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Review: An Introduction to Sf in Spanish Author(s): Pedro Jorge Romero Review by: Pedro Jorge Romero Source: Science Fiction Studies, Vol. 30, No. 3, The British SF Boom (Nov., 2003), pp. 520-523Published by: SF-TH IncStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4241214Accessed: 04-04-2015 18:00 UTC

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520 SCIENCE FICTION STUDIES, VOLUME 30 (2003) editors have done a superb job. This scholarly edition of The Yellow Wave is for a specialized audience, but we should be glad that Mackay's novel is back in print, and that our experience of reading it is supported by sound, meticulous scholarship.-Russell Blackford, Monash University An Introduction to Sf in Spanish. Yolanda Molina-Gavilan. Ciencia Ficcion En Espafiol: Una Mitologia Moderna Ante El Cambio. Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen, 2002. x + 228 pp. $109.95 hc.

To initiate the exploration of a new territory is far more difficult than writing the travelbook afterwards. Sf written in Spanish can be an arduous terrain to explore indeed-usually relegated to obscure magazines and fanzines, rarely collected in widely available volumes, critically misunderstood, and the recipient of a great deal of scorn as a subliterature. Spanish (referring to the language, not the country) sf is a vast, dark, submerged continent. Ciencia Ficcion En Espafiol: Una Mitologia Moderna Ante El Cambio [Science Fiction in Spanish: A Modern Mythology Facing Change] by Yolanda Molina-Gavilan is a brave and ambitious, perhaps too ambitious, attempt to rectify that situation. It builds a largely successful theoretical map to help us to understand sf written in Spanish. In keeping with the geographical metaphor, it is a rough and initial sketch of the terrain rather than a detailed map of every hill and grove. That aim is explicit: "Este libro se centrara en el analisis de varias novelas y cuentos, con la esperanza de que los mejores ejemplos poeticos, filmicos y graficos del gcnero en espaniol sean convenientemente estudiados en ensayos venideros" [This book will focus on the analysis of several novels and short stories, hoping that the best poetic, film, and graphic examples of the genre in Spanish will be adequately studied in future essays] (2).The book is an initial attempt to cast light on some of the best examples of sf written in Spanish, leaving it to later explorers to write deeper accounts of those same works.

The task that Molina-Gavilan has set for herself is not easy. Since sf in Spanish is difficult to study, it is always tempting to select a few mainstream authors, like Borges or Cortazar, call them sf authors, and write accordingly. Ciencia Ficcion en Espafiol avoids that awful fate; the works discussed here are clearly sf and any sf reader would readily identify them as such, though they are probably the easiest specimens of sf to find in a bookstore. Mining magazines and fanzines is left to some other patient explorer.

As an introductory book, written for those scholars of Spanish literature willing to try sf, Ciencia Ficcion en Espanol starts with a section devoted to science fiction as a genre-covering themes such as the shaky status of sf in the world of high culture, the nature of Spanish sf (is there such a thing as Spanish sf or are we dealing with a set of national literatures written in the same language? This question is disappointingly answered with a Vorlon-like "yes"). Interestingly enough, and refreshingly I may add, it does not propose a new definition of sf, or any definition, for that matter. Actually, the author rounds up the usual suspects-Todorov, Suvin, Scholes, Aldiss, including the Spaniard Cidoncha-and presents their definitions after declaring: "No entraremos aqui en una discusion teorica que intente delimitar de manera precisa el concepto de

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BOOKS IN REVIEW 521

ciencia ficcion como genero" [We won't go into a theoretical discussion trying to define precisely the concept of science fiction as a genre] (33). Such a lack of interest in a precise definition might seem strange to English scholars but may reflect a different bias in Spanish literary studies-a Spanish critic may not shy away from studying an sf work, but may want to know if that work is really worthy of literary attention. Maybe that's why after presenting definition after defimition the author opts for linking sf to mythology, a somewhat hazardous binding that weakens some parts of the book. Sf is presented as a multifaceted, complex, modem, and deep genre (4546), but to study Spanish sf-acknowledg- ing that it can deal with several cultural, historical, and social issues like pollution or political corruption-she chooses to describe it as a translation of myths into modem scientific language, with sf bridging a gap between past explanations (myth) and present explanations (science).

Fortunately, the section devoted to myth and sf does not really map myth onto sf. Rather, it uses the word myth in a very loose way and discusses how sf may rework, subvert, or discuss specific "myths." It's an interesting approach but far from convincing. When considering Angelica Gorodischer's "La sensatez del circulo" [The rationality of the circle] (1979), do we have to accept the sf cliche of never-ending progress as a myth? Isn't Gorodischer just exchanging one cliche for another one: that savages are somehow more advanced than civilized people? Is copying the structure of an epic poem in Tomas Salvador's La nave [The Ship] (1959) tantamount to using a myth?

