The Pleasures of Reading, Viewing, and Listening in 2023, pt.2: Eleanor Arnason

 

2023 Pleasures

by Eleanor Arnason

 

I think I have mentioned before that I have had trouble reading fiction for the past several years. What am I reading then? Way too much news. The war in Ukraine disturbs me. The attack on Gaza horrifies me. I take refuge in some rereading: the fantasies of Diana Wynne Jones, for example. She is clever, fun and comforting. 

I also read nonfiction. Recently I read Portable Magic, A History of Books and Their Readers by Emma Smith. This is about books as physical objects. It’s interesting enough so I plan to reread it.

I followed it with Dinosaurs: New Visions of a Lost World by Michael J. Benton. This is basically a picture book with a scholarly commentary. I like paleontological art, and this has plenty. And I like dinosaurs, including the living dinosaurs, aka birds. I followed the Benton book with The Genius of Birds by Jennifer Ackerman. As the title suggests, it is about birds, the tiny dinosaurs that chirp in trees. I would describe this as pleasant pop biology. 

What next? A book on volcanoes, which didn’t give me what I wanted to know about volcanoes.  Then Of Time and Turtles: Mending the World, Shell by Shattered Shell by Sy Montgomery, which is about a wildlife rescue organization that treats injured turtles. Most have been hit by cars. Be careful when you drive. This was an encouraging book, about people doing good work. 

 

Finally I am reading a book on grass. Grassland: The History, Biology, Politics and Promise of the American Prairie by Richard Manning. Grass is amazing stuff, and Minnesota is at the edge of the great American prairie. I am a fan of rewilding much of it and bringing back bison. They evolved with the prairie. Unlike cattle, they have no trouble surviving on the prairie, and they do not harm it. They are huge and splendid and belong. 

 

We don’t watch many movies or TV series, but we have watched the Good Omens series, based on the Terry Pratchett-Neil Gaiman book. I love it. The actors, especially the two leads, are wonderful. We live in a time of catastrophe. A funny, well-acted, moral show about the end of the world is useful.

 

 We have a classical radio station on all the time. I listen to classical music and read about life forms, some alive now, some long gone. And I write some poetry as a way of coping with a world that seems difficult right now.

 

Maybe when this is all over

grass will grow

among the shattered buildings,

and birds nest and sing.

 

But will there be people?

Will children grow here

like the world’s grass,

which survives everything?

 

 

 Eleanor Arnason has written several novels and many short stories. Her fourth novel, A Woman of the Iron People (2001), won the James Tiptree Jr. award for gender-bending science fiction and the Mythopoeic Society Award for adult fantasy. Her fifth novel, Ring of Swords (1995), won a Minnesota Book Award. Aqueduct Press published her collection Big Mama Stories in 2013, her Lydia Duluth adventure, Tomb of the Fathers, in 2010, and her collection, Ordinary People, in 2005. In 2016 Aqueduct released  e-book editions of The Sword Smith, To the Resurrection Station, and Daughter of the Bear King. In 2017, Aqueduct published a collection of her Hwarhath stories, Hwarhath Stories, which was nominated for the Philip K. Dick Award and was named to the James Tiptree Award's Honor List. Next year, Aqueduct will bring out a new edition of Eleanor's Ring of Swords, with an introduction by Ursula K. Le Guin, as the fifth volume in its Heirloom Books series. 

 

 

The Pleasures of Reading, Viewing, and Listening in 2022, pt. 2: Eleanor Arnason

 

The Pleasures of 2022

by Eleanor Arnason

This is the third year of the epidemic, and I continue to be careful, avoiding crowds. I do go to the Minnesota Opera, always wearing a mask. The first opera this season was Edward Tulane, based on a children’s book by Kate DiCamillo. It works for adults as well as children. I enjoyed it. The second opera was Handel’s Rinaldo. I had seen a spectacular production of this by the Metropolitan Opera decades ago. 

 

The Minnesota Opera’s production was a lot less good, done in a new auditorium that reminded me of a concrete bunker. The stage was small. The sets were mingy. The singers and musicians did the best they could. The production was made worse by an attempt to avoid the anti-Moslem material in the original, which was based on Jerusalem Delivered by the Italian Renaissance poet Tasso. So the two contending forces – Crusaders and Moslems – were turned into two capitalist families contending for something. Control of a company?  In the end of the opera, the two families are reconciled and join together to oppress the working class. I am pretty sure I heard that. This fits in with the fact that the opera company has laid off 40% of their musicians, since they don’t need them – or have room for them – in their new, awful auditorium. 

If you get the chance to see Edward Tulane, it is probably worth seeing. Rinaldo is also worth seeing, just not this production. 

I finally lost interest in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The last three Avengers movies were not good. They could have stopped at Age of Ultron, when Thor flies off to Asgard to deal with problems there, and Tony Stark decides to retire as Ironman and buy a farm. The movies after that were simply not as interesting: more than anything else a way to get rid of old characters and bring in a new generation of superheroes. I am not going to get involved in this new generation. I have already spent enough time on Marvel. 

