Genre News

I've come across a few new posts dealing with YesGayYA that I think it's worth passing along.  Malinda Lo has done a great post on authenticity - and the fact that one person's experience doesn't necessarily match that of others:

• The concept of one authentic identity/representation is problematic because cultures and traditions are not tightly bounded; they are fluid and many times hybrid. One Asian American’s experience of growing up in the US is not the same as every other’s.
• When we think about writing fiction, the idea of authenticity is often entangled with the idea of experience. “Write what you know,” etc. However, nobody expects a writer to go out and kill people before she writes murder mysteries.

She linked to a post by Brent Hartinger that deals with diversity.  Among his points are these:

• Talk is cheap. Everyone says, "I'm all for diversity!" But being in favor of diversity in theory is literally pointless. In today's world, the only way it happens is if you consciously make it happen. We all need to be aware of this issue -- in our own works and in the works of others. If the characters you're writing (and reading) are exactly like you, it's worth asking yourself, "Why might that be?"
• ...
• Along those lines, there is no one minority experience of anyone -- not of blacks, not of gays, not of the disabled. What we're talking about are the experiences of individuals -- individual characters, in fact. I really do get why minorities are protective of the way they're portrayed -- they've often been oppressed, ridiculed, and/or stereotyped, usually for centuries. But again, when we're talking about a book or movie, we're talking about individual characters, not entire groups. No one is "representative" of anything. And besides, art is about making connections and finding the emotional heart in a character and situation anyway; it's not about literal "truth."

Both posts make some other excellent points, so go and read them if you're interested.

In other news, Sea Lion Books' graphic novel, Pariah, now has a series of trailers.  My favourites are Sam's because he's created some interesting tech, and Barclay's, because he's angry and sarcastic and he has a plan.  His video is embedded here as it gives more plot details than the others.




And last but not least, 360 Sound and Vision Entertainment is currently filming Cybornetics:

a futuristic science fiction feature film about a group of scientists, working for the United States government, who transform Charles Benjamin,  a small time hustler, into a cyborg. The film stars Raw Leiba, of Conan The Barbarian, and Justiin A. Davis of HBO's Boardwalk Empire.