I'm a huge science fiction geek. I started reading sci-fi when I was in elementary school, when I read Madeleine L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time. I read the whole series avidly, inhaling the books like cerebral smoke.

Many people who appreciate good literature turn their collective noses up at science fiction. It's considered by many to be a "trash" genre, lumped in with mysteries, romance novels, and thrillers. And I will acknowledge that there is some truth to this -- a large number of science fiction and fantasy novels are not anywhere close to fine literature, and sometimes barely entertaining for those with a better than adequate IQ.

However, to dismiss the entire genre out of hand is a mistake. Some science fiction and fantasy books are widely accepted as some of the best books ever written. Science fiction asks the question: what if? The answers are often enlightening. My favorite science fiction novels tend to be focused on social structure, or at least use social issues as the backdrop for the larger story. I am less interested in highly scientific stories, more interested in those that take elements from our own culture and beliefs, then alter them in some way.

Indeed, excellent science fiction shows us a new way of looking at our culture, and ourselves. Through imagination, we are able to explore concepts that were once only abstract, or verboten. And so we explore our beliefs, our values, our fears, and hold them up to the light.

I'm going to be including some classics of science fiction and fantasy here in the Bookshelf, but also some amazing books you may have never heard of. I hope you enjoy these books... please tell me what you think! Just send me an email!
 

Friday
By Robert A. Heinlein

Robert Heinlein is my favorite science fiction author. My collection features all of his published works, including many first editions -- not only novels, but also "dime novels," and old copies of "Astounding Stories," the pulp magazine that initially published most of his work.

I chose to include Friday first, though it isn't as well known as Stranger in a Strange Land, or many of his other books. But the purpose of my online Bookshelf isn't merely to share great writing, but to also share more about myself. Friday was the first Heinlein novel I read, and the first truly quality science fiction I'd encountered (I'd spent years trying to keep up with the prolific and mediocre Piers Anthony, for example -- Anthony fans, don't bother emailing me, please, we'll only argue.).

I was initially attracted to Friday because my experience with science fiction had always been heroes, not heroines. And Friday Jones, the heroine of this book, is an amazing woman. I was 17 years old, and I identified with the character immediately -- an outsider, sexually aware and powerful, independent and self-reliant. I re-read the book every so often, most recently within the past six months. And I found that not only did I still identify with Miss Jones, my understanding of her had only deepened.

Friday is an elite courier for a super-secret organization. She can go anywhere, during any conditions, and deliver. She's kind of like this incredibly hot, sexy, female James Bond character. She is highly independent, confident in her abilities, very sexual.

But part of why Friday is so good at what she does stems from the fact that she has some superhuman abilities. She is an Artificial Person, or AP -- bred in a laboratory using the best human genes, and raised in a creche. She is unnaturally fast, unnaturally strong, but she's truly human in every way. But she lives in a society which views APs with disdain, derision, prejudice, even hatred. Rather than appreciate her remarkable skills, people fear them because they don't understand. And so while Friday is confident in her skills and abilities, when it comes to her relationships, and how others see her, she is insecure and self-conscious.

And so, re-reading this book, I find myself identifying once again with Friday, in new and different ways. For while I felt like an insecure outsider at 17, in many ways -- especially with my work as an escort -- I still feel much the same way. Friday, as an AP, is looked down on by society, but in many ways, she's truly superior. As an escort, I too face prejudice, derision, and hatred. And yet, like Friday, I know I'm a good person and that my special abilities (in my case, in the sexual arena) genuinely help people, make the world a better place. But like the character, it is a struggle to avoid becoming bitter, or angry at those who condemn.

Many feminists really hate this book, and see it as final proof of Heinlein's misogyny. I couldn't disagree more. Heinlein loved women, absolutely adored them. He wrote from the vantage point of a man who was born in 1907. Viewing the world through his prism, his affection and even adoration of women was obvious. He loved strong, confident women, and his female characters were all amazing, equals to men, though feminine also.

