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Post by Sargai on Jun 2, 2014 12:41:50 GMT -5
I could rattle on about this or cut right to the chase and quote Mur Lafferty, John W. Campbell Award-winning author, and one of the women working on the project: The issue, which is free to read online, will begin publishing the tremendous amount of fiction and nonfiction on June 3 and continue weekly through the end of the month. |
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Post by Robillard on Jun 3, 2014 17:51:18 GMT -5
Huh. I'm intrigued. I've always seen fiction written by females as different genre than that of males on a sort of subconscious level and I'm truly hoping they can prove me wrong. But its almost like the themes and underlying currents of stories are directly correlated to the author's gender...
(Yes, I realize that sounds terrible, but I just can't deny the difference from what I've read in my own opinion.)
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Post by Kaytin on Jun 3, 2014 20:33:27 GMT -5
Huh. I'm intrigued. I've always seen fiction written by females as different genre than that of males on a sort of subconscious level and I'm truly hoping they can prove me wrong. But its almost like the themes and underlying currents of stories are directly correlated to the author's gender... (Yes, I realize that sounds terrible, but I just can't deny the difference from what I've read in my own opinion.) I have to agree. Reading something like Republic Commando by Karen Traviss and then switching of to, say, Timothy Zahn presents a lot of difference in the styles and undertones. It's not necessarily bad thing, but I truly believe that factor is present. |
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Post by Robillard on Jun 4, 2014 10:22:32 GMT -5
Huh. I'm intrigued. I've always seen fiction written by females as different genre than that of males on a sort of subconscious level and I'm truly hoping they can prove me wrong. But its almost like the themes and underlying currents of stories are directly correlated to the author's gender... (Yes, I realize that sounds terrible, but I just can't deny the difference from what I've read in my own opinion.) I have to agree. Reading something like Republic Commando by Karen Traviss and then switching of to, say, Timothy Zahn presents a lot of difference in the styles and undertones. It's not necessarily bad thing, but I truly believe that factor is present. Exactly! Like I don't dislike one or the other, but to me there has always been a difference. Once in a while I'm in the mood for some light Tamora Pierce and sometimes I need a little more testosterone.... |
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Post by Carcer on Aug 18, 2014 12:41:34 GMT -5
How can any writer destroy science fiction? Even if you don't like how they write, it doesn't stop you from reading stuff by other writers in the genre, and it doesn't stop other writers from making books. It all seems a bit silly to me. But I must admit I did chuckle a little at Lightspeed's response to people who think women writers are going to kill off the science fiction genre.
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Post by Sargai on Aug 19, 2014 21:18:39 GMT -5
That's just it, no writer or even group of writers or an army of writers could destroy a genre. The whole notion of women destroying science fiction (and other genres, too) largely comes from a vocal conservative (in taste and sometimes politics) crowd of writers and readers who feel that women are both incapable of writing science fiction and do the genre active harm by introducing genuine romance (and by genuine, I mean that it is a prominent part of the novel and not a "hero gets the girl at the end" sort of thing), creating capable female main characters/casts, and using the genre to explore topics that are relevant today--such as racism, feminism, and QUILTBAG. Of course, these women writers only account for a tiny percentage of the genre and not all women writing science fiction can be included among them. The real problem isn't the books or their contents, which these readers and writers can choose to avoid reading and still have multitudes of books to choose from, but rather the discussion that has been happening in the genre community these past few years.People want a more inclusive genre, but there is still this boy's club core so you end up with this situation where in science fiction women aren't published as often, aren't read as often by reviewers because publishers don't send out the books for review or because of bias (unconscious or otherwise), aren't submitted to award panels as often, and are still harassed at conventions (sexually) and online (invective and threats), where most of this discussion takes place.
TL;DR - Conservative tastes, sexism, and paranoia is causing aging white men to fear something that doesn't threaten them in the slightest.
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Post by ShadowOfSouls on Aug 19, 2014 22:08:23 GMT -5
There are woman and men destroying scifi with equal glee...
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