alienation – Speculating Canada: Canadian Horror, Science Fiction, and Fantasy

March 16, 2021

Alien Found Family

A review of Julie Czerneda’s Changing Vision (Penguin Random House, 2016) By Derek Newman-Stille Julie Czerneda’s Changing Vision is a tale of found families across space. Esen is the past of her species, the final member of her Web. This could leave her isolated and alone in a massive universe, but, instead, she finds a human companion, Paul, who bridges...

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June 22, 2018

Coming of Age With Super Powers

Coming of Age With Super Powers A review of Mariko Tamaki’s Supergirl: Being Super (DC Comics, 2018). By Derek Newman-Stille Canadian comic writer and artist Mariko Tamaki has frequently explored coming of age and that fascinating experience of being between childhood and adulthood in comics like Skim and This One Summer. She shows an incredible ability to draw her readers...

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September 15, 2014

Sexist Oppression is her Kryptonite

A Review of Faith Erin Hicks’ The Adventures of Superhero Girl (Dark Horse Books, 2013) By Derek Newman-Stille The life of Faith Erin Hicks’s comic book superheroine Superhero Girl is marked by identity crises, many of which are inspired by a figure who has become her arch nemesis… and the arch nemesis of many women in fan communities, the man...

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May 21, 2013

Creating Community in Isolation

A Review of Julie Czerneda’s Riders of the Storm (Daw, 2008) By Derek Newman-Stille Displacement is a factor that is prevalent in the lives of many people who have had to leave home for whatever reason. The finding of “home” is a nebulous, complex, and constantly changeable phenomena. Julie Czerneda explores the search for home in a foreign and confusing...

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April 9, 2013

April Aliens – Wednesdays throughout April

Throughout the month of April, Speculating Canada will be bringing you discussions of aliens every Wednesday. Aliens in Canadian SF can be used to explore Canadian multiculturalism, the feeling of alienation, diaspora (being without a home), ethnicity, the clash of cultures, and the extents and limits of the human. Aliens are often created as a foil, an opposite, an other...

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January 12, 2013

Upcoming Interview with Silvia Moreno-Garcia on Wednesday January 16th

Silvia Moreno-Garcia is a Mexican-Canadian author and editor and the owner of Innsmouth Free Press. I particularly enjoy her work because it often gives voice to those who are othered in society and I was really happy that she agreed to do an interview with me here on Speculating Canada. In the upcoming interview, Silvia tells us about how stories...

Interviews/News Comments: 0

October 21, 2012

Quote – Canadian Tropes – Privileging Community Over Individual Heroics

“By now, many of us could recite the list of tropes that we’ve decided make us us: stories that privilege the community over individual heroics; stories about open space(s), alienation, isolation; about the rare and precious coming together of isolated bodies to comfort each other in the dark and cold before separating once more…” -Nalo Hopkinson – Final Thoughts (in...

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Tag: alienation

Alien Found Family

Coming of Age With Super Powers

Sexist Oppression is her Kryptonite

Creating Community in Isolation

April Aliens – Wednesdays throughout April

Upcoming Interview with Silvia Moreno-Garcia on Wednesday January 16th

Quote – Canadian Tropes – Privileging Community Over Individual Heroics