Scribbles and Bits

Mori: as a reward for getting through some crummy medical shit, I trawled a used book store for lady speculative fiction! (We’ve realized that it’s a lot easier to let ourself buy it with the glee that even if WE don’t enjoy it, the sci-fi library insures OTHERS will! And while the sci-fi library is well-stocked with “traditional” sci-fi publishers, it is really lacking in speculative work for queer and women’s presses and such.) I have taken on three of the four now...

1. “Sultana’s Dream”, by Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain. 1905 Bengali Muslim biting satire about a carless future society where women rule and all the men have to stay indoors and never be perceived by humans outside their servants and immediate family. The edition I had shared the short story and then all the historical, cultural, and personal context as to WHY the story got made, who the author was (a feminist who fought hard for women’s rights in now-Bangladesh) and why it matters. Very historically interesting and edifying! (Also, for real, I do love the fantasy of Garden Future where all roads look like gorgeous garden paths because cars don’t exist and everyone moves by walking or floating helicopter/zeppelin thingies! In 1905, a carless future was imaginable! When the narrator regrets treading on such pretty flowers, another character tells her not to worry, these are special street flowers that can’t be harmed by feet!)


2. Return to Isis, by Jean Stewart. 1992 lesbian separatist post-apocalyptic matriarchy story. Didn’t finish; everyone was just kind of unpleasant to each other, and if you’re going to write evil rapist men, I damn well require you understand how misogynist rape works. (I am probably the equivalent of the lawyer going “ugh” whenever they have to watch a courtroom drama, when it comes to the study of human sexual douchebaggery, though.) First book of five book series; maybe she got better as she went on, but I have other books to read!


3. Madame Aurora, by Sarah Aldridge. 1983 historical novel about two girlfriends in their seventies at the turn of the last century who, struggling with money and disability, decides to set one of them up as a spiritual advisor, and the events that follow. I really enjoyed this one! Old ladies who still bang! Sordid history! Is it psychic or is she just really intuitive? What’s the deal with that scabby old Colonel? Aldridge does a good job, I think, of writing even unpleasant characters with an understanding of why they are how they are. Refreshing!
   

All that remains now is Katherine V. Forrest’s Daughters of a Coral Dawn. Forrest is apparently a better mystery writer than sci-fi (and I read one and liked it!) but I am willing to give it a shot and declare it library-worthy if I can’t stand it.

A successful booking!

Mori: Was digging around and refound the zines of August Eckhardt, AKA Rocko Bulldagger, Bleached Blonde Bimbos #1 and #2 in the Queer Zine Archive Project (sadly not screenreadable). They're still winners, but this quote in particular, from June 2005, especially jumped out at me:

"What is with this more-radical-than-thou attitude? If no one has a hope of understanding you, who are you even talking to? [...] Between being tragically misunderstood, perpetually on the cutting edge and more radical [than] everyone else, when do you have time to connect with others? [...] So many strict rules about how to be what you are, what to call it, and how you can expect others to relate to it. All this rigidity seems to be isolating, resulting in a cycle of pain, loneliness and bitterness, trying to find people exactly like yourself because they will understand but no one else will, consequently being disappointed, becoming more rigid, more hurt, stricter and more precise about your language and identity... and on and on..." (Bleached Blonde Bimbos II, "The End of Genderqueer," pg. 10)

Rocko was talking specifically about the genderqueer identity, and how it morphed and changed out from under them over the course of 1999-2005, but I feel like a lot still holds true about other things, twenty years later. Also both zines are just still really good! Might have to print out a copy of #1 for my shelf. Also they got me to check out Amber Hollibaugh from the library, which is cool!

Guess I'm gonna be adding them to the Self-Hate and Social Justice Bibliography! (Maybe I'll just make the "edward cullen haunts my soul" tag about noble liberatory causes being twisted into poison and self/other-hate, not like we use it for its original purpose much anymore...)

For context, I didn't write this. This is a textual transcription of a 1983 Kirk/Spock/McCoy fanfiction by Leslie Fish, which I found in the Star Trek fanzine It Takes Time on Impulse, Vol. II, which I found in a dusty box just now in the Sci-Fi library. I transcribed it for posterity, making a couple minor corrections of typos. It dates to after Spock’s death in Wrath of Khan, before the release of Search for Spock.