Most of my fiction reading has been manuscripts submitted to my two writing groups. Good work, but not yet out. My nonfiction reading has been a lot of science, especially paleontology. Reading about mass extinctions has been reassuring. It is not likely that humanity can equal the end-of-the-Permian mass extinction, caused (many paleontologists think) by enormous volcanic eruptions in what is now Siberia. The planet will recover from whatever we do to it, given ten million years or so. 

I guess my favorite book at the moment is The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs by Steve Brusatte. A good description of how paleontology is done, plus a lot of info about dinosaurs. I like dinosaurs, which are not extinct. They fly and sing all around us.  Brusatte wrote another book, which I like less well: The Rise and Reign of the Mammals. But he gives us the long, long history of mammals and their ancestral line, which began with Synapsids in the Permian, 250 million years ago. 

Science fiction writers can often see what’s wrong with a society and what kinds of changes are needed. But we don’t have a good sense of how long the changes will take. I remember sitting with a couple of friends, both SF writers, in 1992 or -93, as the Soviet Union was collapsing. “It will happen here,” I said. They agreed. One of them said, “I give us maybe three more years.” Now, 30 years later, the US finally seems to be crumbling. Everything takes longer than SF people expect. 

 

 Eleanor Arnason has written several novels and many short stories. Her fourth novel, A Woman of the Iron People (2001), won the James Tiptree Jr. award for gender-bending science fiction and the Mythopoeic Society Award for adult fantasy. Her fifth novel, Ring of Swords (1995), won a Minnesota Book Award. Aqueduct Press published her collection Big Mama Stories in 2013, her Lydia Duluth adventure, Tomb of the Fathers, in 2010, and her collection, Ordinary People, in 2005. In 2016 Aqueduct released  e-book editions of The Sword Smith, To the Resurrection Station, and Daughter of the Bear King. In 2017, Aqueduct published a collection of her Hwarhath stories, Hwarhath Stories, which was nominated for the Philip K. Dick Award and was named to the James Tiptree Award's Honor List. Next year, Aqueduct will bring out a new edition of Eleanor's Ring of Swords, with an introduction by Ursula K. Le Guin, as the fifth volume in its Heirloom Books series. 

 

Eleanor Arnason's Ring of Swords

I'm pleased to announce the release of a new edition of Eleanor Arnason's Ring of Swords as a volume in Aqueduct's Heirloom Book series in both print and e-book formats. Long out of print and short-listed for the Tiptree Award, many people, including Ursula K. Le Guin and Jo Walton, have wished for a new edition.

In her introduction to this new edition of Eleanor Arnason's Ring of Swords, Le Guin writes, "Ring of Swords is an intellectually fascinating science-fiction story told in the novel tradition, peopled by ordinary people content with their ordinary life, appalled to find themselves swept up into a social crisis, forced into acts and choices of historical consequence. Its ancestry includes not only The War of the Worlds but also A Tale of Two Cities and War and Peace.

"Having recently brought their own competitive, feud-ridden society into a fragile balance of peace, the Hwarhath have been facing an unexpected problem: the lack of enemies. Given the apparently innate male propensity for finding pretexts to fight, and the fact that their men were all trained as warriors, the women running things at home make sure the men stay out in space protecting the home planet. The drawback is that there seems to be nobody to protect it from. So, when in the vastness of space they finally stumble into another intelligent species, they rejoice. Enemies! At last!"

"The usual assumption," Le Guin notes, "is that if you threaten a war early in a novel, you'd better hurry up and get the bombs bursting in air. And they usually do. Novels that portray war as totally destructive and futile still focus on it--war is what they're about, war is central to them, just as it was central to the old epics that glorified heroes and battles. But a war not fought? What kind of subject is that?" Le Guin asks. Her answer? "It's a beautiful subject for a novel, and Ring of Swords is a beautiful novel."

You can read a sample of Ring of Swords here, and purchase it here.

The Plesures of Reading, Viewing, and Listening in 2017, pt. 8: Eleanor Arnason

A Difficult Year
by Eleanor Arnason



This has been a really difficult year. I should have coped by reading and writing, as I have done in the past. Instead, I have paid way too much attention to the crazy and horrible news that comes out of Washington. What have I enjoyed? The two Marvel movies I saw this year were both sequels. Guardians of the Galaxy 2 was not as good as the first Guardians movie, and I guess I don’t have much to say about it. It’s light. It’s funny. It’s very much a space opera.

Thor 3 (Ragnarok) can be talked about. I didn’t especially like it, but I had seen posts arguing that it is a movie that challenges racism and imperialism – and also a movie that treats Maori themes.

One reviewer says:

“I will freely admit that I am tired of seeing powerful white men wielding power they do not deserve and earned through violence. That narrative is played out, yet it is the crux of the Marvel cinematic universe. In Thor: Ragnorak, this trope is challenged by Hela — the first-born of Odin and sister of Thor and Loki — when she returns from exile to reclaim her spot atop the throne, and calls out Asgard’s ill-gained riches and powers in the process. As Hela points out in one particularly stunning scene, the spectacular gold of the Asgardian Palace was bought through brutal conquest and war. Before becoming ostensibly “peaceful,” Odin used his own daughter as his executioner, mercilessly taking lives to achieve his place in the kingdom. Then he stashed the murdered bodies in an underground vault, never to be spoken of again.

