Scientific American has published news of the First Universal Quantum Network which forms the underlying premise of the TerraMythos series and the first book, “The Princess Of Panchala.”
Granted, they are still quite a few years away from bridging parallel universes, but I do tend to be ahead of the curve.
This last weekend I went to the NorWesCon Sci Fi convention in the Seattle area, and attended a great workshop entitled The Importance Of Abby. The session included Bridget Landry who addressed the stereotypes of women in the media, particularly strong, intelligent scientific women, i.e. geeky women. Her point is that when women are (rarely) portrayed in the media in scientific roles, they are typically unfeminine, very serious and often unapproachable. I haven’t done a research paper on this but I suspect there is a lot of truth to her assertion.
Then, along comes a character like Abby Sciuto from NCIS who breaks that mold. The panel discussion suggested that we as writers need to show more female characters who are top-notch scientists that are totally professional, and yet not constrained in their femininity. And while guys are often intimidated by such women, not all are and so we need to show that men can find such women damn attractive. Finally, to make it real and personal it’s also important to show the struggles that a character like this goes through, and how they overcome.
Ms. Landry gave me a lot to think about here, both in the characters that I’ve written in the past and the ones still gestating in that creative soup somewhere inside. I’ve certainly created some strong female protagonists but none that are scientific. Maybe because that story just hadn’t come to me yet, but also maybe because I wore the same blinders as everyone else. But as I think about it, I do have a WIP (work in progress) that I want to come back to, which NEEDS just such a character…I knew Hana was lacking something vital, and this is just what she needed.
On another level though, I think The Importance Of Abby goes beyond just female stereotypes. On a very deep level our society wears countless stereotype straitjackets. Can a Christian be a scientist (the subject of another post)? Can someone support liberal causes and still be patriotic? Every day I encounter people who are so locked into their own mindsets, that they lock others into being their enemies when they really aren’t.
So the real importance of Abby is in helping us remember that we are infinitely complex beings who can’t be mashed into any mold, even though it comforts many to try and do so.