Letters From the Labyrinth 384

The Great Trans Swordplay Panic of 2024

I've written countless times about how the best thing an author can do for themselves is to completely ignore reviews, both good and bad. Now, that doesn’t mean don’t use the good ones to your advantage. Certainly, if I get a good review, I'm not above quoting it or linking to it to promote the book. But neither am I actively responding to each good review, and I'm certainly not responding to bad reviews. In truth, I mostly don’t respond to reviews at all. If a reader tells me they liked the book on social media, I'll respond with a quick note of thanks or (if I have less time) I will at least "Like" their comment to acknowledge that I saw it and read it and appreciate it. But to go on Goodreads or Instagram or TikTok or elsewhere and respond directly to a review? That's a personal no-no for me. I'm a big believer that book reviewers and readers should have their own spaces and communities, free of the input of authors, good or bad. Otherwise, their space devolves into authors shilling their books, and competing to be heard over one another, and also love-bombing reviewers for good reviews or trolling/berating them for bad reviews.

But I’ll admit here that I’ve broken my “Don’t Read The Reviews” rule for ISLAND OF THE DEAD, because I've been worried about how a major reveal involving one of the main characters would be received. It’s one of those things that I think I handled pretty deftly — certainly as deftly as Rose in THE COMPLEX. But it’s also something that, if I fumbled, could earn me ire from both the far-Left and the far-Right, and having been in that situation several times before (anybody remember when — on the same day — Vox Day said I was a Progressive loon and The Mary Sue called me an alt-Right loon?) it’s something I’d like to avoid, because all that does is clog up my social media mentions and keeps me from responding to you, my readers.

It's very hard to talk about this plot reveal without major spoilers, but suffice to say, one of the characters in ISLAND OF THE DEAD is trans. Of course, the novel is set in a fictional, mythical time and place long lost to history -- way before the great flood. And I'm sure trans folks at that time didn't call themselves "trans".

But they sure as hell existed.

There have always been human beings who identified as trans, stretching all the way back through human history. Consider, for example, the earliest gala and galli — priests assigned male at birth who crossed gender boundaries in their goddess worship rites in ancient Sumer, Akkadia, Greece, and Rome. There is also evidence from ancient Egypt and other cultures. And that's just recorded history. I'll bet you my entire comic book collection that there were human beings who felt that way long before we learned how to write anything down for the record.

Which is why this particular reviewer made me roll my eyes so hard that I gave myself a headache. They write:

"I didn't like the insertion of modern American leftist ideological views into the book, which always ruins the escapism for me (only reason I read fantasy is for escapism, I really don't think a Conan type character would hold such a "progressive" stance on trans people, and I don't understand why they even had to be a plot point). I'm just tired of seeing modern ideology inserted in some way into every form of media..." 

And so, I’m going to break my rule of not responding and make a few points.

Point One: Anybody who knows me personally or has been reading my work (particularly my nonfiction) for the last 25 years knows that I sure as hell don't identify as a Progressive. Indeed, I do my best to eschew labels of any kind. If you insist on having me label myself, then call me Center Left or Moderate Left. What does that mean? Well, I don't, for example, believe that we should "Defund the Police" but I also don't believe police should be brutalizing entire communities of marginalized people with impunity simply because they can. I don't believe we should ban all firearms and repeal the Second Amendment, but I also don't believe that private citizens should be able to walk into Wal-Mart and buy the kinds of weapons that they used to issue us in the military when they wanted us to kill a whole bunch of people all at once. I believe that Israel and its citizens have an inalienable right to exist in peace and defend themselves against those who wish them dead, but I also believe that what the Netanyahu administration is currently doing to the Palestinian people is flat out genocide. I believe that Capitalism is no way to run a railroad, but neither is Socialism, Communism, or Fascism.

So, yeah. Center-Left.  

Point Two: You don't like "the insertion of modern American leftist views into the book, which always ruins the escapism". One must assume, then, that you did not enjoy early science fiction, fantasy, horror, or comic books from, say 1930 through the 1990s. (Politics and social commentary informing fiction occurs way before that, obviously, but unless this reviewer is over 100 years old, I think we can safely go with that timeframe).

Art is Political, and even art that is produced for the commercial market (like mine) is Political, whether the artist consciously intended it to be or not. That's because artists are human beings and human beings are Political. Even human beings who claim they are apolitical are Political. They just don't understand what "Political" means, and think it has something to do with which party they're registered with to vote.

My art is unabashedly commercial, but it has also always been Political, beginning with THE RISING and running through TERMINAL, DEAD SEA, and all the way to the aforementioned THE COMPLEX (which I personally think is my best novel). Hell, Donald Trump was the secondary villain in CITY OF THE DEAD, and that came out in 2005.

My writing has been political for a long time. I have no intention of stopping now. I don’t tell you how to vote, what to think, or what to believe. You don’t tell me what to write.  

