Interview – Kate Bornstein, author and outlaw
You describe yourself as an Outlaw, and your life could probably fit well within a speculative fiction novel. If you could live in a fantasy or scifi universe of your own design instead of in the real world, how would you then prefer to define yourself? Outlaw still? Or something new to you?
If I could live in a fantasy scifi universe, I’d like put it together the same way I put myself together. I use bits and pieces of my most favorite identities/genres/desires. It’d have to be a verse that overlaps these other verses: Serenity/Firefly, BSG, Buffy, True Blood, Star Trek TNG & DS9. My character is Ishara Yar, Tasha Yar’s sister. She’s a forerunner to Starbuck, Buffy, and even Sookie. She seduces Data, and then betrays him. Closest thing Data ever had to a broken heart. But Ishara is doing it all for a good cause, right? Or I’d be Ensign Ro Laren, Captain Picard’s most bitter betrayal. Betrayal HAS to be part of my character in that fantasy verse.
And fantasy has to include sexual fantasy, right? Well, my sexual fantasy has got to include slaves and owners cuz I’m a slave. So my verse would overlap The Marketplace, Macho Sluts, House Rules, The Story of O, Tales of the Flat Earth, and even the Gor series. These are fantasy worlds, right? Oh Gods, if you really are out there? Drop me into that kind of verse. My character is Fluff. (Google her plus Doc.)
The verse I’m longing to travel would be ruled by Death, Destruction, Destiny, Dream, Despair, Desire, and Delirium, and it would be peopled by characters out of anything written by Tanith Lee. I’d teach at Hogwarts. I’m Professor Trelawney. I’m sure she’s a closet Bokononist.
There would be hobbits in my verse cuz they’re so darned cute. And speaking of cute, there’d be Animaniacs. And Pinky and The Brain, cuz what else is there to do every day that’s better than taking over the world?. And there’d be faeries and elves, but frak the orcs. Enough orcs in this verse right here. But there’d be demons in my verse. I’m pretty sure that as long as anyone’s got demons, there’s always gotta be demons in the verse who wanna getcha. But there’s good demons too. I’d be a good demon. Better, I’d be Willow.
Speculative fiction has been a sort of prose laboratory for a lot of sex and gender experiments that may or may not work out in fact. Yet for all this exploration, the sex and gender binaries (among other tropes) still dominate. What would you like to see done more or better with sex and gender in speculative fiction? What would you like to see that you’ve never seen done before?
When it comes to writing beyond genders really smart and funny, it’s hands down Bear Bergman and Scott Turner Schofield, who are writing this kind of speculative, self-reflective is-it-fiction-is-it-real performances and books.
Star Trek never got no-gender right, but they at least tried. But to credit the genre, Data finally ends up welcoming “ladies, gentlemen, and members of transgendered species” to an intergalactic conference.
Speculative fiction I’d like to see done? Orlando, with a big budget. Orlando on a scale of Blade Runner and Caprica. Bring back the shape-shifters and make ‘em about sex and the nature of desire in the midst of a war-torn, economically screwed-up, homophobic, everything-phobic world. I’d be Pris, your basic pleasure model, and honey I’d morph for you—or whoever—every hour-long episode of the series, I’d morph, along with a whole lot of other folks morphing. That’d be some good dangerous TV for HBO or SyFy.
Take a look at the future. What’s coming for sex and gender? Will they ever be divorced, or are we children ultimately doomed to perpetuate the cycle of history’s dysfunctional marriage?
Sex and gender has no singular future. There’s only a wave. Keeping an eye on the leading edge for me is more a utopic than dystopic exercise. It just keeps getting better. Postmodern theory has over-spilled the academy, and in another generation we may very well see a leading edge of gender that includes a culture where trannies are a welcome part of the culture’s leading edge. But that’s the left-leading edge. There’s a stoopid right wing, too. Someone’s always going to be in the fundamentalist stage of some religion or other. Spirituality, like gender, is a wave. Whoa. Now I’m Morpheus. ROTFL.
