Stein, Atara 1959- (Gordon Bell)

PERSONAL:

Born November 1, 1959, in Los Angeles, CA; daughter of Herman (a certified public accountant) and Sabine (a certified public accountant) Stein; companion of Hell Hortense Wackwitz (an instructor in mathematics); children: Sarah Katharine Van Winkle, Bradley David Stein. Ethnicity: "Caucasian." Education: University of California, Los Angeles, B.A., 1980, M.A., 1984, Ph.D., 1990. Politics: "Liberal/Left-wing." Religion: "Agnostic." Hobbies and other interests: Reading, keeping a live journal, reading and writing fan fiction, watching movies.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Chino, CA. E-mail—astarte@uia.net.

CAREER:

California State University, Fullerton, professor, 1990-2005.

MEMBER:

North American Society for the Study of Romanticism, Keats-Shelley Association.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Atara Stein Outstanding Faculty Member Award was established by Acacia Group, California State University, Fullerton, in 2005.

WRITINGS:

The Byronic Hero in Film, Fiction, and Television, Southern Illinois University Press (DeKalb, IL), 2004.

Contributor to books, including Reading Rock and Roll: Authenticity, Appropriation, Aesthetics, Columbia University Press (New York, NY), 1999. Contributor to periodicals, including Journal of Lesbian Studies, Genders, Popular Culture Review, Philological Quarterly, and Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts. Some writings appear under the pseudonym Gordon Bell.

SIDELIGHTS:

Atara Stein told CA: "I have multiple sclerosis, and I'm no longer able to focus and concentrate enough to engage in academic writing. I write fan fiction, but only in short amounts of time every few weeks. Still, I'd like to talk about my book because of its relationship to my teaching and fandom interests. I no longer teach, so this is all past tense, but in 1993 or 1994, I was teaching Byron's Manfred in a survey class of British literature, and I always tried to engage students in discussion, instead of lecturing. This means one has to think on one's feet because you never know what issues students will bring up. At the same time, one's brain is working faster than usual, and it just popped into my head that Q, the omnipotent, immortal being who appeared in seven episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation was a Byronic hero. He had numerous characteristics in common with Byron's Manfred, including a sense of superiority to ordinary human beings, a contempt for laws and convention while following his own moral code, isolation, moodiness, et cetera.

"I mentioned this in class, and students brought up other popular-culture heroes who fit the same mold. It made for an extremely lively discussion, and eventually a conference paper that somehow grew into a book. When I told students I was doing research on popular culture Byronic heroes, they would say, ‘You have to watch this movie!’ or ‘You have to read this!’ One student loaned me a bound collection of Neil Garman's ‘Sandman,’ and I was enraptured. I also concluded that Gaiman's hero was indeed Byronic and belonged in my book.

"While I was researching the popularity of Q's character for my conference paper, I came upon fan fiction, one manifestation of fandom, an intense and obsessive involvement with a television series or movie. Interestingly, it was academic research that got me into Star Trek and gave me an interest in writing fan fiction, often slash fiction, which takes two characters of the same sex and writes romantic/erotic stories about them. My first slash coupling was Picard/Q, and I got involved in fandom as intensely as I engaged in academic research. At the same time I got three original erotic stories published.

"Fandom, in fact, provided the material for most of my articles and conference papers, while my book slowly came together. I wrote my book and my stories in the same fashion—in pieces—and later I had no idea how I had managed to put them together. I know my book would never exist without the help of my colleagues, students, friends, and partner, who read parts or all of it. I know that writing a book about such texts as the ‘Alien’ movies and The Crow sustained my interest while deepening my engagement with Byron's works.

"Another principal goal I had in writing my book was making it accessible to non-academic audiences. Having read too much literary criticism that I found incomprehensible, despite a Ph.D. in English, I wanted primarily to communicate and to reach a wider audience than professors and graduate students. Whether I succeeded I don't know! I'm just very glad I finished the book and all the editing and proofreading while I was still able.

"I continue to write fan fiction; however, my multiple sclerosis doesn't allow me to focus for very long or very often. Getting sleepy after half an hour of writing an erotic scene can be discouraging! I hope my energy and concentration improve so that I can read more (science fiction is my primary interest) and write more, whether it's fan fiction or an academic piece. I know if I do the latter, it will be about one of my favorite works of popular culture."