#WORLD #WORLDWIDE #FRANCE #ANARCHISM #News #Journal #Update - (en) France, UCL AL #329 - Libertarian imaginaries, Lizzie Crowdagger (novelist): "A story set in an alternative universe does not necessarily free social norms" (ca, de, it, fr, pt, tr)[machine translation]

 Meet Lizzie Crowdagger, a novelist from Lyon who has a good habit of sprinkling

her stories with heroines who come out of the nails... and who even have them on
their clothes! She is the author of A transsexual autobiography (with vampires)
and Deviances vikings, both published by In our stories. ---- Libertarian
Alternative: Hi Lizzie, you are an independent queer fantasy author but not only,
is that right? ---- Lizzie Crowdagger: I write stories that stick in my head.
Indeed in general I like fantasy and stories of the genre, and there are probably
more LGBT characters than in the most mainstream works. I have a few books that
have been published by a small associative publisher (In our stories), and others
in self-publishing. And unfinished video game projects, but nothing showable at
this point.

We hear and read more and more stories that claim to be science fiction or
fantasy that are qualified as queer. Do you subscribe to this filiation?

I don't really know, I admit that I haven't read that much SF or fantasy that
really falls into this category, when I started writing it was probably less the
case. Finally it is complicated because I owe a lot of my taste for vampiric
blood to Anne Rice who, on the one hand is not really queer officially, but who I
think is rather appreciated by the LGBT community.

Is it easier to get rid of social norms in the literatures of the imagination? Do
you think there is a chance that heteronormativity will also be challenged more
in more conventional narratives?

Honestly, I'm not convinced that because a story is set in an alternate universe,
it necessarily releases social norms. Eventually there are more possibilities to
explore things, but conversely it can also make it possible to convey reactionary
fantasies: I think that there would be a lot to say, for example, about the
biologizing essentialism that we find in quite a few works of fantasy, including
situated in contemporary universes, for example, in the area that interests me:
the vampire or the werewolf with uncontrollable impulses because vampire or
werewolf, that's a bit male But on the other hand, it also makes it easier to
have heroines who can respond to the dorks with bite, to explore other models of
society, etc. It really depends on what you do with it.

Personally, I like imaginary literature, especially because I find that it
couldn't be clearer that we are in a fictional universe that is not ours, and I
find it easier to talk of certain themes in this type of framework without
necessarily having the "legitimacy" of having done in-depth research on a
subject. And also because it's cool. But it's not very political.

The Alternative libertarian summer dossier is entitled "libertarian
imaginations". Does that speak to you as a universe? Do you include political
elements in your fictions?

Lizzie Crowdager, Children of Mars and Venus, In our stories, 2017, 400 pages, 12
euros.
Just the fact of choosing to have characters who are generally marginalized as
protagonists is political. Afterwards, the heart of the story can be more or less
political. Occasionally it may speak explicitly of revolution, or more broadly of
social struggles; but usually it's on a smaller scale, with characters trying to
survive in the face of adversity. Afterwards, the adversity in question is often
the police, bosses, or fachos, because for once I probably lack imagination and
in general it is because of them.

And in general, at least for the stories that take place in contemporary
universes, I have characters who have rather a point of view that we could
generally qualify as "leftist" and I do not prevent them from having reflections
or discussions on the pretext that it would drive readers away. I wouldn't feel
like writing a novel about Kronstadt, but it's possible that two characters will
fight over the subject. After when I started to write, I know that I wanted to
tackle "big themes" more, but in the end when it speaks to an LGBT person and she
tells me that it did her good when she was going badly, somewhere that's maybe
where it has the most effect, and I think it's political too.

You have your site, you self-publish, do you think that what we now call "the
margins" will one day be able to have better exposure, or are you part of a
counter-culture DIY way?

I am very skeptical about the efforts of "inclusivity" carried out by large
cultural industries, whether it is cinema or video games... For literature I
think it is a little different in the sense that there is still some examples of
authors who are published in major publishing houses without necessarily having
to "sell their soul" (Armistead Maupin, Virginie Despentes...). But hey, you
still have to have access to it and it remains rather the exception than the
norm. In fact, I think it's easier to write without having to censor myself if I
don't aim to be accepted by this or that publisher. But if I received a big
check, I'm not sure I'd refuse either!

Your latest literary crush?

So it's not a novel but a comic book, Wolcano, the ass witch, by Shyle Zalewski.

Interview by David (UCL Chambéry)

http://crowdagger.fr
http://crowdagger.fr/blog
Funding: https://www.tipeee.com/lizzie-crowdagger

https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?Lizzie-Crowdagger-romanciere-Un-recit-situe-dans-un-univers-alternatif-ne
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