Sexuality and gender are only two of at least ten vectors of oppression in our culture. Sexuality and gender are linked to each other, sure, and we can try to unlock every which way every subculture has ever put sex and gender together. But to make some real progress, we’d have to simultaneously unlink sexuality and gender from race, age, class, religion, citizenship, looks, ability, and family status. All of ‘em have hooks into all the rest. Probably be more expedient to find an activism that focuses on dismantling the need for hierarchal systems of oppression altogether. Some board that sits on top and does triage with the combined resources of all activists fighting on behalf of equity along each of those vectors.
Marriage as performed in the USA today is unconstitutional, according to Thomas Jefferson’s interpretation of separation of Church and State. IT’S UN-FRAKKING CONSTITUTIONAL. I wrote a blog about this where I make more sense. It just pisses me off, the waste of LGBT resources on marriage. I’d be focusing on the kids thrown out of their homes or beaten up or murdered… for ANY frakking reason.
The world is full of fuss and bother and life can be depressing sometimes. We see this reflected in a lot of speculative fiction in the form of dystopian futures, epic magical wars, and characters struggling for survival everywhere you look. These are engaging plot devices, but is there still room in our imaginary lives for fun? What should we be playing with in SFF that we aren’t?
I dunno. My favorite stories have always held a tinge of horror. That’s just reflective of real life. Now, do I like Forrest Gump and Big Fish? Happy endings? YES!!!! I LONG for happy endings, but I don’t frakking believe in them much any more. I’m Sookie that way.
There was a Firefly mini-series called Better Days. That’s as close to a happy ending as I’m willing to risk. But dystopian adventures don’t preclude fun, do they? Maybe we’ll evolve above the need for the adrenalin rush one day, but that probably goes on a curve as well.
From what I understand, The Dalai Lama gets an adrenalin rush when he’s repairing clocks, watches, and bicycles. Puzzles are fun to us at our stage of evolution. It’ll be nice when this stage is over though, cuz I’m getting mighty weary of being the rat in the maze. Color me Y, The Last Man. If I was being a sweetness and light character, I’d be Kaylee. Right down to the engine grease on my face.
The more I write, the more I’m thinking that sweetness and light are best served as side dishes to bliss and perseverance.
If science or magic could free you of one limitation, what would that be? What would you do with that new freedom?
Ogod, really? totally, it would be the limitation of this single shape body. Color me Enigma. PLEASE!!! Let me be born that kind of mutant next life time. Makes so much sense that she lost all her powers like that. Too scary and omnipotent for everyone else, being a shape-shifter.
What would I do with it. Hmmmm…. I’d do my best to end suffering for all sentient beings. I’d do my best to bring the possibility of joy to the otherwise joyless. I’d so my best to help fulfill the world’s desires before they become dire needs. If I could change shape, I’d have FUN doing that shit.
Depression and creativity seem to be linked. But nowadays, there’s a little pill for almost every ill. What do you suppose are the implications of anti-depressants on a culture’s creativity as a whole?
I don’t know. I haven’t been off my Wellbutrin long enough to get any distance on that. You tell me.
Will the next bohemian generation pop prescriptions the same way their predecessors drank absinthe?
Ogod, I suppose so. It smells dee-lish, but I’m such a frakking alcoholic. I made a batch about 4 years ago. Still haven’t tried a drop of it. Sigh. But if not absinthe, then something. Check out the 1995 film, Strange Days.
Or will art become endangered as our anguish is deadened?
No. Deadening anguish is not extinguishing anguish. Art is there to make Kansas technicolor. As our anguish is more and more deeply deadened, the greater our art will evolve to arise to the need. Theoretically, it should. Color me all Mists of Avalon: someone’s going to come along and pull the sword out of the stone just when the world needs it most.
With magic, anything is possible, but often at great price. If you could use magic to accomplish anything, how would you use it? What would you be unwilling to sacrifice?
