Alicia E. Goranson
Talking Trans
Lucia Pajon: Supervillainz is the story of a group of friends, Bit, Devon, Galeno, Markie and Ryan who find themselves fighting a group of corporate funded “superheroes”. These high-tech coated men believe one of the twenty-somethings killed one of their brothers. The main characters, Bit and Devon happen to be on hormones. But Supervillainz is more a comic book story or a film script than a Generation X type of tale. The usual hang-ups about trans people are not there, (thankfully). What was the trigger for you to write this novel now and not perhaps a few years ago?
AEG: Fame, glory and money. And the enormous lack of trans characters in fiction. The market has a lot of memoir and non-fiction books about transpeople, but not much that features them as characters. The superhero angle was the hook to get people who normally wouldn’t read anything with an “L,” “B” or “T” on it. It was all meticulously calculated to be mainstream-friendly, like Jim Davis does with “Garfield.” I didn’t want this to be another Luna, (by Julie Anne Peters) which is a prime example about how non-trans people write about transpeople. There’re tears, there’s doubt, and there’s a G-d-awful focus on watching someone transition, as opposed to how that person lives the rest of their hopefully 90+ year life. Supervillainz is what you read after Luna. It has more common experiences, like Bit and Devon losing their driver’s licenses. That’s scary! So many places ask to see licenses. It’s bad enough when you have to show it and the wrong gender is listed in the box. But what if you don’t have it and you don’t quite pass?
Also, I wanted to play with the whole stereotype of transpeople being deranged, unstable villains. The main theme of the book is how inept and un-villain-like Bit and Devon are. Yet, when the “supers” cast the two of them as the enemy, Bit and Devon rise to the occasion and fight back with mad P.R. tactics. Of course, they also do a few wild and crazy things too. Such is expected in a good comic book novel but I tried to keep everything believable.
I do want to point out that I wrote this novel back in 2003. My publisher, Suspect Thoughts Press, has gone through hell and high water since then, and it’s a miracle they are still standing. They weren’t able to get the book out until recently. I love them to death though.
LP: Bit and Devon are MTF and FTM whilst their friends belong to different sections of the genderqueer spectrum, i.e.: bois and dykes among others. How comfortable are you with the use of all these labels?
AEG: These terms have become so particular to individuals that there’s a running joke in the Massachusetts GLBT scene, how we need to post a spreadsheet on-line listing everyone’s current name, gender and self-identification. It would really help at parties. I based the characters on people I knew from various community events (different from my current tactic which is to outright steal people for use in my novels). I used most of the same identifying terms that they did. There’s no overall rhyme or reason to which terms people use. For example, Markie is one of those adorable bois-until-something-better-comes-along who makes a lot of other bois who identify closer to the male spectrum completely jealous of her cuteness. Galeno is her “foil” in that regard. In truth, identification is all anarchy in the queer world. But as long as we don’t have to register any of it with the state or federal authorities, it’s all good.
LP: What I like about this book is that none of the characters are treated in a patronising way. They can be selfish and get angry, they are ordinary folk who do move on but also have strong ties. In fact sometimes the dynamics of the community seem all too ideal. Over here the levels of tolerance vary within the LGBT community. It’s ironic but in certain circles prejudice still exists against trans people or butches or bisexuals just to mention a few. Are the LGBT communities in the States as solid as you portrait them to be or was this done for the story’s sake?
AEG: The novel did need everyone to gather together for the climactic finale, but that was more because of Sandy and the protest organizers than Bit, Devon or anyone in their merry band. You are right though. The story takes place in 2001 because the LGBT community in Boston was much tighter then. The Boston Lesbian Avengers were strongly trans inclusive and they had some serious activism going. My own experiences of the Boston GLBT scene is that there’s a strong “L” and “T” connection in events like Gendercrash and places like the Center for New Words. It’s mostly social cliques and a generation hits age 30-35, a lot of people have moved away or only continue to socialize with their clique. We have a fantastic influx of 20-somethings though who keep the community going so it’s all good. I’ve been to places like Montreal where the “L” and “T” communities are very separate (or were the last time I was there) and it’s a different vibe there. (The “G” and “T” scene in Boston though has some of the hang-ups you implied.)
