Feminist SF Wiki - User contributions [en]

History of feminist SF publishers and presses

2007-09-01T19:47:08Z

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The publishing history of feminist SF follows the publishing history of SF generally. The feminist and women's presses are a type of [[separatist media]] that emerged out of the [[women's movement]] in response to [[sexism]].

==Early history==
Works that today would be considered SF--speculative, utopian, supernatural, fantastic, etc. fiction--were not distinguished as a marketing category or literary genre until the early 20th century. As inexpensive publications proliferated in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, specialized publications began production. Starting in the 1920s and 1930s, the "pulps", pulp magazines focusing on "weird", supernatural, or speculative science fiction, got started and became popular. While a large subfield dedicated to publishing SF got started, non-SF publications and other subgenres also continued to SF, including satirical works, surrealist literature, "magical realism", speculative YA, and so on.

==1970s==
In the 1970s a number of women's and lesbian/gay presses began operation, distributing to an emerging network of women's and glbt bookstores, other specialty bookstores, and general bookstores. Collectives of women also operated their own micropresses, putting out a limited number of works. Lesbian and women's presses, such as [[Naiad Press]] and [[The Women's Press]], that were focused on non-SF nevertheless often included SF, speculative, or supernatural-themed works.

==1990s==
The 1990s saw significant consolidation and diminution of independent presses and bookstores. Many women's bookstores closed. The Feminist Bookstore Network closed and ceased publication of the ''Feminist Bookstore News''. At the same time, gay-themed works were increasingly being adopted by mainstream presses and general bookstores began offering gay literature and gender studies sections. Shelf space at large bookstores was increasingly treated as a market commodity, with large publishers paying for advantageous shelving and display. Large publishers also began thinning out their own lists and b
1000
acklists. As pressure for publication and distribution intensified, already-marginalized voices suffered. However, the marginalization of gay and woman-created content was diminishing somewhat in the competitive main lists.

==21st century==
After this consolidation, 21st century models of distribution and production may be again opening the market for new and marginalized voices.

==Presses and publishers==
Below we list small, independent, and academic presses with a significant feminist SF or queer SF component.

* [[Aqueduct Press]] "Bringing challenging feminist science fiction to the demanding reader" http://aqueductpress.com/

* [[Papaveria Press]] Papaveria is a small, private press founded in 2001 in the arts district of Philadelphia. Specializing in fairy tales

Suzette Haden Elgin

2007-09-01T18:37:52Z

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'''Suzette Haden Elgin''' (born Patricia Anne Suzette Haden Wilkins) is a linguist, SF writer, and artist.

Creator of the [[Coyote Jones]] series, the [[Ozark Trilogy]], and the [[Native Tongue trilogy]], and various short stories. She has written several popular works on communication, focusing on how to avoid or defuse verbal conflict and attacks.

Creator of the [[constructed language]] [[Láadan]], a [[women's language]]; first discussed in the [[Native Tongue Trilogy]].

==Bibliography==
* See [http://www.sfwa.org/members/elgin/SHE_Annot.html annotated bibliography at SHE's website].

'''Coyote Jones (Communipath Worlds)'''
* ''[[The Communipaths]]'' (1970)
* ''[[Furthest]]'' (1971)
* ''[[At the Seventh Level]]'' (1972)
* ''[[Star-Anchored, Star-Angered]]'' (1979)
* ''[[Yonder Comes the Other End of Time]]'' (1986)
* ''Communipath Worlds'' (omnibus edition, 1980)

* The Coyote Jones novels are currently out of print. Suzette Haden Elgin explained the problem with the reprint contract at Wildside Press at her website (http://www.sfwa.org/members/elgin/CoyoteJones.html ).

'''The Ozark Fantasy Trilogy'''
* ''[[Twelve Fair Kingdoms]]'' (1981)
* ''[[The Grand Jubilee]]'' (1981)
* ''[[And Then There'll Be Fireworks]]'' (1981)
* ''[[Yonder Comes the Other End of Time]]'' (1986)
* See [http://www.sfwa.org/members/elgin/OzarkTrilogy/index.html SHE's Ozark Trilogy page] for more information, including a paper doll and two [[filk|filksongs]].

