Speculative Insight journal

Purple background, white text, which says The vision of the solitary Hero's Journey is a dangerous ideal, not just because it disrespects the lived experience of women, but also because it perpetuates the lie that "the true hero always goes it alone and gets it all done by himself". It misrepresents how real change happens in the real world. "Must a Hero Journey?" -- Donna Glee Williams

Donna Glee Williams looks at "the Hero's Journey" and points out some of its failures for both how we understand fiction and how we understand the real world...

Read it now: www.speculativeinsight.com/essays/hero-journey

This is a good article. I've been weary of the Hero's Journey for a long time, for all the reasons she says. Lone heroes are not how we actually create better worlds. And I definitely relate also to having to break with formulas to find a narrative that's true to a character.

So good 😍

So glad you liked it!

Purple background, white text, which says The vision of the solitary Hero's Journey is a dangerous ideal, not just because it disrespects the lived experience of women, but also because it perpetuates the lie that "the true hero always goes it alone and gets it all done by himself". It misrepresents how real change happens in the real world. "Must a Hero Journey?" -- Donna Glee Williams

Donna Glee Williams looks at "the Hero's Journey" and points out some of its failures for both how we understand fiction and how we understand the real world...

Read it now: www.speculativeinsight.com/essays/hero-journey

Oh man I hadn’t come across that book, wonder if I can get it here…

Preach.

This has long been my biggest gripe.

Brilliant! Thank you! Hope you keep enjoying it. 😁

Purple background, white text, which says There are aspects of the Hero's Journey - in real like, in myth, and in fiction - that just aren't mapped out by Campbell's schema. Martin Luther King Jr didn't live to see Barack Obama - but John Lewis did... "Must a Hero Journey?" -- Donna Glee Williams

New! free! essay by Donna Glee Williams, asking pointed questions about Joseph Campbell's conception of the Hero's Journey...

Read it now! Tell your friends!

www.speculativeinsight.com/essays/hero-journey

Glad you liked it!

The most unrealistic thing about the Tom Cruise Mummy movie is the idea that the princess at the start would be the sole child of the pharaoh for what, twenty years?

Heh.

This is great. Well worth the read

Glad you enjoyed it!

COOL!!

wow?????!!!???? I did NOT expect this

One of my blog posts is in the list of sources for this. There has been a huge uptick in interest in Mannin in recent years. Of #ScottishSFF interest, she was the model for the heroine of Three Go Back (1932) by Lewis Grassic Gibbon (James Leslie Mitchell).

Glad you enjoyed it!

Purple background, white text, which says There are aspects of the Hero's Journey - in real like, in myth, and in fiction - that just aren't mapped out by Campbell's schema. Martin Luther King Jr didn't live to see Barack Obama - but John Lewis did... "Must a Hero Journey?" -- Donna Glee Williams

New! free! essay by Donna Glee Williams, asking pointed questions about Joseph Campbell's conception of the Hero's Journey...

Read it now! Tell your friends!

www.speculativeinsight.com/essays/hero-journey

Yesssss

Glad you liked it! We’ve got another great one for January…

Intergalactic Mixtape #31 Hey! This week I welcomed several new books to my house. This was illegal, as I was supposed to be on a book buying ban for December. However, one of the...

Intergalactic Mixtape is live! It was Podcast Week, with lots of pods dropping episodes. Plus, some excellent essays and a banging interview between Ann Leckie and Arkady Martine from @speculativeinsight.bsky.social.

ICYMI! Two of the greats chatting about empires etc in their novels.

Currently exactly one response to this and the call closes today so if you want to get some eyes on your project this Friday, now's the time.

The Dead Withheld Oh look, another Neon Hemlock. Am I finally catching up on all of the novellas that have been piling up in my electronic TBR? Yes I am! I love it when folks play with the hardboiled detective story…

I always expect Neon Hemlock to give good books, and @ldlewiswrites.blacksky.app' The Dead Withheld is no exception. Noir but make it female, queer, demonic/magical, with a bit of music thrown in.

randomalex.net/2025/12/04/t...

ICYMI! Two of the greats chatting about empires etc in their novels.

A starry sky graphic with flames at the bottom, and text reading: Freya Marske 2025 Award Eligibility: Best Novella Cinder House Tordotcom/Tor UK

A nice simple List of One this year! My first ever novella eligibility, which I'm excited about.

ICYMI, I was delighted to bring together these legends for a written conversation …

ICYMI, I was delighted to bring together these legends for a written conversation …