However, I wouldn’t describe the Boston GLBT scene as particularly “solid…” And I’m going to leave my statement hanging like that.
LP: Supervillainz was nominated for the 2006 Lambda Literary Award. What did you think when you found out you were a finalist?
AEG: I saw I was up against Les Feinberg’s book, the Transgender Rights anthology, and The Transgender Studies Reader. I could imagine the conversation that the Lambda folks were having.
“What do we have?”
“There’s a new novel by one of the most distinguished activists of our time.”
“There’s a preeminent legal text outlining the case for and examples of transgender rights in America.”
“There’s a detailed anthology on the transgender experience from some of the most respected names in the field.”
“And… uh… I think they misspelled the title of this one. It has superheroes. I think it’s written by the girl who played Becky on Roseanne.” But all in all, it was awesome. The Transgender category had so many strong, socially relevant entries this year. I was thrilled to be part of it.
LP: Good trans fiction is not abundant. Do you think it’s still too much of a taboo? Isn’t it high time to say “what’s the big deal, now get cracking with something exciting?”
AEG: I think many fiction readers today are mostly craving escapism and would prefer any unfamiliar, controversial topics to be relegated to nonfiction works. At least that’s the case in the U.S. Readers are more receptive to works like Luna and Choir Boy (by Charlie Anders) where the main character isn’t trans, but someone more identifiable to them.
I didn’t care. I wanted to make Supervillainz a book that someone interested in writing trans characters could research to see how to present them. Thus, Bit and Devon are the main characters so you can really get into their heads. The plot of the book does not revolve around them being trans, and yet the awareness that they are trans is integral to understanding their motivations and actions. I was less interested in filling that “good trans fiction” gap and more interested in saying, “See? Good, mainstream-friendly trans fiction can be done.” Granted, just because a book is friendly to a mainstream audience doesn’t mean that they’ll be receptive to it, but I did my best at the time.
The book isn’t perfect, but it’s a good step for a new writer to tread over, saying, “Pshaw! I can do better than that!” I am all for that.
LP: What do you think of the character Max/ Moira in The L Word? We know TV shows are just that, so there are going to be a lot of untruths and gratuitous behaviour, however they do promote visibility. Do you think it was worth including this character in the series?
AEG: Haven’t seen it, sorry.
LP: Ok, let’s lighten up; if Supervillainz were to be filmed tomorrow, who would you cast as Bit, Devon, Galeno, Markie and Ryan. And how about the bad guys?
AEG: Hmm… what are the Wachowski’s doing after their next project? Bit and Devon would be unknowns hopefully, as I’d want them to be trans and I don’t know any famous 20-something trans actors offhand. I’d love to see Lea DeLaria as Galeno if we could use some of that age-altering computer software to turn her 20 again. I can ask the guy on whom I based Markie if he wants to de-transition to play her. Probably not. Jennifer Lopez can be Ryan if she wants.
All of the superheroes can be played by Christopher Eccleston because he’s got that amazing charisma. In fact, forget the movie. I’d be happy to see Eccleston reading his shopping list for two hours.
LP: You’ve created a small Supervillainz spin-off. We can read Ryan’s story as an online comic. Why the cute shy boi?
