The Caribbean Gothic Down Under: Caribbean Influences in Marianne de Pierres’ Parrish Plessis Novels

Posted by mdepierres

It’s always so humbling to have your work critically explored. This was from a couple of years ago. Though not the Sentients of Orion series, thought I’d share it for those interested in deeper connections to science fiction.

Dr Gerry Turcotte, who is the current President & Principal, St Mark’s College & Corpus Christi College, Vancouver, wrote this research paper, which was published in 2018 in the journal Caietele Echinox. Here is the description from the citation.

The Caribbean Gothic Down Under: Caribbean Influences in Marianne de Pierres’ Parrish Plessis Novels

Author(s): Gerry Turcotte
Subject(s): Studies of Literature
Published by: Fundatia Culturala Echinox
Keywords: Caribbean Literature; Marianne de Pierres’ Parrish Plessis; Gothic; Science Fiction; Indigenous Identity Politics;

Summary/Abstract: This paper investigates the way voodoo, postcolonial theory, Indigenous spirituality and Caribbean culture are brought together to discuss contemporary and future race politics down under in the novel Nylon Angel, Code Noir and Crash Deluxe. Marianne de Pierres’ Parrish Plessis books are edgy, street-smart science fiction novels set in a future Sydney where government has effectively collapsed, media controls its citizenry and gangs vie for control of the streets. In some ways it appears a fairly typical model for SF writing, except that de Pierres has invested great effort in the delineation of racially complex groups. Of these, the encounter between Caribbean (and Voodoo), shamans, and Indigenous Kaidaitcha men, makes for are freshing, but uncomfortable, contemporary negotiation of race politics in Australia.

“Is there a Woman in this Space Opera?”A Gender Analysis of the Aliens of Orion

Posted by mdepierres

Delighted to share another scholarly article from Dr Thea Boschoff and Dr Deidre C Byrne that explores the Sentients of Orion world. Below is the publications details and a description from the citation:

“Is there a woman in this space opera?” a gender analysis of the aliens of Orion.

Authors – Dorothea Boshoff, Deirdre C Byrne

Publication date – 2021

Journal – Fafnir–Nordic Journal of Science Fiction and Fantasy Research

Publisher – The Finnish Society for Science Fiction and Fantasy Research

This article provides a textual analysis of The Sentients of Orion, a space-opera series by Australian feminist SF author Marianne de Pierres, with a view to investigating the series’s depiction of aliens as a reflection of contemporary views of human gender. This highlights the question of whether aliens are still used to reflect on the state of human gender roles now that society is moving past the simple black and white of the male/female binary. We undertake a qualitative exploration of selected aliens through the theoretical lenses of Judith Butler’s theory of gender as performative and queer theory. By drawing on these interpretive paradigms, we suggest that de Pierres’s aliens both register and reflect a significant broadening of the gender spectrum.

The Aliens of Orion

Posted by mdepierres

Some of you may remember that Dr Thea Boshoff wrote her PhD thesis about my Sentients of Orion series. Her thesis is entitled:

Crafting positions: representations of intimacy and gender in The Sentients of Orion.

Well, Thea just contacted me to say that she’ll be presenting a paper called *The Aliens of Orion* at a conference in Lisbon. The main theme of the conference is what it means to be human. Thea’s paper shows how the progression in my depiction of aliens reflects a progression in the nature of humanity.

Here is the poster from the conference. Giant lobsters. What is not to love?

Wish I could be there!

It’s finished!

Posted by mdepierres

My new short story is finished and for the moment it’s called ‘The Echo of Love’. It still needs a bit of tweaking but I managed to successfully get most of my dream down on paper. It’s the first time I’ve ever done that – dream to story. It was a weird experience. The dream left me with a lingering sense of loss and disconnection which was impossibly hard to translate. And like most dreams it didn’t make sense. But I remembered it two years later and became obsessed with the idea that it should become part of the Sentients of Orion universe.

So please tell me, have you ever written a story based on a dream? I’d love to hear about it.

Tardigrades Make the Best Aliens

Posted by mdepierres

In the Sentients of Orion series, I use tardigrades as my aliens. As you can see here on Astronomy Picture of the Day website, they truly are perfect for it. Here is why I picked them – in APOD’s words:

“Is this an alien? Probably not, but of all the animals on Earth, the tardigrade might be the best candidate. That’s because tardigrades are known to be able to go for decades without food or water, to survive temperatures from near absolute zero to well above the boiling point of water, to survive pressures from near zero to well above that on ocean floors, and to survive direct exposure to dangerous radiations. The far-ranging survivability of these extremophiles was tested in 2011 outside an orbiting space shuttle. Tardigrades are so durable partly because they can repair their own DNA and reduce their body water content to a few percent. Some of these miniature water-bears almost became extraterrestrials recently when they were launched toward to the Martian moon Phobos on board the Russian mission Fobos-Grunt, but stayed terrestrial when a rocket failed and the capsule remained in Earth orbit. Tardigrades are more common than humans across most of the Earth.” (taken from APOD site)