Grasping for the Wind

Lou Anders opens a Can of Worms

At his blog, Bowing to the Future, Pyr editor Lou Anders opens up a real can of worms. Building off a comment made in a review of The Martian General's Daughter he takes issue with people who accuse authors of propagandizing when they are simply writing from their perspective. He states,

"Now, I am neither a Marxist nor a Christian, and I'm no fan of propaganda in fiction whether I'm a fan of it's object or not, but there's a difference between propaganda and an author writing from out of his/her own perspective. I don't have to share an author's belief system to enjoy their craft, any more than I have to endorse human sacrifice to admire the construction of the Pyramid of the Sun in Teotihuacán (and that would be an extreme example.)"

And goes on to say,

"I've always loved science fiction for its extreme wealth of ideas of every size and stripe, and don't feel the genre - which is ultimately a set of tools, not a school of thought - should be limited only to a liberal/socialist world view, even if I happened to share that world view."

I agree wholeheartedly, which is why I review Christian SF&F, paranormal romance, hard SF, Space Operas, Epic Fantasy, etc. To ignore the wealth of spec fic, and its myriad of viewpoints, is to demean yourself.

I highly recommend you read Lou's entire thought HERE. And be sure to comment.

Posted by: John on August 27, 2008 1:37 PM |
Categories: Fantasy/Scifi News | Literature and Language