FANTASY NOVELISTS.vp

by Rollyson, Carl E.

  play: Persecución: Cuatro piezas de teatro experimental, pb. 1986.

  poetry: El central, 1981 ( El Central: A Cuban Sugar Mill, 1984); Voluntad de vivir manifestándose, 1989.

  nonfiction: Necesidad de libertad, 1986; Antes que anochezca, 1992 ( Before Night Falls, 1993).

  Bibliography

  Browning, Richard L. Childhood and the Nation in Latin American Literature. New York: P. Lang, 2001. A discussion of various Latin American authors and the specific corre-22

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  Arenas, Reinaldo

  lations between their childhoods and the literature they produced as adults. Includes

  bibliographical references.

  Ocasio, Rafael. Cuba’s Political and Sexual Outlaw: Reinaldo Arenas. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2003. Good source for information on the life and self-exile of Arenas. Describes the relationship between his quest for self-determinism and living

  as an out gay man in Cuba and the United States. Includes bibliographical references.

  Soto, Francisco. Reinaldo Arenas. Boston: Twayne, 1998. A comprehensive literary critique of most of the literature by Arenas. Includes bibliographical references and an

  index.

  Vargo, Marc. Scandal: Infamous Gay Controversies of the Twentieth Century. New York: Harrington Park Press, 2003. A collection documenting the “gay” scandals of the

  twentieth century, including the political scandals involving an out Arenas in an intol-

  erant Cuba. Includes bibliographical references.

  Yozell, Erica Miller. “Writing Resistance Through Melancholy: Reinaldo Arenas’s El

  palacio de las blanquísimas mofetas and Otra vez el mar.” MLN 123, no. 2, (March, 2008): 308-330. Argues that Arenas employs a “discursive melancholy” in these two

  novels “as a means of both resistance and escape.”

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  MARION ZIMMER BRADLEY

  Born: Albany, New York; June 3, 1930

  Died: Berkeley, California; September 25, 1999

  Also known as: Marion Zimmer

  Principal long fiction

  The Door Through Space, 1961

  “The Planet Savers” and “The Sword of Aldones,” 1962

  The Bloody Sun, 1964

  Star of Danger, 1965

  The Winds of Darkover, 1970

  The World Wreckers, 1971

  Darkover Landfall, 1972

  Hunters of the Red Moon, 1973 (with Paul Edwin Zimmer)

  The Spell Sword, 1974

  The Heritage of Hastur, 1975

  The Shattered Chain, 1976

  The Forbidden Tower, 1977

  The House Between the Worlds, 1980

  Two to Conquer, 1980

  Sharra’s Exile, 1981

  The Mists of Avalon, 1983

  Thendara House, 1983

  Web of Light, 1983

  The Firebrand, 1987

  Witch Hill, 1990

  Renunciates of Darkover, 1991

  The Forest House, 1993

  The Forest of Darkover, 1993

  Rediscovery: A Novel of Darkover, 1993

  Towers of Darkover, 1993

  Glenraven, 1996 (with Holly Lisle)

  Witchlight, 1996

  Gravelight, 1997

  Lady of Avalon, 1997

  The Shadow Matrix: A Novel of Darkover, 1997

  Heartlight, 1998

  In the Rift, 1998 (with Lisle)

  Traitor’s Sun: A Novel of Darkover, 1998

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  Priestess of Avalon, 2000 (with Diana L. Paxson)

  The Fall of Neskaya, 2001 (with Deborah J. Ross)

  Zandru’s Forge, 2003 (with Ross)

  Flame in Hali, 2004 (with Ross)

  The Alton Gift, 2007 (with Ross)

  Other literary forms

  Although Marion Zimmer Bradley is known primarily as a novelist, she also wrote

  some short fiction as well as nonfiction, publishing several collections of short stories and a few essays. In addition to her writing, Bradley made a name for herself as an editor. She founded Marion Zimmer Bradley’s Fantasy Magazine in 1988, and she also edited numerous anthologies, notably the Darkover anthologies and the Sword and Sorceress series.

