M-Zed, as I like to call him, calls out the posers and literary pretenders of SF’s extreme left:
Okay, I have to respond to this horseshit: “To get your friends into SF, show them a whole bunch of shit that no one gives a crap about, along with a few classics that aren’t really good for neophytes, and some hysteria-inducing leftism. And if that doesn’t work, go with a 2nd previous generation’s failed attempt at literary greatness.”
I’d like to destroy the prejudicial notion that the entire future is leftist, and that this is normal, desirable and believable. Near as I can tell, not a single “expert” they asked is within a standard deviation of center, and they’re all on the left. The only one with reasonably good recommendations was John Scalzi. When he’s your moderate, you may have a bit of a bias.
Heinlein’s YA? Neal Stephenson? Lois Bujold? Larry Niven? Sci fi with, you know, actual science? Drake for any veterans. Hell, Ben Bova has lots of very good near future SF. Mercedes Lackey is both liberal (since that obviously matters to them) and a good writer, with some decent present-day urban fantasy.
I’ve read close to 10K SF books and written a few, and I’ve never even heard of most of those choices. That by itself proves nothing, except that they’re not recommending anything anyone center, conservative or libertarian is going to be interested in, which is 75% of the population.
One thing you have to understand about the literate Left is that they are parasites who exist on nothing more than whatever they can leech from the productive populace in addition to each other’s farts. They are a breed unto themselves, homo fartsnifferus, for how else could one explain a movie – a freaking MOVIE – being made about a guy who killed himself because he was a mediocre novelist who everyone on the New York literary circuit erroneously believed was a literary genius.
(I speak, of course, of David Foster Wallace. A talented writer, yes, but a terrible novelist who couldn’t even rise to the level of Harold Robbins, let alone John Irving. I don’t condone suicide, but the only more explicable suicide in recent years was the Republican Senate staffer who was caught with kiddy porn.)
The whole point behind the Left’s endless babbling about social justice and gender equity and the entire catalog of pseudo-intellectual jabber is to conceal the fact that they have little talent and even less to say.
Larry Correia adds his own considerable weight to a related issue:
Okay, aspiring author types, you will see lots of things like this, and part of you may think you need to incorporate these helpful suggestions into your work. After all, this is on Tor.com so it must be legit. Just don’t. When you write with the goal of checking off boxes, it is usually crap. This article is great advice for writers who want to win awards but never actually be read by anyone.
Now do yourself a favor and read the comments… I’ll wait… Yeah… You know how when my Sad Puppies posts talk about the “typical WorldCon voter”? Those comments are a good snapshot of one subtype right there.
I also know from that Facebook thread that a lot of people tried to comment and disagree for various reasons, but their posts were deleted. (and some of them even swore that they were polite!). But like most modern lefty crusades, disagreement, in fact, anything less than cheerleading, is “intolerance” and won’t be tolerated. Meanwhile, my FB thread had lots of comments and an actual intelligent discussion of the pros and cons from both sides (and even transsexual communists who actually like to enjoy their fiction thought this Tor.com post was silly), so remember that the next time a snooty troll calls my fans a “right wing echo chamber.”
If you can’t stomach the comments long enough to hear what a typical WorldCon voter sounds like, let me paraphrase: “Fantastic! I’m so sick of people actually enjoying books that are fun! Let’s shove more message fiction down their throats! My cause comes before their enjoyment! Diversity! Gay polar bears are being murdered by greedy corporations! Only smart people who think correct thoughts like I do should read books and I won’t be happy until my genre dies a horrible death! Yay!” (and if there is beeping noise in the background, that’s because they’re backing up their mobility scooter).
So let’s break this pile of Gender Studies 101 mush down into its component bits and see just why some sci-fi writers won’t be happy until their genre dies completely.