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: Marked and unmarked: other thoughts
Connie Willis to me (I was invisibly at the back of the audience) "I think you have a major misconception about how writers work" and went on to explain to me that a writer gets an idea for a story because something comes alive for them - as I myself sometimes put it, "something clicks". The story is there - you can write it or refuse to write it, but the essential elements are by that time a given.
My question had been born out of the thought, sitting at the back of the room, listening to four North American voices from people I could not see (none of whose books I was familiar with, though of course I had heard of Sterling and of Willis as writers) why these four North Americans, when they were talking about "writing history" were all talking about British/European history. (One of them clarified, when I asked why they were writing in the histories of continents not their own, that he also writes Japanese history).
Backing up a day, when I was at the Writing Gender Issues panel, I said that I thought I had been invited to be on it because I am a lesbian who writes m/m slash stories: I habitually and regularly write people whose gender is not my own. And of course (even sometimes by other slash fans) I'm asked why. Why do I, a lesbian, want to write about two men and their relationship?
I could answer, as Connie Willis answered me, that this is because the ideas for stories that click for me are pretty much always fanfic about two men in a sexual/sexually charged relationship. Or I could answer, as (I think it was Sterling) answered me, "Because that's what we're taught in school" (because our cultural values are such that writing about that topic is just easy/obvious - we're taught to value men - we're taught to value British/European history - )
And with that response, things clicked for me, and I walked over to Cafe Momus for lunch and to find a computer to post this thought, which relates to the Werewolves of Brigadoon thing too:
For North Americans, at least for white North Americans, writing about British/European history by preference to their own is unmarked. "Medieval England" is an unmarked period for North Americans to be interested in, to research, to write novels about, but writing novels in the same time period in North America would be a marked choice - it would put you outside the circle, to acknowledge that period as part of American history.
Whereas for me, a lesbian writing m/m slash stories, I think it partly confuses people so much (and I have had to explain it/think about it so much that I think in all honesty it's Connie Willis who has a major misconception about "how writers work", not me: I think I've thought about it a lot more than she has) because it mixes things up: what is marked? What is unmarked? I am a lesbian writing: I write about gay male relationships: I am a woman writing about men: I am a fan writing fanfic.
I have had a splendid con, and there is still the Are Fans Slans? panel with Kate Nepvau and Patrick Nielsen Hayden to go. Hee.
(I may sneak out if Kate isn't on it: but oh boy, do I ever want to watch this cage match!)
Tags: connie willis, i write fanfic, racefail 09, worldcon
Connie Willis to me (I was invisibly at the back of the audience) "I think you have a major misconception about how writers work" and went on to explain to me that a writer gets an idea for a story because something comes alive for them - as I myself sometimes put it, "something clicks". The story is there - you can write it or refuse to write it, but the essential elements are by that time a given.
My question had been born out of the thought, sitting at the back of the room, listening to four North American voices from people I could not see (none of whose books I was familiar with, though of course I had heard of Sterling and of Willis as writers) why these four North Americans, when they were talking about "writing history" were all talking about British/European history. (One of them clarified, when I asked why they were writing in the histories of continents not their own, that he also writes Japanese history).
Backing up a day, when I was at the Writing Gender Issues panel, I said that I thought I had been invited to be on it because I am a lesbian who writes m/m slash stories: I habitually and regularly write people whose gender is not my own. And of course (even sometimes by other slash fans) I'm asked why. Why do I, a lesbian, want to write about two men and their relationship?
I could answer, as Connie Willis answered me, that this is because the ideas for stories that click for me are pretty much always fanfic about two men in a sexual/sexually charged relationship. Or I could answer, as (I think it was Sterling) answered me, "Because that's what we're taught in school" (because our cultural values are such that writing about that topic is just easy/obvious - we're taught to value men - we're taught to value British/European history - )
And with that response, things clicked for me, and I walked over to Cafe Momus for lunch and to find a computer to post this thought, which relates to the Werewolves of Brigadoon thing too:
For North Americans, at least for white North Americans, writing about British/European history by preference to their own is unmarked. "Medieval England" is an unmarked period for North Americans to be interested in, to research, to write novels about, but writing novels in the same time period in North America would be a marked choice - it would put you outside the circle, to acknowledge that period as part of American history.
Whereas for me, a lesbian writing m/m slash stories, I think it partly confuses people so much (and I have had to explain it/think about it so much that I think in all honesty it's Connie Willis who has a major misconception about "how writers work", not me: I think I've thought about it a lot more than she has) because it mixes things up: what is marked? What is unmarked? I am a lesbian writing: I write about gay male relationships: I am a woman writing about men: I am a fan writing fanfic.
I have had a splendid con, and there is still the Are Fans Slans? panel with Kate Nepvau and Patrick Nielsen Hayden to go. Hee.
(I may sneak out if Kate isn't on it: but oh boy, do I ever want to watch this cage match!)
Current Mood: 
chipper
chipper