Invisible: Personal Essays on Representation in SF/F

Invisible #1

by Jim C. Hines (Editor), Alex Dally MacFarlane (Introduction), Charlotte Ashley (Contributor)

13 essays on the importance of representation in science fiction and fantasy, with an introduction by author Alex Dally MacFarlane. Proceeds from the sale of this collection go to the Carl Brandon Society to support Con or Bust.

Full table of contents:

Introduction by Alex Dally MacFarlane.
Parched by Mark Oshiro.
Boys’ Books by Katharine Kerr.
Clicking by Susan Jane Bigelow.
The Princess Problem by Charlotte Ashley.
Autism, Representation, Success by Ada Hoffmann.
Gender in Genre by Kathryn Ryan.
‘Crazy’ About Fiction by Gabriel Cuellar.
Evil Albino Trope is Evil by Nalini Haynes.
Options by Joie Young.
Non-binary and Not Represented by Morgan Dambergs.
Representation without Understanding by Derek Handley.
Shards of Memory by Ithiliana.
I Don’t See Color by Michi Trota.
SFF Saved My Life by Nonny Blackthorne.
Afterword by Jim C. Hines.

Genres: Nonfiction, Essays, Writing, Anthologies

54 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 11, 2014

About the author

Jim C. Hines began his writing career with a trilogy about the irrepressible Jig the goblin, which actor and author Wil Wheaton described as "too f***ing cool for words." He went on to deconstruct fairy tales in his four-book Princess series, made all the world's literature a grimoire in the Magic ex Libris series, and explored the heroic side of spacecraft sanitation in his Janitors of the Post Apocalypse trilogy. His short fiction has appeared in more than fifty magazines and anthologies. Jim has been outspoken about topics like sexism and harassment, and was the editor of the Invisible series—three collections of personal essays about representation in sf/f. He received the Hugo Award for Best Fan Writer in 2012. Jim currently lives in mid-Michigan.

Reviews

[Cissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Neither lengthy nor academic, these are well-written, very personal essays on the effects of NOT being represented in the kind of fiction one most enjoys- and/or being represented badly and inaccurately.

Obviously, some reflected my own experiences more closely than others, but the others were in many ways more rewarding perspectives. It's all too easy for any of us to be very aware of our own issues, but oblivious to those faced by other people, and I welcomed the heartfelt accounts that opened my eyes more and raised my consciousness.

Highly recommended, especially for those who care about sf/f, and the narrow tropes that are all too common therein.

[Elea Brandt · Rating 5 out of 5]

An incredible collection of voices on representation and diversity in SF/F. The essays are short and easy to read, so I'd recommend this collection not only to people that are familiar with the topic but also to "beginners" that wonder why representation in SF/F may be an important issue.

The collection targets different topics such as representation of gender, queerness, disability, mental health issues, or chronic illness.

The essays share very personal experiences from various perspectives, they are no academic literature and do not aim to analyze any topics in a scientific way. In contrast, the authors strongly encourage writers to endorse diversity in SF/F and illustrate the importance of positive and well written representation.

This collection is the first in a row and I will definitely continue reading.

[Brianna Silva · Rating 3 out of 5]

As I've been doing a podcast on this topic (representation in fiction) for a year and a half, and participating in the conversation online for longer, I can't say I got much new out of this book.

I think it serves well as an introduction to the topic, but there does come a time where it feels like you're repeating yourself. "Don't write stereotypes," and "feel free to not be limited in the kinds of people you write about, because representation is powerful." This remains true for every conceivable identity (or intersection of identities) imaginable, so you start to have the broken record effect when you talk about this for a while.

Nothing much here really moved or inspired me much (partly, again, because I've heard it all before), but I will say that Katherine Kerr's essay called "Boys' Books" was particularly emotive for me, and I liked it a lot. Honestly, though, that's probably because it's the one essay that was most closely related to my own experiences. 😉 So, take that with a grain of salt!

A positive note worth mentioning: This book, and each of its essays, are quite short. You could conceivably read the whole thing in an afternoon. So if you're on the fence about reading it, maybe just pick it up anyway—it's not much of a time commitment, but if the ideas here are new to you, I think they're very worthwhile to be familiar with.

[M.E. Garber · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow. This is a great set of essays on inclusion/exclusion--in writing and other entertainment media--from the point of view of so many "groups" of people that it almost felt overwhelming. Placing the final essay in that place, though, was a masterful stroke. It toned down the "oh, look at all this stuff I have to think about!" feeling that started creeping over me, and replaced it with a sense of encouragement, of anticipation of my and others' attempts at including people of groups often overlooked or poorly stereotyped.

