Jim C. Hines on writing about rape in fiction

Jan 05 2012

I highly recommend this essay by Jim C. Hines, just published over at Apex, about the perils and pitfalls writers may encounter if they choose to write about rape and other sexual violence in their fiction. It’s a thoughtful piece (not surprising given his experience as a rape counselor) and he dismantles a lot of tired old tropes, clichés, and myths about rape along the way.

He isn’t the first person to point this out–see also Karen Healey’s posts on her blog, Girls Read Comics and They’re Pissed, for a similar discussion about comics. I think his essay makes a useful contribution because it offers writers some ideas about how to write about sexual violence in a way that does not diminish, belittle, or sensationalize the experiences of those who have been through it. He also advises writers to stop and think about whether they are using rape as a shorthand plot device, to show how evil an antagonist is, or as a one-note motivation for a character (rape victim turns vigilante, for example).

You can find out more about Hines and his work here: www.jimchines.com

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terry brooks on writing

Dec 09 2011

Why didn’t someone tell me Terry Brooks wrote a book on writing? Just starting to read it, but it looks promising (and way more fun than that Norman Mailer book on writing).

Here’s a little tidbit:

The writer Walter Mosley wrote a few years ago in an article that appeared in the New York Times that writing is gathering smoke— the smoke of dreams, of ideas, of the imagination. We collect that smoke and try to make something out of it. It doesn’t happen all at once, but only over time and never on a determinable schedule. We visit our hazy treasure every day in order not to lose sight of it, not to let it evaporate from neglect. At some point in our tending and examination, something substantial will come alive.

Brooks, Terry; Sometimes the Magic Works: Lessons from a Writing Life.
Westminster, MD, USA: Ballantine Books, 2003. p 7.

“Gathering smoke” is just what I feel like I’m doing today.

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in great company

Dec 08 2011

Whoo-hoo! I just got official word about an anthology that will be reprinting my short story, “Sex with Ghosts,” which originally appeared in Strange Horizons back in 2008.

The title is Beyond Binary: Genderqueer and Sexually Fluid Speculative Fiction, Brit Mandelo is the editor, the collection will be published by Lethe Press in May 2012, and in it I am rubbing elbows with some of my favorite writers. Here’s the table of contents:

“Sea of Cortez” by Sandra McDonald
“Eye of the Storm” by Kelley Eskridge
“Fisherman” by Nalo Hopkinson
“Pirate Solutions” by Katie Sparrow
“A Wild and Wicked Youth” by Ellen Kushner
“Prosperine When it Sizzles” by Tansy Roberts
“The Fairy Cony-Catcher” by Delia Sherman
“Palimpsest” by Catherynne M. Valente
“Another Coming” by Sonya Taaffe
“Bleaker Collegiate Presents an All-Female Production of Waiting for Godot” by Claire Humphrey
“The Ghost Party” by Richard Larson
“Bonehouse” by Keffy R. M. Kehrli
“Sex with Ghosts” by Sarah Kanning
“Spoiling Veena” by Keyan Bowes
“The Metamorphosis Bud” by Liu Wen Zhuang
“Schrodinger’s Pussy” by Terra LeMay

I am EXTREMELY excited about this project. Lethe has been putting out some great anthologies (see the work of editors Steve Berman and JoSelle Vanderhooft for additional good stuff), and this looks like it’s going to be a good ‘un.

And for writers who are wondering how I stumbled into this opportunity, I saw a call for submissions on the Outer Alliance email list (if you are at all interested in speculative fiction related to GLBTIQ people and themes, you need to follow those folks), and thought I had a story that fit what the editor was looking for. I sent an email with the story pasted in, and got a “yes.”

I’ve also gotten four “no’s” this past month (two on the same day! for stories I sent to different places six weeks apart!), and will no doubt collect many more in the course of a writing career, so I guess you could say the process is simple (keep writing, keep reading, keep improving, keep sending stuff out) but not easy.

Editor Brit Mandelo’s official announcement.

