Patriarchal science-fiction depends on well-worn, tried and tested methods that serve to perpetuate the genre as - according to Anna Bunting Branch - a playground for straight, white men. (1) These methods are also grounded in western science-fiction.

In order to re-instill agency in slow glass as a material, and therefore begin the process of thinking of the material as descriptive of a curatorial practice, it is important to consider how it has been (mis)treated by macho science-fiction.

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Extrapolation is the narrative structure of much science-fiction. The method is so popular in the movement, that a prominent science-fiction journal is called Extrapolation. Macho science-fiction takes extrapolation to a totalising space of destruction. Ursula Le Guin describes extrapolation as the process of appropriating a contemporary trend, extracting and purifying it for dramatic effect and ultimately, extending the trend into the future.(2) Extrapolation is a progress-driven narrative. It sees the author make a prediction, that often ends ‘somewhere between the gradual extinction of human liberty and the total extinction of extra-terrestrial life.’(3)

The path of slow glass' extrapolation is a good example of highlighting what this method does. Ursula Le Guin, in fact, called slow glass the perfect example of extrapolation in Shaw's Other Days Other Eyes (4):

It is notable that patriarchal science-fiction often centres narratives of domination. Domination is often seen in the white coloniser travelling through space on the search of planets to conquer, or in tales of technology gone wrong. In fact, Aliette de Bodard argues that colonisation is embedded within western science-fiction- an option supported by Helen Merrick who extends the act to patriarchal science-fiction.(6) Controlling new spaces, whether land or technology, is always for the good of the male in science-fiction, or for the good of mankind. There is a desire to make colonisation 'pure' in science-fiction, with little regard for its history or past.

Similarly to science-fiction, the white, western male is at the centre of science. At the forefront of quantum science, for example, are Albert Einstein and Richard Feynman. What about feminist scholars such as Karen Barad or an acknowledgement of the indigenous worldview from where the theory comes? In science fiction, science is the tool of the coloniser - a tool of control.(7) Technology, for example, is a key strategy in the genre that sees masculine desire reproduced into a future he has created for himself.

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Across these techniques run the theme of domination and future control. Man’s desires are at the forefront of this genre. However, feminist science-fiction offers alternatives to the patriarchal narrative. As do the many non-western subgenres within science-fiction, which provide alternative narratives that see the genre re-imagined as a space that explores alternative realities, and ways of being in the world.

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