Speculative Insight journal

@indrani.bsky.social you / your followers might be interested in reading this?

Purple background, white text, which says This essay and its sequel trace 120 years... of how women have wielded science fiction to dismantle patriarchy, caste hierarchy, colonial legacies, and capitalist exploitation, often simultaneously, and how they've asked the questions that needed to be asked. "Indian Feminist Science Fiction: A History (Part 1)" -- Amritesh Mukherjee

Amritesh Mukherjee's two-part history of Indian science fiction makes sharp observations about the themes covered in that fiction, and what impact it can have. Warning: you're likely to come away with a significant reading list...

Read it now for free! www.speculativeinsight.com

Sending good thoughts!

Mid-2028 is going to be EPIIIIIIIC.

(I will travel to see the eclipse either way, but would LOVE to combine it with Brisbane WorldCon. Consider voting so you can do the same!!)

🤷‍♀️ who knows! (My Tuesday was a bit shit, but Weds has gone a bit better, soooo... 😬)

A good one - right down memory lane :D

That list is a TRIP.

Maybe your body thinks it's actually in Australia, and it's Wednesday?

Purple background, white text, which says If the foundational question of Indian feminist SF was about power - who has it, who wields it - the question that has obsessed the genre since the 1990s is about bodies. Whose body is it? Who controls what happens to it? "Indian Feminist Science Fiction: A History (Part 1)" -- Amritesh Mukherjee

This two-part essay from Amritesh Mukherjee is a powerful examination of the themes and preoccupations of Indian feminist science fiction: power, caste, bodies...

The first part is out now - free to read - and the second will be out in June.
www.speculativeinsight.com

Purple background, white text, which says If the foundational question of Indian feminist SF was about power - who has it, who wields it - the question that has obsessed the genre since the 1990s is about bodies. Whose body is it? Who controls what happens to it? "Indian Feminist Science Fiction: A History (Part 1)" -- Amritesh Mukherjee

This two-part essay from Amritesh Mukherjee is a powerful examination of the themes and preoccupations of Indian feminist science fiction: power, caste, bodies...

The first part is out now - free to read - and the second will be out in June.
www.speculativeinsight.com

Which is why, @nytimes.com, learning that a piece of writing is AI changes how people feel about it, in the same way that most people are repulsed by learning a once-favoured artist is a rapist: because context is inherent to interpreting art, and the sole context of genAI is profound contempt.

We call AI output slop not because it's incapable of regurgitating something beautiful, but because vomiting up chunks of mixed restaurant meals is not the same as being a chef. That some of the upchuck can still be parsed as it was on the plate is not thanks to digestion or emesis, but to cooking.

Purple background, white text, which says If the foundational question of Indian feminist SF was about power - who has it, who wields it - the question that has obsessed the genre since the 1990s is about bodies. Whose body is it? Who controls what happens to it? "Indian Feminist Science Fiction: A History (Part 1)" -- Amritesh Mukherjee

This two-part essay from Amritesh Mukherjee is a powerful examination of the themes and preoccupations of Indian feminist science fiction: power, caste, bodies...

The first part is out now - free to read - and the second will be out in June.
www.speculativeinsight.com

Interzone is always great, & I particularly enjoyed County Colours, which takes an unexpected idea & runs with it to fascinating places. Well worth a read.

😂

I cannot hear someone say Frankenstein without hearing “FronkenSHTEEN!” and I haven’t seen that film in like 25 years.

Purple background, white text, which says This essay and its sequel trace 120 years... of how women have wielded science fiction to dismantle patriarchy, caste hierarchy, colonial legacies, and capitalist exploitation, often simultaneously, and how they've asked the questions that needed to be asked. "Indian Feminist Science Fiction: A History (Part 1)" -- Amritesh Mukherjee

Amritesh Mukherjee's two-part history of Indian science fiction makes sharp observations about the themes covered in that fiction, and what impact it can have. Warning: you're likely to come away with a significant reading list...

