New Bedfellows: Sex & Science Fiction
A Conversation between Cecilia Tan and M. Christian
M. Christian: Even though science fiction erotica has come a long way since the underground/fiction fan stuff (Kirk doing Spock and stuff and the like), and Philip Jose Farmer's groundbreaking novel, The Lovers, some of the worst sex scenes I've read have come from science fiction (SF) writers. It's like a lot of them can handle the science but when they get their characters in bed it turns into something stilted, ignorant, or just plain clumsy. I actually have a library of bad science fiction sex scenes that seems to be growing by the day. In a speculative mood, I wonder if the reason why so many SF writers can't handle sex is that they don't really understand a lot of the emotions and deeper meanings of what sex can be — in short, they are so left brain, they can't comprehend the right. What's your take on the evolution of SF erotica and where it's gone right — or wrong?
Cecilia Tan: Certainly there are awful sex scenes to be found out there, even in published SF, but I think that is true of every genre and I vehemently disagree that somehow the higher interest in technology among SF writers means they are less sensitive to "human" needs and wants, and therefore less able to write about sex (or love or emotions or relationships). Nope, I just don't buy that at all. You might have been able to make that argument in the 1940s and 1950s, but not today, and to persist with this image of science fiction writers as some kind of ultra-nerds is to perpetuate a negative stereotype. I find horribly written sex scenes, where the sex becomes mechanical, where the language becomes banal and stilted, and where the humans suddenly become a voyeur's puppets, in every genre I have read. It's not science fiction writers--its repressed human beings who haven't come to grips with their own inner desires or have been unable to make the leap to empathizing with others'. I agree something often goes haywire with writers when they get to the "the sex scene" but I in no way believe this syndrome to be worse among SF writers than say, mystery writers. Or literary writers, for that matter! I'm much more interested in how SF writers, who are used to bucking the "status quo" of reality, can take the same-old same-old Tab-A, Slot-B sex between two humans and make it infinitely more varied ... dare I say, like you do, Chris?
MC: Oh, you flatterer! But you're right: compared to other genres, SF actually has a pretty respectable track record when it comes to sexuality. The worst I guess you could say would be to paraphrase Sturgeon's law with a kinky twist: 90% of sexuality in science fiction is crap, but then 90% of sexuality in anything is crap. I guess I have my bar set too high, especially since SF writers do so routinely buck the "status quo" of reality, as you say. I've just had my hands burned too many times by SF writers who seem to have absolutely no problem creating, say, a sympathetic and fully realized alien culture but then, when it comes to humans and sex, resort to sexual clichés or blind ignorance. But there have been some wonderful moments. Right off the top of my head, I remember Maureen McHugh's China Mountain Zhang, most of John Varley's work, Sturgeon's of course, Alfie Bester, Sir Arthur's later novels where he felt so wonderfully comfortable letting his characters just 'be' gay, and some memorable books from Ian McDonald, Alexander Jablokov, Richard Paul Russo, and a few others. But even though I agree I was exaggerating — a bit — I still can't help but wonder if there is something missing, sexuality-wise, in contemporary science fiction. After all, you and Circlet are a success. You must be fulfilling a need that isn't being filled otherwise. I don't really buy that what you, and I, create is more 'detailed', because about as often as I'm disappointed by how bad some sex (in SF or any other genre) is, I'm also surprised by how explicit mainstream writing in all kinds of genres can get. Hell, I honestly think the only difference between 'erotica' and any other form is just marketing. What do you do with Circlet, and your own writing, that just isn't happening anywhere else in science fiction?
CT: The big difference in my writing and in Circlet's use of sexuality in science fiction is that we don't see sex as a mysterious — possibly evil — thing that is not to be wholly trusted. Why are we the only ones taking a positive view? Well, we're not — the door has been opened for a lot of writers, especially women, it seems, to explore some very dark corners of sexuality in a positive light in mainstream genre fiction. I'm thinking of Jacqueline Carey's Kushiel's Dart series, Daughter Of The Blood by Anne Bishop, and pretty much everything by Laurell K. Hamilton but especially the Megan Gentry series, which is on its second volume now. These women have one huge thing in common with me — not all the sex we write is consensual, but most of it is, and even when it isn't there is this constant awareness of it in the fiction. That is entirely different from, say, what the lowbrow smut publishers want. I had a British publisher turn down a book of mine for their S/M fiction imprint because when they say S/M, they really want stories where the woman is actually kidnapped and raped. Eeewwww. Yuck. To me, the fact that so much of the "erotic" material being published is negative in tone — even the consensual stuff but where the sex is still portrayed as "dirty" — would be like if technology was always portrayed as evil in science fiction. Sure we have a whole sub-genre of cautionary tech tales, where technology leads to the destruction of mankind and what have you, but we have at least as many, if not more, works of science fiction that say "oh wow, technology is so cool!" What's wrong with saying "oh wow, sex is so cool"? It's a complicated message for some people, since the sex I am saying is cool also includes power exchange, masochism, whipping, bloodletting... the reviewers who don't get turned on unless there is a non-consensual edge make me laugh because they say my stuff is too nice, and I'm wondering what about being whipped bloody into ecstasy is "nice?" Have you ever gotten that reaction?
