From the Department of Saying Yes

Yesterday, while prowling the French Quarter with friends from out of town, I saw a young man with a snake. A big, white snake. He caught my eyes and how my face lit up and held out his arms to me: “Come to me, baby!” I flowed right over to him and he explained that this was a boa constrictor and that he made his living letting people hold his snakes for $20 and take all the pictures they want. (He had a second, MUCH larger snake—55 pounds of boa—in a sort of snake baby carriage beside him.) I said regretfully, “Oh, I can’t do $20, but let me give you a little something for snake support,” and as I was reaching for my money, he dropped the snake over my head. So I GOT TO HOLD A SNAKE!!!!!

SF friends, nota bene: One of the best SF books of all time is Vonda McIntyre’s Hugo-and-Nebula-wining Dreamsnake, expanded from her Nebula-winning and Hugo-nominated novelette “Of Mist, and Grass, and Sand.” If you’ve read it, you will remember Mist, the albino cobra whose modified venom can treat the cancers that are so tragically common in the post-apocalyptic world of the novel. You may also recall the fancy footwork McIntyre did with her pronouns, introducing new characters only by their jobs and gender-neutral names, and letting readers mobilize our sexist stereotypes, before whacking us with a big ole Pronoun Reveal—this was the 1970s, after all.

Dreamsnake was the very first time I ever read any challenge to Joseph Campbell’s beloved Hero’s Journey: While the (female) Hero of this story is, in fact, forced to go on a Journey, the difficulties that test her along the way are challenges of healing, not fighting, and the boon she brings back to the people is a tool of healing as well.

Please: Do not miss this book.

And, if the world offers you an albino snake, always say yes.