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detailsandtales's review
4.0
Further essays collected by Hines that show why we need representation in SF/F. I appreciated that this collection dealt with a broader variety of marginalizations than the first. In particular, I appreciated that there were essays on both asexuality and Judaism. Though the experience described in the essay about being a Jewish reader is different from my own, a lot of it still spoke to me. I was bothered that an essay on disability was written by an ally rather than a disabled person, but other than that, yet another great collection.
juliemawesome's review
5.0
This is a collection of essays written by sf/f fans, about finding or not finding representation of part of their identities in sf/f.
This is the second volume, and I liked it better than the first one. I'm not sure if it had more variety, or more depth in most of the essays, or maybe a combination of both. I suspect Hines had more personal essays to choose from in compiling this volume.
They can be heartbreaking to read. They can be inspiring to read. They'll open your eyes to looking at the sf/f you're consuming in a different way.
I highly recommend this book to anyone, but specifically to sf/f creators, writers, artists, editors, publishers.
This is the second volume, and I liked it better than the first one. I'm not sure if it had more variety, or more depth in most of the essays, or maybe a combination of both. I suspect Hines had more personal essays to choose from in compiling this volume.
They can be heartbreaking to read. They can be inspiring to read. They'll open your eyes to looking at the sf/f you're consuming in a different way.
I highly recommend this book to anyone, but specifically to sf/f creators, writers, artists, editors, publishers.
rivqa's review
5.0
Building on its predecessor, [b:Invisible|21928689|Invisible|Jim C. Hines|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1397570210s/21928689.jpg|41227634], this is another thought-provoking series of essays about what it feels like to be unrepresented, or represented poorly, in speculative fiction.
kikiandarrowsfishshelf's review
4.0
This second volume is just as interesting as the first. There is more attention to native/indigenous population as well as age.
triscuit807's review
4.0
"When I didn't see myself in a mirror, I smashed it and saw myself in the pieces" (Diana Pho,"Breaking Mirrors"). This is a sequel to 2014's "Invisible" also edited by Jim Hines, and it expands upon the lack of any/positive representation in SF/F including abuse survivors, Jewish (but not a stereotype), ageism, parenting mixed race children, non-neurotypical characters, bisexuality, fat characters, asexuality, Native Americans and other indigenous peoples, and other persons of color. This volume includes a bibliography listing works with under-represented characters. I read this for my 2016 Reading Challenge "read a book of essays" (Bustle Reads).
morgandhu's review
4.0
Invisible 2: Personal Essays about Representation in Science Fiction, edited by Jim C. Hines, is the second collection of essays about the visibility - and invisibility - of people who are not straight, white, cis, nominally Christian, able-bodied, and most likely male in speculative fiction.
I haven't read the first Invisible collection, but I am certainly going looking for it now that I've read the second.
These are essays about never finding someone like yourself in the genre that you love, or only finding yourself rarely, usually as a side-kick or bit player, or maybe a villain, but almost never a real hero. Or finding only caricatures of people like you, stereotypical images that are almost as bad as never seeing yourself at all. And some stories about what it's like to find somebody like you, a fully realised character, a hero.
As Aliette de Bodard writes in her Introduction,
These essays remind us of all the people who are all too often invisible in speculative fiction, the people we need to see if we are to have stories that reflect the breadth and depth of the human condition. The people represented - and representing - in this volume include people of colour - not just the generic Latin@, Asian, Black, Indigenous groupings, but Vietnamese and Puerto Rican and Japanese and Cherokee and other members of specific cultures who want to be seen for themselves, not as part of some general non-white conglomerate.
The people writing these essays are queer, and trans, and genderfluid, and asexual, and survivors of abuse rather than victims, and think that they deserve to have their stories told so that others, especially young people growing up without any one who shares their experiences around them, will know they have a right to exist, that they are not alone.
They are Jewish, and pagan, they are immigrants, they are older women, they are disabled and non-neurotypical, they are fat, they are people with life histories and experiences that lie outside the straight cis able-bodied white male paradigm that it so often seems our understanding of humanity is based on.
Some of them are even examples of that paradigm, talking about how they have come to treasure the stories that are not about them. And it's all good reading.
I haven't read the first Invisible collection, but I am certainly going looking for it now that I've read the second.
These are essays about never finding someone like yourself in the genre that you love, or only finding yourself rarely, usually as a side-kick or bit player, or maybe a villain, but almost never a real hero. Or finding only caricatures of people like you, stereotypical images that are almost as bad as never seeing yourself at all. And some stories about what it's like to find somebody like you, a fully realised character, a hero.
As Aliette de Bodard writes in her Introduction,
The trouble with stories, of course, is that they don’t exist in a vacuum. They are shaped, too, by the culture in which they were born—and worse than that, by the dominant culture. Stories tell you what to value, and what not to value—they teach you, over and over, that some people get to be heroes and some don’t. That some behaviours like violence are acceptable and heroic; others (like mothers sacrificing themselves to the bone year after year to raise their children) aren’t even worth a mention.
And stories, in the end, shape that dominant culture. Telling the same story that we ourselves have been told, over and over, erases all the others. It tells some people—those outside the dominant cultural paradigm—that they don't deserve to have stories told about them. That people like them never get their own books or their own stories; that they are not worth writing about; which a lesson no-one should have to learn.
These essays remind us of all the people who are all too often invisible in speculative fiction, the people we need to see if we are to have stories that reflect the breadth and depth of the human condition. The people represented - and representing - in this volume include people of colour - not just the generic Latin@, Asian, Black, Indigenous groupings, but Vietnamese and Puerto Rican and Japanese and Cherokee and other members of specific cultures who want to be seen for themselves, not as part of some general non-white conglomerate.
The people writing these essays are queer, and trans, and genderfluid, and asexual, and survivors of abuse rather than victims, and think that they deserve to have their stories told so that others, especially young people growing up without any one who shares their experiences around them, will know they have a right to exist, that they are not alone.
They are Jewish, and pagan, they are immigrants, they are older women, they are disabled and non-neurotypical, they are fat, they are people with life histories and experiences that lie outside the straight cis able-bodied white male paradigm that it so often seems our understanding of humanity is based on.
Some of them are even examples of that paradigm, talking about how they have come to treasure the stories that are not about them. And it's all good reading.
wakenda's review
5.0
This is the second collection of essays on diversity and representation in SFF, originally published on Jim Hines' blog, and it's even better than the first. This one brings in religion, veteran status, age, size, indigeneity, immigration and surviving sexual assault, alongside essays that focus on disability, neurodiversity, race, gender (and not just binary gender) and sexuality, like the first book. The writing is strong, and the viewpoints are wide-ranging. I highly recommend reading it if you have a commitment to social justice, to help understand both the range of identities that are often excluded from or misrepresented in the media around us (and yes, media most definitely includes books), and what the effects of that exclusion/misrepresentation can be.
alicamj's review
5.0
A must read for authors
The book is powerful, inspiring, heartbreaking, and sometimes difficult to read but so very necessary. Each of us can do better, can create more diverse and complex characters. This book will help you do that.
The book is powerful, inspiring, heartbreaking, and sometimes difficult to read but so very necessary. Each of us can do better, can create more diverse and complex characters. This book will help you do that.
depleti's review
5.0
Another great series of essays. Everyone who enjoys science fiction and fantasy should read these. Or even if you don't.
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