Looking to write "the other?" Looking for something to show a friend or loved one, something that you can point to and say, "See? This is why. This is me, or like my situation. This is why it's so important!" Then get or give them this slim volume, and prepare to be amazed.

[K.M. Herkes · Rating 5 out of 5]

I feel comfortable rating this at five stars while it's still on my "I want to read" shelf because I read the essays in their original form on Jim C. Hines' blog. I've purchased my need-to-own copy, and I'm looking forward to revisiting these powerful, personal stories soon.

Go buy this book now. Prepare to feel uncomfortable in the best possible way. Prepare for some feels, and brace yourself for the possibility that you'll want to do some serious introspection.

These are words that needed saying. Now they need sharing. Go forth and do both.

[Melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

"I saw all the mirrors on earth and none of them reflected me..." (Jorge Luis Borges). This book is a collection of essays representation in SF/F. Individually the essays explore the lack of characters of color, various genders, queerness, nonNeuroTypical minds, and representation without understanding (disability, always-the-villain, not-seeing-color). I read this for my 2016 Reading Challenge "read a book of essays" (Bustle Reads).

[Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

A thought provoking collection of essays on the the importance of diversity in sci/fi and fantasy. I could easily relate to a few of the essays and gave some heavy thought to the others and after reading this I will think twice about what I choose to read next.

[Glinda Harrison · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an amazing series of essays on representation in SF/F.

[Leena · Rating 5 out of 5]

A quick, important read for anyone who wants to be a better writer, but geared toward sci-fi/fantasy. There are three volumes of essays, and this is the first. I plan on ready the other two as well. One note: I was only able to find them as a Kindle file, and I don't have a Kindle, so I am reading them in my browser. No problem.

I have many, many thoughts, but I feel like writing them all out now on Goodreads would be kinda navel-gazey. But if any of my friends wants to chat about issues of representation and how best to write "the other," when you are privileged in pretty much all the ways, let me know.

[Shellie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thought provoking collection of personal essays allowing you to see beyond your own limited perspectives.

Highly recomended if you want to broaden your character scopes, or understand that your normal is not the same as everyone elses.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

A useful read on why we need all kinds of representation in SF/F and what it means to people to have it. A lot of the essays in this first collection focus on gender and sexual orientation - but disability, age and ethnicity feature as well.

[Selina Mist · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great learning tool and resource for understanding what it's like to not be represented in books and media.

[David Lamb · Rating 4 out of 5]

My Kobo tells me I read this book in 16 minutes, which I find hard to believe. Even if it really took five times as long, in terms of value per unit time, it is hard to beat. This collection of moving and informative essays by marginalized people from the SFF community, especially when read as quickly as I did, hammers home the need for authors to represent a wide diversity of people in their stories. It deserves a reread, with pauses after each essay to reflect on Lessons Learned.

[Dark Matter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Evie Kendal reviewed this book; for more reviews by Evie, see Evie Kendal on Dark Matter Zine. To see all reviews on Dark Matter Zine, go to Dark Matter Zine's reviews.

Invisible is an anthology collection of short pieces focused on giving a voice to marginalised groups and individuals in fiction. This quote comes from the Introduction and summarises the project well:

“Art without a default, without dominant voices–imagine it! The writers in Invisible want to. Art without a default is art where everyone is able to speak and be heard, art where we all find ourselves in many roles, many ways of living: people.”

The collection addresses the absence or stereotyping of certain groups, exposing a tradition of racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia and ableism in popular culture. Each contribution uses personal experience to give the reader an insight into other perspectives on how humans can and should live their lives, rejecting narrow definitions of acceptable expressions of fundamental human experiences, such as sexuality, challenging the dominant cis-gendered heteronormative discourse. As such, every contribution is unique and highly recommended, however, for the purposes of this review I have chosen to focus on just four.

First is “The Princess Problem” by Charlotte Ashley, which discusses racial identity in the context of children’s books and merchandise. Ashley gives the example of a colouring book containing pictures of princesses, that her daughter insisted had to be coloured in “the RIGHT colour” – in other words, the colour of the “normal” princess dolls (white) rather than the token “diversity” dolls (brown) given solely to children of colour. She brings attention to the fact that not being consciously aware of racial stereotyping in children’s products contributes to discrimination, and that brown princesses – and the diversity they represent – are for everyone.