“If that sounds familiar, perhaps you know the history of colonialism, including in the United States, where we tout our exceptionalism while ignoring the violence it was built upon. All of which makes the film’s ending — Asgard and Hela are completely destroyed by the fire-demon Surtur, the lies of perceived superiority left in ashes — particularly satisfying.”

The above quote is from https://theestablishment.co/is-thor-ragnarok-a-subversive-takedown-of-white-supremacy-aec729cf0f40

For an analysis of Thor 3 as a Maori movie, check https://thespinoff.co.nz/atea/31-10-2017/thor-and-his-magic-patu-notes-on-a-very-maori-marvel-movie/

For Thor 3 as an anti-imperialist movie, check https://multiframe.wordpress.com/2017/10/27/thor-ragnarok/

What do I think of these analyses? I don’t know. They remind me of myself in the 1960s, desperately looking for revolutionary messages in Hollywood movies. There is a lot of ambiguity in Thor 3, material that can be read in different ways. This is typical of Hollywood popular movies. They send messages that can make all kinds of different people happy. But the director of Thor 3 is a New Zealander and identifies as Maori, so the anti-imperialist, anti-racist political subtexts may be there. And if those subtexts really are there, then Thor 3 becomes a far more interesting movie.

I keep wondering about the appeal of the Marvel movies. Maybe, in this dark era, people need movies that are goofy and funny and where the good guys win. Yes, there is darkness in these movies, but it’s a manageable darkness, and the good guys do win – or at least hold their own and keep fighting. A message for our time: don’t give up.

A movie that did give me pleasure was a French animation: The Triplets of Belleville. It’s funny and charming. The protagonists are four old ladies: a grandmother fiercely determined to rescue her grandson and the Triplets of Belleville, a trio of very odd elderly women, who used to be a singing group in the 20s or 30s. Not a new movie, but well worth seeing.

As far as books go, I enjoyed Beth Plutchak’s collection of short stories, Liminal Spaces [forthcoming from Aqueduct Press in early 2018]. Like The Triplets of Belleville, Plutchak’s fiction is very much about women and their struggles. I have to admit – as much as I love Marvel superhero movies – I like art about women even more.

 Eleanor Arnason has written several novels and many short stories. Her fourth novel, A Woman of the Iron People (2001), won the James Tiptree Jr. award for gender-bending science fiction and the Mythopoeic Society Award for adult fantasy. Her fifth novel, Ring of Swords (1995), won a Minnesota Book Award. Aqueduct Press published her collection Big Mama Stories in 2013, her Lydia Duluth adventure, Tomb of the Fathers, in 2010, and her collection, Ordinary People, in 2005. In 2016 Aqueduct released  e-book editions of The Sword Smith, To the Resurrection Station, and Daughter of the Bear King. In 2017, Aqueduct published a collection of her Hwarhath stories, Hwarhath Stories, which was nominated for the Philip K. Dick Award and was named to the James Tiptree Award's Honor List. Next year, Aqueduct will bring out a new edition of Eleanor's Ring of Swords, with an introduction by Ursula K. Le Guin, as the fifth volume in its Heirloom Books series.

The 2017 Philip K. Dick Award

The 2017 Philip K. Dick Award ceremony was held tonight at Norwescon 40; Gordon Van Gelder presided. Congratulations to Claudia Casper, whose novel The Mercy Journals (published by the excellent Arsenal Pulp Press) was given the award, and also to Susan diRende, whose novella Unpronounceable (published as a volume in Aqueduct's Conversation Pieces series) was given a Special Citation. (The photo shows Claudia and Susan holding the framed award and special citation respectively). The judges for this year's award were Michael Armstrong, Brenda Cough, meg Elison, Lee Konstantinou, and Ben Winters. The other nominees were Kristy Aceveo with Consider (published by Jolly Fish Press), who was present, Matt Hill with Graft (published by Angry Robot Books), who was also present, Eleanor Arnason with Hwarhath Stories: Transgressive Tales by Aliens (published by Aqueduct), and Yoss with Super Extra Grande (published by Restless Books). The authors attending each read for five minutes from their books. (Excerpts of Hwarhath Stories and Yoss were read by members of the Northwest Science Fiction Society.)

It's probably needless to say that I was quite pleased to see two of Aqueduct's books so honored.

Susan, by the way, read from Ch. 2 ("Alien Sex") in Rose's inimitable voice.

2016 James Tiptree Jr. Award

I'm late to this party-- I've just seen the announcement for the 2016 James Tiptree Jr. Award. I've taken this from the Award's website:

Congratulations to Anna-Marie McLemore, who has won the 2016 Tiptree Award for her novel When the Moon Was Ours (Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin’s Press, 2016).

