Sci Fi Author Shocks World With GIRL Protagonist!

[james_davis_nicoll]

Your next book will have a woman as the central character. Given that “gender wars” in science fields is still a contentious topic, why did you decide to go with a lady lead? What kinds of challenges does your protagonist face, and does her gender play any role in those challenges?

I don’t take part in any political debates. So I’m certainly not trying to make a point by having a female lead. She’s just a character I came up with that I thought was cool, so she’s the lead.

The book is another scientifically accurate story. The main character is a low-level criminal in a city on the moon. Her challenges are a mix of technical/scientific problems, as well as juggling personal interactions—staying a step ahead of the local police, working with shady and dangerous people to do illegal things.

She doesn’t encounter any distinctly “female” challenges. There’s no love plot. And the story takes place in a future society where there is practically no sexism.

Comments

[colliemommie.livejournal.com]

A "lady lead"?!?

JFC.

[vschanoes.livejournal.com]

A future society radically unlike any other human society in history, then.

[ethelmay.livejournal.com]

Gender wars is? Pffft. Everyone knows it's "gender wars be."

[elusis.livejournal.com]

Will some of Andy Weir's friends come and get your boy? Please? I know I know people in the Bay Area who overlap with him, who seem to have a damn lot more sense than he does.

[bruce munro (from livejournal.com)]

Well, probably not much more different than pre-and-post agriculture. :)

Personally, I think we'll get there eventually, but I suspect by the time it happens it will be far enough in the future that the definition of "human" will be a lot fuzzier - certainly not "scientifically accurate" near-future SF.

[vschanoes.livejournal.com]

She doesn’t encounter any distinctly “female” challenges. There’s no love plot.

Who knew romance was a distinctly female challenge?

[ian wright (from livejournal.com)]

"Who knew romance was a distinctly female challenge?"

Book readers. It's amazing how many people won't buy stories with romantic sub-plots (Or that they even suspect have romantic sub-plots) on that grounds that it's 'chick-lit'.

[beamjockey.livejournal.com]

For all we know, humans themselves may be a lot fuzzier.

[heron61.livejournal.com]

Of course, given that this is happening on a lunar colony large enough to be considered a city, we're already talking something entirely unlike anything in human history.

[seth ellis (from livejournal.com)]

Between a lunar colony and a sexism-free society, I believe Weir is capable of imagining one of those. I enjoyed The Martian more than I thought I would, but I do think Weir ought to look into robot protagonists.

[seth ellis (from livejournal.com)]

I allow my women to do romance for me, as is proper.

The death of Prince has made me think that mainstream masculine attitudes have retrogressed since the Reagan years. His 80's self would be an indie figure now.

[hand2hand.livejournal.com]

So much this. The pendulum always swings, I know, but it's hard to see the regressions.

[bruce munro (from livejournal.com)]

Fuzzy, scaly, with brass knobs on...

[seth ellis (from livejournal.com)]

Hopefully the pendulum will turn out to be swinging in a spiral pattern, so to speak.

[sean o'hara (from livejournal.com)]

It's not clear to me that "there's no love plot" is supposed to be an example of a female challenge, or if they're coequal items on a list of things that aren't in the book but which the sort of idiot who says "lady lead" might expect to find.

[marfisa.livejournal.com]

Where did the Smithsonian (the Smithsonian!) find an interviewer so blinkered by Golden Age of SF-era gender preconceptions that he thinks attempting to write about a "lady lead" is some kind of startling and unprecedented move? Weir himself sounds positively non-retro by comparison.

[brooksmoses]

FWIW, I rather clearly read it as the latter. It's certainly a standard way in which female leads can be done badly.

[ansiblenews.livejournal.com]

"... that she thinks ..."

[marfisa.livejournal.com]

Oh my God, you're right. That's even worse. I suppose it could be less sheer sexism than a case of a reporter who's unfamiliar with recent science fiction beyond movie blockbusters and bestsellers like "The Martian," and thus genuinely believes Weir is being daringly innovative by opting for a female protagonist. But you'd think that somebody on the *Smithsonian* editorial staff would have at least questioned the 1950's-ish phrase "lady lead."

[loyseofverlaine.livejournal.com]

"a future society where there is practically no sexism"?

He pulls that off, and I'll buy it in hardcover. At full price.

[roseembolism.livejournal.com]

I confess my first a question in the book was "So how is Weir going to deal with the physiological effects of low gravity? "

Because I guess I'm just used to stupid questions about gender, it took a few minutes to register.

[elusis.livejournal.com]

This just in: SOME people are able to make a list of "favorite [people in my field]" that does not suffer from the usual sausage-fest fairy:

http://espn.go.com/espnw/voices/article/15291897/remembering-prince-promotion-celebration-women

[vschanoes.livejournal.com]

There's no reason to think that technological advancement means massive shifts of a sociological nature that don't really have anything to do with the tech in question.

[vschanoes.livejournal.com]

I would not have read it as an example of a challenge, except that he follows it up by noting that there's no sexism, either, which suggests to me that he is listing the kinds of things he thinks of as female challenges.

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

"The Martian" is a fun book, but it struck me as being written not so much in a core-SF as in a technothriller mode. Something about the way the narration drops into a lofty third-person-omniscient every time something terrible is about to happen, and the way that, while there's almost no physical description of any characters, Weir makes sure you know that two of the women are really hot.

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

I think it's probably easier for a male star to be openly gay now, but less easy for him to be freaky and androgynous: that's not a standard part of the pop-star toolkit any more. It's OK for a female one, though.

[seth ellis (from livejournal.com)]

Yes,, a gay pop star couldn't really dress like 80's Prince now, and a straight one really couldn't.

Androgynous and/or freaky female pop stars, my impression is that it's sort of allowable—certainly more than for men—but they need to be able to re-assume femininity, and a rather exaggerated version of it, at the drop of a hat. Otherwise they too are relegated to the indie-pop status. Q.v. Lady Gaga's recent reinvention as a mainstream diva; that was always within the possible even for her performance-artist persona, or I don't think it would have been allowed by her handlers.

[(Anonymous)]

Or listing the things he thinks the interviewer is thinking of.

Spiegel

[keithmm.livejournal.com]

As a teenager, I thought Prince was pretty cool. Now, as more comes out about him that most people didn't know and he never made a big deal about, Prince was goddamn awesome.