BY DOMINIK PARISIEN
LOOK AT YOUR bookshelves. Think of the imagined worlds in those books, of the adventures they have allowed you to experience on distant planets, in faraway lands, in the spaces between. In those stories, do you exist?
For many people, the answer is no. When writers draw on older works as inspiration for their science fiction and fantasy, their own writing often uncritically reflects the worlds, the biases, the politics, and the representation of those that came before. If a symbol could represent certain parts of the science fiction and fantasy genre, it might be the ouroboros: the serpent eating its own tail, which can signify infinity or devouring one’s self. That is often the paradox of our field. There is a hunger for the new, but when something seems to skew too far from the familiar, backlash occurs.