About the Winner

When the Moon Was Ours by Anna-Marie McLemore is a fairytale about Samir, a transgender boy, and Miel, an orphan girl who grows roses from her wrists and is bullied as a result. In fact, there is a fairytale within the fairytale: the first chapter telling us the version of the story that mothers would tell children for years after — before also telling us what that story leaves out. Then the book takes us through all of it, step by step, exploring the heartache and frustration that being and loving differently generates. Beautifully, the novel never lets go of its unique magical realism framework. While the thoughts and emotions these characters share are incredibly familiar to anyone who is queer or trans or has loved someone who is trans, the imagery and particular scenarios the characters encounter are also completely bright and new.

In the author’s note at the end of the book, Anna-Marie McLemore tells us that when she was a teenager she fell in love with a transgender boy who would grow into the man she married. This is their story, reimagined as legend.

 In addition to selecting the winners, the jury chooses a Tiptree Award Honor List. The Honor List is a strong part of the award’s identity and is used by many readers as a recommended reading list. These notes on each work are excerpted and edited from comments by members of this year’s jury.

This year’s Honor List is:


Eleanor Arnason, Hwarhath Stories:Transgressive Tales by Aliens (Aqueduct Press, 2016) — This is a wonderful collection of stories that examine the ways that culturally, deep-rooted assumptions around gender restrict vocation and recognition of skills. Arnason tells of a culture with significantly different gender assumptions and customs that lead to a number of subtly shifted societal impacts — both positive and negative.

Mishell Baker, Borderline (Saga Press, 2016) — A fascinating whodunit with wonderful characters, Borderline spotlights diversity and intersectionality. Most of the characters in this novel are viewed as disabled by others, even by each other. But the characters’ so-called disabilities give them advantages in certain situations. Understanding this helps the characters love each other and themselves. Almost every character can be described as having attributes that are both disabilities and advantages. What builds us up can bring us down. Or put another way: our imperfections are openings to beautiful achievements.

Nino Cipri, “Opals and Clay” (Podcastle, 2016) — A beautiful love story about solidarity. With just three major characters, this story does a lot with gender, demonstrating how gendering can be something one does to control or out of love.

Andrea Hairston, Will Do Magic for Small Change (Aqueduct Press, 2016) — A beautiful story of magic and love that spans two centuries and three continents, moving between times and places through a book-within-a-book structure. Its 1980s protagonists are a family who has been torn apart by an act of homophobic violence. Through a discovery of their past, they are able to reconnect and find love again. Among other things, this novel depicts an amazing range of queer characters. Importantly, the book de-colonizes these representations, making queerness not a white or American thing, but something that emerges in different shapes and structures at different times and places, particular to individuals as well as the cultures and communities that they are a part of.

Rachael K. Jones, “The Night Bazaar for Women Becoming Reptiles” (Beneath Ceaseless Skies, 2016) — A moving story set in a world where people live separate lives by night and day, with an opposite-sex lover by day and same-sex lover by night as the standard family structure. The theme of being trapped in one’s body and circumstances and in the customs of one’s times is dealt with well. The metaphor of a city/body that traps people in prisons of identity was very powerful. A surprising (yet well set up) twist to the story broadens its scope.

Seanan McGuire, Every Heart a Doorway (Tor Books, 2916) — This is a lovely YA novel about teenagers who return to our world, against their wishes, from magical lands that they entered through secret pathways — a magic door, an impossible stairway at the bottom of a trunk, a mirror. Their parents cannot understand their pain and misinterpret the stories their children tell and send their children to Miss West’s Home for Wayward Children. Miss West, herself a returned child, helps them deal with their separation or return to what they all think of as their real homes. This novel came to the attention of the Tiptree jury because of the reasons the children are taken from or rejected by their magical worlds. The protagonist, Nancy, is asexual, and finds an ideal world through her door. A character named Kade was born Katie, and discovers he is a boy, not a girl. He is thrown out of Fairyland as punishment for his transition. Two twin girls named Jack and Jill take up identities opposite from those their parents imposed upon them. There are beautiful lessons here about the importance of finding one’s home–that place where one can be one’s self. An emotionally engaging novel.

Ada Palmer, Too Like the Lightning (Tor Books, 2016) — This book will start conversations about gender, philosophy, religion, government, even war.The judges perceived contradictions within this book that may be resolved in the sequel, but these only serve to spark interest. In the future in which it is set (the twenty-fifth century of our world), gendered language is considered taboo in most circles and gender/sex-related cues are minimized and overlooked in clothing, vocation, and all other public areas of life. However, the book slowly reveals that gender stereotypes, sexism, and sexual taboos still remain strong despite the century’s supposed enlightenment and escape from such notions.