Point Three: Trans people exist. Trans people have always existed. Trans people will always exist. And the folks who secretly wish to take away their right to exist are no different than the evil fucking bastards that Conan used to fight. If you disagree and you don't think Conan would have had such a stance, then you haven't read any Conan.

Who were Conan's enemies? Who did he fight and steal from and screw over? Totalitarians. Dictators. The obscenely wealthy. Fascists. Slavers. Religious fanatics. Bullies. Who did he stand alongside and fight alongside and protect? The poor. The underclass. The disenfranchised. The enslaved.

If you want to argue against this, then you’re a moron, and I have no time for you. I've read and reread so much Conan that I can quote that shit in my sleep. You want to challenge me on this? You'll lose.

Conan — from Robert E. Howard's original stories through the works of L. Sprague DeCamp, Roy Thomas, J.M. DeMatteis, and Karl Edward Wagner up to today — is Political. Not the character himself (although I would argue that his unique moral code is absolutely that of a Left-leaning Libertarian/Anarchist, but that's a subject for another day). But the stories and the Hyborian Age itself are steeped in politics and social issues. You know why? Because it makes for a good story. Because it helps round out characters, making them fully-fleshed. Giving them life. And that’s why I do the same with my own characters and worlds.

Trans people have always been here. They aren't some modern day invention that AOC and the rest of the so-called "Squad" grew in a fucking lab somewhere so that they could indoctrinate your children. They live. They love. They breathe the same air as you. They have always been here. They will always be here, as long as I have something to say about it.

And some of them carry swords.

And so do I.

Good morning. I’m Brian Keene and this is Letters From the Labyrinth — a weekly newsletter for fans, friends, and family.

ISLAND OF THE DEAD will be in stores this October. You can preorder it here.

And I vastly prefer this review, which made me ridiculously happy.

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Thanks to all of you for a fantastic first week of sales on the new edition of JACK’S MAGIC BEANS! Nice to see that this old, early novella is being enjoyed by a new generation of readers.

If you missed last week’s newsletter, paperbacks are available from Amazon. You can also preorder signed paperbacks from Vortex. If you prefer eBooks, it’s available on Kindle, Nook, Kobo, and Apple. An audiobook version is forthcoming. This wonderful cover is by Lynne Hansen.

It happens in a split-second. One moment, customers are happily shopping in the Save-A-Lot supermarket. The next instant, they are transformed into bloodthirsty psychotics, interested only in slaughtering one another and gleefully committing unimaginable atrocities and frenzied acts of violent depravity.

Only Jack, Sammi, Angie, and Marcel seem immune to the madness that has infected the rest of the town. But can they stay alive long enough -- and trust each other long enough -- to unravel the secret of Jack's Magic Beans?

Manhattan On Mars Press presents a new edition of one of Brian Keene's most popular early novellas, sure to appeal to fans of The Complex and The Rising.

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Currently Watching: The Boys season 4 (Prime) and Mayor of Kingstown season 3 (Paramount+)

Currently Reading: The Once Yellow House by Gemma Amor and The Warrior Retreat by John Lynch

Currently Listening: Unearthed by Johnny Cash

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Work Updates:

Finishing up edits on BENEATH THE LOST LEVEL. Should be done already, but got sidetracked this past week working on Scares That Care and HWA stuff. Also worked on those individually commissioned LOST LEVEL stories, and Stephen King turned in a wonderful Introduction for THE END OF THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT. (I suspect we’ll be announcing the final line-up for that soon).

Next week will be abbreviated, work-wise. Tonight (Saturday as I write this) Ronald Malfi, Mary, Rebecca Rowland, John Urbancik, and I are heading out to the bar. Poor Mary is the designated driver. Author Rio Youers is visiting Mary and on Monday. Then Monday night I have a merchant’s meeting to attend (for Vortex Books & Comics) and then very late Monday night my 16 year old returns home from two weeks in Europe. I’ve missed him dearly and I can already hear it in his voice — he went away my kid but he’s coming home a young man. Tuesday will be spent with him getting some much needed father-son time. And Thursday I’m DJing author Wesley Southard’s 4th of July party. So… not gonna be productive next week, writing-wise.

Vortex Books & Comics (a retail store owned by Mary SanGiovanni and myself) broke all previous sales records yesterday. Thanks to our customers, and to Ronald Malfi, Rebecca Rowland, John Urbancik, L. Marie Wood, Jessica McHugh, Vaughn A. Jackson, Stephanie Pearre, Jessica L. Sparrow, & Ichabod Cassius Kilroy for signing.

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Speaking of Vortex and books — many of you have asked me to put our rare, one-of-a-kind signed stock on our online store, so I’ve begun doing that. Currently there are select Thunderstorm Books and Delirium Books titles there. That stock will change on a weekly basis as items are sold, so keep an eye out here.

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And that does it for this week. Thanks, as always, for reading. I’ll see you back here again next Sunday. Stay cool! And hydrated, too.

— Brian Keene