tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2323383105577553414.post1065231029302660119..comments2024-02-24T00:25:39.415-08:00Comments on Examined Worlds: Science Fictional Meditations on the Value of DiversityEthanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13490888839784651097noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2323383105577553414.post-75893609545745526632016-06-23T12:29:48.728-07:002016-06-23T12:29:48.728-07:00Maybe you have read Lovecraft, but Cthulhu erased ...Maybe you have read Lovecraft, but Cthulhu erased your memory! It's cool stuff even if Lovecraft was a bit of a bigot.Ethanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13490888839784651097noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2323383105577553414.post-2722324253443686942016-06-23T11:40:59.941-07:002016-06-23T11:40:59.941-07:00Can you believe I've never read Lovecraft? I r...Can you believe I've never read Lovecraft? I really need to. Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13693313009138719892noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2323383105577553414.post-5592429241624678242016-06-23T11:40:26.134-07:002016-06-23T11:40:26.134-07:00Can you believe I've never read Lovecraft? I r...Can you believe I've never read Lovecraft? I really need to. Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13693313009138719892noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2323383105577553414.post-4284438696330749722016-06-20T08:07:14.169-07:002016-06-20T08:07:14.169-07:00I didn't say anything about "political co...I didn't say anything about "political correctness" nor did I say all SF is or should be about "political correctness." Here are some questions I think we should ask ourselves about the term "political correctness" before continuing the (rather pointless) debates that it provokes: http://examinedworlds.blogspot.com/2016/03/has-political-correctness-run-amok-does.htmlEthanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13490888839784651097noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2323383105577553414.post-18606615746230631262016-06-20T01:28:16.404-07:002016-06-20T01:28:16.404-07:00Science fiction isn't about political correctn...Science fiction isn't about political correctness. If it were, much of what was written up until the last fifteen years or so would be unpublishable by that standard. Political correctness isn't about diversity-it's about censorship of those who don't agree with you. Conservatives on college campuses, gay activists who have voiced their opinions about the way gays are treated in Islamic countries, the Hugos are prime examples of this. SF can send valuable, powerful messages about human nature, but if you want to be honest you have to deal with the bad as well as the good, and you should acknowledge that much of our science and literature came from those Europeans that the politically correct culture and campus warriors now claim to hate so much. There was much in intellectual Christianity, for example, that inspired science and medicine in the middle ages. Space flight would not have been possible without the math of the ancient Greeks. In their push for diversity in SF, social justice warriors have created a climate that denies much of SF's history and heritage. History is written by the winners-but it can also be revised and re-written by those who don't want to admit they might be wrong. WestVirginiaRebelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14129174334939968181noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2323383105577553414.post-48575257045278399122016-06-18T08:17:06.724-07:002016-06-18T08:17:06.724-07:00I actually loved the gender/language aspect of the...I actually loved the gender/language aspect of the book and found it interesting. I just had trouble with Leckie's writing style, which I found to be unclear. It just didn't click with me. Part of it may be that someone favorably compared her to Ursula Le Guin and Iain M. Banks, which maybe put the bar too high for me. Here's my review for more of an explanation: http://examinedworlds.blogspot.com/2015/02/review-of-ancillary-justice-by-ann.htmlEthanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13490888839784651097noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2323383105577553414.post-134729183233559422016-06-18T04:51:20.364-07:002016-06-18T04:51:20.364-07:00The Leckie books are a bit difficult, mostly for t...The Leckie books are a bit difficult, mostly for the pronoun shift. They break some of the standard tropes, really deep, basic ones, like always knowing the gender of a first person protagonist -- which, upon more thinking, is both a matter of how we identify with the protagonist and something basic to our culture. We put a lot of importance in clearly identified gender. We would interpret every word and action along those lines. Because we can't do that here -- really, no one's gender is fixed in the language -- we can't neatly shove the actions into any particular box. When love, romance, sex, or relationships are in the narrative, we can't categorize and pigeonhole them as gay, lesbian, straight, male, female, dominant, submissive, etc.<br /><br />It's pretty jarring. I took a long break in the front half of the book while I worked my way around it. As much as some of us claim to be "blind" to such cues and roles and categories, they are ingrained so deeply in our culture that we think they are genetically coded, that we have to think this way, that it's natural, normal, and anyone who either doesn't think this way or doesn't fit into our sorting system is alien and wrong and dangerous.<br /><br />Then again, maybe the book just didn't ring your bell :) you're allowed that. (aren't I generous?)Murphy Jacobshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04088378675343658890noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2323383105577553414.post-9553681928727639372016-06-17T21:48:26.807-07:002016-06-17T21:48:26.807-07:00Thank you for stopping by! I appreciate the comme...Thank you for stopping by! I appreciate the comment.<br /><br />I'm a huge fan of Octavia Butler and Ursula Le Guin, and you're right that the Xenogenesis series and The Left Hand of Darkness belong on a list like this one. I didn't mean to exclude them, but I guess I was just thinking of more recent stuff (or at least more recent to me). I really appreciated what Leckie did with gender issues, but I had trouble getting into Ancillary Justice for whatever reason. <br /><br />In any case, the novels you mention are all worthy additions to the list of works that touch on diversity. I will check out the Attebery book sometime. I just put it on my to read list. It sounds really interesting. Thanks again!Ethanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13490888839784651097noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2323383105577553414.post-68856728610742572172016-06-17T10:46:46.308-07:002016-06-17T10:46:46.308-07:00Hi Ethan, a friend dropped a link here on G+ and I...Hi Ethan, a friend dropped a link here on G+ and I followed it back because I have an interest in how gender and sexuality are presented in SF (if I ever make it into a master's program, that's what I want to make the center of my study). Donna (the friend) brought up a few that also popped into my head -- Octavia E. Butler's Xenogenesis trilogy, Anne Leckie's Ancillary series, and of course Grand Dame Ursula Le Guin's Left Hand of Darkness. There are more (I have a lovely little book, now far out of date, that carefully lists appearances of LGBT characters in SF books).<br /><br />Have you run across Brian Attebery's Decoding Gender in Science Fiction? It is also showing some age, but it touches on the topics of LGBT representation in SF.<br /><br />I'm going to be thinking about this idea for a while and I'm going to link to your blog if you don't mind. Thanks for the interesting post!Murphy Jacobshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04088378675343658890noreply@blogger.com