Johanna Sinisalo, The Core of the Sun (Grove Press/Black Cat, 2016) — This emotional, moving and thought-provoking novel, set in an alternate present in Finland, provides a critique of heteronormativity, eugenics, and all forms of social control, done uniquely and with humor. In this alternate present, the government values public health and social stability above all else. Sex and gender have been organized as the government sees fit, much to the detriment of women, who are bred and raised to be docile. All .drugs, including alcohol and caffeine, have long been banned. Capsaicin from hot peppers is the most recent substance to be added to the list. Our protagonist, Vera/Vanna, is a capsaicin addict. Consuming peppers provides an escape from a world that has treated her horribly. Most chapters are from Vera/Vanna’s perspective, but others relate the history, laws, fairytales, and other literature of this fictional Finland.

Nisi Shawl, Everfair (Tor Books, 2016) — In this gorgeous steampunk revisionist history of anticolonial resistance, a coalition of rebels defeat King Leopold and transform the former Belgian Congo into Everfair: a new nation whose citizens comprise Africans, European settlers, and Asian laborers. Told from many different perspectives, the story switches among the viewpoints of a dozen protagonists. This novel shows how relationships can grow over time between people of different races, classes, and religions as they build community together. Characters work through their internalized racisms and demonstrate how this is necessary for those in interracial relationships.

But Wait — There’s More!

In addition to the honor list, this year’s jury also compiled a long list of twelve other works they found worthy of attention.


All the Birds in the Sky, Charlie Jane Anders (Tor, 2016)
The Waterdancer’s World, L. Timmel Duchamp (Aqueduct Press, 2016)
Lily, Michael Thomas Ford (Lethe Press, 2016)
King of the Worlds, M. Thomas Gammarino (Chin Music Press, 2016)
“Vesp: A History of Sapphic Scaphism,” Porpentine Charity Heartscape (Terraform, 2016 – an online interactive story),
Cantor for Pearls, M.C.A. Hogarth (De La Torre Books, 2016)
The Obelisk Gate, N.K. Jemisin (Orbit, 2016)
An Accident of Stars, Foz Meadows (Angry Robot, 2016)
Sleeping Under the Tree of Life, Sheree Renée Thomas (Aqueduct Press, 2016)
Suddenly Paris, Olga & Christopher Werby (CreateSpace, 2015)
The Arrival of Missives, Aliya Whiteley (Unsung Stories, 2015)
The Natural Way of Things, Charlotte Wood (Europa Editions 2016)

Now What?

Anna-Marie McLemore, along with authors and works on the Honor List, will be celebrated during Memorial Day weekend at WisCon 41 in Madison, Wisconsin, May 26-29, 2017. She will receive $1000 in prize money, a specially commissioned piece of original artwork, and (as always) chocolate.

Each year, a panel of five jurors selects the Tiptree Award winner. The 2016 judges were Jeanne Gomoll (chair), Aimee Bahng, James Fox, Roxanne Samer, and Deb Taber.


Reading for 2017 will soon begin. The panel consists of Alexis Lothian (chair), E.J. Fischer, Kazue Harada, Cheryl Morgan, and Julia Starkey.


The Tiptree Award invites everyone to recommend works for the award. Please submit recommendations via our recommendation page. Full information on all the books mentioned above will be in the Tiptree Award database before the end of March 2017.

*******************************

It's me again, just to express special pleasure that two Aqueduct Press books (and three Aqueduct Press authors) are on the Honor List, and two Aqueduct Press books are on the long list. I have to say, between the works named above and the Lambda Literary Award finalists' list, no one can say that 2016 wasn't a fruitful year for those of us hungry for sharp, challenging reading.  

The 2017 Philip K. Dick Award nominations

The 2017 Philip K. Dick Award nominations have been announced, and I'm delighted to find two Aqueduct Press titles among them. Congratulations to all of the nominated authors, which include Eleanor Arnason and Susan diRende!

 Here's the text from the press release:

The judges of the 2017 Philip K. Dick Award and the Philadelphia SF Society, along with the Philip K. Dick Trust, are pleased to announce the six nominated works that comprise the final ballot for the award:

CONSIDER by Kristy Acevedo (Jolly Fish Press)
HWARHATH STORIES: TRANSGRESSIVE TALES BY ALIENS by Eleanor Arnason (Aqueduct Press)
THE MERCY JOURNALS by Claudia Casper (Arsenal Pulp Press)
GRAFT by Matt Hill (Angry Robot)
UNPRONOUNCEABLE by Susan diRende (Aqueduct Press)
SUPER EXTRA GRANDE by Yoss, translated by David Frye (Restless Books)

First prize and any special citations will be announced on Friday, April 14, 2017 at Norwescon 40 at the DoubleTree by Hilton Seattle Airport, SeaTac, Washington.

The Philip K. Dick Award is presented annually with the support of the Philip K. Dick Trust for distinguished science fiction published in paperback original form in the United States during the previous calendar year.  The award is sponsored by the Philadelphia Science Fiction Society and the Philip K. Dick Trust and the award ceremony is sponsored by the Northwest Science Fiction Society.  Last year’s winner was APEX by Ramez Naam (Angry Robot) with a special citation to ARCHANGEL by Marguerite Reed (Arche Press). The 2016 judges are Michael Armstrong (chair), Brenda Clough, Meg Elison, Lee Konstantinou, and Ben Winters.

