history in a more-or-less cataloging method. Very useful for my writing, but I was disappointed with the analysis.

The Monster Show: A Cultural History of Horror by David J. Skal
Though it doesn't spend quite as much time on Frankenstein in particular, Skal is a master of horror analysis, and the chapter or two he does dedicate to the Frankenstein story (and the culture that sprung from the films in particular) is entirely worth the effort.

Screams of Reason: Mad Science in Modern Culture by David J. Skal
Okay, so I haven't read this one by Mr. Skal, but the subject matter is appropriate for a Frankenstein-y discussion, and I can't imagine that it's bad. I've never been disappointed by his work. I discovered this title as I was looking for the other Skal book and have now resolved to pick this one up as well. Might be useful in my research for my own book about the man-made woman.

The Dread of Difference: Gender and the Horror Film edited by Barry Keith Grant
This one analyzes a number of fantastic horror films, from Carrie to The Cat People, including an analysis of James Whale's Bride of Frankenstein. So, not an analysis of the original text, but it is in conversation with it, and entirely worth reading, especially for the analysis of the conversation between feminism and horror (which have been in conversation since the birth of the Gothic, when women used the genre to illustrate their own pain and marginalization). Probably my favorite collection of horror analysis essays.

"Born This Way" Offers Sci Fi Geek Gurrl Love to all Little Monsters

2011-03-05T01:30:00.000-08:00

by Sara Crow

Lady Gaga has been my “Mommy Monster” since I first saw her video for “Bad Romance,” loaded with enough horror, feminist and silent film references to give a geek like me a complete nerdgasm. Her music has its own fun and strength on its own, but she’s constantly raised the bar with her music videos, usually revealing layers of meaning to her lyrics by the drama playing out in glorious, sublime imagery.

Imagine my delight when I came across Gaga’s newest video, which implants a healthy dose of science fiction on top of her already established cinematic alchemy of classic film and horror/gothic imagery, enlivening the very straightforward message of “Born This Way” with a commentary on the problematic qualities of any utopia, alluding to science fiction masters such as Philip K. Dick and Ursula LeGuin in content and imagery.

The video starts with a monologue that sounds like something out of Herbert’s Dune, giving a backdrop to a fanciful utopia where an intergalactic Mother Monster gives birth to ultimate and immortal beauty in a cosmos loaded with yonic (feminine) imagery, including a uterine star system. But this utopia is not complete, because, as she notes, her other half is simultaneously giving birth to a phallic and dark evil that imposes a fascism which oppresses the people into subjection. Her images in the “dark side” call back one of her favorite silent film references as the dark mother sits atop a very Metropolis-like steeple in an atmosphere obviously influenced by Lang’s film and referencing Maria herself, the dark mother who attempts to lead astray the oppressed people doomed to work to make the Metropolis a comfortable place for the well-off.

Gaga is quick to point out, however, that this darkness is as much her as the cosmic mother. In fact, she fears that this evil which she struggles against is almost inevitable as she wonders, “How can I protect something so perfect without evil?” She illustrates our tendency as a species to protect good ideas and ruin them by turning them into a form of fascism, forcing people to conform to the vision and thereby taking away the very freedom we aspire to achieve. Even the name of her imagined territory—G.O.A.T. (Government Owned Alien Territory)—alludes to this proclivity to turn people into commodities (livestock) and twist ideas into something oppressive rather than liberating.

The only path, she posits, is the middle way, as the Mother Monster gives birth to an infinite race of androgynous creatures. She addresses the universal nature of our condition—we’re all the same underneath—by donning makeup and dancing with Rick Genest in parts of the video. Of course, not only does this illustrate the way in which we’re the same beneath the skin, but it highlights the uniqueness of Genest’s choice to stand out and express himself by becoming an “illustrated man.” There are many ways in which we express the uniqueness beneath the skin that come out in the way we choose to express ourselves, from how we dress to what we do. Genest may not have been born with zombified tattoos, but he expresses his perspective and personality by choosing to make his skin into a canvas for artists to help him realize his inner perspective (literally!).