“Gender in genre” by Kathryn Ryan addresses the lack of trans* characters in fiction. She (possibly Xe, but I am basing my assumption on the first person bio provided as I have not had the opportunity to ask the preferred pronoun) notes that even where trans* characters do exist in fiction they tend toward one of two options: victims or freaks. The lack of queer and asexual characters is also addressed, and from my personal experience the only asexual character I’ve ever read about was in Karen Healey’s Guardian of the Dead. She also laments the fact that when trans* people do appear in fiction it tends to be exclusively in trans*-themed books, which can work against normalisation and integration (much like the brown princess dolls only for brown children argument discussed above). For those interested, a study regarding the impact of gender representation in the media can be found here.

Dark Matter’s own Nalini Haynes’ contribution “Evil Albino Trope is Evil” discusses the overwhelmingly negative representation of albinos in popular culture, including Deep Space Nine and The Da Vinci Code. Haynes notes the evil albino trope is so pervasive it is now self-referencing and parodied – in other words, audiences are expected to fall for misdirection involving the motives of an albino, due to frequent prior exposure to this trope leading to a presumption of guilt for any albino character. Like the other pieces in the anthology, Haynes relates personal experiences to demonstrate how unfair and unbalanced representation of a minority in fiction can impact the treatment of members of that group in the real world.

Nonny Blackthorne’s “SFF Saved My Life” discusses the unique position science fiction and fantasy has as a site for encouraging diversity. She (again pronoun assumed from bio) recounts her childhood living in a fundamentalist religious family and how she couldn’t reject homosexuality or polyamory as they might have wished because she had already bonded with people who engaged in these lifestyles, albeit fictional characters from within SFF. This also helped with self-acceptance in the face of familial rejection. The idea that empathy for a diverse range of people can be encouraged through identification with fictional characters was tested in this study, summarised by i09 here.

Recommendation

The Invisible anthology is recommended for all audiences, but particularly those interested in gender and racial inclusiveness, and the impact of popular media on minorities and the differently-abled.

[Janet Martin · Rating 4 out of 5]

While I think that folks who fall out of the norm deserve to have their voices heard, most of these essays sounded pretty whiny to me. No one feels normal all of the time. I was an introverted white girl reading boys' books and no one ever talked down to me about them. I was overweight--and on the cruelty scale, that was something to overcome, I can say. I have an autistic grandson--we treat him like a "real" person--with the same kindness and expectations we have for all of the children in our family, but with the understanding that he needs a little extra patience and sometimes even some extra help. If we had someone with a physical handicap or gender issue, we would be the same. My father's homosexual cousin never received anything from our family but love and understanding, with no loaded comments ever made in my hearing--although I expect my father's insensitive sister might have been guilty of one or two. That's not to say he didn't experience a lot of cruelty, but not from our family whether overt or covert. My conclusion after reading this--if you feel alienated from the "norm," write your own books, but don't expect others to do fictional interpretations of the handicaps and cruelty you know so well. Don't expect those of us who have not experienced these things first hand to write about them with the sensitivity you require. Educate us in the ways that matter--in fictional characters we can identify with even though they represent issues that are unfamiliar to those of us you perceive as "normal."

[A.J. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have to admit, I found the quality of the essays in this book sort of all over the place. The first few were just...sort of there. They were short and didn't seem to have much point. As the book went on, though, the essays got better.

All of the authors of these essays are different from the general populous for one reason or another. Some of the essays were lamenting the lack of characters like the author in stories. Some were talking about how characters like them were not portrayed accurately. A few listed good examples of how their differences are represented. This is all very valid criticism of sci-fi and fantasy literature.

I think it was geared towards authors, reminding them to diversify their casts of characters. But as a reader, I think it's made me start to think in more detail about the portrayal of characters.

The one thing that I wish is that this book had a recommended reading list. Some of the essays list a few books that the authors consider good, but having all those recommendations put together, with a few comments about what makes each book good would have been awesome.

[Amy Hoodock · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked this up to read when it was released in April because Jim Hines is the editor and I like that he's been a strong proponent of equality. I've been following the debates in the SciFi community fairly closely over the last year regards racism and sexism and other isms and I know I don't know as much as I should so I decided to give this a try.

