Tweet
www.io9.com
Oct 7 2011
The First Lesbian Science Fiction Novel, Published in 1906
Like most genres of popular literature, science fiction has been slow
to present lesbians in a positive light. During the late 19th century
and early 20th century, lesbians were entirely unrepresented in
science fiction, with homosexuality an act only depraved men engaged
in. Which makes Gregory Casparian's The Anglo-American Alliance. A
Serio-Comic Romance and Forecast of the Future (1906), the first
lesbian science fiction novel, all the more notable.
Casparian (1855-1947) was a Turkish Armenian who emigrated to the
United States in 1877 after making himself unwelcome in Turkey as an
officer in the Armenian army. He settled in New York and became an
artist, painter, and photoengraver for an engineering firm. Little
else can be found about him, but he must have been an interesting and
thoughtful man, for The Anglo-American Alliance, his only book, is
remarkably progressive sexually.
The Anglo-American Alliance, set in the future of 1960, has two plots.
The first is a detailed history of a 20th century in which the United
States and the United Kingdom are the major powers on Earth,
colonialism is still in force (Great Britain having colonized central
Africa in the 1920s), and technology has advanced in a limited
fashion: prenatal sex determination and suspended animation are now
possible, a germicide for laziness has been developed, benefitting
"the negroes of the Southern States" [sic], and an enormous telescope
has discovered "vegetation and moving objects" on Mars and Venus. A
Persian astronomer, Abou Shimshek, has found an "ice lens" which
allowed him to discover a new planet on which live a race of
telepathic, furred, electric-wheel-riding aliens.
Full size The second is the romance between Aurora Cunningham, the
daughter of Great Britain's Secretary of Foreign Affairs," and
Margaret MacDonald, the daughter of an American senator. Aurora is
beautiful, blonde, blue-eyed, gentle, and has a speech impediment: "a
typical English maiden." Margaret is Aurora's "very antithesis. She
was somewhat taller, with sparkling black eyes and raven hair, of
imposing dignity and carriage, but withal the equal of Aurora in the
matter of natural gifts and accomplishments. She had, moreover, a
captivating frivolity and aggressiveness which almost bordered on
masculinity." And she's good at the kinds sports young women are fond
of, which sometimes involve donning armor.
The two meet at the Diana Young Ladies' Seminary in Cornwall and fall
immediately in love: "they were drawn to each other with a mysterious
sympathy which attracted the attention of outsiders and furnished
ample excuse for comment. Directly after their first meeting they had
become inseparable companions and confidants." But as time passed this
strange attachment grew so marked and its manifestations so alarmingly
flagrant that they themselves became aware of its dangerous
consequences.
Full size They realized that if they gave free license to indiscreet
emotional demonstrations class room or in public, not only would their
actions not be tolerated by the College faculty and cause their
expulsion from the Seminary, but they would also be subjected to
unendurable ostracism by the rest of the students. But still worse was
the confronting fact that they would undoubtedly become the topic of
unpleasant notoriety through the publicity given by the sensational
press. They had therefore the good judgment to pledge themselves to
control their emotions in the presence of class, and to exercise
wide-awake circumspection in their behavior in public and towards the
opposite sex.
Casparian further describes how Aurora and Margaret were the only
women in the Seminary who "refrained from making an alliance" with any
of the "gallant swains from the Academy."
Now, passionate pairings among women were not unknown when Casparian
wrote An Anglo-American Alliance. Many Victorian women, both American
and English, formed "romantic friendships" or "passionate
friendships," and a number of those became "Boston marriages," in
which both women lived together, financially independent, and shared a
house. Such pairings were very occasionally represented in
late-Victorian fiction, though any lesbianism was absent or kept only
as a covert subtext. But Casparian went far beyond that.
Aurora and Margaret are on the verge of graduating from the Seminary,
which will mean their separation, a prospect which both loathes. So
they make "a solemn compact, bound by an inviolable oath, not to make
any alliance with any suitor whatever and to remain united to each
other in souls until death should them part." Aurora goes further, and
in a "fatuous ardor of love" writes "an impromptu poem of fealty,
entitled `Wilt Thou Remember Thy Vow?' It revealed the intensity of
their emotions, their utter subjugation and mutual abandonment of will
and desire each to the other...."
Full size Aurora returns home after graduation, and Margaret faints
after she leaves. She is brought to the famous Hindu "Vivisectionist
and Re-Incarnator" Dr. Hyder Ben Raaba, who discovers why Margaret is
so distraught, and helps her recover. A few months later, after
Margaret has inherited her dead father's wealth, she receives a card
from Dr. Ben Raaba, asking after her health. Margaret then has a
brilliant idea, which Dr. Ben Raaba agrees to: a "mental and physical
metamorphosis" which transforms Margaret into a man. Margaret, now
"Spencer Hamilton," becomes a famous musician, woos and wins Aurora,
and the pair live happily ever after.
An Anglo-Indian Alliance would have been better (and extraordinarily
progressive) had Aurora and Margaret lived happily ever after as
women, it must be admitted. Nonetheless, An Anglo-Indian Alliance is
the first science fiction novel with a pair of lesbian lovers as
heroines, one of whom becomes science fiction's first transgender
hero.
