Other

A very good essay by Pam Noles on the 'whiteness' of a lot of SF, reaction to it, and a great post by Matt Cheney dealing with this and the larger issue of 'the other' in fiction. What fascinates me as much as the racial aspect is the bit in Matt's post about male writers never thinking to write a dialogue scene between two women, and women writers never thinking it odd to write a similar scene between two men. I never thought it odd not to write women talking absent of men; growing up, this was pretty much all the talk there was, and these scenes are replete in my own fiction to the point I can think of very few scenes that are just between men.

All this is occassion to talk about my forthcoming zine, Other, a dream of mine for a long time and a real labor of love. It's early yet, but it's starting to come together (my good friend Co gave me a pair of wonderful poems for it tonight) and I have hopes to see it in print this winter yet. I want for Other to be a place for writing that doesn't fit in anywhere else, that doesn't lend itself to any category or genre, and that includes both form and content. The execution may be simple (but earnest), but the writing won't be. It will include fiction, poetry, non-fiction, mixed media, everything in between, the stuff that goes homeless.