An interesting screed. Partly because I've always been far more connected to science fiction (and its fandom) more than "mainstream fiction", so I'm sharply aware that there is a lot of fiction out there that this discussion is *not* about. And I note that SF has a lot of male readers. But SF doesn't seem to be afflicted with an ideological filter in the same way ... or rather than "ideological" filter, a filter about what sorts of emotions, and hence, themes, conflicts, and actions, can be portrayed. (I wonder how "Other Men's Daughters" (1973), otherwise "The Middle-Aged Man's Wet Dream", would play in the current literary universe ... despite being solidly anchored in real life.)
Looking at the Doonesbury for Jan. 5, I think it's picking up on this issue! And I suspect the final "I'll have him console their widows" is a quiet reference to Heinlein's "There is only one way to console a widow. But remember the risk."
More seriously, I remember once wondering why the book reviews in the Boston Globe mentioned so many books "about love and loss", when I figured a total of five would satisfy demand for a century. But I suspect that ordinary women readers like that sort of stuff.
I'm not a big SF guy, but from the outside I've gotten the impression that's been caught up in the same moral fads as other genres over the last 10 years. Maybe I'm looking in the wrong places — where should I be looking?
An interesting screed. Partly because I've always been far more connected to science fiction (and its fandom) more than "mainstream fiction", so I'm sharply aware that there is a lot of fiction out there that this discussion is *not* about. And I note that SF has a lot of male readers. But SF doesn't seem to be afflicted with an ideological filter in the same way ... or rather than "ideological" filter, a filter about what sorts of emotions, and hence, themes, conflicts, and actions, can be portrayed. (I wonder how "Other Men's Daughters" (1973), otherwise "The Middle-Aged Man's Wet Dream", would play in the current literary universe ... despite being solidly anchored in real life.)
Looking at the Doonesbury for Jan. 5, I think it's picking up on this issue! And I suspect the final "I'll have him console their widows" is a quiet reference to Heinlein's "There is only one way to console a widow. But remember the risk."
More seriously, I remember once wondering why the book reviews in the Boston Globe mentioned so many books "about love and loss", when I figured a total of five would satisfy demand for a century. But I suspect that ordinary women readers like that sort of stuff.
I'm not a big SF guy, but from the outside I've gotten the impression that's been caught up in the same moral fads as other genres over the last 10 years. Maybe I'm looking in the wrong places — where should I be looking?
Well, I've been busy and haven't been reading much SF over the last 10 years, so I'm not much of a guide there.