Comments on: Beware the Sexist Genre Police

By: Neville Morley

Neville Morley — Fri, 06 Sep 2013 13:25:55 +0000

A couple of classic syllogistic fallacies, regularly found in this sort of polemic:

I like SF; I don’t like these books; therefore these books are not SF.

Brilliant critiques of literary and cultural conventions often offend people; my piece has offended people; therefore my piece is a brilliant critique of literary and cultural conventions (and if you’re offended, you’re just confirming my brilliance).

By: Tim Hall

Tim Hall — Fri, 06 Sep 2013 08:38:40 +0000

Nothing wrong with defending hard-SF, but "things only a woman could find attractive" crossed a line into overt misogyny, and a good editor should have caught that. But then I looked your site and saw this recent post. http://amazingstoriesmag.com/2013/09/the-language-of-scandal-why-do-progressives-love-scatological-insults Do you really think using scatalogical profantity is morally equivalent to being a white supremacist? If you think "diversity of opinion" means giving a soapbox to racists and misogynists, then I'm not interested in supporting your site.

By: steve davidson

steve davidson — Thu, 05 Sep 2013 23:30:02 +0000

please read today’s editorial for a bit of background and information on the situation on the site

By: Michael

Michael — Thu, 05 Sep 2013 21:57:41 +0000

For something to count as horror it only has to have the intent to scare its audience. The presence of a vampire in a story most certainly does not define that story as being in the horror genre.

I remember being in a D&D campaign in which we ended up trying to work out how quickly vampires could be killed and from there we advanced to how many vampires could be killed in unit time, eventually concluding that the limiting factor is actually how many vampires can be taunt into attacking the party through a Druidic Wall of Fire running at 4d4+12 followed by a magic user’s Wall of Fire (sorry, I don’t remember what damage that was doing) but very few 8d8 monsters survive that and those that get past the Fighter Lord attacking on pre-initiative and a high Dex archer then blow up on the Negative Plane Protection the moment they touch someone, which always takes at least two attempts because the party are wearing Displacer Cloaks. So that is not a horror story, it’s action tending to comedy.

By: Graham Meigh

Graham Meigh — Thu, 05 Sep 2013 19:54:19 +0000

I’ve just scanned Cook’s article. I was going to write a response… but, well if you met this guy at a party you would be back paddling at high speed.

By: Tim Hall

Tim Hall — Thu, 05 Sep 2013 19:15:15 +0000

The trouble with defining genres is that no two people have precisely the same definition of that genre.

I remember discussion the “Horror” many years ago with someone whose definition was “It’s got things like vampires or zombies in it”. My definition was that to qualify as horror it had to be scary, and if you used vampires purely for comic effect it wasn’t really horror.

I think it was Ken Hite who pointed out that neither definition of horror was necessarily wrong, but a consensus definition ought to include both.

By: Serdar

Serdar — Thu, 05 Sep 2013 18:10:12 +0000

Also, merely having an opinion doesn’t guarantee offense. Having a misinformed and prejudicial opinion, on the other hand …

By: Serdar

Serdar — Thu, 05 Sep 2013 18:08:58 +0000

You know that I have my own definitions of what is or isn't SF&F (ha! see how I cast the net that much wider by default right there?), but they're more about intentions and outlook than they are about ingredients. Pounding on Wolfe is modestly silly, but pounding on Bujold -- one of the better SF writers working right now -- is just plain ludicrous. Plus which, if all that stuff is "straight out of Alexandre Dumas", what precisely is wrong with that? Dumas was and still is a terrific writer and entertainer; I routinely recommend "The Count of Monte Cristo" to prospective SF&F authors, and it's startling how many of them have never actually read it. A lot of so-called SF is indeed shoot-'em-ups in space, and anything that imbues it with that much more of a human touch is welcome.