Essowe TchalimEssowe is a fantasy writer, classicist and nerd. Follow him on Twitter at @E.Tchalim. His first published story is coming later this fall in the Kaleidocast.  As both a Classicist and a Speculative Fiction Writer, I was overflowing with nerd glee when I learned about the SF in Classical Tradition panel at Readercon. John Crowley, Haris Durrani, Ada Palmer, Catherynne M. Valente, and moderator Jo Walton had an excellent discussion deconstructing the elements of the SFF genres that existed in—or were essentially birthed from-- the Classical Tradition. Classics is the study of the Ancient Mediterranean World, usually with a greater focus on Ancient Greek and Roman cultures. When I attended Brooklyn College, I chose to major in this field partly due to my life-long interest in the subject, but also my fiction always gravitated to secondary worlds inspired by ancient civilizations. The more I learned about real world ancient histories, ways of life, and belief systems, the more nuanced and dynamic my fictional worlds became.  Automatons were statues made out of metal, animated by the God of metalworking, Hephaestus In almost all of ancient Greek and Roman stories I read during my Classics courses, I found the conceptual and mythological threads that make up most of our contemporary science fiction and fantasy. The panelists brought up examples that I had never considered, like Hephaestus’ automata. They were beings of metal, either humanoid or animal-shaped, that moved on their own—with ‘autonomy’, if you will (pun intended)— created by the Greek god of fire and the forge. In modern times, we recognize such things as robots, one of the most used devices in science fiction. John Crowley brought up Apuleis’ Golden Ass as another example. The tale is of a man named Lucius who, in an attempt turn himself into a bird, instead transforms into a donkey and must find a way to cure himself. What’s most interesting here is that this mistress had a collection of potions (or ointments in some translations) capable of completely altering physiology (Lucius’ having stolen the wrong one)—this being yet another device we often see in science fiction/fantasy.  Lucretius's Universe This should not be surprising, since, as Ms. Valente put it, Science Fiction is a set of impulses—taking a curious look at the world, wondering what is out there, and crafting answers to satisfy this question. Such impulses are timeless, not exclusive to any culture or generation. While their understanding of the natural world differed from ours, storytellers from antiquity employed the same techniques that modern SF writers use: creating new, imaginary concepts whilst grounding them in rational, methodical thought and the ‘scientific’ reasoning of the time. Jo Walton used Roman philosopher Lucretius to champion this point, speaking of how he conceived of other universes (what we understand as solar systems) as having other inhabited planets like Earth at the center. While this is clearly untrue—the Earth isn’t even in the center of this universe—it does shows that Lucretius was constructing a vision of the cosmos based on his—and that of his time—understanding of astronomy.  With that said, we should be cautious in claiming the ancient stories as works of science fiction. Ms. Valente aptly stated that the intent of the storytellers must matter in the context of the genre we ascribe to their stories. As filled with elements of science fiction as they may be, these stories were “history and fact” in the eyes of the Ancient Greeks and Romans. This is a stark difference from contemporary SFF writers, who tend to create worlds and concepts that we know are not true. One of the few writers of antiquity to stray from the Greek framework and approach ours was Lucian of Samosata, specifically in his work A True Story. The panelists kept coming back to him because he was the first in his time to write a story and proclaim it as a fictional piece; his intent was to write a story that was not true. A True Story is a tale of space travel and aliens on different planets waging war—it doesn’t get more SF than that! I thoroughly enjoyed this panel not only because of my background in Classics, nor just the quality of the discussion, but because it helped remind me that writing knows no boundaries. Sci-fi, fantasy, magical realism, etc—these are all terms that have been applied to our work for the sake of convenience and profit. At the end of the day, all we’re doing is imagining new worlds, concepts and scenarios, all of which are in varying degrees of conversation with the stories already in existence, whether it a story written ten years ago, or a thousand.  Essowe Tchalim is a writer of speculative fiction short stories and novels. He graduated from Brooklyn College, where he studied concepts of the soul and rituals of power from the Ancient Mediterranean. He currently works at Droga5, where he assists in producing TV commercials. When he is not writing or working, he is reading manga or trying to convince his friends to watch his favorite television shows.
His short story The Emperor Mantis, is set to be published at The Kaleidocast. You can find him on Twitter at @Etchalim, where he talks abouts politics, ancient history, and random nerdy shenanigans.
