Hey, Mom! Talking to My Mother #1010 - LOCK IN - HEAD ON - Scalzi, Hadens, and Gender
Hi Mom,
So I just finished two re-readings of books I needed to refresh my memory about via audio and excellent narrations by Wil Wheaton. Neither of this books appear in my most recent Good Reads feed because I have already read them and I don't want to change the original completed dates.
I had only planned to re-read Ready, Player, One By Ernest Cline before going to see the new Speilberg movie. I wanted a refresher so I could offer my opinion on book vs. movie as the trailers looked somewhat dreadful. I want to write a mini-journal series of posts (which may end up being just one post) on re-reading Ready, Player, One and why the best way to do this is with Wil Wheaton's FANTASTIC narration. So that's forthcoming, theoretically, if I can get it written. But you know, Mom, that I struggle with producing original content here let alone daily original content, so we'll see.
That said, I had planned to move on to Dan Simmons' The Terror, which is a new AMC TV show produced by Ridley Scott. But it's depressing and soul-crushingly grim, and I LOVED Wil Wheaton's narration so much I wanted more of it. So, it occurred to me that John Scalzi's new book Head On, the sequel to Lock In, is due next week, and I need a refresher on that book, too, so as to be able to fully appreciate the new one. And so, I put Lock In back on my iPod and dug into another Wil Wheaton narration.
John does a good job of summarizing the world of Lock In and Head On in the article I am sharing here. One thing I love about Lock In is that John is very careful about how he dumps info on the reader. The world of Haden's Syndrome, Lock In, Threeps, and everything in this near future unspools naturally and within minimal exposition. In other words, John is not heavy handed. When it comes to snark, he's very heavy-handed, but he knows he's writing for people who like that sort of thing. It plays well with Wheaton's own sense of snark, and mine, too. Hey, these guys are funny. So, it works.
When it came to gender and the story, I didn't realize right away that Chris Shane's gender is not defined or identified in any way. Chris is flirty and banters with other characters. In fact, Chris even discusses sex with other characters in various capacities, but Chris' own interest (or lack there of) in sex is left unexplored. Not that sexual activity has anything to do with gender, but it is one marker of personhood, of identity. Readers are treated to descriptions of Chris' choice of threeps, the personal transports (think robots) that carry the consciousness of a locked in Haden into the world. But readers are never given a description of Chris' actual body. Also, people who know Chris' biological sex and what Chris may feel is their gender, these characters do not "out" Chris is anyway. His Dad calls him "kiddo" and his Mom calls him "honey" and either ...wait, no. That's not right. I thought his parents used sweet nicknames, but they actually do not, or none that I could find in a quick review. It's Wheaton's warm narration that made me think the terms were used.
M y instincts make me want to gender Chris as male (maybe because I am also a male Chris), but I like to think of Chris' gender as fluid. That idea appeals to me. I have always claimed that there are as many genders in the world as there are people, despite marketing campaigns and social norms trying to confine people to two genders. But what if a single person can have many genders? Fluid gender. It's a cool idea.
Lock In is well done and thought provoking. I am expecting Head On -- out on April 17th 2018 -- to be the same.
This article by John Scalzi published at TOR and shared here with due credit is just the kind of thing I would have shared with my students back when I was teaching the gender and media course. Since I am Facebook friends with many of those students, I imagine at least a couple clicking on this blog post. If you did, reader, check out these books.
FROM -
https://www.torforgeblog.com/2018/04/02/hadens-chris-shane-gender-and-me/
Hadens, Chris Shane, Gender and Me
Written by John Scalzi
About five years ago, when I started writing Lock In, for which my upcoming novel Head On is the sequel, I decided one important thing about the protagonist, Chris Shane: I decided that I would not know, and would not seek to know, Chris’ gender.
I decided this for a couple of reasons. One reason was that in the world of Lock In (and now Head On), there’s a thing called Haden’s Syndrome, in which people are locked into their bodies by a disease. Because of that disease “Hadens” encounter the world through an online community called the Agora, and by remotely piloting android bodies called “threeps.” Chris is a Haden and presents in a threep, and threeps are not (necessarily) gendered. So when people encounter Chris out in the world, they would not know if Chris is male, or female, or non-binary, or other, unless Chris chose to say. My feeling is that Chris wouldn’t say—even to me. Because it’s not necessarily anyone else’s business. So there’s that.
But another reason is that I thought that Hadens, because of various aspects of how they interact with the world and how they interact with each other, would not necessarily always place the same emphasis on gender that other humans might traditionally do. As noted above, Hadens have the option of not presenting any obvious gender at all, but more than that, they might decide, as part of the natural development of their community, that gender simply isn’t as important, or, even if it were, that it could be flexible in various contexts—one might present as male to some people, female to others, or non-binary or non-gendered to still others. When you meet people with your mind first, they are not prejudiced one way or another with your body (they still might be prejudiced in other ways, of course).
That being the case, while I think many Hadens would feel and be strongly gendered, I thought that many would not be, and would feel more at ease being non-binary or on a gender spectrum—and even many of those who felt gendered might not choose to make that gender known publicly. To those they trust, sure. To the public at large, maybe not so much. Because that was an option, and because that could be a growing aspect of an emerging Haden culture. It’s a speculative aspect of a speculative community.
To get back to Chris, knowing that I wouldn’t know Chris’ gender even before I started writing my novel (now novels) meant I spent a non-trivial amount time thinking about presenting my character in the world, and through speech and action. What I didn’t want to do was write a gendered (and given my own defaults, that meant probably male) character and then just erase all mention of gender. It’s not enough to just drop pronouns. I wanted to make an authentic non-gendered presentation, for a person who chose not to have gender a topic for general discussion, and lived life accordingly.
Whether I did this convincingly is up to the individual reader. I can say that after two books writing Chris, I’m happy that readers tend to gender Chris—or not!—depending on their own inclinations. My wife is convinced Chris is a woman and uses the corresponding pronouns when she discusses the character. Other people are convinced Chris is a “he” and proceed accordingly. Still others picture Chris’ gender as fluid. Some, like me, choose not gender Chris one way or another—or at least choose to follow Chris’ lead in keeping gender out of the general discussion.
As the author, I don’t have any particular problem with readers gendering Chris to their own satisfaction, whether male, female, non-binary or none of the above, and I think it’s interesting watching how people choose to answer that question for themselves, and how that influences and changes the experience of reading Lock In and Head On.
I should be clear that my choices in presenting Chris as a character are my own, and that I don’t see myself as a spokesperson on gender issues in general. Like many “cishet” folks, I’m still learning and trying to stay open to the experience of life that people outside gender norms live and choose to share with me and others. I’ve especially been grateful to the non-binary people I know who have talked to me about the world of Lock In, and their own thoughts about Chris, whatever those thoughts may be. They help inform my thinking, and the development of the world of the Hadens. And that’s a good thing, I think.
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Reflect and connect.
Have someone give you a kiss, and tell you that I love you, Mom.
I miss you so very much, Mom.
Talk to you tomorrow, Mom.
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- Days ago = 1012 days ago
- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 1804.11 - 10:10
NEW (written 1708.27) NOTE on time: I am now in the same time zone as Google! So, when I post at 10:10 a.m. PDT to coincide with the time of your death, Mom, I am now actually posting late, so it's really 1:10 p.m. EDT. But I will continue to use the time stamp of 10:10 a.m. to remember the time of your death, Mom. I know this only matters to me, and to you, Mom.
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