Jesus. I think I know why I stopped reading any scifi and fantasy published after 1970… (okay, not entirely true — Andre Norton and Ursula K. LeGuin and others I read published well after that). Let me just say…
I don’t really get this whole “Writing About the ‘Other’” conflict in fiction and I never did. To the objection that someone might have to a character such as “I’m of ____ race and I’m not like that, you racist!” I’ve always thought that the best way to stop that nonsense dead in its tracks would be to say “I’m not writing about you.” And then if they natter on and on you can ask them if they have trouble separating fact and fiction in other aspects of their lives, and then if that doesn’t work hit them with a brick. The only thing that should matter in criticizing fiction is, is it any good? If it’s a lame racial cliché that’s in your story, then it’s bad writing, not a racial hate crime.
Then again, it never would have occurred to me to come up with a character like, say, Jar-Jar Binks — not that I’m against stereotypes, just lame, grating ones. And now that I think about it, I think that what made Jar-Jar so annoying wasn’t his “Meesa Star Wars Nee-grow in greenface!” dialogue, but the way the animation made his eyes blink very slowly. After all, the other Gundans talked just like him and I haven’t found any complaints about the Gundan race portrayal as a whole.
You see? You see how it soon becomes impossible to make any sense discussing this? I swear I haven’t been drinking tea made of funny mushrooms.
Anyway, if we can’t write fictional characters who don’t look exactly like our own blood relatives or else be accuse of somehow “falsifying” or “exploiting” the “Other” or “getting it all wrong” or — basically being accused of writing about someone else’s blood relatives — then we might as well trash fiction, all genres, all together and just write cookbooks. Just make sure you only write about your own family’s recipes lest you be accused of “exploiting” another ethnic group’s cuisine.
(Tangentially via Violins and Starships.)
Update, Thursday July 9: um, d’oh! I didn’t realize all this time that I had forgotten to add the link above. Fixed. Totally unrelated: the movie I watched tonight was “Idiocracy.”
OMG.
This is why I read Baen books.
— yak · Jul 6, 08:53 PM · #
Melanie Rawn, Elizabeth Moon, Patricia Wrede, Michael Flynn, Tom Deitz, George R. R. Martin, Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle, L. E. Modesitt, Terry Pratchett.
Those should keep you busy for a bit.
— aelfheld · Jul 6, 09:41 PM · #
Emma Bull is good; her most recent, Territory, is a surprisingly good read.
Harlan Ellison is best in small doses, but he’s still one of the best writers out there.
Orson Scott Card is in dire need of a stern and unbending editor – a lack more noticeable with each book.
Peter David isn’t nearly as good as he thinks he is; a little goes quite a long way.
The other authors listed I’ve not read.
Skimming the article, I’m reminded of the people who object to Mark Twain – unable to understand that it’s not all about them.
— aelfheld · Jul 6, 09:57 PM · #
Except for Michael Flynn, of whom I haven’t heard, L.E. Modesitt, whose name I’ve seen but whose writing I’ve never sampled, and Terry Pratchett — whose stuff I can only take in small doses — I haven’t been able to get into any of the other writers. Maybe I’ll check out those first two, but to tell you the truth I’ve kind of gotten tired of scifi and fantasy. Right now I’m reading Chesterton’s Father Brown stories, and I have a huge tome full of Orwell’s essays waiting for me as well.
— Andrea Harris · Jul 6, 09:58 PM · #
Whoops, missed your last one — I can’t read more than small doses of HE, & haven’t read Emma Bull or Peter David. Maybe I’ll check them out some day if I can force myself into the scifi racks again. ::quiver::
— Andrea Harris · Jul 6, 10:53 PM · #
Oh, and Orson Scott Card — I never could get into him either. There’s something about his stories that squicks me.
— Andrea Harris · Jul 6, 10:54 PM · #
L.E. Modesitt is brilliant,
— Benji · Jul 7, 05:22 AM · #
I guess the appeal of sci-fi has always been, to me, that you could escape a lot of the PC madness by creating your own universe where local laws, mores and physics need not always apply.
Some of the most entertaining stories I’ve read have the characters in full-blown racial hatred, or at least, humorous acrimony. Sometimes they resolve it, sometimes they don’t. But there is no forgone conclusion that they’ll have it all wrapped up sitcom style and be best friends by the end of the book.
— Steve B · Jul 7, 06:24 AM · #
I was a fan of Harlan Ellison.
Larry Niven, Jerry Pournell, and both of them together.
— kae · Jul 7, 09:26 AM · #
Michael Flynn writes well-grounded science fiction & does it very, very well. Eifelheim is one of the best books I’ve read.
Modesitt has an extremely deliberate pace, with lots of detail. I prefer his fantasy novels to his science fiction, specifically his Recluce novels.
I’d suggest giving Peter David a pass. D——d few writers can do funny, but all too many try.
I’m surprised you’re not more fond of Pratchett; I would have thought his humorous philosophising (or philosophical humour) would appeal to you. Chacun à son goût.
— aelfheld · Jul 7, 12:50 PM · #
Enough of the old-fashioned kid stuff. Try Neal Asher. I recommend <i>The Skinner</i> as a start. You’ll be saying “What the f___?!” at least once every page. (Just kidding when I called the others “kid stuff” so no flamethrowers please)
Actually, Asher is not for everyone. It just depends on where your personal weirdness threshold is but in addition to being seriously over-the-top weird, Asher is also very funny.
— Lynn · Jul 8, 08:03 AM · #
Orson Scott Card in a recent post on The Corner considers this a “golden age” for fantasy. Coincidentally, a BYU writer occupies a prominent spot on Card’s list.
I think there’s still good recent stuff out there for every taste. I know it seems as if there are too many self-consciously literary works, too many vampire romances, or cheesy soap opera fantasy series, but I continue to find what I want, mostly. Although I think I share Andrea’s preference for the older stuff – maybe for different reasons though.
— JonathanStrange · Jul 9, 10:06 AM · #
Its a pretty good age for ‘historical based’ SF and Fantasy, where events are based loosely on past historical situations, which helps since most writers have trouble defining a world that makes sense. Bujold’s Vorkosigan series, early Turtledove fantasy based on Byzantium, Weber’s Honor Harrington series based on English/French Wars.
Another good series is David Drake’s books with Daniel Leary. Any quiet misanthrope has to love Adele Mundy, the pistol packing librarian character.
— Oldcat · Jul 9, 04:14 PM · #