0 Comments
by Psycho-GirlKeep up with her blog to empower marginalized female voices at Psycho-girl.com & follow her at @psychogirl_com Thursday, July 7 We rolled our suitcases into the Marriott Hotel in Quincy, Massachusetts, and after hours in the car-pool, I was eager to stretch my legs and pee. We’d arrived for Readercon 27, this year’s installment of the annual convention for writers and readers of speculative fiction, and lucky for me and my cohorts, just one long car ride from our base in Brooklyn. After urinating and parking the luggage, I located my lanyard with our group’s proud name: Brooklyn Speculative Fiction Writers. Here we were, 25 strong, and ready to rule the world. My own name sat right over that identifier, but does the label apply if I write (yes!) or only if I write well (well…)? My car-mate’s novels are all killer, but mine is…in progress. As I got my bearings in the mid-range, jewel-toned lobby, I thought about how this place was packed with real, paid, professional writers, of whom I knew not one. And who was I but a socially anxious 51-year-old geek female, even if I fake my way pretty well? But I threw back my shoulders and willed myself to pass. All I have to do is make my novel good. Nothing else matters if I can make my novel good. How do I do that? We’d barely time to gulp down $12 veggie burgers in the thumping pub before the panels began. The salons were freezing, but the topics were hot, running the gamut of things that might interest the writers of sci-fi, horror and fantasy-adventure. In Living in the Future, panelists discussed maps and cellphones – conveniences that may or may not exist in the eons ahead. In Futurism’s Blind Spot, we wondered if projected tech change trumps the sociological. Nice warm-up, after which I put myself to bed under a fluffy Marriott duvet. I wanted more. Friday, July 8 After slurping a hot coffee, I attended The Politics of Food, where I was prompted to wonder if replicated food, a-la Star Trek, would better serve the working class or the privileged. At There’s a Queer Person at the End of This Book, the conversation centered on characters “coming out,” the necessity based on hetero-sexist assumptions. Can my future world exist outside of cis-het-normativity? What about erasure? Pondering Why Women Become Protagonists, I realized that my female lead may kick ass, but she does not have to stand in for all women. She’s a human being, so let heroism spring from her natural, personal characteristics, and for god’s sake, not some – ugh – past trauma. At Fantastical Dystopia, I wondered whether my fictional world is a dystopia, or merely dystopian? What cataclysm birthed it? Might that cataclysm signal a hopeful wipeout of status quos? At Who Gets to Tell My Story, some fiery discourse covered cis/het writers telling queer stories, or white authors creating protagonists of color. Where is the accidental normativity in my imaginative world? My shoulders shivered, but my mind was on fire. I found a balanced breather at Brooklyn Speculative Fiction Writers Group Reading, where members of my awesome group made some creative heat in the compact Blue Hills Salon. Go team! (Seriously, check out our Kaleidocast podcast of stellar original spec-fic short stories.) After dinner, I attempted shy networking at Meet the Pros(e), and mostly watched an eighties dance party that was a veritable nerd prom. Wait! Award-winning, best-selling authors look and act so much like me? While this in no way informs how well my writing stacks up against theirs, I’m absolutely certain at least a few of them are socially anxious. That was something to chew on later as I snuggled under the fluffy duvet. Maybe just maybe…  Photo: Rob Cameron, Brooklyn Speculative Fiction Writers Saturday, July 9 At Beyond Strong Female Characters, I remembered that my female protag should not be a masculine model. She’s clever, not a cutout, learning on the fly. Her strengths are specific and she feels pain. At The Apocalypse Is Already Here, It’s Just Not Evenly Distributed, I knew the future is better saved by advanced paradigms than by advanced technologies. At It Gets Better: The Value of Utopian and Dystopian Futures for the Currently and Historically Marginalized, I applied the tragically current utopia-dystopia metric: what percentage of my fictional population can murder another percentage without consequence? I missed Cowboys of Space and YA Tropes We’d Love to See the Last Of. I didn’t explore Robots as Proxies in Science Fiction, nor did I find out If Thor Can Hang Out with Iron Man, Why Can’t Harry Dresden Use a Computer? My fingers were ink-stained, my brain spinning, my tweets tweeting, my hashtags tagging, when panel burnout took hold. I excused myself to the awesomely deserted jacuzzi, and pressing up against pounding hot bubble jets, I wondered if the Marriott would ever get warmer, and for all this brain rush, was any closer to making my novel good? I ducked out early from the Brooklyn Speculative Fiction Writers all-night “Cards Against Humanity” playoff to go quietly again under the fluffy duvet. The nerds next door rocked it until 3am. Sunday, July 10 Bingo! While Mary Robinette Kowal offered Short Stories Explained (For the Novelist), I stubbornly heard “novel” every time she said “short story.” But this was a talk I almost skipped, and it contained the answer I craved! It was only a difference of word count, as easy as Ls=(((C+L)x750)xM)/2. Read carefully: Whatever the length, you simply apply the MACE quotient, an acronym standing for the kinds of stories one might tell. There is “milieu” (your character goes to a place), “ask/answer” (your character asks a question), “character” (your character’s self-definition is challenged), “event” (something external disrupts your character’s status quo). Each can be a driver. Open just one story or open one of each, just know which is which, and consider your allotment of words. Close each story in reverse order. It’s simple math, my dear Watson: employ story structure for maximum punch. If I never write well, plenty of other people already have, people I need more exposure to, people like Mary Robinette Kowal, Ada Palmer, Ellen Kushner, Mikki Kendall, Kat Howard and Delia Sherman. Guess what? Successful writers are largely geek women my age! I am in such amazing company! I pass already. I KNOW I CAN DO THIS. I tucked away my laptop, paid up, and warm outdoor air brushed my timid shoulders as we rolled our suitcases back out to the car. It was real, Marriott, but I was ready to get home, newly eager to find out how big a world I might build on a little composition. Let’s roll, writers. Hang that lanyard in the doorknob. We’ve got work to do. Although Readercon is modeled on "science fiction conventions," there is no art show, no costumes, no gaming, and almost no media. Instead, Readercon features a near-total focus on the written word. The program consists of panel discussions, author readings, and solo talks or discussion groups, plus kaffeeklatsches (intimate gatherings with an author) and autograph signings. There is a large bookshop full of new, used, and rare and collectible books and magazines.  |
 Archives
February 2022
Categories
All
|
RSS Feed