There’s definitely something in the air regarding discussions about diversity as well as non-US and non-Western POVs in the SFF genre, for here is a guest post by Elizabeth Bear at Charles Stross’ blog discussing how the singularity is a very male and very western concept and how the true future of SF is less the singularity and more the fact that the genre has become a lot more diverse in the past ten years or so.
Cheryl Morgan discusses international science fiction and the fact that the optimism about the future that used to determine American science fiction is still alive and well in countries such as China.
Damien Walter also addresses the state-supported SF boom in China (both he and Cheryl Morgan were inspired by the same comment of Neil Gaiman’s at the same event, too), though he frames it more in terms of “Why SF is important”.
The discussion of how women are subjected to more abuse and harassment online (and off) is also still going on with great posts by Seanan McGuire and Jim C. Hines.
Finally, there is a new entry in eternal discussion of gender equality and the representation of women in SFF, namely this open letter by Juliet E. McKenna to SFX magazine.
She’s kinder to SFX than I would be, considering that I used to read SFX for a very long time (I think the first issue I bought was No. 6) and even continued to buy the mag at hugely inflated import prices of 11 euros per issues and then abruptly stopped buying the mag two years ago, when I realized how bloody sexist the reviews and features often were.
Not a hot topic, but a good post nonetheless is this one by Sherwood Smith on kids and science fiction at the Book View Café. Though I suspect we could file this one under the eternally popular topic of the alleged death of science fiction.
sending...