AEG: Actually, Ryan is based on a friend of mine, who is also good friends with the illustrator Charles Schneeflock Snow (who does the webcomic Sordid City Blues). I wanted to make an ashcan (a zine-like comic) to promote the book, and I thought that Charles would be more likely to be interested if it was based on this mutual friend of ours. Also, the idea of having a vaudeville-esque scene with the supers was kicking around my mind. Charles was also interested in working on a vaguely superhero-ish comic at the time and so he was all for it. If you’re interested, here are some other behind-the-scenes facts about the book: Devon originally met the party hostess (from the Introduction) when she was in a punk rock group called HotInM’Hall, after their hit song, “Hot Dog in My Hallway.” It had the following lyrics:
Damn straight my hallway’s too big for your hot dog! I’m bigger than you’ll ever hope to see. I’ll take you all inside when I spread me open wide. And I take your girlfriend’s fist in. And I take her boyfriend’s fist in. And I take his girlfriend’s fist inside of me! Hey! Hey! I hope that I’ve matured a little since then. In a similar vein, I have written the words and music for one song in Supervillainz: The Musical. It’s a Bit solo for when she’s trapped in the warehouse. I recorded myself reading the whole book on audio. I rented time at a local studio and everything. I learned a lot in the process. However, my own performance didn’t quite gel until halfway through the session, and I burned out so badly, I couldn’t record it over again. You can download the MP3s of the Introduction and the first chapter on my website. I started by reading the end of the book, so I’d have practice when I started the beginning. I got the idea from the shooting schedule of the first season of Russell T Davies’ Doctor Who, where they shot that Aliens of London two-parter before the pilot.
LP: Do you identify with any of the characters, and if so, who and why?
AEG: The scene at the end where Bit tears down the tent from the inside… when Devon gets excited about the prospect of a new tuxedo… when Melanie/Melissa relentlessly pursues Devon through the subway… when Markie holds up one arm and leads the whole gang across a street gushing with busy traffic… Yeah. That’s me. You can ask any of my friends, particularly those who have been with me when I needed to cross a busy street.
LP: What are your plans for next year?
AEG: I just finished a kick-ass commercial novel without a lick of GLBT content which I’m preparing to send on the publisher rounds. It has utterly charmed everyone who has read it so far. Then to wash that out of my mouth, I’m currently working on a kook book spiritual successor to A Scanner Darkly about autistic conspiracy theorists, homeless kids from the Harvard Square pit and a girl who wears a tail in public and can’t wait to get some sort of psychosis. Also, I plan to read. I’m not sure what yet. I’m entirely open to suggestions.
LP: Thanks for taking the time to answer these questions.
AEG: You’re very welcome!
AEG: Fame, glory and money. And the enormous lack of trans characters in fiction. The market has a lot of memoir and non-fiction books about transpeople, but not much that features them as characters. The superhero angle was the hook to get people who normally wouldn’t read anything with an “L,” “B” or “T” on it. It was all meticulously calculated to be mainstream-friendly, like Jim Davis does with “Garfield.” I didn’t want this to be another Luna, (by Julie Anne Peters) which is a prime example about how non-trans people write about transpeople. There’re tears, there’s doubt, and there’s a G-d-awful focus on watching someone transition, as opposed to how that person lives the rest of their hopefully 90+ year life. Supervillainz is what you read after Luna. It has more common experiences, like Bit and Devon losing their driver’s licenses. That’s scary! So many places ask to see licenses. It’s bad enough when you have to show it and the wrong gender is listed in the box. But what if you don’t have it and you don’t quite pass?
Also, I wanted to play with the whole stereotype of transpeople being deranged, unstable villains. The main theme of the book is how inept and un-villain-like Bit and Devon are. Yet, when the “supers” cast the two of them as the enemy, Bit and Devon rise to the occasion and fight back with mad P.R. tactics. Of course, they also do a few wild and crazy things too. Such is expected in a good comic book novel but I tried to keep everything believable.
I do want to point out that I wrote this novel back in 2003. My publisher, Suspect Thoughts Press, has gone through hell and high water since then, and it’s a miracle they are still standing. They weren’t able to get the book out until recently. I love them to death though.
LP: Bit and Devon are MTF and FTM whilst their friends belong to different sections of the genderqueer spectrum, i.e.: bois and dykes among others. How comfortable are you with the use of all these labels?
