Reader Question: Do you think science fiction is inherently liberal?
A friend sent this question to me the other day, along with a bunch of others. I couldn’t answer them all in one post, but this one in particular sparked my curiosity. One thing that has to be decided is what the word “liberal” means in a political context (since that is the context in […]
European Science Fiction: More Serious Than American SF?
I’ve been mulling over a quote I found over at io9 some months back from Franz Rottensteiner, a European editor of science fiction. When I first read it, I found myself disagreeing almost immediately, and only recently have I managed to disentangle that incredibly nationalistic “but America is awesome” reaction from the things I actually […]
Review Copies: Random Gender Distribution or Directed Traffic?
Recently I’ve been having a discussion on my podcast and elswhere on the Internet about the problem of gender balance in fiction, particularly the anthology that sparked a bit of a controversy a couple of weeks ago. One thing that has come to my attention due to that discussion and due to the list I […]
Genre Inclusivity: The Fundamental Paradox of the Love/Hate Relationship in SF/F
Last week, Weirdside and I discussed M.D. Lachlan’s article on the inclusivity of the genre community in the second episode of The Skiffy and Fanty Show. While we both agreed that, generally speaking, the genre fiction community is far more open and welcoming than other segments of the writing world, we never properly addressed what […]
Science Fiction Criticism: A Necessary “Evil”?
What is the value of science fiction criticism, both in its literary form and as a medium used by the science fiction community to dig into the good and the bad of the genre? If you buy Kyle Brady’s argument, its value is a negative number. Back in March of 2010, Brady wrote an article […]
Self-publishing Lies and Myths: Deception and Unethical Practices
I’ve railed against this idea before in smaller form, but I wanted to address this particular self-publishing issue directly. A whole lot of self-publishers and the people that support them have been advocating the practice of creating individual “imprints” to market one’s book. Sue Collier recently blogged about this very concept, albeit rather briefly, in […]