  The Sword and Sorceress series has continued since her death as Marion Zimmer

  Bradley’s Sword and Sorceress.

  Achievements

  Marion Zimmer Bradley was one of the most prolific female science-fiction and fan-

  tasy authors, with more than sixty novels to her name and others written under pseud-

  onyms. Although she was nominated for both the Hugo Award and the Nebula Award, sci-

  ence fiction’s highest honors, she never won either, despite the fact that her novels

  contributed to the growth of science fiction and fantasy in numerous ways. After her

  death, she was honored with a World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement in 2000.

  In her fiction, Bradley pushed the boundaries of sexual taboos, especially concerning

  homosexuality, with her sympathetic homosexual characters. It could also be argued that

  she, like fellow fantasy writer Andre Norton, served as a role model for many women who

  wanted to write science fiction and fantasy. As an editor, Bradley published many authors’

  debut stories and helped other women writers become established in what had tradition-

  ally been a male-oriented field. Her lasting contributions to the field of science fiction and fantasy are the Darkover and Avalon series, both of which continue after her death.

  Twenty-seven Darkover novels were published under her name, some of which were

  under way when she died and completed by others.

  Biography

  Marion Zimmer was born in Albany, New York, in 1930. As a teen, she was a science-

  fiction and fantasy fan. She made her first amateur sale to a fiction contest in Fantastic/

  Amazing Stories in 1949. That same year, she married Robert Alden Bradley. Her oldest son, David, was born in 1950. Bradley wrote during these early years, but only for

  fanzines and school magazines. Her first professional sale came in 1953, when she sold a short story to Vortex Science Fiction.

  Bradley’s first novel was published in 1961. In 1962, she published two novels to-

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  gether, including the first novel set on the planet Darkover. The Darkover novels eventually became her best-known works. She published several more novels in the 1960’s,

  while going to college; some of her work at this time was done under various pseudonyms.

  She graduated from Hardin-Simmons University in Texas in 1964 with a B.A., and in

  1966-1967 she did graduate work at the University of California, Berkeley. During this

  time she and Robert Bradley divorced. She then married Walter Breen, with whom she

  had two children, Patrick and Moira.

  During the 1970’s, Bradley published an average of two books per year, usually a

  Darkover novel and another novel. The Darkover series generated fan groups specifically

  dedicated to that series. Also in the 1970’s, Bradley became a pastoral counselor in California and began to study religion and counseling. Her writing career continued to flourish in the 1980’s. In 1983, she published The Mists of Avalon, a best seller. In 1980, she became an ordained priest of the Pre-Nicene Catholic Church and established the Centre for Nontraditional Religion. Religious themes also appear in her novels.

  In the late 1980’s, Bradley began editing her own magazine as well as anthologies. She

  helped nurture up-and-coming writers, particularly female authors. In her magazine and

  the Sword and Sorceress anthologies, she made an effort to publish first-time authors. In 1990, B
radley divorced Breen. Her writing and editing career continued, although she had some health problems. She died in 1999 after suffering a major heart attack, leaving behind many works in progress that were completed by other authors.

  Analysis

  Marion Zimmer Bradley’s early years fit the conventional mold of the science-fiction

  and fantasy genres in which she was publishing. However, as she matured as a writer, she explored unconventional themes, particularly in the areas of religion and sexuality. She also moved away from hard science fiction into more traditional fantasy. Many of her

  characters possess psychic abilities or other kinds of powers that set them apart from others. Most of the criticism published on Bradley’s work has focused on her as a woman

  writer and as a creator of female characters who is concerned with women’s issues.

  Among her most memorable female characters are Morgaine from The Mists of Avalon

  and the members of her female sisterhoods, such as the Free Amazons of Darkover. Al-

  though Bradley did not call herself a feminist, she has been both criticized and applauded by others who have applied that label to her.

