The Butch Lesbian Sci-Fi Aesthetic: A Conversation With Tamsyn Muir - Los Angeles Review of Books
I was going to quote some spots, but then realized I just want to copy and paste this entire interview right into this box, so – No, okay, I’m still going to quote some spots:
I wrote Gideon focusing on an inevitably homoerotic relationship between every woman who stands next to another woman for more than five seconds. It’s an expression of the fact that in the early Noughties when my lesbian mates told me: “You’ve gotta see this movie, it’s gay,” — the understanding was that nothing was going to be gay, but we had to put on our lesbian goggles. In Gideon, the lesbian goggles are fused to your face.
and
Ianthe is my Draco in leather pants. I’m playing with the idea that you expect the Draco in leather pants character to change: My love will be the magical thing that changes Ianthe. It’s not. Nothing will change Ianthe, but you really want to believe it might.
I wanted that relationship to be femme-queer rather than masc-queer, because Draco in leather pants is inherently a male figure. You never get girl Dracos in leather pants. And they’re wonderful! Ianthe sucks, but I hope that my deep affection for her shows.
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Harrow’s feelings for Gideon are more transformative than not. They are a redemptive force for Harrow
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There are undeniably elements of the love story between them and if you’re not noticing that in the narrative, either I’m not working hard enough or you’ve got blinders on. But it’s not just a love story; it’s a story about being enmeshed. They are the rock and the hard place: Harrow’s the rock and Gideon is definitely the hard place.
I didn’t want the books to be about two girls where one of them is cruel to the other and the plot turns on whether that cruelty will be redeemed. It’s two girls who have been sometimes unequal, sometimes not, in a terrible position with each other. I want that story, that love story, that relationship story, to go to a totally different place in the third book as well, because I want to turn the tables and show what it looks like when Harrow no longer has the upper hand.