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ok cupid’s wisdom for writers

Dec 01 2011

I just read this post by Georgina Bruce, an up-and-coming writer I admire, and it made me think of this research done by the online dating service OK Cupid on “The Mathematics of Beauty.”

Bruce said this about an experience she had with a bad review of her writing:

I once read a review about one of my stories that was so scathing, so unkind, that it stopped me writing for months. It made me frightened to write anything else, scared that more scorn and bile would be poured over my creations, terrified that this person might be right. In retrospect, it’s easy to see that this critic had some kind of personal axe to grind, but at the time, I was deeply affected.

I had a similar experience, in a fiction writing workshop waaaaay back when I was an undergraduate, which was very damaging and hurtful. It stopped me in my tracks for a long time. (It is probably not a coincidence that I switched genres to poetry and have only switched back to fiction in the past five or so years.)

Typically, we get advice from other writers that haters gonna hate, and to pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, etc., etc., but that’s hard to do in practice.

Enter OK Cupid and their research on beauty, hotness, and number of times you get asked out. Their findings indicate:

  • that the more men as a group disagree about a woman’s looks, the more they end up liking her
  • guys tend to ignore girls who are merely cute
  • and, in fact, having some men think she’s ugly actually works in a woman’s favor

I highly recommend reading the article, because how they reached those conclusions is fascinating, but let’s assume for the moment that this is an accurate assessment of reality.

Now for the magic: let’s replace a few key words, shall we?

  • The more critics as a group disagree about a writer’s ability, the more they end up liking her work
  • critics tend to ignore writers who are merely competent
  • and, in fact, having some critics think she’s a terrible writer actually works in a writer’s favor

This kind of boils down to the homegrown wisdom that if you aren’t pissing off a few people, you probably aren’t doing your job as a writer. This may be especially true in speculative fiction, where so many people arrive with so many different expectations of the genre.

What do you think?

 

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veterans day writer’s bookshelf: haunted by combat

Nov 11 2011

Here’ s a book I’ve been reading for background research that I can recommend much more broadly: Haunted by Combat: Understanding PTSD in War Veterans by Daryl Paulson and Stanley Krippner. Paulson is a combat veteran of the Vietnam war who later earned a Ph.D in psychology, and a psychology professor.

I picked up the book because I was looking for an accessible nonfiction book that described not just the clinical DSM-IV criteria of post-traumatic stress disorder, but what the experience of PTSD is really like for combat veterans — and how the experience of veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan might differ from those who fought in previous wars. Paulson and Krippner deliver on that, and also explain, in lay terms, the treatment options. They are also quite candid about what treatment vets are likely to get (i.e., the emphasis is on medication because it’s cheaper to provide than other treatments that are as helpful or more helpful; the focus on managing symptoms rather than healing, again largely because of cost factors).

Last month President Obama announced that nearly all U.S. troops would leave Iraq by the end of this year, nearly 40,000 soldiers at this point (100,000 have already been withdrawn).

All of them (as well as the vets who have already come back from Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as those still in active duty) are going to come home changed. A substantial number of them are going to come home dealing with PTSD, struggling to do things most of us take for granted, like walking into a crowded grocery store in the middle of the day and making a purchase, or driving down a busy street, or going out to dinner with friends. They will have trouble maintaining close relationship, trouble sleeping, maybe trouble concentrating. They may self-medicate with alcohol or drugs  (and if they’re caught abusing drugs, this gives the government an excuse to deny them benefits and treatment).

Chances are you know someone who has been affected by combat, as a family member, coworker, student, or friend. That’s why you should read this book.

But I’m just scratching the surface here. Read the book, ask your local library to carry it (that’s where i found it), and thank the veterans you know for their service.

Thank you to my friends and family who served in the military, including: Uncle Allen, Uncle Dick, Eileen, Ryan, Lissa, and Keith.

The image is from the poster gallery at the Department of Veterans Affairs (www.va.gov/opa/vetsday).

 

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