BY JAY ARORA
Science fiction as a genre can conceive of a utopia that, on this blue and green planet, may be too abstract to reify. The space film, in its attempt to do so, often tethers utopic dreams to heterosexual narratives of reproduction. The myth of the Arc is, so often, re-written in the stars. For this reason, I chose to take canonized space films and re-orient them through the lens of a queer love. I injected what I find to be inescapable LGBT history into my film–to identify a hopeful future for Queer Space (in every sense of the word), we must not deny the strong gravitational pull towards the past.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jay Arora graduated from Duke University in 2020 with a B.A. in English and Public Policy and is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in English at Rice University. Jay’s creative and academic interests are both heavily influenced by “low culture,” including the genre film. His work focuses on the power of the surreal and grotesque as a window into issues of consumption, gender, and American identity.