All images taken from the original novel, which is available for free
download from Google Books.
http://io9.com/5847805/the-first-lesbian-science-fiction-novel-published-in-1906
Oct 7 2011
The First Lesbian Science Fiction Novel, Published in 1906
Like most genres of popular literature, science fiction has been slow
to present lesbians in a positive light. During the late 19th century
and early 20th century, lesbians were entirely unrepresented in
science fiction, with homosexuality an act only depraved men engaged
in. Which makes Gregory Casparian's The Anglo-American Alliance. A
Serio-Comic Romance and Forecast of the Future (1906), the first
lesbian science fiction novel, all the more notable.
Casparian (1855-1947) was a Turkish Armenian who emigrated to the
United States in 1877 after making himself unwelcome in Turkey as an
officer in the Armenian army. He settled in New York and became an
artist, painter, and photoengraver for an engineering firm. Little
else can be found about him, but he must have been an interesting and
thoughtful man, for The Anglo-American Alliance, his only book, is
remarkably progressive sexually.
The Anglo-American Alliance, set in the future of 1960, has two plots.
The first is a detailed history of a 20th century in which the United
States and the United Kingdom are the major powers on Earth,
colonialism is still in force (Great Britain having colonized central
Africa in the 1920s), and technology has advanced in a limited
fashion: prenatal sex determination and suspended animation are now
possible, a germicide for laziness has been developed, benefitting
"the negroes of the Southern States" [sic], and an enormous telescope
has discovered "vegetation and moving objects" on Mars and Venus. A
Persian astronomer, Abou Shimshek, has found an "ice lens" which
allowed him to discover a new planet on which live a race of
telepathic, furred, electric-wheel-riding aliens.
Full size The second is the romance between Aurora Cunningham, the
daughter of Great Britain's Secretary of Foreign Affairs," and
Margaret MacDonald, the daughter of an American senator. Aurora is
beautiful, blonde, blue-eyed, gentle, and has a speech impediment: "a
typical English maiden." Margaret is Aurora's "very antithesis. She
was somewhat taller, with sparkling black eyes and raven hair, of
imposing dignity and carriage, but withal the equal of Aurora in the
matter of natural gifts and accomplishments. She had, moreover, a
captivating frivolity and aggressiveness which almost bordered on
masculinity." And she's good at the kinds sports young women are fond
of, which sometimes involve donning armor.
The two meet at the Diana Young Ladies' Seminary in Cornwall and fall
immediately in love: "they were drawn to each other with a mysterious
sympathy which attracted the attention of outsiders and furnished
ample excuse for comment. Directly after their first meeting they had
become inseparable companions and confidants." But as time passed this
strange attachment grew so marked and its manifestations so alarmingly
flagrant that they themselves became aware of its dangerous
consequences.
Full size They realized that if they gave free license to indiscreet
emotional demonstrations class room or in public, not only would their
actions not be tolerated by the College faculty and cause their
expulsion from the Seminary, but they would also be subjected to
unendurable ostracism by the rest of the students. But still worse was
the confronting fact that they would undoubtedly become the topic of
unpleasant notoriety through the publicity given by the sensational
press. They had therefore the good judgment to pledge themselves to
control their emotions in the presence of class, and to exercise
wide-awake circumspection in their behavior in public and towards the
opposite sex.
Casparian further describes how Aurora and Margaret were the only
women in the Seminary who "refrained from making an alliance" with any
of the "gallant swains from the Academy."
Now, passionate pairings among women were not unknown when Casparian
wrote An Anglo-American Alliance. Many Victorian women, both American
and English, formed "romantic friendships" or "passionate
friendships," and a number of those became "Boston marriages," in
which both women lived together, financially independent, and shared a
house. Such pairings were very occasionally represented in
late-Victorian fiction, though any lesbianism was absent or kept only
as a covert subtext. But Casparian went far beyond that.
Aurora and Margaret are on the verge of graduating from the Seminary,
which will mean their separation, a prospect which both loathes. So
they make "a solemn compact, bound by an inviolable oath, not to make
any alliance with any suitor whatever and to remain united to each
other in souls until death should them part." Aurora goes further, and
in a "fatuous ardor of love" writes "an impromptu poem of fealty,
entitled `Wilt Thou Remember Thy Vow?' It revealed the intensity of
their emotions, their utter subjugation and mutual abandonment of will
and desire each to the other...."
Full size Aurora returns home after graduation, and Margaret faints
after she leaves. She is brought to the famous Hindu "Vivisectionist
and Re-Incarnator" Dr. Hyder Ben Raaba, who discovers why Margaret is
so distraught, and helps her recover. A few months later, after
Margaret has inherited her dead father's wealth, she receives a card
from Dr. Ben Raaba, asking after her health. Margaret then has a
brilliant idea, which Dr. Ben Raaba agrees to: a "mental and physical
metamorphosis" which transforms Margaret into a man. Margaret, now
"Spencer Hamilton," becomes a famous musician, woos and wins Aurora,
and the pair live happily ever after.
An Anglo-Indian Alliance would have been better (and extraordinarily
progressive) had Aurora and Margaret lived happily ever after as
women, it must be admitted. Nonetheless, An Anglo-Indian Alliance is
the first science fiction novel with a pair of lesbian lovers as
heroines, one of whom becomes science fiction's first transgender
hero.
All images taken from the original novel, which is available for free
download from Google Books.
http://io9.com/5847805/the-first-lesbian-science-fiction-novel-published-in-1906