Feminists issue with Friday is a rape scene that takes place early in the book. Friday, captured by the bad guys, is forced to submit to a gang rape. Feminists say that the character "enjoys" being raped. Obviously, they didn't actually read the book. What Friday does is divorce herself from the actual physical situation, and analyzes the situation in an attempt to determine which of several possible responses to the rape will prevent her captors from killing her, and allow her to complete her mission. One of those options was pretending to enjoy the rape. Feminism be damned. If I'm in a situation like that, and pretending to like it will save my life, I'll vote for living, rather than trying to impress my rapist with how much I hate what he's doing, and what a good feminist I am.

The idea that a woman can think her way out of a rape (or indeed any horrifying situation) was extremely important to me, as a 17-year-old reading this book for the first time, and that knowledge actually saved my life once.

This book opened whole new worlds for me. For the first time, I encountered a female character who had a sexuality similar to my own. Friday introduced me to the idea of "kissing friends," a concept and term I still use today to describe my many truly special friends with whom I share not only friendship, but a wonderful, warm, no-strings-attached sexual relationship as well. I was amazed at the idea that families could be open, that parenting could be shared amongst many people, where jealousy was silly, and love, respect, loyalty and kindness are the things that really matter. It all resonated so deeply with me, and still does today.

Friday, and most of Heinlein's work, are as important to me today, as when I first read them. I will be adding other Heinlein books here, to the Bookshelf, because many of them are so vital to who I am today, that to lump all of the work together in one entry would be leaving out too much. But Friday is a wonderful book that stands on it's own, and one of my best-loved books.

The Left Hand of Darkness
By Ursula K. LeGuin

The Left Hand of Darkness is another book that I read for the first time in my teens. Originally published in 1969, it won both the Hugo and Nebula awards (the highest honors for science fiction writing).

There are some who disdain science fiction, saying that it isn't real literature, and that it because it deals with imaginary worlds and people, it has no value. But some science fiction presents us with fantastical ideas which, when examined, cause us to question our own beliefs and understanding about our world, our reality. So it was for me, with this book.

Basically, The Left Hand of Darkness is the story of a man named Genly Ai, who represents a federation of many worlds, called the Ekumen. He has come to a planet called Gethen, in an attempt to bring their planet into the Ekumen federation. Nice, traditional science fiction plot.

But things really get interesting when you learn that the people of Gethen are androgynes, hermaphrodites. They function on a 26-day cycle. For the first 24 days, they are basically neuter, neither male nor female. But for the last two days of their cycle, called Kemmer, they have the ability to become either male or female in order to mate. Thus it is possible for each person to father and bear children.

While The Left Hand of Darkness is also a well-written, fascinating story, with intrigue and action, it was the whole notion of fluid gender that stuck with me over the years. It brought up all sorts of amazing questions, ideas that had never occurred to me before. The biggest question of all, of course, was: what defines gender? And while biology seems to be an easy answer for that, one has to ask: what defines gender in our brains? Why do little boys play with cars and trucks, and little girls with dolls? Where does the line between nature and nurture start, and where does it end?

This book caused me to question the absolutes of gender that had been culturally programmed since birth. It gave me the ability to try to understand heterosexual crossdressers, transgendered men and women, lesbians, bisexuals, gay men. Instead of rejecting these people outright, as aberrations or unhealthy mutations, or confused people who were making an unhealthy "lifestyle choice," I was able to at least question my own beliefs, and take a step towards understanding.

And in doing so, I was able to recognize the bisexual feelings within myself, which I had long felt, but had always rejected. I was able to begin to let go of my own shame for the dreams and fantasies that seemed to come unbidden to my mind. So I began to not only try to understand others, but also myself.

The Left Hand of Darkness not only took me to another world of fantasy, but showed me things inside myself and others, right here on planet Earth. And it is only through a willingness to even try to understand others that we can ever free ourselves from a narrow, fearful world view.