We have always been here. For as long as there's been such a thing as sex, alternate sexual identities have been a fact of life. So why have we been so nearly invisible in recorded history and historical fiction? Now editor Connie Wilkins, a Lambda Literary Award finalist, has assembled fourteen stories that span the centuries from ancient times to the Renaissance to the modern era and explore alternate versions of our past. Their queer protagonists, who bend history in ways dramatic enough to change the world and subtle enough to touch hearts and minds, rescue our past from invisibility, and affirm our place and importance throughout all of history, past, present, and future.
Time Well Bent: Queer Alternative Histories
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Editorial Reviews
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Overall, the range is impressive, and the quality unquestionable: an intriguing theme and a hugely enjoyable anthology. --Rainbow Reviews
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More About the Author
Dale Chase has been writing gay male erotica for over a decade with more than 100 stories published in various magazines and anthologies including translation into German and Italian. Her latest book of Victorian erotica is the result of a long appreciation of Victorian literature, Henry James in particular. Chase also has a collection of ghostly gay erotica in print. She lives near San Francisco and is at work on a gay erotic western novel. Check her out at dalechasestrokes.com
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
If you enjoy unique and imaginative stories, superbly written, then this book if for you,
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This review is from: Time Well Bent: Queer Alternative Histories (Paperback)
"Time Well Bent" [Lethe Press, 2009] is one of the more intriguing collections of stories that I have had the pleasure of reading--for a number of reasons.
The first, off-hand, is that it contains several tales about lesbian love; something that I have not had an opportunity to review, previously. "A Wind Sharp as Obsidian" by Rita Oakes opens the collection and sets the tone for the stories that follow; inasmuch as it is an imaginative example of superb writing. Malianalli, a mortal, is in a relationship with the Mayan goddess Xochi. The story then goes on to focus on one moment in that relationship, and leaves the fictional consequences to take their shape in the reader's imagination. This allows the author to concentrate on the political, physical, and spiritual world of the Mayan peoples at the cusp of the conquistadors' invasion. An intriguing "What if" melding of history and fiction. "Roanake" by Sandra Barret is the second `gal-story' set in the early (1585-1587) Puritan settlement of that name in North America. Elizabeth, unhappy with the rigidly enforced gender roles of Roanoke, is fortunate enough to be mentored by Maigan, okitcitakwe (two-spirits) to the Croatan Indians. This story is unique inasmuch as it explores lesbianism in Puritan society, and the feminine side of `two spirits'. It also provides a `what if' answer to the Roanoke mystery. In "A Spear Against the Sky," M.P. Ericson has chosen the Roman settlement of Britannia as a setting, and two of the most famous women warriors in history; Boudica and Cartimandua. It is a story that adds an intriguing and plausible dimension to our patchy knowledge of events. In "Great Reckonings, Little Rooms," Catherine Lundoff shines her light on Woolf's Judith Shakespeare as an Elizabethan cross-dresser in a story of complex relationships packed into this short story. "The Heart of the Story" by Connie Wilkins is alternative history set in the second world war. It's a compellingly solid and active world where mythology and history come together, around a fairytale lesbian love story. "Morisca" by Erin Mackay is a juxtaposition of great leaders and lowly individuals, in a tale set in the fifteenth century court of Spain. This is a heart warming and charming look behind the scenes. On the male side "The Final Voyage of the Hesperus," by Steven Adamson blurs the lines between dreams and realities as the Hesperus sails between India and the sugar plantations of the West Indies. Woven into this is a male love story that is divinely inspired. "A Marriage of Choice" by Dale Chase is a quintessential 'what if' story that imagines Thomas Jefferson debating the terms of the American Bill of Rights with James Madison--as narrated by Jefferson's male lover, Caleb. Personally, I found this story the most fanciful and intriguing as the two most celebrated minds in American history come together to debate an issue that is not yet settled; i.e. same-sex marriage. A real flight of fancy! "The High Cost of Tamarind" by Steve Berman is a slight juxtaposing two young men's haunting past and present, but it was a bit too impressionistic for me to follow comfortably. "Sod 'Em" by Barry Lowe is an interesting tale set against an austere location and time--around the ninth or tenth centuries. It is a fairly credible recreation of the conditions a lowly monk might have endured, and almost certainly M/M relationships did result. The idea that the Bible, as