Celebrating Sexuality in Condomnauts

Imagine this scenario. You’re watching Denis Villeneuve’s hit 2014 sci-fi classic, Arrival. But instead of attempting to communicate with the mercurial heptapods for two straight hours, Amy Adams and Jeremy Renner peacefully approach the aliens and begin initiating the time-honoured tradition of making sexual contact.

Welcome to the hugely entertaining mind of the Cuban science fiction writer known simply as Yoss. Born in Havana during the late 60’s, Yoss has written more than twenty fantasy and sci-fi novels and has garnered quite a reputation for himself during his time at the forefront of Cuba’s exciting literary scene. With aspects of his work often deemed too critical of the Cuban government, Yoss has also been branded as a controversial literary voice in Latin America.

Lead singer of the heavy metal band, Tenaz, Yoss might not look much like a prominent science fiction writer on first glance. In the past, he has said that when he was ten years old, he discovered Conan the Barbarian and thus his “medieval-rocker” aesthetic was established for life.

Yoss at his writing desk.

Out of all the books in his ever-increasing portfolio of work, New York-based publisher, Restless Books have published three: A Planet for Rent, Super Extra Grande and Condomnauts, all of which have been translated into English by University of Michigan academic, David Frye.

Yoss’ Condomnauts is a curious 200-page read that masquerades as a low-brow, light-hearted, quasi-pornographic story but actually ends up offering a lot more under the surface.

Set shortly after a nuclear conflict called the Five-Minute War – an apocalyptic event that wrought destruction across the globe – human civilisation has since taken to the stars using hyperengines, obtained through contact with a mysterious species of aliens called the Qhigarians.

Our protagonist is Josue Valdez, an orphan from the slums of 24th-century Rubble City, Havana. After narrowly surviving a rough childhood of cruelty, poverty and adversity, Josue manages to escape off-world and begin a promising career as a Condomnaut, a Contact Specialist.

As a member of the Galactic Community, humanity is quickly introduced to a number of different alien species such as the Arctians, a race of “slow-moving leviathans”; the Continentines, who are “living blobs of undifferentiated cytoplasm”; and the “restless, muscular titans”, the Furasgans.

Yet, humanity isn’t only introduced to this colossal new community, they’re also introduced to a host of new traditions and customs – one of these being the practice of sex during first contact with a new alien race. In light of this, a unique group of condomnauts was required – a group of people who wouldn’t even shy away from prolonged intercourse with a tentacled octopus alien.

Condomnauts follows the story of Josue – a lone “Cubanito” in a sea of Catalan space-farers – as he aims to discover new life beyond the Milky Way and finally achieve social and ethnic acceptance in Nu Barsa, a humungous Catalan space station. Yet, he must first overcome the trauma of his youth, a source of pain that has plagued him throughout his entire life.

A Celebration of Sexuality

A narrative made up of a number of different interlinking themes, Yoss’ Condomnauts is much more than meets the eye, and one of the most fascinating aspects of the book is its proud celebration of sexuality, particularly sexualities which are often condemned by religious radicals and right-wing politicians.

Josue’s sexuality is particularly interesting – he is essentially bisexual but often identifies as gay. As a boy, he loses a bet and is forced to have sex with an “obese mutant” girl called Karlita the Tub who “weighs two hundred kilos at the age of eight”. After this event, Josue reflects: “from that day on, I’ve never been able to get excited in the presence of a completely human woman.”

His vocation has a condomnaut also requires frequent lovemaking with a myriad alien species, meaning the character’s sexual identity is really impossible to pin down – which might be Yoss’ leading aim all along, after all, why should sexual identity need to be identified all the time?

One of the best moments in the book comes when Josue is talking about humanity’s need for galactic condomnauts:

“Everybody knows we’re a lucky species. It turned out we already had people who were not only capable of facing such bizarre contacts, but of enjoying them. Us. People who had for centuries been shamefully rejected as perverts or sexual deviants. Gays, bisexuals, masochists, sadists and fetishists, the odd and the aberrational, the more or less satisfied victims of unspeakable paraphilias, we who had once been confined to madhouse or jails, or even executed to keep the moral cancer that infected us from contaminating the horrified “sexually healthy” members of society.”