'''[[Native Tongue trilogy|The Native Tongue Trilogy]]'''
* ''[[Native Tongue]] (1984)
* ''[[The Judas Rose|Native Tongue II: The Judas Rose]]'' (1987)
* ''[[Earthsong|Native Tongue III: Earthsong]]''' (1993)

===Short stories: ===
* Chico Lafleur Talks Funny, (ss) A Treasury of American Horror Stories, ed. Frank D. McSherry, Jr., Charles G. Waugh

Kate Wilhelm Guest of Honor Speech

2007-09-01T18:36:32Z

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''Original transcript by Laura Quilter -- please fill in, correct, amend as needed''

[[Kate Wilhelm]]

I really want to thank Scott and Kathy for having me and a wonderful time. And I've never seen so much food. I will go home -- I refuse to say fatter - but with more reserves.

I don't have a prepared speech. I thought I'd address a question I get all the time: why do you write what you write. It's a good question and ...

I've been touched by magic. ... That was a magic moment. And all the talk about the magic moments that resulted in who I am today. [is it not working? laughing. technical problems.]

The first magic happened when I was a small child, many when I was a teenager. ... So formative. ... nothing superficial about it, the kind of magic I'm talking about. I was born with a speech defect--nobody could understand a word i said. And we were a reading family--this was before tv, computers -- so I read.

... one of the great [?] was when my mother went to the library and when one of us went with her. i was the 4th of 6 children so my turn didn't come up too often but when it came i was ecstatic.

so my turn ... we went ... cleveland ... So she left me in the children's department and went about doing what parents do. And after a while I decided I wanted to go home and I couldn't find my mother. ... nobody bothered me. I decided to go home. I knew I could get there, all I had to do was follow streetcar tracks. It didn't occur to me that this was 70-something, and we lived [a long way away]. I went outside and didn't recognize anything. ... taken to police. ... lots of ice cream. ... My brothers were extremely jealous when they learned of my adventures.

But that was magic. ...

But I learned that a library of books, magic, words can touch you and change your world.

The next incident, still when I was quite young, when I had a ruptured appendix, and i was desperately ill, and in those days we had oxygen tents. ... in hospital for a long time. One night i woke up and the tent was gone and I was surrounded by fire. And I was burning up with fever. I thought I'd died and gone to hell. I was seven. Late that night I was caught almost to an outside door and captured and taken back to bed and put in restraints. But I learned something else. That was another magic moment. I learned: you don't give in; you escape if you can.

[audience applause] I was on my way out of there.

I learned later -- my mother was a strict southern baptist. her best friend was an equally strict catholic. and because the baptists don't baptize until age of reason ... her best friend ... i'm not sure if i was baptized or given last rites ....learned that night, you don't give in, you don't surrender, you escape.

So in these years, not communicating with anybody, being isolated, being ignored. little child you are ignored. and i was most invisible because i couldn't talk. i learned to read. i don't remember learning to read. but my earliest memories are hiding behind a chair and reading. and that was satisfying. i told myself stories -- that started when i was 3 or 4. i told myself elaborate stories. but i couldn't share them.

they found that my problem was what they called clatter; all my words ran together. and it was very easy to correct because i could read. they made me pro-nounce-e-ver-y-single word and things ngot a little easier. but i had already learned what it is to be alone, not communicating, and i learned what it is to fight back.

.... later my mother insisted that i was the age of reason and i was baptized again. i was saved twice. but for whatever reason i objected to this big man ducking me under water. and i objected strenuously and i fought him. i fought him like a devil. he got as wet as i was. he complained to my mother; my mother was humiliated. i did not want to be drowned and i resisted. a year after that at the age of 12 - which in my case was the age of religion - i turned my back on all organized religion. i thought any religion which fills a child with terror and makes me think that i had died and gone to hell is not for me. (applause) of course that's -- ? ... and if anybody -- (applause) -- of course we have an administration that relies on fear ...

so moving on ... my father read zane grey and so did i. my mother read pearl buck and faith baldwin and so did i. i read my brother's tarzan books and a little later all of his thorne smith books. and of course i didn't understand them but i read them all. and i read my sister's hollywood magazines and romances. i read everything. so i got pretty b ored with children's section pretty quickly.

i remember getting my adult library card. we lived in the woods ... kentucky? -- so i walked into the adult section of the library, the proud possessor of a library card, and i was overwhelmed. and it wasn't anything except the thought: i have to read every book in here. and i began. i devised this system. two novels, two nonfiction books, and the other four divided by biography, poetry, plays and anthologies. and once a week i hit the library and took all my eight books and i read them. and this continued for many years. in high school i was chastised when the teacher caught me reading a robert benchley book. he was a very funny man. but i didn't tell her at home i was also reading dostoyevsky. and dostoyevsky led me to the other russian writers tolstoy and golgo ... i read by association but mostly by alphabet.

and nothing in our library was segregated by genre. i read wells and jules verne and they were in general ... a few things had their own and agatha christie had her own section ... i loved them all. most undiscriminating writer god invented.

all through school ... you're a writer, you're a writer, you should be a writer. and i always told stories. i told my little brothers stories. the only way i could think of taking charge of two little brothers was by telling stories. and i reinvented the serial. i have left more people danglingn off cliffs [laughter] andn facing fearsome monsters - and they loved it - ... so i was making 'em up as fast as i could.

one of my brothers i visited him 3 years ago in florida, and he's a deacon in the baptist church byu the way. he assures me that i've been well saved. he tells me he still remembers some of the stories i told, and i have no recollection.

