I have a couple more Kameron Hurley blog posts I’d like to draw your attention to. And by the way this blog onslaught is because God’s War comes out in mass market paperback in the UK today. First up there’s a great post about the bug-based magic system that Kameron invented for the series here. The main thing I want to talk about, however, is a pair of posts by Kameron and her mom, Terri, on Pornokitsch. Basically Terri explains that, while she is a devoted reader of popular fiction, she can’t get her head around SF. Meanwhile Kameron explains why she gravitated towards fiction where you could imaging making real change in the world.

I have much sympathy, of course. My mum doesn’t read fiction at all. And my dad, who was a voracious reader of genre novels of many types, died before I got to be well known for this stuff.

The thing that struck me about these posts was this brief paragraph from Terri:

Unlike real life, in popular fiction the good guys always win.

For most people, I am sure that they do. But one thing that I learned very early on in life is that the “good guys” are the people who are “normal”. That is, the people who are white, straight, able-bodied and cis. Other characters can be good people too, but if they don’t fit in with social norms then, in the story, they are the people who will suffer tragically. Even when I read a real-world novel about trans people that has a happy ending, I find it hard to believe. The only way I can believe a book in which someone like me might have a happy ending is if it is very clearly set in a world that isn’t ours. And if there are no trans people in a book, I just end up identifying with the character who is the biggest social outcast, for whatever reason.

That might seem somewhat self-obsessed and selfish, coming from someone who, most of the time, has a great deal of privilege. But it is something that has got itself deeply ingrained in my psyche. And in any case, I’m always aware that the abyss is right there next to me, waiting. I’m doing my best to enjoy my life as best I can while I can, because sooner or later that tragic ending will catch up with me.