60 pages • 2 hours read
A Scatter Of Light
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Background
Authorial Context: Malinda Lo and LGBTQ Novels
A Scatter of Light functions as a companion piece to Last Night at the Telegraph Club (2021), another LGBTQ novel. Lo identifies as a Chinese American lesbian, an identity which informs her characters Lily Hu and Aria Tang West. Aria’s mother, Alexis, is an immigrant from China, just like Lo, and while Aria’s sexuality is central to her developing identity in A Scatter of Light, she occasionally reflects on her Chinese identity as well. Many of Lo’s works explore the intersectionality of identities, and the author’s sexuality, race, and experience as an immigrant influence many of her pieces, which include queer romances, retellings of fairy tales, and nonfiction works that appear in queer and feminist anthologies.
Having studied in both Wellesley, Massachusetts, and Stanford, California, Lo’s past places of residence appear as settings for her novels. Massachusetts and California have had thriving gay communities for decades (in Provincetown and San Francisco, respectively), and as historically liberal states, they give Lo’s characters access to everyday queerness and community, which helps them discover themselves.
Last Night at the Telegraph Club received numerous awards, including the National Book Award, the Stonewall Book Award, the Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature. National recognition for a novel with a lesbian Asian protagonist indicates America’s continued cultural shift toward greater acceptance and celebration of queer and non-white identities.
Cultural Context: YA as a Space for LGBTQ Representation
Young Adult literature content—typically literature for readers 12 to 18 years old—corresponds to the age of many of the book’s characters. Because this age correlates with puberty and the transition from childhood to young adulthood, prevalent themes in YA books include identity and first love. Many of Lo’s works incorporate these themes, as she depicts several female-identifying protagonists that explore their queerness.
Together with author Cindy Pon, Lo founded the website Diversity in YA in 2011 to highlight diverse protagonists. On their site, the authors explain: “We celebrate young adult books that are about characters of color, LGBT characters, and/or disabled characters, as well as YA authors who are of color, LGBT, and/or disabled.” They specifically prioritize books whose main characters are of marginalized groups so that those identities are emphasized.
After winning the National Book Award for Last Night at the Telegraph Club, whose protagonist is a Chinese American teenager uncovering her queer identity, Lo explained in an interview with NPR: “I think that books are a really important way for kids to see outside their own little local world.” YA stories that center queer characters have the power to validate young readers’ own identities or expose them to perspectives outside of their own lived experiences.
Sociohistorical Context: Proposition 8 and Marriage Equality in the US
Proposition 8, colloquially referred to as Prop 8, was a ballot proposition in California intended to ban gay marriage. Although it initially passed in state elections in 2008, it was later overturned in federal court. The reversal didn’t go into effect until late June 2013, which coincides with Aria’s visit to California in A Scatter of Light.
Prop 8 reflects the long history of the fight for gay rights in the US. Only in 2003 did a Supreme Court ruling (Lawrence v. Texas) declare that sexual conduct (regardless of gender) was protected under the 14th Amendment. In 1996, Congress enacted the Defense of Marriage Act, which made gay marriage federally illegal. Massachusetts was the first state to legalize gay marriage, in 2004, and several states followed suit, while others amended their constitutions specifically to ban gay marriage.
Two years after Prop 8 went into effect, in June 2015, the Supreme Court ruled in Obergefell v. Hodges that marriage is a constitutional right for everyone, regardless of their gender. All 50 states must legally provide and recognize gay marriages, and federal law technically prohibits employment discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity; however, protections from discrimination in housing and public accommodations still vary by state.
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