From: tdober@llnl.gov (TDO)
Newsgroups: soc.motss
Subject: Re: gay science fiction
Date: 2 Oct 92 18:32:13 GMT
Followup-To: soc.motss
Organization: llnl

In article <1992Oct2.031354.12699@rigel.econ.uga.edu>,
hughes@dogwood.botany.uga.edu (Wayne Hughes) wrote:

[stuff deleted]

>   Is at least your recollection that the Maxwell stories were set
>   in a culture with slavery and that a male protagonist was a 
>   slave to a master with whom (as *I* recall) he had considerable
>   s/m interactions (ostensibly wrt "training")?  A rose by any
>   other name, but opinions may differ.

Well, yes to the slavery, no to the rest. The first book, _Fire Dancer_,
gets the protagonists (one male, one female; they are supposed to
eventually become lovers. She doesn't know this, just thinks of him as a
much-beloved mentor, and is really worried when she begins to think of him
sexually) into One Of Those Situations You Really Don't Want To Be In. They
are enslaved and later purchased for the purpose of performing at a grand
entertainment; their new owner expects that their performance will greatly
enhance his status. Following the performance, the male was to be given to
the female half of the planetary leadership for Fun and Games. (It doesn't
say what was to happen to the woman.) The owner does assign someone to work
with/on them in refining said performance, but the punishment device he is
given to use is shown as being largely ineffective, and no one is shown as
getting off on it. I really like Ann Maxwell's writing, most of which is
really romance in a (psuedo)science fiction setting. (What can I say; I
like warm fuzzies!)

> >John Varley's Gaea series (_Titan_, _Wizard_, _Demon_) has a number of
> >lesbian and bisexual women, all strongly and positively portrayed.
>   
>   My turn.  The culture these women came from was an all-female 
>   culture, no males allowed.  Under these circumstances, sex was
>   perforce limited to motss sex.  Actually Robin, the female
>   protagonist, spends most of her time learning to deal sexually
>   with a male.  (But they are strong, excellent characters, true.)
>   Who else was specifically gay or lesbian?  (Remember John Varley 
>   deals frequently with E-Z sex change, although not in these
>   books.)

As you mentioned in your follow up message, Gaby was one of the people I
was thinking of; the other was Cirocco Jones herself. (See above; I said
lesbian and bisexual, rather than gay and lesbian.) At the beginning of
_Titan_, she self-identifies as "bisexual, with a strong bias toward men",
or some such wording, but after the crash, the *only* person I remember her
interacting with sexually was Gaby.

> >Vonda McIntyre's series (_Starfarers_, _Transition_, _Metaphase_, and
> >presumably more to come--I hope she hurries!) involves a group marriage
> >between a woman and two men.
>    Tell me, do the men have sex?

Yep, they do. I don't recall any specifically erotic scenes among *any* of
the three, but it is made clear that all three of them love and are lovers
with each other. There is also quite a bit of non-sexual touching among the
three (backrubs, hugs, etc.), between the men as well as between the men
and the woman. Neat series; I just read all three in a row and may well die
of frustration before the next one comes out--she seems to be writing about
one a year.

>    Wayne


TDO
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Newsgroups: soc.motss