Read it now for free! www.speculativeinsight.com

Not at the moment, I’m afraid. I expect to open to pitches in the middle of the year. Follow here or subscribe to the newsletter to know exactly when.

Hope you find some essays you enjoy!

Purple background, white text, which says This essay and its sequel trace 120 years... of how women have wielded science fiction to dismantle patriarchy, caste hierarchy, colonial legacies, and capitalist exploitation, often simultaneously, and how they've asked the questions that needed to be asked. "Indian Feminist Science Fiction: A History (Part 1)" -- Amritesh Mukherjee

Amritesh Mukherjee's two-part history of Indian science fiction makes sharp observations about the themes covered in that fiction, and what impact it can have. Warning: you're likely to come away with a significant reading list...

Read it now for free! www.speculativeinsight.com

Purple background, white text, which says You see, imagining alternatives to oppression isn't escapism. Power structures, after all, are human constructions. When humans can build, they can also rebuild. "Indian Feminist Science Fiction: A History (Part 1)" -- Amritesh Mukherjee

Amritesh Mukherjee makes a powerful argument about what Indian feminist science fiction is doing, and how it - sometimes , anyway - imagines a better future...

Read now! Free! www.speculativeinsight.com

Purple background, white text, which says You see, imagining alternatives to oppression isn't escapism. Power structures, after all, are human constructions. When humans can build, they can also rebuild. "Indian Feminist Science Fiction: A History (Part 1)" -- Amritesh Mukherjee

Amritesh Mukherjee makes a powerful argument about what Indian feminist science fiction is doing, and how it - sometimes , anyway - imagines a better future...

Read now! Free! www.speculativeinsight.com

This delightful trailer from Amritesh Mukherjee gives a great overview of his two-part essay discussion of Indian feminist science fiction. The first part is free to read right now! (The sequel comes out in June.)

www.speculativeinsight.com

The Year’s Best Science Fiction on Earth 3 edited by Allan Kaster: Review by Alexandra Pierce The Year’s Best Science Fiction on Earth 3, Allan Kaster, ed. (Infinivox, 978-1-88461-288-6, 262pp, $19.99 pb). November 2025. Cover by Maurizio Manzieri. Allan Kaster’s third volume of science fic…

Alexandra Pierce reviews THE YEAR’S BEST SCIENCE FICTION ON EARTH 3 edited by Allan Kaster: “Allan Kaster’s third volume of science fiction set on Earth might be the best best-of I’ve read in years”

I am smugly proud of the last line of this review ... :D

This delightful trailer from Amritesh Mukherjee gives a great overview of his two-part essay discussion of Indian feminist science fiction. The first part is free to read right now! (The sequel comes out in June.)

www.speculativeinsight.com

Purple background, white text, which says Indian feminist science fiction grapples with female foeticide, caste erasure, honour killings, sex-ratio crises - concerns that emerge from refusing to separate gender from caste, class, environment, geography. "Indian Feminist Science Fiction: A History (Part 1)" -- Amritesh Mukherjee

In this first of two essays, Amritesh Mukherjee gives an overview of Indian feminist SF - starting in 1905, with _Sultana's Dream_, then jumping to the 1980s, and following several themes over the next three decades...

Read now! It's free ! www.speculativeinsight.com

Purple background, white text, which says Indian feminist science fiction grapples with female foeticide, caste erasure, honour killings, sex-ratio crises - concerns that emerge from refusing to separate gender from caste, class, environment, geography. "Indian Feminist Science Fiction: A History (Part 1)" -- Amritesh Mukherjee

In this first of two essays, Amritesh Mukherjee gives an overview of Indian feminist SF - starting in 1905, with _Sultana's Dream_, then jumping to the 1980s, and following several themes over the next three decades...

Read now! It's free ! www.speculativeinsight.com

ICYMI! (There's a new trailer up, too - for the essay coming on Friday!)

ICYMI