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Jun. 8th, 2015 09:49 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
seekingferretIn Brad Torgersen's famous "Nutty Nugget" essay, he complained that readers were being betrayed by authors who concealed social justice issues offensive to a conservative sensibility in the guise of science fiction action-adventure. He contrasts cover images on books to the actual thematic content to illustrate this problem.
A planet, framed by a galactic backdrop. Could it be an actual bona fide space opera? Heroes and princesses and laser blasters? No, wait. It’s about sexism and the oppression of women.
...
Finally, a book with a painting of a person wearing a mechanized suit of armor! Holding a rifle! War story ahoy! Nope, wait. It’s actually about gay and transgender issues.
...
Our once reliable packaging has too often defrauded our readership. It’s as true with the Hugos as it is with the larger genre as a whole... Maybe some differences here and there, but nothing so outrageously different as to make our readers look at the cover and say, “What the hell is this crap??”
This manifesto has been shown by many people over the past two months to be absurd in many ways- SF/F isn't any more messagey or 'reliably packaged' than it was thirty or fifty years ago, and in any case, Brad Torgersen is literally demanding that he be able to judge a book by its cover. It is very, very hard to take that seriously.
Still, it caught me off guard when reading Kevin J. Anderson's The Dark Between the Stars to catch the casual revelation on page 422 that Xander and Terry are gay and sharing a bunk. Not because I was surprised that they were gay- Anderson has a tendency to ship any two unattached, unrelated characters who talk to each other, throughout the novel. But because a book with a space station on the cover and surprise gay characters on page 422 is precisely the thing the Sad Puppies slate promised to save science fiction from.
But apparently in a masterwork of trolling, the Sad Puppies managed to put a fake Nutty Nugget on the ballot. I'm unsure whether to be impressed or furious. My inclination is toward fury, though, because The Dark Between the Stars is terrible.
A planet, framed by a galactic backdrop. Could it be an actual bona fide space opera? Heroes and princesses and laser blasters? No, wait. It’s about sexism and the oppression of women.
...
Finally, a book with a painting of a person wearing a mechanized suit of armor! Holding a rifle! War story ahoy! Nope, wait. It’s actually about gay and transgender issues.
...
Our once reliable packaging has too often defrauded our readership. It’s as true with the Hugos as it is with the larger genre as a whole... Maybe some differences here and there, but nothing so outrageously different as to make our readers look at the cover and say, “What the hell is this crap??”
This manifesto has been shown by many people over the past two months to be absurd in many ways- SF/F isn't any more messagey or 'reliably packaged' than it was thirty or fifty years ago, and in any case, Brad Torgersen is literally demanding that he be able to judge a book by its cover. It is very, very hard to take that seriously.
Still, it caught me off guard when reading Kevin J. Anderson's The Dark Between the Stars to catch the casual revelation on page 422 that Xander and Terry are gay and sharing a bunk. Not because I was surprised that they were gay- Anderson has a tendency to ship any two unattached, unrelated characters who talk to each other, throughout the novel. But because a book with a space station on the cover and surprise gay characters on page 422 is precisely the thing the Sad Puppies slate promised to save science fiction from.
But apparently in a masterwork of trolling, the Sad Puppies managed to put a fake Nutty Nugget on the ballot. I'm unsure whether to be impressed or furious. My inclination is toward fury, though, because The Dark Between the Stars is terrible.
(no subject)
Date: 2015-06-08 07:49 pm (UTC)-Noah
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Date: 2015-06-09 02:49 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2015-06-09 03:04 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2015-06-09 05:40 am (UTC)I guess what I'm saying is, if we're going to have a jeremiad against inaccurate advertising on the covers of science fiction novels, I vote we start with Baen.
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Date: 2015-06-09 02:16 pm (UTC)That notwithstanding, THIS IS NOT ABOUT THE PUBLISHERS. Various left-wingers and SJWs and anti-puppies write for Baen, various right-wingers and Puppy advocates write for Tor and DAW. Basically all the anti-puppies I know can point to things from Baen that they've enjoyed. I think it's particularly stupid to treat Baen vs. Tor as some sort of political war when both are owned by the same dude.
(no subject)
Date: 2015-06-10 01:26 pm (UTC)