For more information, contact the award administration:
                                                                        Pat Lo Brutto (301) 460-3164
                                                                        John Silbersack (212) 333-1513
                                                                        Gordon Van Gelder (201) 876-2551

For more information about the Philadelphia Science Fiction Society: http://www.psfs.org/ :
                                                                        Contact Gary Feldbaum (215) 665-5752

For more information about Norwescon:  http://www.norwescon.org/ : info@norwescon.org.

Hwarhath Stories: Transgressive Tales by Aliens by Eleanor Arnason

I'm please to announce the release of Eleanor Arnason's collection, Hwarhath Stories: Transgressive Tales by Aliens, which Aqueduct Press has published in both trade paperback and electronic editions. (You can purchase it now from Aqueduct Press.) Hwarhath Stories: Transgressive Tales by Aliens collects a dozen Hwarhath tales with commentary by their translator. As the translator notes, "Humanity has encountered only one other species able to travel among the stars. This species, who call themselves the hwarhath, or 'people,' are also the only intelligent species so far encountered. Of course, we interest and puzzle and disturb each other... The stories in this collection were written after the hwarhath learned enough about humanity to realize how similar (and different) we are. Our existence has called into question many ideas about life and morality that most hwarhath would have called certain a century ago..."

Advance Praise

"One of the strongest collections of science fiction stories you’re ever likely to find. It’s hard to think of anybody other than Ursula K. Le Guin who was written better anthropological science fiction than Eleanor Arnason, and this very strong collection gather some of the best stories published by anybody during the last two decades."
  —Gardner Dozois, author of When Great Days Come, editor of Year's Best Science Fiction series

Reviews

"These are magnificent stories, wise, witty, science-fictionally fascinating, moving. This may well end up being the story collection of the year."   —Locus, Rich Horton,  April 2016

"Arnason's aliens are almost uniformly bisexual, and forbidden from engaging in heterosexual love beyond what’s needed for procreation. This behavior allows Arnason to adapt timeless folkloric tropes to her own modern, progressive, and wholly original reality, which comes alive in her precise, classically beautiful prose."
  —Publishers Weekly, February 29, 2016

"This is anthropological science fiction at its best, with only Ursula K. Le Guin rivaling Arnason in cultural insight and in the sophistication, complexity, and evocativeness of her worldbuilding. The hwarhath serve as a distorted mirror in which we can clearly see our own follies, foibles, peculiarities, and the inequalities of our society; the hwarhath, meanwhile, see humans as a distorted mirror in which they can see the peculiarities and inequalities of their own society. Arnason does her best work here at novella length, and I consider "The Potter of Bones" and "Dapple" to be among the very best novellas of their respective years, and as having an honorable place amongst the best SF novellas ever written. "The Hound of Merlin", "The Actors", "The Lovers", "The Garden", and "Holmes Sherlock" are also very strong; in fact, there's really nothing here that isn't worth reading. Coming as it does from a small press, you may not see Hwarhath Stories: Transgressive Tales by Aliens included on many lists of the best collections of 2016 as the year comes to an end, but believe me, it's one of them. It may even turn out to be the best collection of the year. "
  —Locus, Gardner Dozois,  May 2016

"Since the publication of Ring of Swords in 1993, Eleanor Arnason has been producing stories not so much about her furry, logical, matriarchal, alien hwarhath as by them. Hwarhath Stories: Transgressive Tales by Aliens gathers a dozen such published between 1993 and 2012 and adds an introduction and comments (about which more below). As the crucial preposition in the subtitle suggests, these are tales the hwarhath tell themselves as they begin to question some of their previously unquestioned assumptions about their nature and culture—questions generated by encounters with the puzzling, disturbing, dangerous, gender-strange creatures called humans."    —Locus, Russel Letson,  May 2016

"The alien species Hwarhath is an intelligent population whose inhabitants share many similarities to, and differences from, humans. This collection by the James Tiptree Jr. Award–winning author Arnason (A Woman of the Iron People) details Hwarhath society from the perspective of a cultural anthropologist and translator. The first story, "Historical Romances," details the differences in Hwarhath literature and popular fiction, showcasing the latter in "The Actors," "Dapple," and "The Potter of Bones." Sexuality, its fluidity, and its defined gender roles in this extraterrestrial community are highlighted in the myth-based tale, "The Gauze Banner." Delivered in a clear voice with scholarly touches, Arnason's book brings a fantastic species to life. Verdict These stories mostly date back to the 1990s, but the intelligent tone and anthropological view is as impressive nearly two decades years later. Readers who favor robust cultural development in related speculative works will find this collection a joy to ­absorb."  —Library Journal, April 2016

The Pleasures of Reading, Viewing, and Listening in 2015, pt. 10: Eleanor Arnason

Year End Essay 
by Eleanor Arnason

I am still having trouble reading fiction. Mostly I read books I’ve read before by writers like Diana Wynne Jones and Terry Pratchett, both now deceased, alas. They are funny and charming and good stylists. In addition, I read nonfiction, especially about paleontology. The Permian Mass Extinction puts the world’s current problems in perspective.

