To the sci-fi walkers: Five women authors to read
Mystery, drama and serenity are some of the words that aptly describe the works of visual artist Dheeraj Yadav. The artist paints his subject on a book displaying his vocabulary of
Dystopia and apocalyptic worlds are what instantly come to mind, when one talks of science fiction. Butler’s Xenogenesis, or the Lilith’s Brood trilogy, starts with a woman waking up 250 years after a nuclear disaster renders Earth uninhabitable. An alien species, Oankali, have salvaged a few members of the human race, and the young woman, Lilith, has her task cut out — to convince humans to interbreed with extraterrestrials. Butler’s Wild Seed, from her Patternist series, follows two immortal Africans, Anyanwu and Doro, whose ethics lie at opposite ends of the spectrum. Wild Seed is being made into a web series, backed by actor Viola Davis. colours, bringing chaos, yet affirming to joy in his ongoing show, Mysterious Lines. The highlight of the show remains that subjects are depicted in monogram style on books.
The Lucknow-based artist divides his time between Delhi and other metros, and finds art to be ‘exhilarating’. He tries to transcribe nature and human expressions on the canvas. “I experiment with my brush to deliver a new state of art, and to accomplish it, I use these lines in abundance as my base to reflect my ideas. Few chapters or sometimes the entire book reflects my skill through mysterious lines. One can see the depth of these lines elegantly forming a particular shape and expressing a story,” says the artist.
Done with monochrome, the artworks have coffee wash,
The British novelist might be synonymous with detective fiction, but she is also the writer of the book that inspired the Orwellian Alfonso Cuaron dystopian drama starring Clive Owen. The Children of Men (1992) doesn’t employ a nuclear holocaust or a zombie apocalypse to wipe out humanity and leave sufferers in its wake, but sees the slow poison of sterility choking Earth’s inhabitants to extinction. While the film worked as an apocalyptic thriller, the book is a stunning examination of the politics of a dystopian state. crème and black lines with highlights of another shade. The artist experiments with lines, and most often uses various types of paper. He says that his journey from white paper as a background to washed paper has been done after a lot of experimentation.
Many hold Frankenstein (1818) to be among the first works of science fiction in novel form, apart from influences from Gothic Romanticism. The Promethean tale sees scientist Victor Frankenstein creates a hideous but intelligent creature. After it’s abandoned by its creator, the being sets out in search of the latter. It embarks upon adventures, where he is consistently let down by humanity and grows disillusioned. Shelley was influenced by the prevalent ideas of the time, including galvanism and occult practices, and finished writing the book, when she was just 20.
Dheeraj Yadav (top left) and his works on display at the exhibition
The grand dame of postmodernism recently came out with the sequel to her trailblazing work of science fiction dystopia, The Handmaid’s Tale. Her MaddAddam trilogy (which inspired the video game Intestinal Parasites) follows Toby from a group of survivors from the Waterless Flood, as a bioengineered quasihuman species prepares to inherit the planet. The Oryx and Crake trilogy is set in a brave new world that has Snowman surviving as the only human among engineered hybrid monsters.
Modern science fiction would be a little less science fiction without Russ. Her feminist science fiction novel The Female Man features four women — with the same initials to their names — from alternate worlds, who cross over and to live the others’ experiences. The book’s mind-boggling treatment of the first-person POV takes the thrill of the genre to a staggering level. The Adventures of Alyx (1976) is a collection of stories featuring the eponymous heroine with varying attributes — her journey as a pirate who left her abusive marriage; a barbarian; a guide escorting vacationers in the alien world — but minus the sexist fantasy cliches. Russ’ 1970 novel And Chaos Died takes on overpopulation and decreasing sensitivity towards violence.