  Darkover Landfall

  Darkover Landfall is not the first book Bradley published about Darkover, but it is the first book in the chronological order of that series. Darkover Landfall details the origin of humans on the planet Darkover. A colonization ship, heading for another planet, crashes

  on the inhospitable planet. While trying to repair their ship, the crew and colonists are exposed to the Ghost Wind, a natural occurrence that spreads a psychoactive pollen over the 26

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  crash party. The pollen activates latent psychic abilities, but, even more distressingly, it lowers sexual inhibitions. Various sexual unions occur among the survivors. Eventually,

  they realize that they will have to make their home on the world.

  The plot is a fairly conventional one for a science-fiction novel. This book shows

  Bradley’s interest in and use of psychic abilities in her novels. On a nonconventional level, the book, without giving details, explores alternate sexualities and alternate standards of marriage and partnerships. For the colonists to ensure a broad gene pool, everyone must

  have children with different partners. The biggest controversy raised by the novel when it appeared, however, stemmed from the fact that Camilla Del Rey, the first officer, is forbidden to have an abortion when she wishes one. If it had not been for the crash, her peers would have had no problem with her choice, but because the colonists know that fertility and infant survival rates will be low for the first several years on their new planet, they force her to have the child. This position, although defended in the world of the book,

  sparked controversy and ire among Bradley’s fans, feminists, and other writers. It was not until her later books that Bradley changed their minds.

  The Shattered Chain

  The Shattered Chain is another Darkover novel, but it differs from earlier works because it focuses on the Free Amazons, or Renunciates, of Darkover. Centuries after the

  crash of the starship, Darkover has become a planet with a harsh caste system and a mostly feudal political and economic system. Women have few or no rights in most of this society. The exception is the Free Amazons. The Free Amazons have renounced their alle-

  giance to and reliance on their former families and men. They renounce marriage, swear-

  ing an oath that they will give themselves to men and will have children only when they

  want to. They are often ridiculed by Darkoveran society. This novel in many ways answers the criticisms leveled at Bradley after the publication of Darkover Landfall. In this novel, the women are the protagonists and the capable characters.

  The story is told in three sections, with twelve years separating part 1 from part 2. Parts 1 and 2 focus on rescues. In the first part, Rohanna Ardais, a telepathic noblewoman, hires the Free Amazons to rescue her abducted kinswoman because the men in her family have

  given up on her. Melora, Rohanna’s cousin, is trapped in a Dry Town. In the Dry Towns, all women are chained, wearing the outward sign that they belong to the men. The Free Amazons rescue Melora and her daughter Jaelle so that Jaelle will not be chained. In part 2, Magda Lorne, a Terran sociologist, impersonates a Free Amazon to ransom her male

  friend, Peter Haldane, from a thief. She meets the grown Jaelle and her band and is forced to pledge the oath of the Amazons. She then realizes that she believes the oath. Part 3 focuses on the ramifications of Magda and Jaelle’s oath.

  While the first two parts of this novel carry most of the action for the story, it is the last section that reveals Bradley’s themes. Throughout part 3, the three female protagonists

  confront the choices they have made and the prices they have paid or will pay. Rohanna re-27

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  nounced her freedom of choice for security in marriage. Jaelle gained her freedom but renounced the ability ever to marry. Magda has to renounce her Terran allegiance to live as a Free Amazon. Bradley’s point is that what is important is the choice—a woman should always have a choice in what she does. Rohanna did not have that choice and learns to live with it. Jaelle did have that choice but realizes it requires a price. She eventually chooses to live as a freemate with Peter Haldane. That she wants to give herself to a man is her choice as well.

