Geek Elders Speak: In Our Own Voices
Maggie Nowakowska
Of course women built fandom. We know, because we were there. An anthology exploring the undeniable history of women creators in science fiction/fantasy and media fandom during the mid-20th century. These women were writers. Artists. Costumers. Editors. Gamers. Scientists. Housewives. Despite the odds, they claimed their own voices and creative power, through the years and on their own terms. Each woman’s experience is personal and evocative, told in their own voices and each with their own story. Geek Elders Speak: In Our Own Voices had a successful Kickstarter that was funded past expectations through social media & influencer outreach. It reached an outstanding amount of people from universities and educational hubs, as well as fans old and new.
Publication Year: 2021
No posts yet
Kick off the convo with a theory, question, musing, or update
Your rating:
This is a compelling resource of first person accounts of women growing up fannish well before the internet and popular culture made it as common as we now know it to be. This project is a spin off from a panel at GeekGirlCon - which I actually attended! - in 2014, and has a lot of valuable history.
This took me back to my teen years of making zines and writing projects with friends, as well as a writing project I was working on later in life when I attended my first convention. Although I was vaguely familiar with many of the subjects in this collection, I highly enjoyed going into depth, and sincerely thank each contributor for taking us down memory lane with them.
Although each self-contained essay had merit, there was a decent amount of repetition (for example, I understand pointing out "this was before the internet" makes sense in each of the essays on which it was included, but when you read the collection together, it becomes tiresome). I felt that the editing or essay assignment could have been stronger, or stronger choices could have been made to streamline pieces to minimize repetitive asides. That being said, if you are picking this up an essay at a time instead of reading multiple essays per sitting, this effect may be diminishes to some extent.
I read a digital ARC from Forest Path Books in exchange for this honest review. 3.5 stars. I sincerely hope to see some of you again when/if GeekGirlCon can happen again safely.
I talk about what I thought about this book in this BookTube video.
0
© 2024 Pagebound