Thank you for this. As a woman, the original post infuriated me. Iām a sci-fi author who designs clothing and cities with technology. Bringing a unique aesthetic to the future has driven the majority of my career. Why is another woman saying that sci-fi and designing the future should be turned into some Jane Austen revivalism? Vomit inducing stereotypical cringe. Elle is usually better than this.
Science-fiction future will be like a divorce on a grand scale. Women can keep the planet, just like the wives get the houses. The men will just go out and take over the rest of the universe. Not a bad deal. We will even leave them some robots that arenāt afraid to kill insects in the kitchen or unblock the toilet.
The Hugo Awards are a fine example of what happens when the Fantasy & Science Fiction future is mandated to be Female-centric. The SWFA is another. Both are now mandating it. See what books the Hugo Awards champion, then force Ms Griffin to read them. That's what Woke and "The Future is Female" has brought to SF/F. Argue for bringing back high-quality writing over political screeds, and maybe you can shave a few years off your 40 year sentence in the wilderness.
For me, any book after about 1998 displaying the Hugo Award on its cover is akin to seeing a biohazard placard. "Stay AWAY! Stay far, far away! Stay a galaxy far away!"
In addition, taking advice from someone who states plainly she doesn't like a thing? Nah. You don't like my gaming table? Find your own. You especially don't get to tell me how things work here.
"We're sorry, you said hateful things toward Ibram X Kendi and you are hereby unallowed to leave your pod for a period of 365 days, to reflext upon your white supremacy and lack of empathy and affirmation, after which you will wash Mr Kendi's feet or be exiled to White Antarctic Station.
The very existence and writing careers of CL Moore, Margaret St. Clair, Andre Norton, and Leigh Brackett negate her entire argument. Due entirely because the former never entered with an eye to do Kennedy style changes from the Top down.
So hysterical! But seriously could that be our futureā¦ā¦ā¦ Really think the gender divide as well as all other forms of separation is only a smoke screen the adversary of ALL Humanity is using to alienate us from our Creator. That is the underlying theme and trajectory this world is on
This is the third time I have had to subscribe to you. Substack seems to randomly unsubscribe me from people without notifying me. It has happened with numerous others.
Having now read the OP, I guess we shouldn't be surprised that the hard sci-fi depiction of the future - gritty, spartan, difficult and dangerous - appeals more to young men than to young women.
But this isn't because hard sci-fi authors are mean or suffering from an overabundance of testosterone. It's because they know their math and physics, and understand that's how it will have to be if you want to travel in space.
We didn't start depicting spacecraft as luxury yachts and bland flying cubicle farms until the space fantasies of Star Wars and Star Trek captured the popular imagination. But these things are, as far as we know, physically impossible. The parts of space fantasy that are not impossible are simply unconscionably costly (like, if you think a superyacht is outrageous, wait until you see the pricetag for a spacecraft "upgraded" to the luxury level of a mere boomer cruise ship).
The Cold Equations, often denounced by the science fantasy crowd, is not a story about trivializing execution-by-way-of-calculus, it's a story about how much impact every single gram of payload has on fuel demands in interplanetary transit. The scenario gives emotional weight to this complication, which is often overlooked when space fantasy authors feel the need to load their spacecraft with casinos and hardwood executive desks.
The same goes for most other science fantasy. When you're poking at the extreme limits of physics, you have to deal with increasingly severe trade offs. You want to run your utopian society on solar power? Well, say goodbye to either most of your population or most of your lifestyle expectations, pick one.
Would you rather run it on fusion and avoid that whole conundrum? Bad news, you're going to need some people doing the very difficult, dirty, dangerous job of fueling and maintaining those reactors, assuming we figure out how to make them, which assumes making them is possible (spoiler: it won't be "clean" and no you can't run it on seawater in any case).
Or maybe you'd like to put the solar panels up in space and beam the power down (RIP birds)? Well now we're back to those difficult, dangerous, scary physically-possible spacecraft.
Want to write a story about how a friendly AI connected to a benevolent brain chip is going to schedule you a slot at the local park whenever you have the sads? Well someone more serious is going to write a dark, dystopian novel about one of the many ways that technology could be abused.
There's nothing wrong with writing fluffy science fantasy. Fantasy is fantasy. If you want your magic reskinned as tech gadgets, by all means. Just understand that this isn't "serious" science fiction; you're no longer writing about possible futures, at least not according to the physics we know today. You're writing about elves and unicorns, whatever you want to call them in your setting.
Thank you for this. As a woman, the original post infuriated me. Iām a sci-fi author who designs clothing and cities with technology. Bringing a unique aesthetic to the future has driven the majority of my career. Why is another woman saying that sci-fi and designing the future should be turned into some Jane Austen revivalism? Vomit inducing stereotypical cringe. Elle is usually better than this.
