Sisters of the Revolution Read online

  Sisters of the Revolution: A Feminist Speculative Fiction Anthology

  edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer

  editorial assistants: Tessa Kum and Dominik Parisien

  ISBN: 9781629630359

  Library of Congress Control Number: 2014908072

  Sisters of the Revolution: A Feminist Speculative Fiction Anthology © PM Press 2015 Collection, introduction and story notes ©2015 by VanderMeer Creative

  This is a work of collected fiction. All events portrayed in this book are fictitious, and any resemblance to real people or events is purely coincidental.

  All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form without the express permission of the publisher.

  PM Press

  P.O. Box 23912

  Oakland, CA 94623

  www.pmpress.org

  Cover: Josh MacPhee/AntumbraDesign.org

  Interior Design: Adam Jury

  10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

  Printed in the USA by the Employee Owners of Thomson-Shore in Dexter, Michigan www.thomsonshore.com

  “The Forbidden Words of Margaret A.” by L. Timmel Duchamp. © 1980. First published in Pulphouse: The Hardback Magazine No.8. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  “My Flannel Knickers” by Leonora Carrington. © 1988. First published in The Seventh Horse and Other Tales (Dutton Adult). Reprinted by permission of the author’s estate.

  “The Mothers of Shark Island” by Kit Reed. © 1998. First published in Weird Women, Wired Women (Wesleyan). Reprinted by permission of the author.

  “The Palm Tree Bandit” by Nnedi Okorafor. © 2000. First published in Strange Horizons. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  “The Grammarian’s Five Daughters” by Eleanor Arnason. © 1999. First published in Realms of Fantasy. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  “And Salome Danced” by Kelley Eskridge. © 1994. First published in Little Deaths (Dell). Reprinted by permission of the author.

  “The Perfect Married Woman” by Angélica Gorodischer. © 1992. First published in Secret Weavers. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  “The Glass Bottle Trick” by Nalo Hopkinson. © 2000. First published in Whispers from the Cotton Tree Root: Caribbean Fabulist Fiction (Invisible Cities Press). Reprinted by permission of the author.

  “Their Mother’s Tears: The Fourth Letter” by Leena Krohn. © 2004. First published in Tainaron (Prime Books). Reprinted by permission of the author.

  “The Screwfly Solution” by James Tiptree, Jr. © 1977. First published in Analog. Reprinted by permission of the author’s estate.

  “Seven Losses of na Re” by Rose Lemberg. © 2012. First published in Daily Science Fiction. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  “The Evening the Morning and the Night” by Octavia E. Butler. © 1987. First published in Omni Magazine. Reprinted by permission of the author’s estate.

  “The Sleep of Plants” by Anne Richter. © 1967. Originally published in Tenants, 1967. Translated by Edward Gauvin. Reprinted by permission of the translator.

  “The Men Who Live in Trees” by Kelly Barnhill. © 2008. First published in Postscripts 15. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  “Tales from the Breast” by Hiromi Goto. © 1995. First published in absinthe (Winter 1995). Reprinted by permission of the author.

  “The Fall River Axe Murders” by Angela Carter. © 1981. Reproduced by permission of The Estate of Angela Carter c/o Rogers, Coleridge & White Ltd., 20 Powis Mews, London W11 1JN.

  “Love and Sex Among the Invertebrates” by Pat Murphy. © 1990. First published in Alien Sex. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  “When It Changed” by Joanna Russ. © 1972. First published in Again, Dangerous Visions, ed. Harlan Ellison. Reprinted by permission of the author’s estate.

  “The Woman Who Thought She Was a Planet” by Vandana Singh. © 2003. First published in Trampoline (Small Beer Press). Reprinted by permission of the author.

  “Gestella” by Susan Palwick. © 2001. First published in Starlight 3 (2001) Tor Books. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  “Boys” by Carol Emshwiller. © 2003. First published in SCIFICTION. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  “Stable Strategies for Middle Management” by Eileen Gunn. © 1988. First published in Asimov’s June 1988. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  “Northern Chess” by Tanith Lee. © 1979. First published in Women as Demons. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  “Aunts” by Karin Tidbeck. © 2011. First published in ODD 2011 and reprinted in Karin Tidbeck’s Jagannath (Cheeky Frawg Books). Reprinted by permission of the author.

  “Sur” by Ursula K. Le Guin. © 1982. First published in The New Yorker. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  “Fears” by Pamela Sargent. © 1984. First published in Light Years and Dark (Berkely Books). Reprinted by permission of the author.

  “Detours on the Way to Nothing” by Rachel Swirsky. © 2008. First published in Weird Tales. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  “Thirteen Ways of Looking at Space/Time” by Catherynne M. Valente. © 2010. First published in Clarkesworld, Issue #47, August 2010. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  “Home by the Sea” by Élisabeth Vonarburg. © 1985. First published in Tesseracts 1. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  Contents

  Introduction

  The Forbidden Words of Margaret A.