  There is a brief mention of the theme of fate in this novel, a theme Bradley explores in greater depth in later works. It seems to be pure chance that Magda meets Jaelle on her

  way to free Haldane. However, Lady Rohanna does not think it mere coincidence that

  Haldane looks exactly like Rohanna’s son or that Magda meets Jaelle, the one person who

  could uncover her masquerade as a Free Amazon. Bradley suggests that there is a higher

  power at work. While feminists hated Darkover Landfall, many hailed The Shattered Chain as a feminist novel. Reviewer Joanna Russ, critical of the earlier work, later included The Shattered Chain in a listing of books depicting feminist utopias. In her later works, Bradley continued her exploration of the theme of woman’s choice.

  The Mists of Avalon

  While she will be known forever among the science-fiction community for creating

  Darkover, Bradley is known to a wider literary audience for The Mists of Avalon. This novel, impressive in length, could be considered her magnum opus. It stayed on The New York Times best-seller list for months following its publication in 1983 and was Bradley’s first and most successful crossover mainstream novel.

  The themes that Bradley explores in The Shattered Chain reappear in The Mists of Avalon. This is the story of the women of the Arthurian legend and their struggles with fate, religion, and the social strictures of their time. The novel deals with the matter of choice, or lack thereof. Although it is principally the story of Morgaine and Gwenhwyfar, it also gives some attention to Igraine, the mother of Morgaine and Arthur; Viviane, the Lady of the Lake; Morguase, Morgaine’s aunt and the mother of Gawaine; and Nimue,

  daughter of Lancelot and the nemesis of the Merlin, Kevin Harper. Through these women,

  Bradley reconfigures the Arthurian legends into a woman’s history and story.

  Bradley reimagines the thematic conflict of the legend. In the book, the old ways of the Goddess religion are dying out because of the encroachment of Christianity. The Lady of

  the Lake is the high priestess of the Goddess faith, with Avalon as her seat of power. The Merlin is the chosen messenger of the gods. Viviane, the Lady of the Lake, and Taliesin, the Merlin, plan to put Uther on the throne of Britain so that he can protect the people from both the Saxons and the Christians. They further arrange that Uther’s son Arthur should be king of both Britain and Avalon. Their plans go awry when Gwenhwyfar turns out to be

  overly pious
and converts Arthur to Christianity.

  Morgaine is raised on Avalon as priestess of the Goddess and vows to do the Goddess’s

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  will. However, when Viviane arranges for Arthur and Morgaine to participate in the an-

  cient rites and have sexual intercourse, Morgaine feels betrayed and leaves Avalon. She

  joins Arthur’s court, though she never gives up her ways. She continually tries to make Arthur be true to his oath to Avalon. In Bradley’s version of the legend, this is the source of the conflict between Arthur and Morgaine—the struggle of one religion over another.

  Mordred, the son of Arthur and Morgaine, is also incorporated into this struggle, as he has been raised in Avalon and sees himself as the one to return Britain to its old ways. To do so, he must remove his father. Morgaine never hates Arthur in this version; in fact, the siblings love each other. Morgaine has always been Arthur’s first love.

  The conflict between the religions spurs social conflict as well. Under the old ways,

  women had the choice of whom they would mate with or love. The priests bring patriarchy

  and the concept of adultery. Bradley makes it clear that few of these women have choices.

  Igraine, at the age of fifteen, is given in marriage to the old duke of Cornwall. Morgaine is given to Arthur in the rites. Gwenhwyfar is given to Arthur as part of a deal for horses. Arthur later arranges a marriage for Morgaine with the aged Uriens, king of North Wales.

  The women do what is expected of them, however much they internally question these

  rules. In addition to having no social choices, Bradley suggests, the women have no

  choices at all. Viviane and Morgaine both have the Sight, a gift from the Goddess that

  gives them knowledge of the future. The implication is that everyone has a destiny to be carried out, and there is little that can be done to change that destiny.

  The success of The Mists of Avalon may be attributed to many things. First, the Arthurian legend holds a certain mystique of its own, and Bradley captures that sense of awe in her own way. Second, Bradley manages to portray the conflict that many women feel with

  traditional Judeo-Christian religions. Bradley, through Gwenhwyfar, often mentions how

  priests teach that sin came into the world through a woman, and therefore all women are