AEG: These terms have become so particular to individuals that there’s a running joke in the Massachusetts GLBT scene, how we need to post a spreadsheet on-line listing everyone’s current name, gender and self-identification. It would really help at parties. I based the characters on people I knew from various community events (different from my current tactic which is to outright steal people for use in my novels). I used most of the same identifying terms that they did. There’s no overall rhyme or reason to which terms people use. For example, Markie is one of those adorable bois-until-something-better-comes-along who makes a lot of other bois who identify closer to the male spectrum completely jealous of her cuteness. Galeno is her “foil” in that regard. In truth, identification is all anarchy in the queer world. But as long as we don’t have to register any of it with the state or federal authorities, it’s all good.
LP: What I like about this book is that none of the characters are treated in a patronising way. They can be selfish and get angry, they are ordinary folk who do move on but also have strong ties. In fact sometimes the dynamics of the community seem all too ideal. Over here the levels of tolerance vary within the LGBT community. It’s ironic but in certain circles prejudice still exists against trans people or butches or bisexuals just to mention a few. Are the LGBT communities in the States as solid as you portrait them to be or was this done for the story’s sake?
AEG: The novel did need everyone to gather together for the climactic finale, but that was more because of Sandy and the protest organizers than Bit, Devon or anyone in their merry band. You are right though. The story takes place in 2001 because the LGBT community in Boston was much tighter then. The Boston Lesbian Avengers were strongly trans inclusive and they had some serious activism going. My own experiences of the Boston GLBT scene is that there’s a strong “L” and “T” connection in events like Gendercrash and places like the Center for New Words. It’s mostly social cliques and a generation hits age 30-35, a lot of people have moved away or only continue to socialize with their clique. We have a fantastic influx of 20-somethings though who keep the community going so it’s all good. I’ve been to places like Montreal where the “L” and “T” communities are very separate (or were the last time I was there) and it’s a different vibe there. (The “G” and “T” scene in Boston though has some of the hang-ups you implied.)
However, I wouldn’t describe the Boston GLBT scene as particularly “solid…” And I’m going to leave my statement hanging like that.
LP: Supervillainz was nominated for the 2006 Lambda Literary Award. What did you think when you found out you were a finalist?
AEG: I saw I was up against Les Feinberg’s book, the Transgender Rights anthology, and The Transgender Studies Reader. I could imagine the conversation that the Lambda folks were having.
“What do we have?”
“There’s a new novel by one of the most distinguished activists of our time.”
“There’s a preeminent legal text outlining the case for and examples of transgender rights in America.”
“There’s a detailed anthology on the transgender experience from some of the most respected names in the field.”
“And… uh… I think they misspelled the title of this one. It has superheroes. I think it’s written by the girl who played Becky on Roseanne.” But all in all, it was awesome. The Transgender category had so many strong, socially relevant entries this year. I was thrilled to be part of it.
LP: Good trans fiction is not abundant. Do you think it’s still too much of a taboo? Isn’t it high time to say “what’s the big deal, now get cracking with something exciting?”
AEG: I think many fiction readers today are mostly craving escapism and would prefer any unfamiliar, controversial topics to be relegated to nonfiction works. At least that’s the case in the U.S. Readers are more receptive to works like Luna and Choir Boy (by Charlie Anders) where the main character isn’t trans, but someone more identifiable to them.
I didn’t care. I wanted to make Supervillainz a book that someone interested in writing trans characters could research to see how to present them. Thus, Bit and Devon are the main characters so you can really get into their heads. The plot of the book does not revolve around them being trans, and yet the awareness that they are trans is integral to understanding their motivations and actions. I was less interested in filling that “good trans fiction” gap and more interested in saying, “See? Good, mainstream-friendly trans fiction can be done.” Granted, just because a book is friendly to a mainstream audience doesn’t mean that they’ll be receptive to it, but I did my best at the time.