This celebratory transition of the way sexual otherness is regarded in society is really one of the focal messages of the book and something which Yoss clearly feels particularly keen to convey.

A huge fantasy and anime fan, Yoss is famed for his “medieval-rocker” aesthetic.

Yoss’ progressive ideas and notions regarding sexuality are hugely welcome at a time when some areas of Latin America are facing more regressive politics. The election of Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil, for example, has left the country’s large LGBT+ community wary of the future and uncertain of their place within Brazilian society.

There’s also something endearing about how Yoss subverts conventional sci-fi tropes. It’s a story that’s less about laser guns and grand narratives and more about human beings achieving things through overcoming the traumas of their past.

Faced with making sexual contact with an extragalactic translucent cockroach alien creature, Josue recalls his pet cockroach Aveti which he nurtured during his youth in Rubble City and laughs manically saying: “I continue to move forward, I’m already pulling off my green suit and uncovering one of the hardest erections I’ve had for a Contact in some time.” Certainly a strange passage, it’s essentially an exaggerated example of how something other than heterosexuality is capable of saving the day.

Galactic Imperialism

Also innate within Yoss’ novel is the exploration of imperialism, colonialism and the unerring importance of economic superiority. Like any good science fiction writer, Yoss explores contemporary themes disguised in layers of well-established conventions.

In Condomnauts, the humans of the Galactic Community are split off into several different national camps. To the name the biggest three, there are the Catalans of Nu Barsa, the Germans of Neue Heimat and the Japanese of Amatersu. These stations maintain a healthy competition in their attempts to advance human civilisation.

The book often appears at odds with itself – at once endearingly progressive, the story is also imperialist in nature. It’s all really about trade, capital and competition. It’s about capitalism’s unique blend with imperialism and staying ahead of the rest. It’s globalisation on a galactic scale.

Considering Yoss’ Cuban upbringing, there are few writers with a better understanding of the commanding authority of global capitalism and US imperialism. In his novel, Yoss replicates these objectives in the form of humanity’s eagerness to be the first species to contact extragalactic aliens from beyond the Milky Way.

At the beginning of the story, Josue says: “We’re such latecomers to the cosmos that almost every planet in the Milky Way fit for colonisation by oxygen-breathing races was already taken by the time we started exploring. The right engine would give us access to practically the entire universe. And with that, we’d come up with not just one, but dozens of worlds that could be turned into New Catalonias, for sure.”

In the passage above, while advancing human civilisation is spoken of highly, it is, in fact, the reference to creating “New Catalonias” which is most highly prized. It soon becomes clear that the main characters’ motives are driven more so by national pride and patriotism.

Yoss’ commentary on the imperialism comes to a head when Josue’s ship makes first contact with a new species of alien. Offering advanced technology in exchange for humanity’s military assistance, Josue says:

“They come in peace, fleeing another race that is threatening them, I think, with war. They fear their enemies and are looking for allies (I’m guessing) in the Milky Way. But they need warlike allies; the Qhigarians, who don’t fight and have no weapons, can’t help them. Makes sense. And they propose making Contact with us, following our customs, if we want to seal the pact and become their allies… If it’s war you want, you’ve come to the right species. Nobody better than humans in the whole Galactic Community. I smell alliance and trade.”

In this passage, Yoss sardonically exposes the imperialist nature humanity. In the aliens’ desire for military aid, Josue rejoices knowing that humans are the “right species”. With war being something that is rightly shunned and swept under the rug, suddenly it is humanity’s saving grace.

If Condomnauts is a book about being true to yourself and utilising the skills that are unique to each individual, then this is humanity championing their ugly, warlike past and using it to save themselves in the face of galactic adversity.