Windy City Media Group Frontpage News

THE VOICE OF CHICAGO'S GAY, LESBIAN, BI, TRANS AND QUEER COMMUNITY SINCE 1985

home search facebook twitter join
Gay News Sponsor Windy City Times 2023-09-06
DOWNLOAD ISSUE
Donate

Sponsor
Sponsor
Sponsor

  WINDY CITY TIMES

2312: A Novel
BOOK REVIEW
by Tracy Baim, Windy City Times
2012-07-18

This article shared 5874 times since Wed Jul 18, 2012
facebook twitter pin it google +1 reddit email


While I love science fiction, I am not an expert on the genre, so I can't speak to the past, award-winning work of Kim Stanley Robinson, but I can give a huge shout-out to his newest book, 2312.

I felt transported to new worlds in 2312, a book set around that era on Earth as well as Mercury, Venus, Mars, Saturn, Jupiter and beyond. This is a wonderfully imagined future, part love story and part scientific voyage.

Robinson knows how to blend the knowledge of today with a potential of tomorrow, but in a way a layperson can appreciate. The city of Terminator on Mercury rolls on tracks to keep ahead of the burning sun; Venus is protected by huge sun shields; Mars was terraformed using the chemicals of other planets; and thousands of space objects have been transformed into terrariums. These terrariums are custom-made to mimic all kinds of environments, from New England towns to vast farms and jungles, ice villages and sexual free-for-alls.

A wonderful twist in this book is the future of gender, so all our queer and transgender folks have something to relish in these pages. Robinson goes all-out in creating this future where people actually live longer (and perhaps forever) by becoming "bisexual"—which in this case means having the physicality of both genders. Swan, our hero of the book, is among those thus treated, and she is now more than 130 years old. Some Earth-bound minds are, of course, against such a "perversity," so there are moral battles to be fought. It doesn't stop there—some humans also experiment with splicing animal genes into their brains as well.

In creative "extracts" throughout the book, the author gives us snippets of discussions, often ending mid-sentence: "it is not a case of 'there is no gender,' but rather a complex and ambiguous efflorescence, sometimes called a fully ursuline humanity, other times just a mess … ." Plus this: "gatherings composed entirely of gender-indeterminate people are a new social space that some find intensely uncomfortable, eliciting comments such as 'like a nakedness I hadn't thought could happen' or 'you're only yourself, it's terrifying.' And so on. Clearly, a new kind of psychic exposure." Indeed.

While the book is about the future, there are, of course, many lessons for 2012: "She often felt nostalgia for the present, aware that her life was passing by faster than she could properly take it in." It marinates grand ideas, such as the existence of evil. As one character states: "Sometimes I think it's only in post-scarcity that evil exists. Before that, it could always be put down to want or fear."

I could go into detail about Robinson's imaginative social and gender forays, but I will leave that to you to read how 2312 may shape up for humans. That is just part of the book's pleasure, as Robinson takes you on a journey to our planet neighbors, making for a great escape from the scorching temperatures on Earth, which can't hold a solar candle to the temperatures faced if you lived on Mercury or Venus—or the Earth of 2312.

One measuring stick I use to judge a book is how much separation anxiety I have once I have turned the last page. With 2312, I already miss the wonderful characters and worlds Robinson created, and hope he revisits them again.


This article shared 5874 times since Wed Jul 18, 2012
facebook twitter pin it google +1 reddit email

Out and Aging
Presented By

  ARTICLES YOU MIGHT LIKE

Gay News

NATIONAL Tenn. law, banned books, rainbow complex, journalists quit 2023-12-01
- Under pressure from a lawsuit over an anti-LGBTQ+ city ordinance, officials in Murfreesboro, Tennessee removed language that banned homosexuality in public, MSNBC noted. Passed in June, Murfreesboro's "public decency" ordinance ...


Gay News

BOOKS Lucas Hilderbrand reflects on gay history in 'The Bars Are Ours' 2023-11-29
- In The Bars Are Ours (via Duke University Press), Lucas Hilderbrand, a professor of film and media studies at the University of California-Irvine, takes readers on a historical journey of gay bars, showing how the venues ...


Gay News

BOOKS Owen Keehnen takes readers to an 'oasis of pleasure' in 'Man's Country' 2023-11-27
- In the book Man's Country: More Than a Bathhouse, Chicago historian Owen Keehnen takes a literary microscope to the venue that the late local icon Chuck Renslow opened in 1973. Over decades, until it was demolished ...


Gay News

Photographer Irene Young launches book with stellar concerts 2023-11-20
- "Something About the Women" was appropriately the closing song for two sold-out, stellar concerts at Berkeley's Freight & Salvage November 19, in celebration of the new book of the same name by Irene Young, the legendary ...


Gay News

Rustin film puts a gay pioneer into the spotlight 2023-11-16
- The story of activist Bayard Rustin is one that should be told in classrooms everywhere. Instead, because Rustin was an openly same-gender-loving man, his legacy has gone relatively unnoticed outside of LGBTQ+-focused history books. Netflix hopes ...