If you say "HR" as a word, what does it become????
"HER"
COINCIDENCE?!
Science-fiction future will be like a divorce on a grand scale. Women can keep the planet, just like the wives get the houses. The men will just go out and take over the rest of the universe. Not a bad deal. We will even leave them some robots that arenāt afraid to kill insects in the kitchen or unblock the toilet.
The Hugo Awards are a fine example of what happens when the Fantasy & Science Fiction future is mandated to be Female-centric. The SWFA is another. Both are now mandating it. See what books the Hugo Awards champion, then force Ms Griffin to read them. That's what Woke and "The Future is Female" has brought to SF/F. Argue for bringing back high-quality writing over political screeds, and maybe you can shave a few years off your 40 year sentence in the wilderness.
For me, any book after about 1998 displaying the Hugo Award on its cover is akin to seeing a biohazard placard. "Stay AWAY! Stay far, far away! Stay a galaxy far away!"
In addition, taking advice from someone who states plainly she doesn't like a thing? Nah. You don't like my gaming table? Find your own. You especially don't get to tell me how things work here.
If only they had screenwriters like Nobumoto Keiko.
"We're sorry, you said hateful things toward Ibram X Kendi and you are hereby unallowed to leave your pod for a period of 365 days, to reflext upon your white supremacy and lack of empathy and affirmation, after which you will wash Mr Kendi's feet or be exiled to White Antarctic Station.
Have you read Norman Spinrad's "A World Between?"
If not, do so yesterday!
āEveryone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.ā
-āIronā Mike Tyson esq., prophet
The very existence and writing careers of CL Moore, Margaret St. Clair, Andre Norton, and Leigh Brackett negate her entire argument. Due entirely because the former never entered with an eye to do Kennedy style changes from the Top down.
Women donāt design, they have designs.
So hysterical! But seriously could that be our futureā¦ā¦ā¦ Really think the gender divide as well as all other forms of separation is only a smoke screen the adversary of ALL Humanity is using to alienate us from our Creator. That is the underlying theme and trajectory this world is on
This is the third time I have had to subscribe to you. Substack seems to randomly unsubscribe me from people without notifying me. It has happened with numerous others.
Having now read the OP, I guess we shouldn't be surprised that the hard sci-fi depiction of the future - gritty, spartan, difficult and dangerous - appeals more to young men than to young women.
But this isn't because hard sci-fi authors are mean or suffering from an overabundance of testosterone. It's because they know their math and physics, and understand that's how it will have to be if you want to travel in space.
We didn't start depicting spacecraft as luxury yachts and bland flying cubicle farms until the space fantasies of Star Wars and Star Trek captured the popular imagination. But these things are, as far as we know, physically impossible. The parts of space fantasy that are not impossible are simply unconscionably costly (like, if you think a superyacht is outrageous, wait until you see the pricetag for a spacecraft "upgraded" to the luxury level of a mere boomer cruise ship).
The Cold Equations, often denounced by the science fantasy crowd, is not a story about trivializing execution-by-way-of-calculus, it's a story about how much impact every single gram of payload has on fuel demands in interplanetary transit. The scenario gives emotional weight to this complication, which is often overlooked when space fantasy authors feel the need to load their spacecraft with casinos and hardwood executive desks.
The same goes for most other science fantasy. When you're poking at the extreme limits of physics, you have to deal with increasingly severe trade offs. You want to run your utopian society on solar power? Well, say goodbye to either most of your population or most of your lifestyle expectations, pick one.
Would you rather run it on fusion and avoid that whole conundrum? Bad news, you're going to need some people doing the very difficult, dirty, dangerous job of fueling and maintaining those reactors, assuming we figure out how to make them, which assumes making them is possible (spoiler: it won't be "clean" and no you can't run it on seawater in any case).
Or maybe you'd like to put the solar panels up in space and beam the power down (RIP birds)? Well now we're back to those difficult, dangerous, scary physically-possible spacecraft.
Want to write a story about how a friendly AI connected to a benevolent brain chip is going to schedule you a slot at the local park whenever you have the sads? Well someone more serious is going to write a dark, dystopian novel about one of the many ways that technology could be abused.
There's nothing wrong with writing fluffy science fantasy. Fantasy is fantasy. If you want your magic reskinned as tech gadgets, by all means. Just understand that this isn't "serious" science fiction; you're no longer writing about possible futures, at least not according to the physics we know today. You're writing about elves and unicorns, whatever you want to call them in your setting.
This is why I principally write about female characters in my fiction....
The Flight of the Silvers
by Daniel Price
is a fun one, sorta normie not fake and gay.
cf: Big Mother: https://landmademan.com/big-mother/