Comments on: Invisible Audiences? Invisible to Whom?

By: Hokuto

Hokuto — Thu, 21 May 2009 15:58:53 +0000

I generally only go to two cons a year (one SF/fantasy, one anime), and this year at the SF one, there was a panel called, “Is Female Readership Killing Science Fiction?” (or something similar, I don’t recall the exact title).

The first thing the panellists said was “No,” and we spent the rest of the panel discussing publishing, libraries, and education. Great panel.

By: Sarah Rees Brennan

Sarah Rees Brennan — Thu, 21 May 2009 13:12:32 +0000

I find this post to be made of a hundred per cent concentrated awesome: that is all.

By: Elfwreck

Elfwreck — Thu, 21 May 2009 02:15:29 +0000

This post has been included in a Linkspam roundup.

By: Racefail continues much as one might expect, but I had been optimistic. « Zero at the Bone

Wed, 20 May 2009 08:43:28 +0000

[...] Justine Larbalestier has brings her own (white, female, SF person) perspective in Invisible Audiences? Invisible to Whom?. Thanks to Mim of Mimbles for the link [...]

By: Justine

Justine — Wed, 20 May 2009 01:13:48 +0000

Shveta: I saw that post of yours. Most excellent. I've been so heartened by the wild unicorn roll call and the many excellent posts that have been written in the wake of Avalon's Willow's initial critique of E. Bear. It's wonderful. Diana: That's what's so absurd about their moaning about the death of science fiction. Much of the white boy hard sf is still in print and still being published. And even if it stops being a viable commercial genre, which is what they're really worried about, there are so many different ways to make work available these days. No genre ever has to die anymore.

By: Julia Bonser

Julia Bonser — Wed, 20 May 2009 01:13:07 +0000

I wasn’t reading Science Fiction in the 20’s but I started reading it in the mid 50’s and I seem to remember women writers from then. The one that stands out in my mind is Zenna Henderson. I don’t think Evelyn Sibley Lampman was considered a Science Fiction author as she wrote children’s book but I remember one that involved time travel. She was a regional author of the Pacific Northwest but I believe “The Shy Stegosaurus of Cripple Creek” was nationally known. So I think I started reading SF & F about age 11. I wasn’t picky I read everything in the school library and the community library and wanted more. At age 68 I am still a fan. I was lucky that my first con was Wiscon most of the others seem boring after attending so many years.

My old foggy hat is that to me books are the real SF & F and movies and TV are an add on. It was quite a surprise to me when I learned that my children and their friends mainly went to cons for film and parties. We could go to the same con ostensibly and yet we experienced very different cons.

Your thesis/book sounds fascinating.

By: Morva Shepley

Morva Shepley — Tue, 19 May 2009 23:10:05 +0000

I can’t believe anime doesn’t count as SF to some people. Anime is, as far as I can tell, where the imagination is these days. Of course, YA has always been a good for sheer imagination.

Thanks for the link to Deadbrowalking. I’m sort of looking for authors who write SF&F in English but from various backgrounds. Strangely, although I would expect heaps, given the energy from manga and anime, the popularity of horror (among other things) in Singapore, and the sheer number of writers in India, they are not obvious on the bookshelves of the shops near me.

It’s interesting that you mention the presence of women in SF years ago. There seems to be a pattern in 20thC history of older women being more assertive than those of the mid-century, with younger women becoming more pro-active towards the end.

Cheers

By: rockinlibrarian

rockinlibrarian — Tue, 19 May 2009 21:39:31 +0000

I read something recently in which somebody defined “science fiction” in the very narrow terms of the “white, male-dominated science fiction of boys with their hard science toys” as you described it, and that annoyed me too. Isn’t science fiction just supposed to mean “fiction that takes science fact and asks ‘what if?’ about it”? And shouldn’t a genre that is all about speculation speculate as broadly as possible? Where no (white geeky) man has gone before perhaps?

By: Diana Peterfreund

Diana Peterfreund — Tue, 19 May 2009 20:16:40 +0000

Well, the death of “hard science toys” SF might be sad — there is room for all flavors, and one of my mother in law’s favorite things to do is read SF where she’s got to have a physics textbook in her other hand.

But as I’ve never been to a con, white-male-dominated or otherwise, I can imagine that the “this is the only REAL SF” drumbeat can grow quite annoying.

By: Shveta

Shveta — Tue, 19 May 2009 16:26:31 +0000

This is an excellent post, Justine. Thank you.

And you might be interested to know about a community on LiveJournal called Fen of Color United (foc_u), which had a “Shatter the Silence” day yesterday about just this problem. I’ll e-mail you my post on it later, because it was partially inspired by your “Hurtful Words” post.

By: Rachel

Rachel — Tue, 19 May 2009 14:17:24 +0000

Those letters were fascinating! Thank you!

By: Bill

Bill — Tue, 19 May 2009 12:54:25 +0000

You and Scott argued this point eloquently at ConFusion last year (with Peter Halasz in the Darth Vader role), and I was convinced then, too. I've always preferred stories where girls/women embraced their power: give me Buffy or give me death!

By: Justine

Justine — Tue, 19 May 2009 12:11:18 +0000

Veejane: 2. Only because I was mocking the pompous science fiction boys.

By: Patrick

Patrick — Tue, 19 May 2009 11:22:07 +0000

BY THE POWER OF GREYSKULL!

By: veejane

veejane — Tue, 19 May 2009 10:54:47 +0000

1. Absolutely.

2. Yay, you used whom!

By: Tim

Tim — Tue, 19 May 2009 09:25:02 +0000

But… women don’t have a Y chromosome! Didn’t you get the memo that says that only people with Y chromosomes are able to understand the complexities of science-fiction?! It’s very cute that you, as a woman, are trying to think all on your own…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LS37SNYjg8w