... in high school they told me i was a writer. i wanted to be a chemist. i was good in science and good in math. i thought it was so exciting to find what was in a rock, what were its parts, what was it made of. and then the dean took me aside and she said no, if you ... chemistry, you will be a teacher, or a man's lab assistant ... i had four brothers and i'd learned to fight real young and i knew i would tangle with any man who was my boss. that was not going to work. so i dropped chemistry and got married right after high school instead. but i kept reading.

then ten years after graduating high school -- i didn't go to college, i had a scholarship, but if i couldn't be what i wanted to be, i didn't want to go at all -- 10 years after college i was reading an anthology ... i said to myself this is really bad, and i said "i could do that" and that day i gave myself permission to write a bad story. and it was calle d 'the ..?ridealong?. station' and john campbell bought it. i wrote it in longhand ...

and i got a letter from john campbell a few weeks after i sent him the story. i had to notarize a document sasying that i was the writer of this story. and i've asked other writers did they have to do that? and they all said no. but ... got check for $17 and bought a typewriter. [applause] and i've been writing ever since.

... and second story sold. so i knew i could tell stories and sell them. ... when they told me all through school that i should be a writer, i didn't see any way on earth that a girl from a working class family, i had never met an editor, ... i didn't see how anybody could bridge that gap from where i was to publishing stories; i just couldn't see it. ...

sold two stories, just kept writing ... still had no mentor, and nobody to tell me how to do it, what i was doing right or wrong ... just selling ... There weren't in those days as many sources of information as you hguys have. and i didn't come across any. ... i never saw a science fiction magazine in those days. i saw the anthologies, and that was all. i learned later there was one story in louisville that sold -- ? magazine. and ... bookie. of course louisville is home of kentucky derby ... and this bookstore had a sign that said no women allowed. i couldln't believe it. so i never came across a magazine. and in those days ... writing everything ... i wrote a mystery story. and the only ones that sold were science fiction. so i became a science fiction writer of sorts. and it wasn't really by choice. ... i was telling stories; that was all i've ever done. i was telling stories. and i've never put a word on paper until i've told the entire story to myself. i tell the story to myself first so that when i write it it goes very fast. ... then can take a long time because i have to rethink and rethink ... it doesn't matter how long, i tell myself first and then i write it.

and i've always written those kind of stories ... and i've always buried them because i make no distinction between this kind and that kind, because that was how i learned to read, reading everything, and that seemed normal to me ... and that's been my mode ever since. in the early days some of the criticism i got, some of the reviews, would say things like another strong wilhelm woman and another weak man. i never saw it that way. i was writing about the kind of women i either knew or admired or wanted to know. i was writing about normal women. and normal men. [applause

Kij Johnson

2007-09-01T18:21:36Z

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'''Kij Johnson''' is an editor and writer.

==Bibliography==

* "Schrödinger's Cathouse" in ''Fantasy

Paladin of Souls

2007-09-01T18:20:45Z

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[[Paladin of Souls]] is a [[fantasy]] novel by [[Lois McMaster Bujold]].

In ''[[The Curse of Chalion]]'' the story of the Royina [[Ista]], the [[middle-aged female characters|middle-aged]], [[women and madness|mad]], dowager empress, seemed over. ''Paladin of Souls'' tells her story as she figures out how to escape: she takes to the road on pilgrimage.

Several times, Ista tells the story of the traumatic

Fourth wall

2007-09-01T18:19:58Z

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The '''Fourth Wall''' is the theoretical construct that permits actors on a stage to not see and interact with the [[audience]]. It is a wall, invisible to the audience, but visible to the stage performers (and the wall they often seem to strike poses towards and direct their vocied internal monologues to). It is part of the [[suspension of disbelief]].

"Breaking the Fourth Wall" refers, narrowly, to moments in which the performer acknowledges or even addresses the audience directly. More broadly, it refers to self-referentiality within works, or recognition of a work's fictionality. This is sometimes called "metafiction". While the term comes from theater and drama, it may be applied to nondramatic works, e.g., prose.