MC: I think what you're talking about is the result of the collision between two of our more screwed-up cultural traits: the bastard love child of our fondness for violence and our inability to stand up and proudly say 'sex is FUN!' The kind of violent smut you're talking about is no different than what's playing at the local Cineplex or on network tube: cut someone's head off and you get an 'R,' give them head and it's an 'X.' It's kind of the ethical equivalent of a slasher flick, except it leans more towards sex and less towards violence — but it's still appealing to people who are frightened of everything but aggression. 'Cuddle phobia' I guess you could call it. Now my house has lots of glass — in other words I've written more than my fair share of twisted stuff, and a lot of it is in The Bachelor Machine, but I always try and put in either redemption or depth. Whether I succeed or not depends on what people read into what I write, as well as why they read it. Frankly, I'm a bit disturbed by the thought of people masturbating to what I write — especially those more 'edgier' stories. Ideally, I'd like the reader to be sort of abstractly aroused, more titillated than directly stimulated, changed in the way they think about sex. This actually does lead somewhere: I see erotica as it is now as being very similar to what SF was in the late 50's. There was brilliance, no argument there, but there was also a lot of robots, green-skinned alien women, and creatures so evil that "no one dare speak" their names. Same with erotica: lots of standard sex fare, but with hints that it all could be so much better. SF back then was about reaching out to adolescent boys with fantasies of stalwart heroes and pneumatic damsels in distress — erotica right now is about reaching straight for the libido, the horrible smut you just mentioned being the nth degree example of that. But just as SF blew out of its genre, erotica's really starting to do the same. That's why I love it: it's a genre in the middle of defining itself, where all kinds of things are happening. Just as those early SF writers were beginning to play around with the idea that SF doesn't have to be just robots, aliens, and 'shuffling horrors,' erotica is trying to say that sex isn't just nasty porn, violent titillation, "everyone comes at the end," or such. While I like being part of the erotic literary revolution, I feel a bit too much like those early SF writers: no respect, at least not openly. Though, to be honest, I think we have it easier than they did — after all, you can usually find our books in most every bookstore — but there still seems to be a prejudice when it comes to 'explicit' materials. That being said, I'm really glad that it only seems to be there in our audiences and not in the publishing world. Erotica has been very, very good to me and has led me to some wonderful projects, erotic or otherwise. What are some of your experiences with being a leader in the erotica revolution, from the reader as well as publisher side?
CT: I kind of like the idea that erotica now is at a similar stage to SF back when it was the "pulp fiction" of its day... they call it "The Golden Age," though, you know, as if there's something wonderful about those uncomplicated days of bug-eyed monsters. Cute. But I like the thought that erotica is going to "grow up" into something less formulaic and more fully-fledged fiction. But even if it does, when it comes to respect... science fiction writers still don't get any respect, either, no matter how far the genre has grown. And it's not as if erotica is a "new" genre, or even a 20th century one! It goes through cycles, I suppose, and it's just exciting to be at the forefront of what I hope is one of those evolutionary leaps forward. For me, being a pioneer in this area, I feel like I have to create my own respect, in a way. I'm like a missionary — at first no matter what tribe I visit, I get the hairy eyeball. Too sexy for SF. Too science-fictional for smut. Too bisexual or kinky or whatever to fit into the neat categories of genre. But that's the point. I can't help it. I exist to bust down the walls between categories. The hot word in academe for stuff that exists between the boundaries is "interstitial." SF/F writers like Ellen Kushner and Terri Windling and Heinz Insu Fenkl are agitating for more interstitial acceptance throughout the arts and I think what I've tried to do all along is a tributary to the same stream. I still don't really see myself as a "leader," so much as I happen to be running near the front of the pack. When it comes to breaking down boundaries, I think the thing that keeps setting erotica writers like you and me apart from our forebears is that we write in an age when sexual identity has become such a potent political force. And we are chameleons. We both write as lesbians, as gay men, as bisexuals, as technosexuals... do you think maybe being science fiction writers as well as erotica writers helps us in that regard? I think of the other erotica writers I know who write from so many sexual viewpoints and darned if most of them don't write SF too... Mary Anne Mohanraj, Thomas Roche, etc... What do you think? Coincidence? Or cause?
