The Cascadia Subdu ction A LITERARY Z QUARTERLY on January 2013 X Vol. 3. No. 1 e ESSAY We Have Never Been Postmodern: “Walking Stick Fires” and the Knowability of Science Fiction by Alan DeNiro POEMS Grandmother Ash by Michele Bannister The Social Function of Property by Care Santos Gneiss-Mother by Michele Bannister FLASH FICTION IN THIS ISSUE On the Island Where I Come From by Nin Andrews GRANDMOTHER MAGMA Tehanu by Ursula K. Le Guin Lost in the Matrix Lost BOOK REVIEWS At the Mouth of the River of Bees by Kij Johnson Working on Mars… by William J. Clancey Breaking the Bow: Speculative Fiction Inspired by the Ramayana X edited by Anil Menon and am ders Vandana Singh P Rapture: Book Three of the S Bel Dame Apocrypha an by Kameron Hurley Revolution at Point Zero by Silvia Federici Heiresses of Russ 2012: The Year’s Best Lesbian Speculative Fiction edited by Connie Wilkins and Steve Berman FEATURED ARTIST $5.00 Pam Sanders Managing Editor Lew Gilchriist VOL. 3 NO. 1 — JANUARY 2013 Reviews Editor ESSAY Nisi Shawl We Have Never Been Postmodern: Features Editor “Walking Stick Fires” and the Knowability of Science Fiction L. Timmel Duchamp by Alan DeNiro h 1 Arts Editor LASH ICTION Kath Wilham F F On the Island Where I Come From, by Nin Andrews h 6 POEMS $5.00 Grandmother Ash, by Michele Bannister h 5 The Social Function of Property, by Care Santos translated into English by Lawrence Schimel h 7 Gneiss-Mother, by Michele Bannister h 19 GRANDMOTHER MAGMA Tehanu by Ursula K. Le Guin reviewed by Hiromi Goto h 8 BOOK REVIEWS At the Mouth of the River of Bees by Kij Johnson reviewed by Victoria Garcia h 10 Working on Mars: Voyages of Scientific Discovery with the Mars Exploration Rovers by William J. Clancey reviewed by Karen Burnham h 11 Breaking the Bow: Speculative Fiction Inspired by the Ramayana edited by Anil Menon and Vandana Singh reviewed by Rochita Loenen-Ruiz h 13 Rapture: Book Three of the Bel Dame Apocrypha by Kameron Hurley reviewed by Mark Bould h 15 Revolution at Point Zero by Silvia Federici reviewed by Maria Velazquez h 17 Heiresses of Russ 2012: The Year’s Best Lesbian Speculative Fiction edited by Connie Wilkins and Steve Berman reviewed by Cynthia Ward h 18 FEATURED ARTIST Pam Sanders h 20 Subscriptions and single issues online at: To order by check, payable to: www.thecsz.com Aqueduct Press Print subscription: $16/yr; P.O. Box 95787 Print single issue: $5 Seattle, WA 98145-2787 Electronic Subscription (PDF format): [Washington State Residents $10 per year add 9.5% sales tax.] In This Issue Electronic single issue: $3 Cover banner collagraph of the Cascadia subduction zone by Marilyn Liden Bode We Have Never Been Postmodern: y “Walking Stick Fires” and the Knowability of Science Fiction by Alan DeNiro In a recent issue of the Los Angeles Re- Several years ago, a group of my peers view of Books, critic Paul Kincaid wrote and myself had an ongoing discussion of an essay-review of three year’s best an- “genre malaise.” That discussion framed thologies of fantasy and science fiction. a deliberate set of constraints and pa- He used the stories therein as proof rameters that I used in the writing of the points to reflect on what he considered short story “Walking Stick Fires.” which the “state of the genre” (Kincaid, 2012). is a story in one of the aforementioned And using those stories as evidence, he Year’s Best anthologies and which Kin- doesn’t like what he sees, at least in the caid mentioned. Considering this thread field of short fiction. From that essay — of connection to issues of genre expec- “…Kincaid’s central which garnered much thoughtful discus- tations and writerly adventurism, I want thesis revolves around sion — followed a podcast interview with to discuss the writing process of “Walk- the genre’s exhaustion.” Jonathan Strahan and Gary Wolfe, as ing Stick Fires” and connect that process well as a second interview with Nerds of to the specific examples of “exhaustion” a Feather (Strahan, 2012; Nerds, 2012). used by Kincaid. No matter how far the argument ranges, For sure, it can be perilous writing Kincaid’s central thesis revolves around about one’s own work. I don’t think that the genre’s exhaustion: any writer’s intentions are sacrosanct once a work reaches a reader, but I also In the main, there is no sense don’t think awareness of the author’s in- that the writers have any real con- tent is valueless, particularly as it relates viction about what they are doing. to her or his creative process both as a i