  L. Timmel Duchamp

  My Flannel Knickers

  Leonora Carrington

  The Mothers of Shark Island

  Kit Reed

  The Palm Tree Bandit

  Nnedi Okorafor

  The Grammarian’s Five Daughters

  Eleanor Arnason

  And Salome Danced

  Kelley Eskridge

  The Perfect Married Woman

  Angélica Gorodischer

  The Glass Bottle Trick

  Nalo Hopkinson

  Their Mother’s Tears: The Fourth Letter

  Leena Krohn

  The Screwfly Solution

  James Tiptree, Jr.

  Seven Losses of na Re

  Rose Lemberg

  The Evening and the Morning and the Night

  Octavia E. Butler

  The Sleep of Plants

  Anne Richter

  The Men Who Live in Trees

  Kelly Barnhill

  Tales from the Breast

  Hiromi Goto

  The Fall River Axe Murders

  Angela Carter

  Love and Sex Among the Invertebrates

  Pat Murphy

  When It Changed

  Joanna Russ

  The Woman Who Thought She Was a Planet

  Vandana Singh

  Gestella

  Susan Palwick

  Boys

  Carol Emshwiller

  Stable Strategies for Middle Management

  Eileen Gunn

  Northern Chess

  Tanith Lee

  Aunts

  Karin Tidbeck

  Sur

  Ursula K. Le Guin

  Fears

  Pamela Sargent

  Detours on the Way to Nothing

  Rachel Swirsky

  Thirteen Ways of Looking at Space/Time

  Catherynne M. Valente

  Home by the Sea

  Élisabeth Vonarburg

  Acknowledgments

  The editors would like to thank Jef Smith for the vision to conceive of this project. Also thanks to Jef for coming to us with this project, for overseeing it, and for skillfully handing the story permissions. Thanks to all the good people
at PM Press for publishing it. Special and heartfelt thanks to all the contributors to the Kickstarter project, especially the writer Marcus Ewert who was right there with us in the online trenches drumming up support and additional monies during the final hours of the Kickstarter deadline.

  Additional thanks to Tessa Kum and Dominik Parisien who joined us on this adventure as editorial assistants, who continue to assist us in navigating the oceans of various slush piles, offer suggestions and opinions, and act as sounding boards for our outlandish ideas.

  A book like this cannot exist without the writers and their wonderful stories. We thank not only those writers whose work you find in these pages, but all the writers who continue to write despite daunting obstacles and an ever-changing and sometimes unwelcoming publishing landscape. Thanks as well to all the people who support the work: agents, estates, family, partners, friends, readers, and fans. Thanks for giving feminist writers not just a room of their own but an entire world.

  Introduction

  Some anthologies are canon-defining. Others are treasuries or compendiums, baggy and vast. Still others, like Sisters of the Revolution, serve as a contribution to an ongoing conversation. For decades, editors have put forward anthologies that capture the pulse of feminist speculative fiction. Each time, the task becomes more difficult, as more material comes to light that was underappreciated when published and more enters the English language through translation—a kind of time travel occurs whereby suddenly the full outlines of an impulse or a prior period become clearer.

  Our contribution to the conversation includes the great flowering of feminist speculative fiction in the late 1960s through the 1970s, which created the foundation for the wonderful wealth and diversity of such fiction in the present day. The entry into the field of so many amazing writers at once transformed science fiction and fantasy forever. The ways in which these women—Sheldon, Russ, and many others—entered into a conversation with the science fiction community also changed reader perceptions. They helped to usher in a creative space that allowed more women to consider writing science fiction. It is no surprise that this period of flowering coincided roughly with the flourishing of the New Wave literary movement because the New Wave created its own unique space by championing experimentation and literary values. Feminist speculative fiction and New Wave science fiction often shared similar interests and curiosities, and in the subset of their convergence represented something truly new and different.

  The two decades thereafter represent a period in which competing impulses sought to push differing views of what science fiction could be: a kind of retrenchment and conservativism measured against an attempt to build on the triumphs of the 1970s. The rise of a predominantly U.S.-based humanism was perhaps too moderate to be considered particularly progressive or conservative, while the infusion of cyberpunk allowed some women writers additional freedom but otherwise, at least initially, could not be considered a space for creation of feminist fiction. These are all interesting contradictions that exist in a time period prior to both the rise of third-wave feminism in the SF community and what seems to us a current renaissance in feminist speculative fiction.

  Usually, as anthologists, we keep a distance of at least a decade when acquiring reprinted stories. In this case, too, a robust trilogy of Tiptree Award anthologies, web-based publications, and other sources have contributed to a sense of the present being well-charted. For this reason, although we have included a sampling of interesting stories from the aughts, we have not conducted a formal and rigorous review of that period—nor, frankly, could an anthology of this size accommodate the results of such a review. Adding to our caution is the sense of how feminist speculative fiction, in addition to speaking to the world, often constitutes a conversation within its own ranks—a reevaluation and repositioning that acknowledges what went before, sometimes to lift up and sometimes to repudiate.

  Indeed, this phenomenon—this discussion—goes beyond the world of speculative fiction. A perfect anthology of feminist fiction would probably consist of over a million words pulled from both the ranks of science fiction & fantasy and mainstream realism. Not only would such an anthology fully recognize and document the true complexity of influence and kinship but also result in further intersectionality—what is invisible to one side of the divide would suddenly be not just visible but in focus. (Some sense of what we mean can be gleaned from the anthology Surrealist Women, which exists in the transitional space between genre and mainstream and collects a radical subset of surrealism that speaks to direct political activism.)