On occasion, the strategy of linking sf with myth serves Molina-Gavilan well. Religion is an obvious theme in sf written in Spanish, and the word "Dios" [God] is easy to spot in the works of almost any Spanish-speaking sf writer. It also works well in her brilliant discussion of Madagalena Moujan Otanlo's "Gu Ta Gutarrak" (1970), presenting it as a subversion of a mythic past that was never real. But sometimes it fails, clouding the real nature of the work. Rafael Marin Trechera's Mundo de dioses [World of Gods] (1991) may be seen as a working of several religious myths into an sf narrative, but actually it is a superhero comic book full of references to Superman, Batman, and other creatures (it began as a comic and was reworked into a novel when the original project folded). The novel may be dressed in the clothing of religious refer- ences, but it is actually a written comic deeply imbued by the conventions of that genre-maybe still mythic but twice removed. (Rafael Marn is a famous writer for the comics, having created some series mixing the superhero tradition with the recent history of Spain. He even managed to write in English for the famous comic-book series Fantastic Four.)

More rewarding are the sections devoted to ideology and sf. The Spanish- speaking countries have traditionally been subject to a complex social back- ground limiting the liberties of women and to some social regimes limiting the liberties of everybody, so naturally those ideological and social concerns find their way into sf narratives. The first part of the section discusses the scarcity of women writing sf and how sf serves as a liberating literature. It may be a tired subject in the English world but is still important in Spanish sf. The use of sf themes to think about gender, sexuality, and non-male perceptions of the

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522 SCIENCE FICTION STUDIES, VOLUME 30 (2003)

world is quite rightly stressed. Molina-Gavilan examines works by four female sf writers-Angelica Gorodischer, Daina Chaviano, Rosa Montero, and Elia Barcel6-and it is obvious that she is on stable footing with her claim that Rosa Montero's Temblor [Tremor] (1990) is an sf novel.

The section devoted to ideology points out that Spanish sf is usually opposed to progress and looks firmly to a better past. Much Spanish sf tends to be pessimistic even when it deals with a possibly desirable social transformation -for instance, leaving behind a dictatorship to embrace democracy. But another interesting situation is pointed out at the end of the section on ideology: the differences in attitudes between female and male writers. The woman writers tend to view the future as a better place of liberation and change, while male writers view the future as a threatening and awful place.This is inevitable when a group sees itself in a superior position and so resents every attempt at change-Ciencia Ficcion en Espafiol shows that characteristic as far more marked in sf written in Spanish than in English-language sf.

The last section of the book is the most fascinating, devoted to language and sf. Spanish is a grammatically more difficult language than English and writing the deliberately paradoxical sentences of sf is a difficult endeavor-I know this from experience: my one short story, "El dia que hicimos la Transicion" [The Day We Went Through the Transition], written with Ricard de la Casa, is presented as an example in the text. Even something as simple as creating new words-either conjuring them anew or combining old ones-can turn into a hopeless task. Spanish is not as permissive as English, and neologizing is not a task to tackle lightly. In that regard, Molina-Gavilan points out that reading sf is hard, requiring a deep knowledge not only of the conventions of the genre but of the idiom in which the genre is written as well. The author discusses several mechanisms to create new words, presenting several examples, but they are not entirely unique to the Spanish language.

Ciencia Ficcion en Espafiol concludes with an exposition of the main ideas of the book. That exposition offers the minimal framework needed to understand Spanish sf, listing those characteristics-a preference for soft sciences, an emphasis on religious influences-that would warrant the effort of studying Spanish sf as a concrete entity. Using a quote from Miquel Barcelo, Molina- Gavilan exhorts her colleagues to read sf written in Spanish:

El desafio que se presentaba a los primeros escritores hispanos que se interesaron en la ciencia ficcion no estribaba en superar supuestas etapas de imitacion de modelos extranjeros, sino en desarrollar su tecnicay su imaginacion hasta producir obras del geiero de calidad, obras que hablaran de si mismos y de la percepcion de su entorno, siempre dentro de las convenciones del genero que el lector ya habia asimilado. Este libro quiere dejar constancia de que muchos de nuestros escritores (ly escritoras!) ya lo han logrado y el genero se ha ganado un espacio dentro del marco de la narrativa en espaniol. Para terminar, nada mejor que repetir las palabras de Miquel Barcel: "La ciencia ficci6n me ha parecido siempre esencial para configurar mentes abiertas, dotadas de un gran relativismo cultural. Posiblemente sea una de las mejores preparaciones para vivir en el mundo de cambio vertiginoso de nuestros dias".... Sirva esta