we know it, is the product of various translations, transcription and interpretations over the centuries is a `what if' story in itself. "Barbaric Splendor" by Simon Sheppard is sometimes creepy guided tour of the fabled Xanadu; i.e. the court of Kubla Khan, and it is definitely not what popular, historical accounts have led us to believe. "Opening Night" by Lisabet Sarai, is very cleverly set around the Gilbert and Sullivan operetta, "Ruddigore," but from there it departs rather dramatically from G&S history. Okay, I was prepared to live with that, but the North American connection left me backstage. Nonetheless, it's an interesting take superbly written. "A Happier Year" by Emily Salter is a charming period piece spun around E.M. Forster's "Maurice," a novella that was suppressed until after Forster's death. Salter has created a very sensitive story in which she extrapolates how the publication might have affected society if it had been published before the Great War. She has also created a beautifully complicated character in Henry. "At Reading Station, Changing Trains," by C.A. Gardner revisits T.E. Lawrence's multiple-revised history to add the construction of gender identity to T.E.'s exercises in self-creation. As an added feature the authors have each included an explanatory note at the end of their contribution, shedding light on the process and intent behind each entry. If you enjoy a broad variety of unique and imaginative stories, superbly written, then this book is for you.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The humanizing effect of historical fiction,
By
This review is from: Time Well Bent: Queer Alternative Histories (Paperback)
I am convinced that historical fiction is how you take a series of recorded events and illustrate them to make them real by speculating how it may have been for the people who lived through it. One of my favorite examples is Anel Viz's Memoirs of Colonel Gérard Vreilhac where the experience of living in Paris during the storming of the Bastille but in another part of the city may have been like: how did you find out about it? what did you think? Were you afraid? Did you have a loved one you worried about? Nothing about the sequence of the notable events will give you that insight. That's where the historical novelist comes in, lending his or her empathy, imagination and intelligence to color an otherwise gray set of facts.
How more poignant then that whole communities of people are rarely represented in historical fiction? I am, of course, talking about gays and lesbians here. I remember reading an Amazon review of Brandy Purdy's The Boleyn Wife where the reader was shocked and dismayed at the portrayal of the gay members of the Evergreen Gallants. How much worse was it to be one of those fellows, or others if they were not gay, and knowing that simply becuase you loved and desired a person of your gender could result in your being torn apart and killed. This anthology of "what if" stories about gay and lesbian people, historical, interpreted or fictional, seeks to address that gap in our understanding of the human race and its history. Here, finally, that overlooked insight into what had so much impact on so many lives. "What if" -- that is what every story in this mulitperiod selection of historical short stories asks. What if T. E. Lawrence could come to grips with his sexuality and realize that he was most effective and fulfilled while helping the people of the Aravbic world? What if Thomas Jefferson had insisted the right to marry as one wished was in the Bill of Rights? What if Isabella had known and loved a Moorish woman when she was young and as a result not pushed for the expulsion of non-Catholics from Spain? What if, instead of Marlowe, the man killed in Deptford was William Shakespeare, and Shakespeare's plays after that were written by Marlowe.. and Shakespeare's twin sister Judith? Those are the famous examples, but the book is full of more ordinary people. What if the woman chemist who parachuted into World War II Brittany had been responsible for the infamous explosion that destroyed a bridge and the Nazi munitions stored there? What if some Dutch mariners discovered that Coleridge's Xanadu was very real? These stories are fun, insightful, challenging and sometimes quite moving. Of the last, my choice is Emily Salter's A Happier Year, in which a bereaved man seeks out E. M. Forster in the years after World War I because the author's novel allowed him to have a short period of utter contentment with the lover who died on the battlefield. That Lawrence might find contentment and completion made this old fan happy with At Reading Station, Changing Trains by C.A. Gardner. And don't tell me you can resist wanting to know Sandra Barret 's take on what happened to the Lost Colony of Roanoke! Not every story is A+ material, but they are nevertheless compelling. Along with Wilkins' astute introduction they combine to make speculative historical fiction, one of my favorite genres -- though isn't all historical fiction speculative? -- more complete and inclusive... and full of life, love, and hope. This was originally published in That's All She Read [...]
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