There are a multitude of symbols that pop up throughout the video that reflect this “know thyself” theme. The cosmic mother, for example, wears a third eye, not in the standard place (in the space between the other two), but on her chin. The perspective of the third eye is that which sees beyond the physical and transcends the mundane. This is the eye with which we perceive the spiritual world and embrace the “paranormal.” I’m really not sure about her choice in placing it on her chin, other than perhaps for its shock value. We’re accustomed to seeing a third eye between the other two in the classic chakra location, but on the chin? That’s pretty radical.

The lotus flowers in the opening monologue represent the feminine and purity. The lotus has been a sacred symbol in Egypt, India, and all over Asia, representing divinity and purity. In India, creation started with the lotus, as divine creation is initiated here in the same way. Another symbol layered with too much to write about in just a few lines—research all the layers of this one! An explosion of butterflies also accompanies the birth of the infinite creature, a symbol of metamorphosis—the hoped-for metamorphosis that the cosmic child represents.

The beginning and the end of the video are highlighted with pink triangles, symbols of the gay movement that have a rather dark past—Hitler forced gays to wear the pink triangle in World War II in the same way as the Jews were required to wear yellow six-pointed stars. And, of course, there’s the line, “Don’t be a drag, just be a queen,” harkening back to one of the communities that first accepted her—the drag queens!

The unicorn and rainbow from the first and last scenes can have a number of meanings, especially against an urban backdrop. We can look at it as the fantastic crossing over into the mundane, a hopeful message that the idyllic dreams of childhood can be realized and embraced in spite of the harsh reality of the modern world, but in all, it’s an optimistic image, a message of hope that things can change and be new again. The rainbow was, after all, a symbol of God’s promise to Noah of a brighter future and a reminder of God’s love for God’s people. The rainbow has always been a symbol of hope or, in some cases, even a symbol of a bridge to transcendence or the realm of the gods (as in Norse mythology).

If we weren’t certain that her Madonna references were intentional before, the closing scenes of the video prove it with her gap-toothed nod to her predecessor and a white-gloved tribute to Michael Jackson. This video illustrates the progression beyond the work of Madonna, however, because the song that influenced this one—“Express Yourself”—was all about a woman who couldn’t feel complete without a man. The words of Gaga’s song, coupled with the imagery of asexual birth, illustrate the ability of every individual to give birth to their own individuality. We have influences and people who we look to for inspiration, and we should acknowledge that fact (as Lady Gaga does constantly), but she points out that we also shouldn’t be afraid to step away and own our individuality. A woman can grasp her power without the need to lay around hoping for a man to do it for her!

There’s so much to this seven minutes of footage that I really don’t think I can do it justice with a short commentary (besides, I want you to watch the video and figure SOME things out for yourself!). MTV actually managed to do a great article they called a “Pop Culture Cheat Sheet”(though some of the references she makes fall well beyond what most would define as “pop culture”) in which fans commented on the plethora of references in her few minutes of music. They caught a few things that I missed, and I was really impressed with some of the references that they gathered, from Michelangelo to H.R. Geiger (which a friend and I discussed, but I didn’t reference in this article). There were so many images caught after the publication of the first article, in fact, that MTV created a second article.

In reading the MTV articles, for example, I found that a number of fans suggest that the gap-toothed image is actually a representation of her earlier struggles when she was called “rabbit teeth” as a child, which makes sense considering the fact that she sheds a tear as she sings with that makeup, and still works nicely within the framework of the entire concept of being “born this way” and owning not only your talents, but your faults as well (or those things that the mainstream sees as faults).

