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Bending The Landscape Original Gay and Lesbian Writing Science Fiction (Edited by Nicola Griffith and Stephen Pagel) |
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Bending The Landscape Original Gay and Lesbian Writing Science Fiction (Edited by Nicola Griffith and Stephen Pagel) |
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"Bending the Landscape" is a collection of original gay and lesbian short stories. Nicola Griffith and Stephen Pagel decided to focus on gay and lesbian issues in fiction, mainly science fiction and fantasy. The second book in their series is a collected works of gay and lesbian science fiction. Each story has at least one of the main characters either gay or lesbian, which provides a interesting look at the future for queer people. One of the more memorable stories is Keith Hartman's, "Sex, Guns, and Baptists" which is a look at the near future should Christian fundamentalists keep making ground. A moving story, as well as a brilliant opener to this anthology. The story is about a Baptist woman who hires a private investigator to provide evidence that her future husband is queer. Early on in the story we find that a majority of gay men are born Catholics, the reason being that the church doesn't support abortion and, given that technology has progressed to the point where the sexuality of an unborn child can be determined, the child is brought up Catholic. Ellen Klages' story, "Time Gypsy", is another favourite of mine, especially since it is based around Physics and time travel. The main character, Carol McCullough, goes back in time and meets the lady she wrote a dissertation on. She goes back to 1956, before Stonewall, to a time where police would raid clubs every week. This story provides the interesting twists that time travel provides, but also a good look at a time before the security we have today as a community. |
Another interesting story is Charles
Sheffield's, "Brooks Too Broad For Leaping". Imagine in the future
the military is the only place gay and lesbians are welcomed. In fact,
only gay and lesbians are welcomed in the military. But this is not the
focus of the story. It is more about the prejudices facing those who retire
from the force, and the risks they take to get back into the military.
One of the more moving stories is Richard A. Bramberg's, "Love's Last Farewell". This story was written for Joel, Bramberg's brother-in-law, and his life long partner, who died of AIDS in 1991. How would you feel if you had to make the decision to turn off your partner's life support system and in doing so you know that you will be the last gay person on Earth? Richard Bramberg paints a bleak future based on a medical breakthrough where gays and lesbians can no longer hide behind genetics, and in doing so are forced to become straight or lose any benefits or jobs. "Bending the Landscape" has other great works, and is well worth the read, both for its science fiction content and for the queer issues it addresses. To me, the most rewarding thing is not all the authors are gay and lesbian, which shows that the science fiction community as a whole can embrace the gay and lesbian community. This is a must read for all. Bending the Landscape:
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