MC: I think it's less amazing that smut writers want to be SF writers — after all, it seems like everyone wants to be a SF writer, just look at the submissions any SF anthology gets compared to a smut book — than SF writers are trying so hard to be in erotica projects. If I wanted to be self-aggrandizing I'd say that erotica appeals to writers in a lot of 'established' genres, and not just SF but also horror, fantasy, noir, mysteries, etc., because writers in those genres recognize in erotica what's missing in their usual stomping grounds: a vibrancy and excitement in helping to define a whole literary subculture. It's very depressing to step into bookstores nowadays: shelf after shelf of books by committee, inspired more by focus groups and bestsellers than by any real love of story-telling. Smut, however, seems to be hanging on that border between discovery and subculture (profitability and fringe) so, for a while at least, authors and editors can have a bit of literary fun, free of the constraints of marketing and 'career.' Until someone remembers that sex sells — or could sell a lot more, that is, and ruins all the fun. A lot of SF writers are also amenable to supporting erotic authors since they also got their start on the 'lower rungs' of literature — long hours writing whatever they could to pay the rent. More realistically, and a major reason why I like erotica, has less to do with the fact that we all are having loads of fun playing in a genre that's creating itself all around us, is that because SF/fantasy/horror is so popular, the competition can be devastating. Getting a foothold in other genres means rising to the top of if not hundreds, at least tens of thousands of other writers (I blame Star Wars). In erotica, because of its infancy and the stigma still stuck to it, that's much lower. Not that crap will sell, but a great story has at least a chance of being noticed. I also adore erotica because it gives writers who otherwise would just vanish beneath the waves, a chance to work on their craft, get some publishing experience and so forth. Without erotica, I doubt I'd be an editor, writer, and so forth. Like I said, I love erotica: it's been very, very good to me — but that's not all I want to write. Part of the reason I think I've done well in smut is because I like to write all kinds of things — you name it and I'll play with it. Now that smut is being recognized by other genres, it gives all of us erotica folks some great opportunities to stretch our wings. For me, I'd love to do a non-fiction book (or two or three) on various surreal historical events, as well as finish They Only Wanted to Rule The World, my book on movie villains. I just finished my first novel (a sort of deconstruction of the vampire mythos played against gay relationship issues) and am itching to do a LOT more. With the release of The Bachelor Machine from Green Candy Press, I've also been inspired to shoot for a novel-length fusion of erotica and SF, something wild and twisted and lots of fun. Ah, but where's the time? What are your plans for the future, Cecilia? Gaze into your crystal ball…
CT: Well, right now I'm writing a book on the New York Yankees, which is due out from John Wiley & Sons in 2005. It's the Fifty Greatest Yankee Games of all time, and I'm spending a lot of time in the library poring over old microfilm newspaper accounts of games dating back as far as 1904. Yes, this is what smut mongers do for fun and relaxation... It's a bit ironic because one of the things I've always loved about science fiction is that when you set your story on another planet, you don't have to do research, you just get to make everything up. And yet doing this totally research-based book is the most fun I've ever had writing. I've got a magical realist baseball novel up my sleeve as well. But the erotica just keeps on coming. The next volume of my erotic short stories, White Flames, is making the rounds of publishers and with any luck will be snatched up by one of them soon. I also have a bunch of epic erotic fantasy novels simmering on my back burner that I'd love to write if I ever had the time. Or maybe they'll just continue to be my masturbation fantasies for years to come.
Cecilia Tan is the author of Black Feathers: Erotic Dreams (HarperCollins), The Velderet (Circlet Press), and Telepaths Don't Need Safewords (Circlet). She has edited over 40 anthologies of erotic science fiction for Circlet Press, including Sextopia, Mind & Body, and Erotic Fantastic. Her stories have appeared in Penthouse, Ms. magazine, Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, and many other outlets. For more information, check out www.ceciliatan.com.
M. Christian's stories have appeared in Best American Erotica, Best Gay Erotica, Best Lesbian Erotica, Best Transgendered Erotica, and over 150 other anthologies, magazines and websites. He's the editor of over 18 anthologies, including The Mammoth Book of Tales of the Road and The Mammoth Book of Future Cops (with Maxim Jakubowski), The Burning Pen, and many others. He's the author of three collections, the Lambda-nominated Dirty Words (gay erotica), Speaking Parts (lesbian erotica), and The Bachelor Machine. For more information, check out www.mchristian.com.
