Sillybean

3 Responses to “This is why Science Fiction can’t have nice things”

1. sancho says:

   August 5, 2009 at 10:05 pm

   Had a long post that came off like an apologist, so just two things.

   1) Is this just a WTF, or is there really an issue here? Did the editor ever come up with an explanation? Was he just not thinking about minority issues?

   2) Almost all of the sci-fi/fantasy books on my shelf are by men. No idea about their ethnicity, in the general case, except for those whose pictures I’ve seen (Pratchett, for example.) Notable exceptions are Melanie Rawn, Patricia Waddell¹, and Charlaine Harris. In fact, now that I think about it, the only books by female authors I have are in the fantasy genre.²

   [1] Only really notable as it was a gift given to me somewhat accidentally.

   [2] This one’s sci-fi, but see [1].

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2. sancho says:

   August 5, 2009 at 10:18 pm

   I should clarify that Paul’s statements are quite obviously … stupid. When I asked about the WTF, I’m mostly asking about the all-white male anthology. Is this likely blatant sexism/racism, or is it just a guy who wasn’t conscious of race/sex when making the choices for the book?

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3. Stephanie says:

   August 9, 2009 at 7:39 pm

   Could be either, really, but the problem is that there’s been a long-standing argument (mostly online) about the dearth of women and/or minorities in SF anthologies, and at this point anyone who publishes an all-white-male TOC is a) an idiot, b) not paying attention, or c) a racist and/or misogynist, consciously or otherwise.

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