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In 1977, the outing of popular science fiction author and rare “male feminist” James Tiptree, Jr. (as Alice B. Sheldon) shook the world’s sense of genre fiction as a male domain. Fifty years later, Tip/Alli unearths the author’s correspondence and journals to reveal the intricate life of expansive gender that produced some of the 20th century’s most celebrated speculations.
Tip/Alli, like many trans and gender nonconforming people across history, was forcibly outed. But unlike many others, Tip/Alli left us with a rich archive of fiction, correspondence, and self-writing. Tip/Alli introduces viewers to the early publications and letters of this mysterious recluse before exploring the author’s outing and its repercussions.
Our film starts in 1968 when James Tiptree, Jr. began publishing science fiction and soon earned himself a spot among New Wave royalty, alongside Philip K. Dick, Samuel R. Delany, Joanna Russ, and Ursula K. Le Guin. The film’s multigenerational cohort of LGBTQ science fiction fans share how this new wave of SF was socially conscious, sexually explicit, and soon populated with realistic characters, complete with flaws and foibles recognizable to the times.
Contemporaneous readers divulge how Tiptree’s breakout work, “The Last Flight of Dr. Ain” (1969), awed them, its story of a man killing off the human population to save the earth moving them to think about what humanity owes the planet. The ominous sounds of an analog modular synthesizer accompany the grainy black and white super 8 photography of the story’s titular protagonist feeding birds seeds laced with a human virus. We hear how, if often told from a male perspective, Tiptree’s fiction slyly exposed the violence of misogyny and offered hope for feminist futures.
Early on we also hear from Delany, Le Guin, and others who corresponded directly with Tiptree. Jeff Smith, a then teenage fanzine editor, tells his story of conducting the first published interview with Tiptree via the postal service. Many of Tiptree’s epistolary friendships, we learn, fast exceeded professional decorum and grew as deep as “real life” relationships. For years, Tiptree flirted with Le Guin and she with him. In paper-and-ink stop motion excerpts of their correspondence, we witness him become her “Squid” and she his “Bear.” Their drawings of each other as creatures swim and crawl across the screen in crude but tender stop motion movements. Excerpts from Tiptree and Russ’ furious debates about feminism likewise energetically dance, accompanied by the voices of two voice actors.
Tiptree’s critical acclaim, coupled with his repeated refusal to accept his prizes in person, biographer Julie Phillips tells us, soon got fans speculating as to whom the author “really” was. One fan and correspondent narrates driving to the address listed on Tiptree’s early correspondence only to be turned away by an older woman who claimed he had the wrong house. An impressionistic super 8 recreation of the event takes us through McLean, Virginia by night. Following this visit, Tiptree secured a P.O. box. By the mid 70s, rumors were circulating that Tiptree must be a CIA agent, a homosexual or a woman. Interviewees share that such guesses were, to most, little more than a fun game. Many were adamant that Tiptree could not be a woman, considering his literary voice was so definitively masculine. In late 1976, following Tiptree’s announcement of his mother’s death, obituaries led sleuths to sixty-one-year-old Alice B. Sheldon.
Realizing that Tiptree’s cover had been blown, Sheldon scrambled to write to Smith, Russ, and Le Guin. As archival documents attest, Sheldon ended each letter asking their friend of many years if they were still talking to “Tip/Alli.” Le Guin immediately put an end to their flirtation. Soon, Russ initiated a romance. In the pages of Smith’s fanzine, Sheldon insisted that, with Tiptree, “everything other than the signature” was true. “Tiptree kept taking on a stronger and stronger life of his own,” Sheldon explained. “This voice would speak up from behind my pancreas somewhere. He insisted on the nickname [‘Tip’], he would not be ‘Jim.’” If everything about Tiptree except his signature had been Sheldon, it is important to note that Sheldon did not switch to signing letters “Alice Sheldon.” Instead, Sheldon continued to sign their SF correspondence “Tip/Alli,” affectionately holding on to a piece of their male persona.
Tip/Alli’s journal evidences the outing’s profound effect on their mental health. As our super 8 actor feeds manuscript pages to a roaring fire, Tip/Alli’s handwritten entry describing Tiptree as their “magical manhood, his pen my prick” floats atop the flames. Trans interview subjects speculate on whether Tip/Alli’s insistence on Tiptree’s authenticity might make Tip/Alli what we would now call transgender. In further paper stop motion excerpts of Tip/Alli’s journal, the author bemoans not having been born an “Alex,” instead of an “Alice.” As Tiptree, they had gotten to be a “crass, presumptuous, raucous-mouthed old man” who desired alien “six-legged girls” and made arguments against the sexes being simply male and female. A decade later both Tip/Alli and their husband Ting Sheldon died, either by double suicide or murder-suicide on Tip/Alli’s part. The last chapter of the film narrates the little we know about this tragedy.
The final minutes turn to the creative practices of its narrators, reveling in the breadth of imagination Tip/Alli’s life and work have made possible. Tip/Alli introduces audiences to the richness of this unique individual’s experience of gender. In the process, the film opens audiences’ minds to the possibility of transness’ bountiful history and future.
Director: Jed Samer
Producers: Jed Samer, Oli Galvin & Samantha Farinella
Digital DP: Samantha Farinella
Super 8 DP: Chris Ruble
Editor: Oli Galvin
Super 8 Camera Operator: Gyani Prahdhan Wong Ah Sui
Digital interview subjects include: Samuel R. Delany, Jeanne Gomoll, Alexis Lothian, Lee Mandelo, Brittany Nelson, Julie Phillips, Nisi Shawl, and Jeff Smith.
Super 8 cast includes: Rachel Corbman, Brett Iarrobino, Ryle Jarvis, Abbie Rhodes, Chris Ruble, Raffi Sarkissian, and Maddie Thomas.
Recent shoots supported by a Worcester Arts Council grant and a Mass Cultural Council grant.
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