I spend a lot of time on the Internet, much of it reading political news, and that may explain my liking for light fiction and my reluctance to read more demanding works. Donald Trump can put a person off reality. It might be smart to cut back on the Internet and read more SFF.

What have I liked in the last year? Two movies. The Wind Rises came out in 2014, but I didn’t watch it until this year. It is the final work by the great Japanese anime director Hayeo Miyazaki. Most of his work is suitable for children: funny, charming fantasies, usually with a young girl as the protagonist, though Miyazaki is always concerned with ‘adult’ issues such as technology and the environment, and he always treats working people and old people – especially old women – with respect. Until the 1990s he was a Marxist, and I suspect he is still some kind of socialist. Speaking as an old woman, I appreciate the way he portrays old women a lot.

Wind is different from Miyazaki’s other work. It is a fictionalized biography of Jiro Hirokoshi, the real-life engineer who designed the Zero, Japan’s premier fighter plane in World War Two. Miyazaki has always been in love with flying and planes, and many of his movies are – in part – about war. (For example, Howl’s Moving Castle and Porco Rosso.) His father was director of a company that made rudders for the Zero plane, and Miyazaki has childhood memories of an Allied night raid that firebombed his home town. Planes and war were part of his life from the beginning.

The movie is about a young man who is true to his dream and designs a magnificent flying machine; it’s a love story about two likeable young people that had a sad ending; and it’s a meditation on war and the uses to which planes are put. The Nazis and the Japanese secret police make appearances. The movie ends with Japan in ruins. I wondered if the movie’s title was a reference to kamikaze, the divine wind that saved Japan from a Mongol invasion and to the kamikaze pilots in World War Two. But it’s a reference to a quote from Paul Valery: “The wind is rising… we must attempt to live.” This is a complex, ambiguous movie, physically beautiful in the tradition of Studio Ghibli anime.

The other movie I liked is the Shaun the Sheep Movie, which is hard to describe. It was produced by my other favorite animation studio (along with Studio Ghibli): Aardman Animations in Great Britain. The character (Shaun) first appeared in one of Aardman’s Wallace and Gromit shorts, then starred in a TV series for kids, though these programs also work for a lot of adults, including me. The series is about a flock of sheep on a farm run by a totally clueless farmer with the aid of a less-than-bright farm dog. Basically, it’s slapstick humor for children. There is no spoken dialogue, just animal noises from everyone, including the various humans.

So what is the appeal of the Shaun the Sheep movie? A loopy plot: the farmer is carried away from his farm and into a nearby big city by a runaway caravan. When the caravan finally crashes, he suffers a head injury, which makes him lose his memory. He wanders into a hair salon in a fog and sees a pair of clippers, which he grabs reflexively. (Remember that he is a sheep farmer.) He uses these to shear one of the customers, a celebrity of some kind. The celebrity loves his new haircut, and the farmer becomes a famous stylist: ‘Mr. X,’ since no one knows his name. Meanwhile, back at the farm, the sheep realize that they need the farmer. Who else will run the farm and feed them? Off they go to the city -- Shaun, the farm dog and the flock – to find the farmer and bring him home. The rest of the movie is slapstick humor and a certain anarchistic subversion. The sheep are endlessly inventive, fooling the city’s humans and running circles around the movie’s villain, an animal control officer. In order to pass, they find a used clothing store and dress up as very unconvincing humans, who attract no interest from the city’s residents – though the animal control officer develops an attraction for a very fake-looking woman made of two sheep in a skirt and coat. When they finally escape the city, it’s in a home-made horse costume, which contains a small flock of sheep instead of the usual two men. If this sounds weird, it is. Like the TV series, there are no spoken lines – just grunts, barks, baas and so on.

The closest comparison I can think of is the Marx Brothers, though Shaun does not have the streak of cruelty that the Marx Brothers have. But there is the same combination of zany humor and disrespect of authority. Here, though, there is sweetness as well. Everyone gets safely back to the farm. The animal control officer ends in a pile of manure. The stray dog Shaun has met in the city, who helped the sheep navigate through urban life, finds a lovely lady who adopts him. And the awful pigs, who have been living in the farmer’s house while he was gone, making an awful mess, end back in their pen. Justice and kindness win, and everyone goes off on a picnic.

A very sweet and funny movie, with a lot of diversity, I will add. The movie’s humans come in many colors, and I even saw one hijab. Though the sheep are all white.

What else have I enjoyed during the year? Minnesota Public Radio and the Minnesota Orchestra, especially the work of late romantics: Jean Sibelius, Richard Wagner and Edvard Grieg. I could have sworn that nothing could get me to like a tone poem, but I was wrong. The music director of the Orchestra is a Finn who loves Sibelius; and since the famous union struggle, in which Orchestra administration locked out the orchestra’s musicians, loyalty to the musicians and their union has become combined with loyalty to the music director, Finland and Sibelius. Minnesota Public Radio seems to play Sibelius’s Finlandia once a week. Up the working classes!

