As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.

John Allenson

We Already Have the Wheel. Frankenstein 1 – Strange Conception

by
John Allenson

Frankenstein Part 1 – Strange Conception. We know the myth of how Mary Shelley came to write the novel Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus.  The myth is fairly factual but the underlying biases give a completely false understanding of who Mary Shelley was, why she wrote the first science fiction novel (at least in English), and what was happening in the novel. The basic myth is that a group of important men and a couple of young women were trapped in a castle in Geneva and bored out of their skulls.  The poets came up with a contest to tell … Read more

Review: Every Heart a Doorway.

by

Title:  Every Heart a Doorway Author: Seanan McGuire Series: Wayward Children Genre: Magic Realism, and Queer Fiction Publisher: Tor Books Pages/Word Count: 176 pages Blurb: Eleanor West’s Home for Wayward Children No Solicitations No Visitors No Quests Children have always disappeared under the right conditions; slipping through the shadows under a bed or at the back of a wardrobe, tumbling down rabbit holes and into old wells, and emerging somewhere… else. But magical lands have little need for used-up miracle children. Nancy tumbled once, but now she’s back. The things she’s experienced… they change a person. The children under Miss … Read more

Review: Not Your Sidekick

by

Review: Not Your Sidekick C.B. Lee Title:  Not Your Sidekick Author: C.B. Lee Genre:  LGBT Fiction, Superheroes, Love and Romance, F/F Publisher:  Duet Books, an imprint of Interlude Press Pages/Word Count: 294 pages Blurb:  Welcome to Andover… where superpowers are common, but internships are complicated. Just ask high school nobody, Jessica Tran. Despite her heroic lineage, Jess is resigned to a life without superpowers and is merely looking to beef-up her college applications when she stumbles upon the perfect (paid!) internship—only it turns out to be for the town’s most heinous supervillain. On the upside, she gets to work with … Read more

We Already Have the Wheel: Werewolves and Toxic Masculinity

by
John Allenson

We Already Have the Wheel. Werewolves and Toxic Masculinity.  Growing Hair in Funny Places. The western werewolf myth has been incredibly stable for most of its history up until the turn of the last millennia.  Most of the stories, legends, and court cases reflect the same understanding of what it means to be a werewolf going back to the Greek legends of King Lycaon. The main stream of the King Lycaon story, with many regional differences is this:  Zeus (sometimes with Hermes) appears in the city of King Lycaon.  The king doubts that the person claiming to be Zeus is … Read more

We Already Invented the Wheel. Where the Boys Aren’t Part 2. After Stonewall

by
John Allenson

The first part of discussing the herstory of all women cultures went from the early 20th century up to 1970.  Several people remarked that there hadn’t been queer-positive stories.  We’ve forgotten that part of our heritage when it was virtually impossible to publish positive images of Queer lives.  Many countries had (and still have) laws that forbid positive depictions of so-called alternative lifestyles.  To have any depiction of Lesbian lives it was necessary to have a tragic ending.  It was shocking to have a Lesbian still alive at the end of a story as in The Killing of Sister George.  … Read more

We Already Invented the Wheel. Where the Boys Aren’t – Part 1.

by
John Allenson

When I started thinking of the topic of women only societies I quickly realized that I perceived of two separate types of story under the same label of ‘Lesbian Utopia’.  While there is a LOT of overlap in the way people have written about societies where a group of women have separated from the mainstream mixed society, (Amazons,) and single-sex worlds I’ve decided to treat the two as separate topics. After all, it’s not as if we talk way too much about women.  I’ll talk about Warrior Women in a later article dedicated to her history.  There is enough information … Read more

We Already Invented the Wheel. Introduction

by
John Allenson

So, this is my first column and I’ll take the opportunity to introduce myself and the basic topics of this column. I’m what is politely called an Independent Scholar of Speculative Fiction. I’ve delivered two papers on the subject of Aboriginal Canadians in Canadian Futurism. Back in the early 90s I’d edited a bibliography of Queer Positive Speculative Fiction which indicated whether content was Lesbian, Gay, Transgender, Other-Gender. I also co-wrote an article for the (sadly) defunct Body Politic on Gay/Lesbian subtext in mainstream comic books. After some 20 years of writing slash, I took a Master Class with the … Read more