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BOOKS IN REVIEW 523

reflexion para instar a la lectura de nuestros propios autores de ciencia ficcion, que tanto tienen que decirnos sobre nuestra lucha ante los retos del cambio. [The challenge facing the first Hispanic writers interested in science fiction wasn't to overcome purported phases of imitation of foreign models, but rather to develop their skills and imagination to the point of producing quality genre works, works that would speak about themselves and their perception of their own environ- ment, always moving inside the convention of the genre learned by the reader. This book wants to reflect that many of our writers (and woman writers!) have succeeded and that the genre has won its own space in the framework of the narrative in Spanish. To recap, nothing is better than the words of Miquel Barcel6: "I have always thought of science fiction as essential to create open minds, imbued with a great sense of cultural relativism. It may be one of the best ways to prepare yourself to live in our world of dizzy change".... May this idea encourage us to read our own science fiction authors, who have so much to tell us about our struggle against the challenges of change.] (195) Finally, the main weakness of Ciencia Ficcion en Espafiol is that it tries to

cover too much territory. But that is understandable. The lack of a rich critical tradition invites one to write a volume covering every possible corner, but the cost is great-at least one section is only a tantalizing glimpse into a fascinating problem.The book's main success consists in presenting the study of sf to the Spanish-speaking world. Ciencia Ficcion en Espafiol is primarily written to point out several interesting research projects into Spanish sf, naming them, offering a minimal theoretical background-a risky proposition with such a small sample of works to rely on-listing a basic bibliography, and discussing several important works of Spanish sf. Given its aims, it is a good introductory volume. -Pedro Jorge Romero, A Corunia, Spain Fearing Nothingness. Teya Rosenberg, Martha P. Hixon, Sharon M. Scapple, and Donna R. White, eds. Diana Wynne Jones: An Exciting and Exacting Wisdom. STUDIES IN CHILDREN'S LITERATURE, Vol 1. New York: Peter Lang, 2002. ix + 187 pp. $29.95 pbk.

As a writer, Diana Wynne Jones has existed in a peculiar state for many years. Her work is adored by her admirers, adult and child alike, and she has many fans all over the world. At the same time, a more general public awareness of her work has been noticeably absent, for reasons that are not at all clear to me, except perhaps that her novels have had a somewhat checkered history in paperback publication. The Rowling-fuelled explosion of interest in children's fiction has changed this situation, however, and many of her older titles are at last back in print, alongside more recent novels.

Similarly, although many thoughtful reviews of her novels have appeared in various magazines, and a number of articles have been published about her work (many are now available through two websites, "The Official Diana Wynne Jones Website " at < http: //www. leemaclfreeserve. co. uk/c 12int. htm > and "Chrestomanci Castle" at ), up until now there seems, somewhat surprisingly, to be little in the way of published scholarly discussion of Jones's work. What there is has been conveniently listed by the

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Article Contentsp. 520p. 521p. 522p. 523

Issue Table of ContentsScience Fiction Studies, Vol. 30, No. 3, The British SF Boom (Nov., 2003), pp. ii+353-560+iiiVolume Information [pp. 555-559]Front Matter [pp. ii-ii]Editorial Introduction: The British SF Boom [pp. 353-354]Reveling in Genre: An Interview with China Miville [pp. 355-373]Thirteen Ways of Looking at the British Boom [pp. 374-393]What Kind of Monster Are You?, Situating the Boom [pp. 394-416]Cultural Governance, New Labour, and the British SF Boom [pp. 417-435]Counterfictions in the Work of Kim Newman: Rewriting Gothic SF as "Alternate-Story Stories" [pp. 436-455]Hybridity, Heterotopia, and Mateship in China Miville's "Perdido Street Station" [pp. 456-476]Baby Boomers: Writers and Their Origins [pp. 477-482]Voices on the Boom [pp. 483-491]Towards a Reading List of the British Boom [pp. 492-499]Review-EssaysReview: Alternative Worlds of the Nineteenth Century [pp. 500-503]Review: The Wizardry of Oz [pp. 504-509]

Books in ReviewReview: Hybrids between Mundane and Maligned [pp. 510-513]Review: Tripping down the Totalitarian Path with PKD [pp. 513-514]Review: Young Readers in Utopia [pp. 514-517]Review: Those Foreign Devils [pp. 517-520]Review: An Introduction to Sf in Spanish [pp. 520-523]Review: Fearing Nothingness [pp. 523-526]Review: A Disappointing Analysis [pp. 526-529]Review: Holistically Approaching the Apologist [pp. 529-531]Review: Wells in Moving Pictures [pp. 531-532]Review: Recombinant Post-Genre Fiction [pp. 532-536]Review: In the Garden of Unearthly Delights [pp. 536-540]Review: Story Time [pp. 540-543]Books Received [p. 543]

Notes and CorrespondenceSF Intertextuality: Echoes of the Pilgrim's Progress in Baum's the Wizard of Oz and Burroughs's First "Mars" Trilogy [pp. 544-554]

Back Matter [pp. 560-iii]