==SF and the fourth wall==

Experimental fiction is often [[SFnal]] in form, and given to breaches of the fourth wall. The SF community ("[[fandom]]"), itself, builds on SFal worlds with [[cosplay|costume play]], [[fanfiction]], and other participatory endeavors. This participatory [[audience theory|audience]] engages SF through costume play, fanfiction, amateur creations, crossovers, [[retellings]], building-upon, and derivative works.

[[Fandom]] then overlaps between [[SF studies]] and the professional creators of SF -- writers, directors, programmers -- many of whom begin, or end, as fans.

==Feminism and the fourth wall==
Applied to [[feminism]], the fourth wall suggests the ways in which we participants in the world blindly accept the assumptions we're given. Feminism and other [[critical analysis]] permits us to break the fourth wall and address the assumptions.

Wikis inherently break the fourth wall by encouraging the reader not just to read but to edit, and sometimes the text invitingly says, "hey you, click here, and edit me."

Applied to the [[FSFwiki]], the fourth wall is suggestive of the air of neutrality which [[Wikipedia]] attempts to take. In Wikipedia, it's a more or less open process, permitting users to breach the fourth wall as needed to view the discussion on the "talk pages" and the history of any page. (Although the complexity of wikipedia and its dispute resolution processes is creating a de facto obscurity through complexity.) Because FSFwiki is both feminist and SFnal, we are integrating the User:pages into [[:Category:People|People categories]] as appropriate (see [[:Category:FS
1000
Fwikians|Category:FSFwikians]]).

What do ''you'' think? (click "edit" or "discussion" above if you want to tell)

==References==
''See wikipedia for more''
* [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth_wall fourth wall]
* [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fiction_that_breaks_the_fourth_wall list of fiction that breaks the fourth wall]

==Examples in FSF==
* [[Xena: Warrior Princess]] fourth season episode, "[[Déjà Vu All Over Again]]"

[[Category:Theory]]

Feminist SF Wiki:Sidebar search

2007-09-01T18:12:23Z

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Copied from http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Layout_customization#Customizing_the_page_layout on 2007/1/4

=== How do I move the location of the search box? ===

This is for the Monobook theme and involves modifying the Monobook.php file - you can see the effect [http://www.promixing.com here].

* In the shell account with the install files, find and select the following code in '''skins/MonoBook.php''':

<pre>
<div id="p-search" class="portlet">
<h5><label for="searchInput"><?php $this->msg('search') ?></label></h5>
<div class="pBody">
<form name="searchform" action="<?php $this->text('searchaction') ?>" id="searchform">
<input id="searchInput" name="search" type="text"
<?php if($this->haveMsg('accesskey-search')) {
?>accesskey="<?php $this->msg('accesskey-search') ?>"<?php }
if( isset( $this->data['search'] ) ) {
?> value="<?php $this->text('search') ?>"<?php } ?> />
<input type='submit' name="go" class="searchButton" id="searchGoButton"
value="<?php $this->msg('go') ?>"
/>

Maura McHugh

2007-09-01T18:09:42Z

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'''Maura McHugh''' ([http://splinister.com/ Splinister]) was born in the USA, but raised and educated in Co. Galway, Ireland. She has lived in the USA, and travels there often. At the moment she is resident in South Galway, Ireland. She is the webmaster and blogger for the [http://script.ie Irish Playwrights and Scriptwriters Guild], and writes scripts, short stories, novels, and plays. She is not afraid to call herself a feminist.

From 1992 - 1996 she pursued a Ph.D. in [http://tcd.ie Trinity College, Dublin] in modern women's science fiction, and during that time she served as Information Officer (twice) and President (once) of the [http://www.gsu.tcd.ie/ Graduate Students' Union]. As Information Officer she edited the academic journal, ''Alumnus'' for two years. She also worked on the organisational committee for the Irish National Science Fiction Convention, [http://octocon.com Octocon] for four years, and wrote articles and conducted interviews for the Irish Science Fiction Association's monthly newsletter (now defunct). She left academia eventually with no regrets to enter the IT industry.

In the following period she worked in a number of different companies as Lotus Notes Administrator, System Administrator, and IT Manager. She was the technology host for [http://online.ie Online.ie] from 2000-2002, and wrote articles about the IT industry.

In 2001 she left full-time employment to work freelance as a web designer and consultant, and to focus once again upon her writing. In 2002 she moved from Dublin to her home county of Galway. A love of cinema and scriptwriting drove her back to college.

Maura is a member of the fortnightly Galway Screenwriters and Playwrights Workshop, and the Irish Playwrights