![]() ![]() They draw us in and carry us along until we forget what we were looking for when we began. Pronouns can be helpful, but since over half the stories are written in first person, the ungendered I, I looked for other things-clothing, or occupation, or the ways the characters relate to each other. So when I began to read, I looked for clues. How can we be surprised by the unexpected when the unexpected is what we are expecting? ![]() We can reassure ourselves that we won’t be surprised by anything, because we are expecting it-whatever it turns out to be. We know before we begin that these stories will challenge us to recognize difference. Gender and sexuality give us a place where understanding can begin.īecause of the central premise of this collection, we are primed to discover what each is a story that goes beyond binary. Is the protagonist male or female? Is s/he straight, gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender? Am I reading a story told from the inside? About someone like me? By someone like me? We look for these things in the real world too, of course. ‘Beyond Binary: Genderqueer and Sexually Fluid Speculative Fiction’ edited by Brit Mandeloīeyond Binary (Lethe Press) takes the reader on a journey through worlds where many things are uncertain and undefined, not least of which is what most of us look for first to orient ourselves in a fictional world. ![]()
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