Stupid Things Critics Say: Joel Stein and YA Literature
The NY Times ran a series of mini-debates about YA literature two days ago; one of those mini-debates has pissed some folks off — me included. Why? Perhaps because Joel Stein opens his piece with this filthy gem: The only thing more embarrassing than catching a guy on the plane looking at pornography on his […]
Karl Schroeder on Science Fiction’s Prediction Skills (w/ a Side of Pinker)
Over at Tor.com, Karl Schroeder, author of the Virga series, has taken a stab at SF’s failures to predict or imagine the future. Specifically, Schroeder takes issue with the genre’s penchant for imagining technological and/or sociological change (in isolation), but not for imagining changes in factors like government and/or violence. He uses as his basis […]
GS Mumbles: Salman Rushdie, Doctor Who, and China Mieville
(GS Mumbles — or Grad School Mumbles — is the second of my new seasonal columns in which I talk about things I’m working on as a grad student, often in relation to geeky things.) I suspect this post is going to be an attempt to make a silly connection between a favorite TV show […]
Crying “Censorship”: Why Getting Banned Isn’t Censorship
You’ll probably have noticed that a lot of crazy nonsense took place here and then migrated over here when Jen and I put our feet in piranha-infested waters. This isn’t the first time Jen and I have played emotional bees and frolicked in the convoluted mess of gender politics. But that’s not really the point […]
The Bad Bully Review(er) Manifesto (or, Why Negative Reviews Are Good)
If you haven’t heard or seen it yet, the proverbial shit hit the SF/F-community-fan today on this Strange Horizons review of Michael J. Sullivan’s Theft of Swords.* Not just any shit, mind you, but a rather familiar kind of excrement that makes the SF/F world an amusing and altogether strange place. The short version: Liz […]
Fantasy and Moral Ambiguity: Repetition Rears Its Ugly Head
Author Bryan Thomas Schmidt has taken a stab at author/editor James L. Sutter’s Suvudu post on why moral ambiguity in fantasy is a good thing. In said stabbing, Schmidt makes some well-worn arguments about why moral ambiguous fantasy presents problems for society, but the bulk of his argument — in my mind — rests on a […]