All in all, the message of “Born This Way” is quite straightforward, of course, but the beauty is in how Lady Gaga has expressed this seemingly simple and empowering message by layering on a mythology that references so many archetypes and raises more questions and thoughts with her imagery. She’s taken the art of the music video to new levels before, and this video continues the process, employing the power of the visual medium to add depth to a clear-cut theme, giving her the opportunity to visually represent the deeper questions that are innate in the expression of individuality. We’re torn, constantly, between hope for utopia and fear of its conformity, and she encompasses the fears and hopes that have been expressed in science fiction for the past couple centuries, opening the door to a dialogue where we can express ourselves again and embrace the wonder of the cosmos while examining our place within its vastness.

What Stormtroopers Do on their Day Off

2011-01-25T21:13:00.001-08:00

In case you were wondering...

And I thought it was a Philips' Head!

2011-01-16T19:12:00.000-08:00

By Cat Connolly

An Introduction of the Feline Sort.

2011-01-15T13:15:00.000-08:00

Hello.

I am Cat.

Yes, the "meow" kind.

And please don't pull my tail.

Now that introductions are out of the way, let me tell you a bit about myoddself. In particular, my trans-temporal preoccupation with Victorian culture.

My goal in life is to become a 19th century gentleman, sans the Oxfordian pasttimes (lest they involve David Tennant). In accordance with such proclivities, I have a bevy of fancy waistcoats at my disposal.

All right, let me make this clear. I am not of the Sapphic sort, although I do adore poetry of the same name and can enjoy a light bout of shojo-ai from time to time. Despite my lingering affection for Emilie Autumn and her darling henchwomen, and the wishes of my more adventurous female friends, I remain ever-faithful to the tall, dark and smexy archetype. Alan Rickman, that means you. So, while I am enamoured of Queen Christina, I am not *enamoured* of her.

Right ho, onward. Why not continue with a catalogue of my genteel artifacts? Be forewarned, they might cause an antiquarian to drool slightly.

- A collection of four pocketwatches (my favorite being a piece from Cash's of Ireland)
- Two smoking jackets
- A tobacco pipe which, sadly, was in the pocket of my smoking jacket when I trod upon it....I suppose it should be crossed off the list....
- Mother-of-pearl plated opera glasses, circa 1910
- A variety of waistcoats, courtesy of the DAV
- An etoile-style, black brocade corset, which I often wear (well-laced) beneath my day clothing
- Monocle!
- Walking sticks. One cannot be without a walking stick. And one *certainly* cannot be without a sword cane.
- Various jars of poisonous herbs...though this may only gain precedent from Victorian gentlemen such as Sherlock Holmes and Cain Hargreaves.
- Absinthe.
- A full head of literary and historical facts, thought of as arcane by the masses, but quite useful when playing Pictionary.
- Melancholy.
- My own personal library. I hope it will one day rival that of Inkheart's Elinor Loredan.
- A chamber dressed in scarlet, dark wood, and a good deal of garish gold trimmings. Ooh, the Aesthete in me is well-nourished!

And I suppose it is rude of me to count out all of my shiny pennies in front of the poor, but heavens, how nice it is to realize how far I've come from being a simple little goth girl in cat ears.

And what kind of toys do *you* play with?

The Alien's Corruption

2011-01-13T21:00:00.000-08:00

By Sara Crow

Slightly Behind and to the Left by Claire Light

Aqueduct Press, 2010


Claire Light, from her bio at the Aqueduct Press website

Slightly behind and to the Left is a collection of short fiction and “drabbles,” as Light calls them—one-paragraph to half-page installments of highly conceptual flash fiction. The book is from Aqueduct Press’s series, Conversation Pieces, which examines feminism with a focus on feminist science fiction.

Light’s prose throughout this book is infused with an aura of menace and loss. She isn’t afraid to throw her characters into torturous scenarios like a mad scientist trying to see what sort of atrocity will emerge from the next diabolical experiment. She illustrates the feminist struggle for equality as a common conflict across not only gender lines, but across alien worlds as well, creating characters that struggle for much more than survival—they struggle to remain human when endowed with responsibilities of power that give them the opportunity to become monstrous.