  For all of these reasons, we present this anthology as a kind of primer that adds as its unique element a partial reconciliation of “genre” and “mainstream” writers while also adding some writers not typically present in prior anthologies of this type. We have also arranged the contents of Sisters of the Revolution with an eye toward how the stories speak to one another rather than chronological order.

  We think of this anthology—the research, the thought behind it, and the actual publication—as a journey of discovery not complete within these pages. Every reader, we hope, will find some writer or story with which they were not previously familiar—and feel deeply some lack that needs to be remedied in the future, by some other anthology. We welcome discussion and criticism of Sisters of the Revolution as a means of further rendering visible what is invisible—just as we will continue to use our general anthologies as a means of further cataloguing the wealth of feminist fiction published in the past and in the present day.

  This anthology, then, is really the first in a series of new explorations—the beginning volume of something bigger and even more diverse and rich. In a perfect world, Sisters of the Revolution would be followed by several more volumes, each edited by someone different, with a profoundly different perspective, and thus each time reflect a different take on issues of literary quality, approach, and point of view.

  Here, however, is our current contribution to the conversation, which we hope will delight, challenge, and interest you. It has already opened new horizons for us as editors.

  —Ann and Jeff VanderMeer, January 2015

  L. TIMMEL DUCHAMP

  The Forbidden Words of Margaret A.

  L. Timmel Duchamp is an American writer, editor, and publisher. Her short fiction has been published in Asimov’s Science Fiction, Pulphouse, and a variety of anthologies such as Full Spectrum. In addition to her own writing of both fiction and essays, she runs Aqueduct Press, providing a platform for the voices of others. “The Forbidden Words of Margaret A.” tells the story of a woman imprisoned for speaking out. Her words are considered so dangerous that the government adopted a constitutional amendment limiting free speech, specifically the words of Margaret A. The story was first published in Pulphouse: The Hardback Magazine in 1980.

  [N.B.: The following report was prepared exclusively for the use of the National Journalists’ Association for the Recovery of Freedom of the Press by a journalist who visited Margaret A. sometime within the last two years. JATROF requests that this report not be duplicated in any form or removed from JATROF offices and that the information provided herein be used with care and discretion.]

  Introduction

  Despite the once-monthly photo-ops the Bureau of Prisons allows, firsthand uncensored accounts of contact with Margaret A. are rare. The following, though it falls short of providing a verbatim transcript of Margaret A.’s words, attempts to offer a fuller, more faithful rendition of one journalist’s contact with Margaret A. than has ever been publicly available. This reporter’s awareness of the importance to her colleagues of such an account, as well as of the danger disseminating it to a broader audience would entail for all involved in such an effort, has prompted the deposit of this document with JATROF.

  Before describing my contact with Margaret A., I wish to emphasize the constraints that circumscribed my meeting with Margaret A. Members of JATROF will necessarily be familiar with the techniques the government uses
to manipulate public perception of data. Certainly I, going into the photo-op, considered myself well up on the government’s tricks for controlling the contextualization of issues it cares about. Yet I personally can vouch for the insidious danger of momentarily forgetting the obvious: where Margaret A. is concerned, much slips our attention, keeping us from thinking clearly and objectively about the concrete facts before our eyes. I’m not sure how this happens, only that it does. The information we have about Margaret A. somehow does not get added up correctly. I urge readers, then, not to skip over details already known to you, but to take my iteration of them as a caveat, as a reminder, as an aid to thought about an issue that for all its publicity remains remarkably murky. I thus ask my readers’ indulgence for excursions into what may seem unnecessary political analysis and speculation. I know of no other way to wrest the framing of my own contact with Margaret A. out of the murk and mire that tends to obscure any objective recounting of facts relating to the Margaret A. situation.

  To start with the most obvious: Margaret A. permits only one photo-op a month. The Bureau of Prisons (naturally pleased to make known to the public that the government can’t be held responsible for thwarting the public’s desire for “news” of her) doesn’t allow Margaret A. to choose from among those who apply, and in this way effectively controls media access to her. The Justice Department of course would prefer to dispense with these sessions altogether, but when at the beginning of Margaret A.’s imprisonment they denied all media access to her, their attempt to sink Margaret A.’s existence into oblivion instead provoked a constant stream of speculation and protest that threatened them with not only the repeal of the Margaret A. Amendment,1 but even worse a resurgence of the massive civil disorder that had prompted her incarceration and silencing in the first place. Beyond obliterating Margaret A.’s words, I would argue that the government places the next highest priority on preventing the public from perceiving Margaret A. as a martyr. That consideration alone can explain why the conditions of her special detention in a quonset hut within the confines of the Vandenberg Air Force Base is such that no person or organization—not even the ACLU or Amnesty International, organizations which deplore the fact of her confinement—can reasonably fault them. The responsible journalist undertaking coverage of Margaret A. must bear these points in mind.