Honestly, I expected to saddened and angered by the essays but I also expected the reading to be a bit difficult and sometimes for it to get ranty so I put off reading it. Imagine my surprise when I started reading and could not put the book down because I found the stories so compelling. The essays are relatively short and are simply personal reflections of how a particular issue has affected the author of that particular piece. The predominant emotion was indeed sadness but the majority of the essays reflected on the past and pointed out relatively simple ways that writers can do better in the future. I learned a great deal from this simple book, and I would encourage everyone to take the time to read this.

[Riah · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book of essays, most of which are available to read on Jim Hines' blog, represent an important reminder of the reasons that diversity and representation are important, and broader than just race and (binary) gender, although those are important and included too. I particularly appreciated the focus on disability, non-neurotypical people and non-binary gender identity. That said, the essays themselves were uneven in quality, and I liked the idea better in theory than execution. Invisible 2: Personal Essays on Representation in SF/F, the next in what seems like it'll be an annual ebook collection, is a lot stronger in terms of the writing itself, so if you're only going to read one, I'd recommend that. But they're is quick and eye opening, and the whole basic idea is to make space for everyone, so maybe you should read this too.

[Stina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Book #49 for 2017
PopSugar's Ultimate Reading Challenge (max. 3):
- A book with multiple authors
- A book with career advice
- The first book in a series you haven't read before
Book Riot's Read Harder Challenge:
- A book about books
- A book published by a micropress
Better World Books: A book under 200 pages

This is a great collection of short essays on the literary experience as a reader and/or writer of "other." Different voices come together to provide perspectives that are both unique and representative. Some are voices that we typically think of when "diversity" is brought up, but this little book also gives voice to the atypically marginalized. This is an excellent resource for anybody concerned with the consumption or production of quality diverse literature.

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an anthology of personal essays from fans and creators of sf/f, about finding or not finding representation for parts of their identity in sf/f.

This is the first volume, and I recommend continuing with Invisible 2 for even more personal stories.

The essays are very readable and most people will probably relate personally to at least one or two of them. More importantly, for the ones you don't personally relate to, you can begin to understand how others are viewing the stories and characters that you're consuming.

It's really good and I recommend it to sf/f fans and especially those who are also creators.

[Natalie Holden · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a very nice and accessible collection of personal essays on representation. The essays are short and personal, appealing to emotions rather than providing in-depth analysis of social issues, so you could read them on a train (ahem) and still benefit. The issues covered were pretty basic: women in sci-fi and fantasy, LGBTQIA+, race (in the USA and American culture), neurodivergence, and chronic conditions. A bit too basic - I'm now reading through part 2 and it seems much more interesting. Still, it's a pretty good base and you can read it in around an hour, so I'd recommend checking it out.

[Melissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a series of essays by writers on writing non standard characters. It was mostly heartfelt narratives of how people got into writing in order to represent the person that they are. I enjoyed reading it, and one essay in particular felt as if I could have written it myself. I had been hoping for more ideas on how to actually incorporate people who are different than me into stories. I bought the second collection at the same time that I bought the first, so I will be reading that as well and have hope that it digs a little deeper into a topic I'm very interested in.

[Sheila]

This began as a series of guest posts on Jim's blog about representation in SFF and is now an expanded e-book, with the proceeds going to Con or Bust. The original essays did a great job of going beyond just gender and racial/ethnic diversity (although those are there and they're great). I'm very excited to read more.

[Matthew Thyer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some eye opening ideas in here. Unless you're convinced that SFF should only maintain the status quo, endlessly repeating memes from the 20th century, you're going to want to challenge your understanding of the fiction. This is a good starting point written by a collection of thoughtful people.

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great Resource

The essays in this collection certainly make the case for diversity and representation in science fiction and fantasy. A good resource for authors looking to add depth to their characters.

[Rivqa · Rating 5 out of 5]

An easily digested series of short essays on representation in speculative fiction. The essays are personal, rather than academic, and as such some resonated more strongly with me than others... which is kind of the point.

[Allison Alexander · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wonderful collection of essays on the importance of diversity in sci-fi and fantasy. I loved the variety of voices and getting to read a small slice of how fiction has impacted each of the contributors. This isn't a how-to guide, but an important work in understanding and embracing differences.

[Besha · Rating 3 out of 5]

Important conversations, inconsistent quality and relevance.

[Victoria Sandbrook · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'll be shelving this one somewhere close by so I can look back at it for reading recommendations and especially for reminders for my own work.

[Sarah Schanze · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great collection of essays on why diverse representation is so important in books and other media. Inspires me to read and write at the same time.