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lmwanak's review
5.0
I actually finished this a long time ago. I wanted to write a longer review but life got in the way. Awesome anthology. Great food for thought. It was neat to recognize many of the contributors--it was a good way to decompress after Wiscon.
manxomemia's review
I had never heard of WisCon before I found this book. I came upon it by accident while searching for "Writing the Other" (also by Nisi Shawl) online, and thought the series was an interesting concept. I immediately bought a bunch of them online, and this was the first to be delivered to my door.
As someone who loves reading and writing speculative fiction, the concept of "writing the other" is absolutely essential to me. Fantasy and science fiction worlds are not built on one culture, sexuality, race, age, religion, class, and gender, and those that attempt to be end up as flat and boring pieces of writing. Variety is what gives life to a story, and it is difficult to achieve that variety without veering at least a little into unchartered territory.
So, in an attempt to continue along my journey of not writing stories full of lots of copies of "me" living "my life" in "my world", I dove in.
What I like most about the book (which I assume is similar in all the Wiscon Chronicles) is that it is not simply the perspective of one writer, or one particular type of work. It is a collection of transcripts, essays, critical responses, and literary excerpts that all weigh in on the topic of Writing and Racial Identity within a feminist framework. It is not a book to tell you "you must write this way" or "this is correct and that is incorrect", but rather, it encourages critical thought about racial identity in writing, and puts forwards a collection of ideas that, whether you agree with them or not, stand as legitimate perspectives on the topic. It helped me look at my own work in a different light and prompted me to discuss the ideas with another writer friend of mine. While I don't think that writers should (or can) write to please everyone, it's important to consider how different people will receive your work, and it has been an interesting thought exercise for me.
While this would be an interesting read for anyone interested in feminism and representations of racial identity in literature, I would absolutely recommend this to anyone who writes fiction, particularly speculative fiction. I believe speculative fiction is sometimes considered immune to these issues, particularly in works where are the races are constructed, or the story is entirely set in the past, but not only is this an unwise approach to writing and consuming speculative fiction, it also misses a huge opportunity to address serious and touchy topics in a relatively safe environment. I love books that use constructed worlds and characters to address social issues, and I think this is one of the most powerful ways to express ideologies without it seeming too "preachy".
As someone who loves reading and writing speculative fiction, the concept of "writing the other" is absolutely essential to me. Fantasy and science fiction worlds are not built on one culture, sexuality, race, age, religion, class, and gender, and those that attempt to be end up as flat and boring pieces of writing. Variety is what gives life to a story, and it is difficult to achieve that variety without veering at least a little into unchartered territory.
So, in an attempt to continue along my journey of not writing stories full of lots of copies of "me" living "my life" in "my world", I dove in.
What I like most about the book (which I assume is similar in all the Wiscon Chronicles) is that it is not simply the perspective of one writer, or one particular type of work. It is a collection of transcripts, essays, critical responses, and literary excerpts that all weigh in on the topic of Writing and Racial Identity within a feminist framework. It is not a book to tell you "you must write this way" or "this is correct and that is incorrect", but rather, it encourages critical thought about racial identity in writing, and puts forwards a collection of ideas that, whether you agree with them or not, stand as legitimate perspectives on the topic. It helped me look at my own work in a different light and prompted me to discuss the ideas with another writer friend of mine. While I don't think that writers should (or can) write to please everyone, it's important to consider how different people will receive your work, and it has been an interesting thought exercise for me.
While this would be an interesting read for anyone interested in feminism and representations of racial identity in literature, I would absolutely recommend this to anyone who writes fiction, particularly speculative fiction. I believe speculative fiction is sometimes considered immune to these issues, particularly in works where are the races are constructed, or the story is entirely set in the past, but not only is this an unwise approach to writing and consuming speculative fiction, it also misses a huge opportunity to address serious and touchy topics in a relatively safe environment. I love books that use constructed worlds and characters to address social issues, and I think this is one of the most powerful ways to express ideologies without it seeming too "preachy".
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