The book isn’t perfect, but it’s a good step for a new writer to tread over, saying, “Pshaw! I can do better than that!” I am all for that.
LP: What do you think of the character Max/ Moira in The L Word? We know TV shows are just that, so there are going to be a lot of untruths and gratuitous behaviour, however they do promote visibility. Do you think it was worth including this character in the series?
AEG: Haven’t seen it, sorry.
LP: Ok, let’s lighten up; if Supervillainz were to be filmed tomorrow, who would you cast as Bit, Devon, Galeno, Markie and Ryan. And how about the bad guys?
AEG: Hmm… what are the Wachowski’s doing after their next project? Bit and Devon would be unknowns hopefully, as I’d want them to be trans and I don’t know any famous 20-something trans actors offhand. I’d love to see Lea DeLaria as Galeno if we could use some of that age-altering computer software to turn her 20 again. I can ask the guy on whom I based Markie if he wants to de-transition to play her. Probably not. Jennifer Lopez can be Ryan if she wants.
All of the superheroes can be played by Christopher Eccleston because he’s got that amazing charisma. In fact, forget the movie. I’d be happy to see Eccleston reading his shopping list for two hours.
LP: You’ve created a small Supervillainz spin-off. We can read Ryan’s story as an online comic. Why the cute shy boi?
AEG: Actually, Ryan is based on a friend of mine, who is also good friends with the illustrator Charles Schneeflock Snow (who does the webcomic Sordid City Blues). I wanted to make an ashcan (a zine-like comic) to promote the book, and I thought that Charles would be more likely to be interested if it was based on this mutual friend of ours. Also, the idea of having a vaudeville-esque scene with the supers was kicking around my mind. Charles was also interested in working on a vaguely superhero-ish comic at the time and so he was all for it. If you’re interested, here are some other behind-the-scenes facts about the book: Devon originally met the party hostess (from the Introduction) when she was in a punk rock group called HotInM’Hall, after their hit song, “Hot Dog in My Hallway.” It had the following lyrics:
Damn straight my hallway’s too big for your hot dog! I’m bigger than you’ll ever hope to see. I’ll take you all inside when I spread me open wide. And I take your girlfriend’s fist in. And I take her boyfriend’s fist in. And I take his girlfriend’s fist inside of me! Hey! Hey! I hope that I’ve matured a little since then. In a similar vein, I have written the words and music for one song in Supervillainz: The Musical. It’s a Bit solo for when she’s trapped in the warehouse. I recorded myself reading the whole book on audio. I rented time at a local studio and everything. I learned a lot in the process. However, my own performance didn’t quite gel until halfway through the session, and I burned out so badly, I couldn’t record it over again. You can download the MP3s of the Introduction and the first chapter on my website. I started by reading the end of the book, so I’d have practice when I started the beginning. I got the idea from the shooting schedule of the first season of Russell T Davies’ Doctor Who, where they shot that Aliens of London two-parter before the pilot.
LP: Do you identify with any of the characters, and if so, who and why?
AEG: The scene at the end where Bit tears down the tent from the inside… when Devon gets excited about the prospect of a new tuxedo… when Melanie/Melissa relentlessly pursues Devon through the subway… when Markie holds up one arm and leads the whole gang across a street gushing with busy traffic… Yeah. That’s me. You can ask any of my friends, particularly those who have been with me when I needed to cross a busy street.
LP: What are your plans for next year?
AEG: I just finished a kick-ass commercial novel without a lick of GLBT content which I’m preparing to send on the publisher rounds. It has utterly charmed everyone who has read it so far. Then to wash that out of my mouth, I’m currently working on a kook book spiritual successor to A Scanner Darkly about autistic conspiracy theorists, homeless kids from the Harvard Square pit and a girl who wears a tail in public and can’t wait to get some sort of psychosis. Also, I plan to read. I’m not sure what yet. I’m entirely open to suggestions.
LP: Thanks for taking the time to answer these questions.
AEG: You’re very welcome!
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