 Eleanor Arnason has written several novels and many short stories. Her fourth novel, A Woman of the Iron People (2001), won the James Tiptree Jr. award for gender-bending science fiction and the Mythopoeic Society Award for adult fantasy. Her fifth novel, Ring of Swords (1995), won a Minnesota Book Award. Aqueduct Press published her collection Big Mama Stories in 2013, her Lydia Duluth adventure, Tomb of the Fathers, in 2010, and her collection, Ordinary People, in 2005. This year Aqueduct released  e-book editions of The Sword Smith, To the Resurrection Station, and Daughter of the Clan Bear. Next year, Aqueduct will publish a collection of her Hwarhath stories.

Photos from WisCon 39

I tend to forget to take photos at WisCon, except for those I've gotten in the habit of doing-- chiefly of the Aqueduct Press-organized readings. Partly this is because I don't like to take photos without first getting permission from those who will be clearly identifiable in the photo (which pretty much rules out most candid photos), partly because I tend to get so caught up in talking to people that I forget. On our first night at WisCon, I remembered to take a photo of the window of Room of One's Own (which I of course stared admiringly at before entering the store), and a photo of Kath, Arrate, Nisi Shawl, and Margaret McBride at dinner. (Tom was leaning in back in his chair, & so, like me, who was talking the photo, is invisible.)

Hmm. Actually, you can see Tom's arm, the napkin in his lap. The food was Peruvian, and we were all in an exuberant mood and rejoicing at being all together again and attending another WisCon.

Friday, I took a picture of our tables in the Dealers Room. Kim Nash took the photo so that all four of us could be in the photo: this is what it the center part of the table looked like before the doors to the Dealers Room were opened:

Reading on Saturday were Anne Sheldon (who read several poems and an excerpt from Adventures of the Faithful Counselor, Mary Anne Mohanraj (who read from the introduction of The WisCon Chronicles Vol 9: Intersections and Alliances, Jackie Hatton (who read from Flesh and Wires, which Aqueduct Press will be releasing later this year), Andrea Hairston (who read from a novella), and me (who read a portion of "The Forbidden Words of Margaret A., which has just been reprinted in Ann and Jeff VanderMeer's Sisters of the Revolution):

And reading on Sunday were Eleanor Arnason (who read from The Daughter of the Bear King, which Aqueduct recently released in an ebook edition), Nancy Jane Moore (who read from The Weave), Therese Pieczynski (not an Aqueduct author, but one who writes very much in the spirit of Aqueduct and who read a teaser from a story that had everyone on the edge of their seat), and Lisa Shapter (who read from her novella A Day in Deep Freeze, which Aqueduct published this spring, and who prefers not to be photographed).

Three early novels by Eleanor Arnason

I'm pleased to announce that Aqueduct Press has just issued e-book editions of three, out-of-print novels by Eleanor Arnason: The Sword Smith, To the Resurrection Station, and Daughter of the Bear King. Each includes a new afterword by Eleanor.

The Sword Smith tells the tale of Limper, a master sword smith running from an oppressive boss-king who forced him to make expensive junk, and Nargri, his young dragon companion. Written in the early 1970s, and published in 1978 by Condor, The Sword Smith is an anti-epic fantasy. In a new Afterword written for this edition, Arnason describes the characters as "mostly fairly ordinary people, rather than heroes, wizards, and kings. Their problems are ordinary problems, rather than a gigantic struggle between good and evil. There is no magic. The dragons are intelligent therapod dinosaurs, and the trolls are some kind of hominid, maybe Neanderthals. In many ways, it is a science fiction story disguised as a fantasy."

 To the Resurrection Station, Arnason's second novel (written in the 1970s), was first published in 1986. On a planet far from our Earth, it begins a Gothic tale: a moldering mansion full of secrets, a disturbing master of the house, a young and innocent heroine, and the mansion's robot servant, who drives the story. A motley crew escapes to Earth (now overrun by interesting intelligent machines, except for a clearly crazy spaceport) where they land and begin exploring the ruins of New York City.

In a new Afterword written for this edition, Arnason describes Resurrection Station as about people who can't fit into social roles. "Claud can't be a traditional Native. Belinda can't be a straight young woman or a traditional heroine. Shortpaw is not an acceptable giant mutant rat. Without being especially heroic, they all refuse to give in or give up."

 Not your everyday fantasy, Daughter of the Bear King clearly arises from Second Wave Feminism. A middle-aged woman discovers that she has a role in an epic struggle between shoddiness and integrity. And her battle flows across time and universes.

On a Monday morning, Esperance Olson is suddenly transported to another world where dragons fly and wizards divulge her heritage: daughter of the ancient Bear King, she is a shape-changer with magical powers. This strange world runs on magic, and the wizards have summoned Esperance to fight a creeping and shadowy menace. Her epic journey transports her back and forth between her birth world and Minneapolis, where the magic and monsters follow, wreaking havoc.

Samples of each book are available for free download at Aqueduct's site, where the books are available in both epub and mobi formats for $7.95.