Even more trans fiction
Edit, 3/28/09 – I’m attempting to organize my thoughts on trans fiction here. That page contains links to all of the blog posts I’ve written on the subject, as well as a (growing) collection of links to sites focusing on trans fiction, and particular trans-themed authors/stories I like.
In How do you transition (a followup) I talked about removing some authors and sites from my bookmark folder of trans-related fiction because I thought it wasn’t making me feel better about life and about myself. I’ve realized since then that I was a bit unfair, and wanted to respond to myself and re-update my list.
In general, I stand by my statement that, for me, forced-feminization stories are feeding a desire to have someone else take control of my transition and do it for me. As such, for me, I don’t think they’re the best thing I can be reading. (This is intentionally not a commentary on why the authors write such stories – not my place to guess – and what other people get out of them – their business, not mine.)
However, I do think some of the authors I removed do have good work, and deserve better than I gave them originally. And so, a revised list. (I’m ignoring non-trans-themed work, as reading trashy Buffy fanfic might not be good for you, but not really for the reasons I want to focus on…)
Most of the ones I kept, Bek D. Corbin’s fiction, Noel, Whateley Academy stories, Seasons of Change, The Saga of Tuck, and Strange Noises, are all well-written and I wanted to take a moment to reiterate that. (Well, most of Whateley is well written.) Likewise, some of the above – some of Corbin’s stories, some of the Whateley stories, and Tuck/Strange Noises – are either about characters who are trans or who have some medical basis for their changes (at least, there are eventual explanations in the stories). Noel is forced-feminization, sort of, but (again) is well-written and has some nice redemption moments.
Seasons of Change I can’t really ‘justify’. It does have a trans character at one point, but it’s mostly about forced-feminization. I feel like it deserves a pass because the characters get ‘un’feminized and the feminization is a plot device not and ends to itself, but maybe those are justifications.
As for Randalynn’s fiction and the No Obligation serries, it’s definitely well written (and the first major arc was completed since I made the last post about trans fiction) but I’m not thrilled with how No Obligation ended up. I don’t want to spoil anything, so I won’t give anything away, but the way the trans issues were resolved left me unsatisfied.
Now, for ones I originally ‘tossed.’
I think I was unfair to a number of authors:
- E.E. Nalley has some great ‘Heaven and Hell’ and ‘Caregiver Adventure’ stories that I really enjoyed, and it’s unfair to say isn’t a good writer.
- Likewise Maggie Finson, who created the ‘Heaven and Hell’ universe at Sapphire’s Place.
- I guess I didn’t really toss Babs Yerunkle’s fiction, since I mentioned Babs’ work on Whateley, but it seems unfair to just ‘toss’ the whole of the author’s work…
- Rebekkah deMere’s fiction does have a trans character, and is worth reading, but (like much online fiction) just ‘ends’ with no resolution and isn’t amazingly well written. Good, but not great.
- I was unfair to Heather O’Malley by calling it ‘trash’ (was unfair to lots of authors…) but still don’t think it’s amazing writing, or as good as some of the other authors I’ve mentioned.
I do still think that Joan Bank’s fiction and the Absolute Powers series are OK, but not fantastic, and there isn’t really anything at Brandy’s Fiction that keeps me coming back over and over.
So I guess I’m doing a pretty big 180. I admit that part of it may come from the previous post having been in May, before I started lowering my hormone levels. As I said, I think part of my enjoyment of the some of the listed writings comes from reading about a gender transition (asked for or not) when I don’t feel like my transition is moving. Over the past year and a half, when I was on higher hormone doses, I didn’t feel as much need to read some of the stuff about and so saw less value. Now that I do feel like I’m getting something out of them, I find what I wrote before to be unfair.
-R
Themocracy
[...] 9/8/2007 – I’ve responded to this post here, where I basically retract much of what I say below…so read everything here with a grain of [...]
Have you read Heather’s “Tangled up in Green”? I thought it was excellent myself.
Welcome, Freya! I haven’t, but I’ll definitely check it out. (I must admit my ignorance about Kim Possible, though, so I may need to do some research about the characters first…)