Embodied Exegesis: Transfemininity and Neurodivergence in Science Fiction, Part 1
For the last several years, I've been reading a lot more short fiction than long-form fiction. When you have limited time and bandwidth, keeping the complexity of a full novel in my head becomes a bit difficult. With a good short story, I can get through half of it or all of it in the space before bedtime or during lunch time. Especially within science fiction and fantasy, a short story can get right to the meat or big idea of the story without needing a lot of additional work
I also tend to focus on feminist and queer science fiction that comes not only from a desire to support artists within my community, but also poses some interesting ideas that go beyond the nuts and bolts of a lot of other works. At the more comforting end of the spectrum, I find works in which there may be serious problems, but my gender and sexuality is not a primary one. At the other end of the spectrum, I think that queer science fiction can get deeper into some of the more interesting ideas without having to explain itself to people outside of the community. In other words, the ability to present at the trans 301 level rather than the 101 level.
My current read is Embodied Exegesis: Transfeminine Cyberpunk Futures by Ann LeBlanc. And the story that kind of inspired me to take a break and write about this is "Syndical Organization in Revolutionary Transition" by Izzy Wasserstein. Astarte, a scientist working on the development of nanobots that can learn is informed that her project has been defunded. She responds by injecting her most talented nanobots into her own body. Parallel to this, Jocelyn, her best friend is having a baby in a world that has the technology to allow trans people to do that but legally denies trans people basic health care. Both are active parts of a mutual aid network that attempts to care for each other and other trans people within the community. At first glance, this would make the story rather crowded, but as I said, we're working on a trans 301 level. Common background conflicts such as liability for transgender health care, chasers, and workplace harassment don't need to be explained.
Explicitly developed, Astarte and Jocelyn both wrestle with the ethics of becoming parents to children in a hostile environment. The emergent intelligence of the nanobots needs to be nurtured and taught, which raises questions of inter-generational trauma and parent-child relationships. Perhaps less well developed is a parallel between the nanobots and the mutual-aid network, who both are engaged in developing a communal understanding of their world.
Sort of a personal reflection for me — inspired by a particularly rough week on the neuroqueer front — is the scientific theme of cognitive plurality. Sort of the way my brain works, my favorite Star Trek characters include Dax, Seven of Nine, and Agnes Jurati. But probably a deeper touchstone for me are The Children Star and Brain Plague by Joan Sloczewski. Slonczewski's explores the idea of a microbe intelligence that develops symbiotic — or sometimes parasitic — relationships with human hosts. (I just found out that they just published a sequel to Brain Plague exploring this further.) Part of my personal way of viewing the world includes times where I see myself as less of a person than a node in a ecosystem. It's something I've been struggling to explore through TTRPG writing, so this story landed in a good way.
Beyond "Syndical Organization," multiple stories hit on what I consider neurodivergent themes. "Bespoke" by Elly Bangs uses the idea of custom bodies (ala Ghost in the Shell) to explore contrasts between body and cognitive dysphoria. In "Labelscar" by Anya Johanna DeNiro, debt is processed by biological implants, that have the side effect of connecting trans women struggling for economic survival. In "Right to Remain" by Riley Tao, a person's consciousness can be split for multiprocessing, cloned as avatars, or live entirely within a virtual rave. The Transcendent anthologies from 10 years ago edited by Bogi Takács had multiple stories abut time travel and talking to younger selves.
Most of the stories lean into the dystopian vision of the future dictated by corporations and regressive populism. "High tech, low life." While trans people are vulnerable in distinct ways to the commodification of identity, health care, debt, and attention, we certainly are not the other only ones. "The Repossession of Kevin's Perfect Hair" by Lillian Boyd starts with wanting a cure for hair loss, but the challenge is how to distribute medical implants to a community that would not otherwise afford them. In the face of corporate dystopia, punk ethics of DIY, mutual aid, and solidarity with peers are survival strategies.
Overall, it's a good collection and I'm happy to pick it up. I'll likely do a followup post covering the second half. As with any collection, — or following any of the periodical websites like Strange Horizons, Lightspeed, or Clarkesworld — some stories will personally hit and some will personally miss. Almost always, I find something like "Syndical Organization" that become repeat reads or best of the year.