Gay SF

I've been reading a lot of anthologies of gay speculative fiction, both fantasy and science fiction, over the past few months and I did get around to reading Chrome last night. It occurs to me that there are two distinct "subgenres" here (if I can use that term, since I can't think of a better one offhand). The first is regular fantasy and science fiction, in which the issue of sexual identity has become, since the 1970s, part of the context: it is no longer a theme in and of itself. In this subgenre, what I've seen is a reflection of the contemporary gay movement: assimilation. Same-sex attraction is treated as just another variation in human behavior, it is assumed, it is accepted. That's just where the political movement wants us to be. I think most of these are rightly considered sf first and gay lit second -- Tanya Huff's "Smoke" series, for example, or Fiona Patton's books, or Mark Anthony's "Last Rune" series -- relationships can be important in these books, but they are not the motivating force.

The other strand also assumes same-sex attraction, but the universe is built on different lines. It is a gay universe, grounded not in an identity that is "normal" by heterosexual standards, in which homosexuality is an acceptable variation of the norm, but one in which homosexuality is the norm in that it provides the baseline for the characters and the action. This is where Chrome sits.

On rereading, the book is good enough, although not one of the best science-fiction books I've read, that I'm interested in taking another look at this strand. In and of itself, it's a fairly standard adventure story, although the adventure is low-key and the focus is more on the relationship between the Chrome and the mysterious man he names "Young King Vortex." Actually, with a very little development, I think it would be a very good book, but as it is, it's a little bare-bones on milieu and character.

It got a lot of publicity as being "gay male science-fiction erotica," which is always something that bothers me a little. The "erotica" in this one is simply graphic sex, which I think is more toward pornography. I always think of "erotica" as something that works by implication, allusion, titillation, not overt description.

There are others who fit into this second strand. In some cases, it's a toss-up -- take, for example, Jim Grinsley's Kirith Kirin, in which the relationship is central, although the story line itself would work with another motivation. I think that's what separates the two strands. Today's irony: in the truly "gay" science fiction stories, it is the relationship, the love affair, that is the prime motivation, in spite of all the charges of hedonism and selfishness leveled at us. One of the key moments in Chrome is when Chrome demonstrates that he can care first about another person.

It occurs to me that the gay subgenre is a coiuntercultural phenomenon. I remember a number of this kind of story being published in the '80s and 90s (Greg Logan's This Universe of Men comes to mind, and gay vampire stories are perennial favorites), and wonder if anyone's still doing them. Time for a trip to the local gay-friendly bookstore, I guess.