In Which Yr Hmbl Hostess Has Not Had Enough Caffeine

[rolanni]

Bruce Sterling is trying to make a point over here.  Mind you, I’m not sure what his point is.  It sorta smacks of the old assurance from A Certain Male SF Writer that his female colleagues didn’t have to write fantasy!  They could, with only a little research, learn to write science fiction, too.

Lack of caffeine, right.

Anyhow, Mr. Sterling provides a list, lifted from a Must Read SF posting at The Galaxy Express, with the note that there is not a single male author appearing.  One of the authors listed is Steve Miller, who, last time I checked — quite recently, in fact — was male.  And an author.

When this was pointed out to Mr. Sterling, he amended his editorial to exclaim that there was a male author of half a book! on the list.

Since there were three books listed by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller, Mr. Sterling clearly can’t do arithmetic, either.

Back to the point of the thing.

If there is only a single male author of SFRomance on the list compiled by Galaxy Express, does that mean there are no men writing SFRomance?  I confess that I can’t think of a name — ref. lack of caffeine — but perhaps someone else can?

And!  If there are “no” men writing SFRomance, does that automatically make SFRomance an Inferior Form, as Mr. Sterling’s commentary seems to suggest?

Discuss.

Originally published at Sharon Lee, Writer. You can comment here or there.

Comments

[jonquil.livejournal.com]

"higher course"?

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

While I'm not sure the text supports a reading of "higher course," it does absolutely support the contention that Friday was a woman who very much wanted a family of her own and to be accepted as a human being.

[jonquil.livejournal.com]

That's absolutely true. She wants children, badly, and she wants a family who loves her. She gets that. She is not, nor wants to be, Modesty Blaise.

I loved the first, say, half of the book a lot; I remember thinking "He's back on form! This is awesome!". Then it began creeping me out, worse and worse.

[baggette.livejournal.com]

In my own opinion, of course

[jonquil.livejournal.com]

Since my concerns with Friday and other late Heinlein are explicitly feminist -- I feel that his attitudes toward women, which in Glory Road were advanced for the time, remained frozen while society changed around him -- we are unlikely to agree.

[(Anonymous)]

respectfully,let us agree to disagree.
I prefer to argue for basic human rights over feminism.
I can understand and even agree with most of your position.
But, as a person who chose (almost exactly the same course as Friday) to make decisions based on what was best for myself, I valued Heinlein's story as an affirmation of my choices. There were many who tried to convince me that I was "Wasting" myself. That was hurtful and counter productive. As a woman, I should have been encouraged in whatever path I chose to take. Doors were slammed, instead of being left open, for later.

At the time, my most sincere wish was that there would be a sequel to Friday; in which she would resume her 'other' activities and utilize her many talents.

[jonquil.livejournal.com]

I apologize. I just committed Feminism Sin 101, devaluing somebody else's choices. That was deeply, deeply inappropriate.