Can’t answer this one without my eyes going all dark and electric-bolty, and my face going all white and marbly, and then I’ll be skinning people alive to get even or to get information and then I’d start teaching puppies like Angel just how to bark.
No no no no no. I’m not evolved enough spiritually to know just exactly how to use my magic, or even how I would if I could. I’m still learning. I’m not The One. I’m more Trinity. (Doncha wish!?!)
Science fiction often inspires design and innovation. What futuristic gadget or product do you think would most benefit the world if we had it TODAY?
I’d like an app for my iPhone that would clean out my chakras whenever they needed it. Sort of a maintenance program.
High tech that would benefit most of the world? Hmmmmm…. I like the folks who are donating mosquito nets to stave off malaria.
If you could build a civilization from the ground up, but the only building blocks you had were today’s society, cultures and people, what and who would you choose to include? Why?
I know I’m supposed to be magnanimous enough to say, “Oh everyone, cuz we can all learn how to be together.” I don’t think so. I’d want to work with people who are trying not to be mean. I’m sick and tired of mean, greedy, nasty, rude people getting all the goodies.
Freaks. Freaks who have figured out that excluding or otherwise being mean to people doesn’t work. Freaks who own up to being freaks, mongrels, and neither/nor. Children of paradox.
If you found yourself in a fantasy novel, what character would you be? How would you change the plot?
I’d be Sauron, Lord of the Rings. And in the first book, I’d say, “Whoops. Sorry. My bad. I’ll throw the ring away.” And then I would.
You’ve said in the past [paraphrasing slightly] that there are as many different genders as there are people, and that our adherence to the male/female binary prevents us from accepting that vast diversity. This is both a biological problem and a cultural one. Do you think science is ever going to be able to free us from the biological, and would that be enough impetus for us to free ourselves from the cultural?
It won’t be science all by itself. It won’t be postmodern theorists, quantum physicists or enlightened religious leaders all squirreled away in their own private arenas of progress. None of that has ever worked before. It’ll be the radical edge of all those folks, plus everyone who’s living beyond either/or in any aspect of their lives, and letting the rest of the world see that. It’ll be all those folks working together.
Buddhism is a delicious weaving of spirituality and science. Chaos theory is collapsing boundaries of science and mysticism. Queer theory is zeroing in on what it is exactly that lies at the intersection of identity, desire, and power. But I’m a Taoist Tarot reader and a servant of The Endless. What the fuck do I know beyond putting my puzzle piece in with all the others?
That’s what it comes down to: we all have a piece of the puzzle, and we all have a time when it’s our turn to put that piece down and make things make more sense. That seems logical to me. Why else would it all have happened before? Why else will it all happen again? You think I’m quoting BSG? Nuh-uh. Peter Pan. The very first line is “All of this has happened before, and it will all happen again.” Clap if you believe in fairies.
.
About the Author
Kate Bornstein is an author, playwright and performance artist whose work to date has been in service to sex positivity, gender anarchy, and building a coalition of those who live on cultural margins. Her work recently earned her an award from the Stonewall Democrats of New York City, and two citations from New York City Council members.
Her latest book, “Hello, Cruel World: 101 Alternatives To Suicide For Teens, Freaks, and Other Outlaws,” is an underground best-seller. Other published works include the books “Gender Outlaw: On Men, Women and the Rest of Us”; and My Gender Workbook. Her books are taught in over 150 colleges around the world.
Kate blogs regularly on Kate Bornstein’s Blog for Teens, Freaks and Other Outlaws. She’s also on Twitter.
[...] Crossed Genres is a magazine of “science fiction & fantasy with a twist” — each issue publishes stories which combine SF/F with another genre or theme. Thus, my story was in the issue devoted entirely to science fiction/fantasy stories with lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, and/or queer characters. And you should check that issue out (it’ll be online through the end of October) because there’s not only my story “Cold” but a whole bunch of other really good LGBTQ stories & articles too. Even an interview with Kate Bornstein! [...]