Aspen Wheeler: "Dear Michael Damian and Lynne Thomas: Shorter is Sweeter"

Dear Michael Damian and Lynne Thomas: Shorter is Sweeter

By

Aspen Wheeler

LGBTQ, race relations, and sex. Those words alone are enough to make most people squirm or shy away from a story. Yet, almost every short science fiction story that we have read in this class refuses to ignore these issues. Instead, they highlight them. But they do not simply highlight them with a flashlight, but instead, authors of science fiction set up a stage which they then illuminate. This transparency is one of the aspects that I love about short science fiction and fantasy. Short science fiction and fantasy writers do not shy away from traditional taboos.

One of the taboos that science fiction explores is non-hetero relationships. Examples that our class read were Poul Anderson’s Kyrie and Frederick Pohl’s Day Million. Kyrie was a story about a relationship between Eloise, a human, and Lucifer, who is a flame. Lucifer and Eloise communicate telepathically, yet their relationship is just as intense and meaningful as any “normal” (as if that can actually be defined) relationship. Although Kyrie could be interpreted as a parallel to LGBTQ relationships and how they are just as legitimate as any other relationship, I felt as if Day Million was more abrupt and blunt about the topic. When Pohl dropped the sentence that says, “The reason the girl was not a girl was that she was a boy. How angrily you recoil from the page! You say, who the hell wants to read about a pair of queers?” he mocks his male readers. Day Million was published in an “explicit” magazine, Rogue, aimed towards males in the 1970s. I felt that both these stories shed light on the way the LGBTQ community and their relationships are just as legitimate as any other. Remember, love is love.

Addressing xenophobia, an irrational fear of people from other countries or cultures, is another aspect that I love about science fiction. Most science fiction tends to use aliens as a metaphor for racial or cultural differences.  My favorite novel and short story that involves this are The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury and “Find a Way Home” by Paul Cornell. In The Martian Chronicles, Ray Bradbury addresses the fact that “different” is simply a matter of which side of the fence we stand. In “Find a Way Home,” Cornell illuminates the idea that intolerance is not intrinsic, but taught.

Sex, the obsession of most humans. Do not worry because science fiction addresses this topic too! One of the most blatant stories that we were introduced to was “Passenger,” where aliens that we cannot see possess human bodies and do whatever they choose, whether it be doing drugs, eating junk food, or, more popularly, having sex with strangers. I appreciate that science fiction approaches ideas about sexuality as opposed to ignoring the subject. These taboos are important to address because it allows us to be able to have a better idea of what another person or group goes through, therefore strengthening our empathetic relationships.

But, I cannot lie. What will keep me reading science fiction is the ease of access of the stories. With the large workload of IMSA, I lost my love of reading. The books simply required too much of my time that I could not risk giving up. I can no longer stay up reading until one, two, or three a.m. because I have SIR, engineering, or some sort of assessment the next day. Any time I pick up a book that does not relate to class for more than ten minutes I feel guilty until I finish it. During this class, I found stories that I could recreationally read while receiving credit. Now, I know that IMSA is not the only place that I will have a large workload, and it is very likely that I will simply continue to get busier. One of the reasons that I will continue to read short science fiction is because it is short and accessible. The short science fiction and fantasy that I have been exposed to in this class fits easily within my busy lifestyle while still giving me an escape.

Now, brb frantically reading science fiction as much as I can over winter break.