![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Milk
Though I just got back from a trip and am fighting a cold, I really wanted to go to the special benefit screening of "Milk" today at the Michigan Theater, so I did.
It was not a huge crowd; oddly subdued, really. I'm sure many of us were wishing the film had been released before the November vote on proposition 8 in California. On my way out after the movie I heard the ticket-takers saying there had been just over 200 of us. Hardly a full house.
During the reception before the film I ate some snacks and found that I knew no one in the lobby, so I trusted my fannish radar and walked up to someone and struck up a conversation. The fellow did indeed turn out to be an SF fan, and we chatted amiably about our favorite authors for a while, then he asked me:
What was the first science fiction you remember reading in which some of the main characters were gay?
Before you read on: what is your answer?
I was a little stuck on that question. Trouble and Her Friends came to mind as the first one like that I read where I also met the author. But I don't remember noting it when I first read about a gay couple in SF. Possible because I grew up in Ann Arbor, where being gay wasn't considered particularly strange. Thinking back after the show, I remembered that Heinlein had a few gay (and even trans) characters, but I think probably the first books in which I saw gay characters really be partners was in Mercedes Lackey's Valdemar series. He mentioned Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand, by Samuel Delany. I happen to be reading Delany's autobiographical The Motion of Light in Water right now, which we both agreed is an excellent book. Sad to say, it is also the first book by Delany that I've read (unless I read Nova when I was young, but I can't remember for certain), though I have of course read several of his short stories.
Anyway, I hope you will answer the question and also ask it of other people because I think it is an interesting question.
It was not a huge crowd; oddly subdued, really. I'm sure many of us were wishing the film had been released before the November vote on proposition 8 in California. On my way out after the movie I heard the ticket-takers saying there had been just over 200 of us. Hardly a full house.
During the reception before the film I ate some snacks and found that I knew no one in the lobby, so I trusted my fannish radar and walked up to someone and struck up a conversation. The fellow did indeed turn out to be an SF fan, and we chatted amiably about our favorite authors for a while, then he asked me:
Before you read on: what is your answer?
I was a little stuck on that question. Trouble and Her Friends came to mind as the first one like that I read where I also met the author. But I don't remember noting it when I first read about a gay couple in SF. Possible because I grew up in Ann Arbor, where being gay wasn't considered particularly strange. Thinking back after the show, I remembered that Heinlein had a few gay (and even trans) characters, but I think probably the first books in which I saw gay characters really be partners was in Mercedes Lackey's Valdemar series. He mentioned Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand, by Samuel Delany. I happen to be reading Delany's autobiographical The Motion of Light in Water right now, which we both agreed is an excellent book. Sad to say, it is also the first book by Delany that I've read (unless I read Nova when I was young, but I can't remember for certain), though I have of course read several of his short stories.
Anyway, I hope you will answer the question and also ask it of other people because I think it is an interesting question.
no subject
gay
no subject
Pleasedtameetcha
It was nice meeting you tonight, and imagine my surprise to find
my question posted here...I'm looking forward to seeing what
people have to say.
I'm also looking forward to getting ivolved in your local
activities as I am able.
In the meantime, please feel free to connect to me on facebook...
the name is "Lenadams Dorris"
Cheers!
Len
Re: Pleasedtameetcha
no subject
Context
Although I, too, probably encountered a lurking gay presence in the vastness of the SF universe prior to SIMPLGOS, what stunned me (and stuns me to this day) was that a book I bought from a gift shop in O'Hare during a snowbound layover had *as its narrative focus* the love relationship between two men (*and* it was a deeply creative, intelligent, well-written and ultimately satisfying novel, too!)
And that was reinforced by SIMPLGOS's other (perhaps less) transgressive themes like hybrid families consisting of alternating generations of different species.
And who can forget rock licking as a gourmet endeavor?
Anyway, I imagine that for many younger LGBTetc today the appearance of same-sex protagonists and a focus on their relationships in an SF setting would be considered just one of many possibilities...and one that is often handled as poorly, artistically speaking, as other sorts of relationships!
Len
no subject
no subject
I should re-read the book... all I remember about it now is that it totally ticked me off.
Other than that... ...either nothing I've read has had gay characters, or (and much more likely) it just didn't stick out in my head. Or, perhaps, I just didn't get it.
no subject
no subject
Love is sex. Um, no.
Sure, I dunno, maybe I got it wrong, but it seemed a way way strong message to me.
no subject
If you want to rule those out, then the first book was probably The Female Man.
Miéville
Iron Council.
Here's a brief summary as found on Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_Council)... This, too, has at its heart a gay man and his relationship with another man. And oddly enough, a lot of both the fan and "critical" reviews focused on this aspect as being "unnecessary" and "detrimental" to the book. The more things change... ;')
Len
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
I also read the Valdemar series, the book series that my first gf was obsessed with.
no subject
no subject
no subject