Tag Archives: genre bashing

Ian McEwan is Clueless about Science Fiction

I have to admit that I never liked Ian McEwan. He always struck me as the sort of white middle class dude novelist who believes that his white middle class dude stories are somehow of universal human relevance. I disliked … Continue reading

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Nobel Honours for SFF Writers and More on the Latest Round of Romance Bashing

First of all, the 2017 Nobel Prize for Literature has been awarded to Kazuo Ishiguro. This is not a name I was hoping for (my personal Nobel Prize wishlist is topped by Ursula K. Le Guin, Margaret Atwood and Thomas … Continue reading

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Romance Bashing: The New York Times Edition

The New York Times now has a review round-up column for new romance novels, just as it already has one for crime fiction and one for science fiction and fantasy. This is a good thing. However, while the SFF column … Continue reading

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Genre versus Literary – the Crime Fiction Edition

The old genre versus literary fiction debate has reared its ugly head again – and just when you thought that horse was well and truly dead. This time around, the opening volley was fired by one William O’Rourke, emeritus professor … Continue reading

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Mid June Linkdump

At Slate, M.R. Carey gets into the neverending literary versus genre fiction debate, belatedly responding to the attacks on genre fiction by Arthur Krystal (see my posts here and here) and Edward Docx (see my post here). At Bookworm Blues, … Continue reading

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Of She-Hulk, Romance and Soylent Green – The Latest on Gender and Genre

While I was away (photos coming soon), the controversies about gender and genre didn’t dry up. I already blogged about the all women Nebula winner slate and how the usual suspects are pissed off about that. If you can stand … Continue reading

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Can’t you guys take a joke? – Policing women’s speech

Here in Germany, Walpurgisnacht, i.e. the night from April 30th to May 1st, is traditionally a time for partying and having fun, especially since the following day is a public holiday. Most of the time, that fun takes the form … Continue reading

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The media spin machine at full power or This is totally not what happened

We’re still talking about the eight hour stint of Jonathan Ross as Hugo host and indeed the debate about the whole issue has now lasted much longer than Jonathan Ross ever was the official Hugo host (for my previous posts … Continue reading

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Yet more responses to Paul Cook

We’re still talking about Paul Cook’s ill thought out post about what does and does not constitute SF, so here are the latest responses: At Teleread, Chris Meadows cames to the conclusion that Paul Cook was deliberately trolling for outraged … Continue reading

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More Responses to Paul Cook

The uproar sparked by Paul Cook’s badly argued post at Amazing Stories is happily chugging along, so here are the latest reactions. First of all, Steve Davidson, editor of Amazing Stories, has issued an apology of sorts for shutting down … Continue reading

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