Celebrating the female gaze
Many readers hold the view that genre fiction is a vital literary form, offering a better microscope on the present than the fiction of social realism. Le Guin, Octavia Butler and Connie Willis are, rightfully, legends in the field of sci-fi. Over the last decade, the trend has been to achieve greater gender balance among the winners of major sci-fi and speculative fiction awards, like the Hugo, and, increasingly, fantasy best-sellers are being authored by women.
Mirinae Lee doesn't see sci-fi in opposition to literary fiction, citing George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four and Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale as examples of literature that "explores the vicissitudes of human nature under extreme sociopolitical situations".
Rivet agrees. "Speculative fiction can be a more playful space than genres rooted in the real world. You can use a futuristic or fantastical world to explore ideas, sometimes pushing them to an extreme that wouldn't be possible in reality. Fiction involves magnifying specific aspects of the world in order to explore their possibilities. In speculative fiction, your magnifying glass is limitless."
Until books are indeed judged by their covers and we collectively think beyond borders, the HKILF and events like it will have to continue carving out niches for airing alternative views. "I dream about a world where literature is inclusive and celebrates diversity, where the writings of Asian, Black, LGBTQ and indigenous authors are mainstreamed and stand proudly, shoulder-to-shoulder, with other authors, where we don't need to belong to a specific category," says Nguyên.
As far as labels go, Jan Lee has this to say: "I'll support whatever booksellers do to get people to read more books!"
If you go
Hong Kong International Literary Festival
Dates: March 4-10
Venue: Various venues