THE UNDEPARTED

copyright by L. [Leslie] Fish

/// take care, take care how you lift this body, for it was once loved. ///

( He's here he's here two ends of the circuit he's here migod we're holding him between us!!! )

Rogan: Hey, so, a friend was asking for recommendations on erotic work to stockpile and activated my amateur semi-library tendencies. And I wrote off so many I thought I should make a post about it. All of these are available in hard copy, or at least WERE. (Making this list made me realize how many had gone out of print... lament.)

Feel free to ask if you want specific kinks or themes! Leave your own recommendations in the comments! Anon comments are turned on!
( Hey kid, wanna buy a horny comic? *opens trenchcoat, displaying countless pockets filled with books* )

Mori: Well, today sure been exciting and I ain't even hit the marching band festival yet! (That... might have to wait til tomorrow. Too much excitement.)

I stayed up till 3 AM working on Madgic #4--not advisable, but deadlines are deadlines and that book needs to be done, printed, and on a book fair table in two weeks. I was like, it's fine, Saturday I can be nice and chill and just catalog for the sci-fi library all day, give my neck and shoulders a break.

That is not how my Saturday went.

( Transphobia, bomb threat, and local politics behind the cut. Hold my lunch, MY LIBRARY NEEDS ME! )

Man, and this ain't even getting into the shit me and Rawlin done in headspace at 3 AM! Today is really shaping up to be a banger! But at least now I'm safe in the sci-fi library where nothing worse is going to happen besides Harlan Ellison being rude to some guy.

Mori: I saw a drawing with this slogan and rough composition somewhere on the Internet earlier this year, but it seems to have disappeared and I haven't been able to find it again. In fact, searching got me THIS as a result:



No, Google, I did NOT mean that, but if the shoe fits, I might as well wear it, so I ended up drawing my own version. I also plan to make a "butches and trans women are sisters in arms" but until Poop Jail is done and Arisia is over, we have no spare drawing time.

Click to embiggen!

Rogan: So, George Nader is probably someone most of you have never heard of, and for good reason. He was apparently a pretty successful actor in movies and television for over twenty years, but none of his stuff has really stuck in cultural memory except the first, worst starring role he ever had, Robot Monster from 1953. (I have seen it. It is bad.) In 1972, he suffered a detached retina which led to glaucoma, which rendered him unable to handle film lights, forcing him to quit acting, and in 1978, he published his only novel, a gay robomance entitled Chrome (Footnote). (His entry on the Internet Speculative Fiction Database is here. Note the author photo of him pumping iron.)

( Gay robots, gay movie stars, chocolate milk products, and stereophonic weenies. )

( Footnote )

Mori: I been still reading my lesbian mystery novels,and I found one that doesn't qualify for pluralstories  but it's worth mentioning here, because a major part of it is singlet memory work: Under My Skin, by Jaye Maiman. (This book is the third in a series, but like many mysteries, you can jump in wherever. I had no trouble keeping track of stuff.)

( Read more... )

 Mori: I am reading another lesbian mystery novel, third in a series, from 1989. I want to make a proper post about the series when I'm done, but I just had to post this little snippet from pg. 93-4:

"Margaret and I saw a great movie," [protagonist's girlfriend] said, and named a romantic comedy-thriller that was currently very popular. "Really pleasant and old-fashioned: they meet, they fight, they reconcile. Vet satisfying."

I looked up sternly from my book. "It's beyond me how you can enjoy a film that just reinforces the heteropatriarchy. ( A book from 1989 is helping me get insight on the leftist politics of today )

Mori: I've been reading a bunch of lesbian mystery novels from the 1980s and '90s. It was exactly what I wanted: episodic stories of lesbians and other women being flawed and imperfect and teaming up to solve problems, nontraditional spelling of the word "woman," and older protagonists. And since mysteries by definition have their main plots be, you know, the mystery, it meant romance and coming out were subplots at best.

I also wanted older stuff, for a couple reasons. First, my buddy storyheight had a bunch of them onhand. Second, it's always nice to remember that we've been around for a long time. And third, mysteries are the perfect medium for exploring the political fights of the time, and reading older stuff give me some distance. It's easier to laugh about the political fights of yesteryear! Here's some of the ones I've read lately:

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