Gay News

Billy Masters: The times Streisand failed to make a splash 2023-11-13
- "Fame is a hollow trophy. No matter who you are, you can only eat one pastrami sandwich at a time."—Wise words from Barbra Streisand. You all know that Barbra Streisand's book is out. And I ...


Gay News

Charles Busch dishes on life as a storyteller 2023-11-09
- Performer/writer Charles Busch, who recently penned his autobiography, Leading Lady: A Memoir of a Most Unusual Boy, said that collecting his most precious and salient memories in a book felt "inevitable." "Storytelling is such an essential ...


Gay News

LGBT HISTORY PROJECT: Exploring 70 years of lesbian publications, from 1940s zines to modern glossy magazines 2023-11-02
- Since the '40s, lesbians have created a vibrant history of publications. From the exploration of daily lesbian life to literary and feminist pursuits, to the modern age of glossy magazines, for over 70 years, lesbians have ...


Gay News

Banning the Banning of Books: Illinois and California lead the way 2023-10-26
- In June, at the Harold Washington Library in Chicago, Governor JB Pritzker signed legislation banning book bans in Illinois public libraries. This legislation, initiated by Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias, passed the Illinois House and ...


Gay News

BOOKS Writer/HIV survivor Mark S. King talks about 'My Fabulous Disease' 2023-10-20
- For decades, HIV survivor and GLAAD Award-winning writer Mark S. King has penned the blog "My Fabulous Disease"—a warts-and-all look at his life covering everything from an encounter with an armed crystal-meth addict to a major ...


Gay News

Gerber/Hart holds Fall benefit, This Archive is Queer 2023-10-16
- On the evening of October 13, Gerber/Hart Library and Archive held its fall benefit titled This Archive is Queer, with an aim to raise money for the continued expansion of the organization and the purchase of ...


Gay News

BOOKS Rachel Maddow talks 'Prequel,' fascism and gay vampire fiction 2023-10-14
- In Prequel: An American Fight Against Fascism, New York Times best-selling author and MSNBC host Rachel Maddow traces the fight to preserve U.S. democracy to the early days of World War II, when a clandestine network ...


Gay News

Jann Wenner comments on women and Black musicians, later apologizes 2023-09-18
- Openly gay Rolling Stone magazine founder Jann Wenner apologized for telling The New York Times that, for his book The Masters, he chose interviews with white male musicians who he called the "philosophers of rock" because ...


Gay News

BOOKS/SAVOR 'Made in Chicago' authors dish on stories behind local treats 2023-09-10
- When it comes to culinary scenes, Chicago is second to none, but do people really know the origins of local dishes—or even which ones have origins in this city? Revered food journalists Monica Eng and David ...


Gay News

THEATER Goodman to run 'Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil' in 2024 2023-08-17
- Goodman Theatre Artistic Director Susan Booth announced that Chicago will be first to experience the new musical Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil—based on John Berendt's iconic non-fiction book—next summer. With a book by ...


 


Copyright © 2023 Windy City Media Group. All rights reserved.
Reprint by permission only. PDFs for back issues are downloadable from
our online archives.

Return postage must accompany all manuscripts, drawings, and
photographs submitted if they are to be returned, and no
responsibility may be assumed for unsolicited materials.

All rights to letters, art and photos sent to Nightspots
(Chicago GLBT Nightlife News) and Windy City Times (a Chicago
Gay and Lesbian News and Feature Publication) will be treated
as unconditionally assigned for publication purposes and as such,
subject to editing and comment. The opinions expressed by the
columnists, cartoonists, letter writers, and commentators are
their own and do not necessarily reflect the position of Nightspots
(Chicago GLBT Nightlife News) and Windy City Times (a Chicago Gay,
Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender News and Feature Publication).

The appearance of a name, image or photo of a person or group in
Nightspots (Chicago GLBT Nightlife News) and Windy City Times
(a Chicago Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender News and Feature
Publication) does not indicate the sexual orientation of such
individuals or groups. While we encourage readers to support the
advertisers who make this newspaper possible, Nightspots (Chicago
GLBT Nightlife News) and Windy City Times (a Chicago Gay, Lesbian
News and Feature Publication) cannot accept responsibility for
any advertising claims or promotions.

 
 

TRENDINGBREAKINGPHOTOS







Sponsor


 



Donate


About WCMG      Contact Us      Online Front  Page      Windy City  Times      Nightspots
Identity      BLACKlines      En La Vida      Archives      Advanced Search     
Windy City Queercast      Queercast Archives     
Press  Releases      Join WCMG  Email List      Email Blast      Blogs     
Upcoming Events      Todays Events      Ongoing Events      Bar Guide      Community Groups      In Memoriam     
Privacy Policy     

Windy City Media Group publishes Windy City Times,
The Bi-Weekly Voice of the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Trans Community.
5315 N. Clark St. #192, Chicago, IL 60640-2113 • PH (773) 871-7610 • FAX (773) 871-7609.