The universes Light weaves teem with abominations, mostly personified in her protagonists. “Vacation,” her first short story in the set, follows a woman who awakens one day to a world where all the men have suddenly disappeared, leaving only boys behind. The heinous result is amplified by the fact that the motivation of the characters is only obtusely referenced. Do the women take the steps they do out of a fear response to the events? A need to procreate? Or do they act the way they do out of a primal lust only?

The final story in the collection, “Abducted by Aliens!,” chronicles the journey of the character in the prior story, “Pinball Effect,” from the perspective of his little sister, relaying her brother’s stories years after the events took place. Clues in the text and the story of the Afterward reveal, however, that the events which took place were not quite as her brother recalled—his memories operated as a coping response to a different type of alien monstrosity.

One thread connects many of the protagonists in Light’s collection—each character faces a point at which they have the opportunity to fall from their humanity. Each character faces the opportunity to treat another with the contempt that victimizes the alien across the table into a category beneath the respect worthy of a fellow sentient creature. When the character gets to the point that she or he has the option to treat the Other (any marginalized sentient being, traditionally women and minorities in particular) as an object, how does she or he respond? What does she do? What choices does she make?

The core of science fiction throws a character into a world of extreme trauma and expects that character to adapt. Science fiction, at its best, reveals the truth of humanity in the midst of the tangled obscurity of aliens and technology. Light’s prose, in its aching lilt, brings the truth of the feminist conundrum to the forefront—the fight for women’s rights is a fight for the core of our humanity. Because to deny a fellow creature as somehow sub-human is to make oneself less than human as well.

You can find Claire's work at Amazon.com or at Aqueduct Press, one of my new favorite publishers. More of her writing can also be found at Claire's blog.

Dementia

2011-01-09T02:16:00.000-08:00

by Sara

I think it best to start with a shameless plug for my favorite "geek poet." Published prolifically and nominated for the Pulitzer at least twice, Bryan D. Dietrich is a fantastic poet who happens to spend his time delving into the darkness by way of our American mythologies--comics, Lovecraft, and Universal Monsters being among his subject matter.This one is among my many favorites.

The poem, after the jump...

Dementia
Bryan D. Dietrich

"You can't kill the Boogeyman."
-from Halloween

You meet a woman, a worker of words
who loves O'Connor and Hitchcock's Birds,
all horror stories, the better for worse.
She's blonde and Wiccan, a comely curse.

   Zombie, chainsaw, fetus, hook,
   athame, candle, bell, book.

Her spell is modern, her interests, yours.
She knows of triffids and cepheids and spoors.
She, too, once sat in the glow of the screen
while the monsters processed and summer grew green.

   Alien egg sac, mouthful of brains,
   priest on the sidewalk, count the stains.

She takes you first by neck by eye,
then takes you again with the gorgeous lie
of language spun from the life she's not
lived so much as faced and fought.

   Tooth, claw, razor, bone,
   Halloween, Twilight Zone.

The monsters she has staked and boxed,
buried out by the hollyhocks,
outnumber yours by kith and kind.
Hulk, brute.... Malign design.

   Rosemary's Baby, Eraserhead,
   Race With the Devil, Dawn of the Dead.

You want her to know that you understand,
that sometimes the thing in the dark, The Hand,
is still attached to a heart that speaks.
The first date comes. You rent her Freaks.

   Stalker, slaughter, barker, blight.
   We live and love in black and white.

-from Universal Monsters, published by Word Press, 2007. Get it at Amazon.

Bryan just did a reading in L.A. this week and is looking forward to publishing a book in the near future, Prime Directive, loaded with Star Trek themed haiku. Yes, you heard me right. He was crazy enough to do it. I'm sure you can look forward to a review here when the book becomes available.

Bryan's Website (though it seems to have been a bit neglected lately...)
Bryan on Facebook
Bryan at Poems & Writers

Geek and Gamer Girls

2011-01-08T19:01:00.000-08:00

Welcome to the first installment of Chronicles of the Geek Gurrls.

Yes, we do exist, and we are NOT the only ones. Geek gurrls unite!