Rather, the genre has become a writer and as a reader. set of tropes to be repeated and This puzzle has everything to do with 1 repeated until all meaning has the transition from a writer’s creative been drained from them. x process to the finished product seen on the page (or screen). Perhaps this is obvi- The problem may be, I think, ous, but when discussing a literary affect that science fiction has lost con- (that is to say, exhaustion), it’s crucial to “When discussing a liter- fidence in the future. Or perhaps be as precise as possible in discerning ary affect (that is to say, it would be more accurate to say where, in fact, in the relationship be- exhaustion), it’s crucial that it has lost confidence that the tween reader and writer, this is coming to be as precise as pos- future can be comprehended. At from. A fine line distinguishes critiquing sible in discerning where, its historical best, science fiction the literary value of a work from ascrib- in fact, in the relation- presented alien worlds and dis- ing personality traits to writers based on ship between reader and tant futures that, however weird what one reads of their finished work. I writer, this is coming they might seem, were always know of few writers — even of work that from. A fine line distin- fundamentally understandable. I wouldn’t care for — who wake up in the guishes critiquing the x morning and say “You know what? I’m literary value of a work going to write a really mediocre story to- from ascribing personality Judging by these three books, day! I, too, look forward to contributing traits to writers based on the genre is now afraid to engage to the state of exhaustion in the field!” what one reads of their with what once made it novel, in- That just doesn’t happen. I hesitate to finished work.” stead turning back to what was bring this point up, but I think it does there before. We might tinker point to a larger problem with Kincaid’s with the details, but it seems that argument: the essay tends to shut down no-one has much interest in mak- the potential for a multiplicity of readerly ing it (a)new. perspectives, or even a single alternative Cont. on p. 2 n Never Postmodern to a rather monolithic way of looking at ary movement created by an online pow- (cont. from p. 1) how genre mechanisms work. wow of friends and colleagues including Such a tendency exhibits itself in a David Moles, Meghan McCarron, Ben- kind of closed-door effect for actually jamin Rosenbaum, David Schwartz, engaging in what a story is trying to do. Dora Goss, and several others (Moles, Kincaid says at one point in the first in- 2005). It was born out of a desire to “re- “If one takes seriously terview with Strahan: brand” slipstream (a term that mercifully (as I do) that science hasn’t been in use in this current debate) True fantasy is as rigorous as fiction is just one con- into something with a little more sleek- science fiction: you play fair with tinent in the vast ecol- ness, volatility, and horsepower; in other the readers. If anything can hap- ogy of fantasy, then the words, to go beyond sidestepping issues pen, then nothing matters. Using storytelling techniques of “exhaustion” in the genre and sim- the tropes of fantasy to resolve a of thousands of years of ply immolate them. It quickly evolved science fiction story is just a way fantastic literature pres- into an aesthetic that prized explosives, of waving your hand and saying ent an array of options both literally and figuratively within a “it doesn’t matter, because any- that go beyond this story. In one of its core tenets (listed as thing can happen, all it takes is little island of genre.” a “catchphrase”): “Infernokrusher fiction the whim of the author.” I cannot explodes stagnant genre conventions, read a story that takes that form e.g., that it’s not okay to have all your without my confidence in both characters run over by a monster truck the writer and their creation in- in what would seem to be the middle stantly plummeting. of the story.” Thus, it’s a way to push In theory this criticism is not such a against the boundaries of comfortability bad thing. It’s important for a writer, in in what is “okay” in fiction, particularly the midst of writing and revising a story, the sf/f field. to understand how the building blocks Although there hasn’t been much H of prose and world building intersect written Infernokrusher output, I wrote with one another with an eye toward “Walking Stick Fires” with the Infernok- 2 concision.