Blood & Rhetoric

Megan McArdle from The Atlantic wrote an article last week on explaining science fiction to women that managed to (rightfully so) piss a lot of women off.

One of the more offensive points she had was this little gem:

“Those of you who pitch science fiction to wives and girlfriends who do not enjoy it are probably saying something along the following lines: “Space ships! Alien monsters! Men in tights!” Instead, for women who find that sort of thing distasteful, talk about it as a fairy tale–only a fairy tale with science instead of magic. The basic emotional space it taps is the same.”

Yes, that’s right. Sell it as a magical fairy tale populated by melodrama and unicorns and TRUE LOVE CONQUERING ALL! We chicks just eat that shit up like crazy! That and nothing else! For realz.

Um no. Have we seriously not yet passed all this needless gender warring? Or, much like fitting science fiction and fantasy into neat genres and subgenres, do we still seriously maintain as a species that men and women are so fundamentally different that our tastes simply don’t and can’t overlap?

It’s like watching a bad comedien spin his outdated “women are like this, and men are like that” jokes to an audience where one half of it is rolling their eyes, and the other is too stupid to know any better.

It’s as offensive as marvelling over the idea that black people like reading and writing science fiction.

And ultimately it’s just a moot point; one that I’m tired of. I’m a woman. I do like romantic plots (and unicorns too, actually) but I also love hard science fiction, and I shouldn’t have to qualify that statement or explain myself.

This chick does a better job than I of explaining why this is so stupid, but I wanted to add my voice to the disconted masses of women wondering where this bullshit stems from.

Quote from the New York Times:

“I myself despise Islamism, because it wants to create a society that I detest, based on religious belief, on a text, on lack of freedom for women, intolerance towards homosexuality and so on — we know it well.” He called fundamentalist Christians with similar views “equally absurd,” though at least they are not trying to kill people.”

Well, killing abortion doctors does kinda count as “killing people,” but only in the technical sense of the term.

And we all know what this means: Breaking News! Author Ian McEwan Murdered by Islamic Extremist Group Over Racist Comments!

I caught up to all this too late, but I couldn’t resist!

Basically, some random wrote an absurd article over at Forbes about how “Amazon Could Change Publishing!!!”

(I added the exclamation points myself, and I’m not bothering to link to the idiot article in question because it ENRAGED me)

The funniest response thus far has been by Sir Thomas de Kay over at 101 Reasons to Stop Writing.

Imagine a world with no middle man to wade through the horibble, horrible slush.

If you already feel overwhelmed by the amount of published crap that makes it through the big filters, imagine even those imperfect filters turned off and us, the poor consumer becoming the slush pile reader?

It would be anarchy! Anarchy!

Wow. James Frey has emerged from the Cave of Shunned Literary Aspirations and Tears (yes, it’s a real place) to write yet another work of fiction and HarperCollins is releasing it!

“There will be a lively media response to the book, but we’re publishing it because it is an extraordinary piece of work,” said Jonathan Burnham, publisher of the Harper imprint. “He has a huge number of fans. They will come readily and eagerly to this novel, which is emotionally powerful.”

Bright Shiny Morning (released next week) is described as thus as Amazon:

“One of the most celebrated and controversial authors in America delivers his first novel—a sweeping chronicle of contemporary Los Angeles that is bold, exhilarating, and utterly original.

Dozens of characters pass across the reader’s sight lines—some never to be seen again—but James Frey lingers on a handful of LA’s lost souls and captures the dramatic narrative of their lives: a bright, ambitious young Mexican-American woman who allows her future to be undone by a moment of searing humiliation; a supremely narcissistic action-movie star whose passion for the unattainable object of his affection nearly destroys him; a couple, both nineteen years old, who flee their suffocating hometown and struggle to survive on the fringes of the great city; and an aging Venice Beach alcoholic whose life is turned upside down when a meth-addled teenage girl shows up half-dead outside the restroom he calls home.

Throughout this strikingly powerful novel there is the relentless drumbeat of the millions of other stories that, taken as a whole, describe a city, a culture, and an age. A dazzling tour de force, Bright Shiny Morning illuminates the joys, horrors, and unexpected fortunes of life and death in Los Angeles.”

I must admit, I’m a little confused by whole “celebrated author” thing. He’s really one of our most celebrated authors? What the fuck? And kudos for using “controversial” in the cool, noncomformist sense of the word. Like he’s our wee little literary rebel.

Although I have no intention of actually reading this, I am excited. Mostly because I honestly thought Frey would commit suicide after the way Oprah guilt tripped him on her show. Personally, I would have been in tears. She’s a scary woman.

Good for you Jamie (can I call you that?)

I can only hope a similar scandal will one day help me skyrocket in the bestseller charts and to be mentioned in every literary magazine and blog.

Well played, sir, well played.

I’ve bitched about this book trailer business before, but now this post on GalleyCat caught my attention.

HarperCollins has announced the launch of an in-house digital video studio.

They plan to shoot approximately 500 videos annually, and it seems as though the focus is going to be on author’s talking about their work. Trailers for novels themselves will be mostly outsourced.

And the public still won’t care.

I will continue to maintain that this is all a rather lame attempt at marketing that won’t work out in the end. Money can be better spent elsewhere — like in a larger advance!

Yes, they are.
 
I came along this post by Nathan Bransford, literary agent, today, and it always shocks me to hear about writers or actors or whomever behaving in the manner described. I suppose it’s people involved in the “arts” in general who exhibit this kind of stupidity, and it’s this same vein of naiveté that leads writers and actors straight into the warm embrace of scam artists just waiting to bilk them out of every dollar they can. Because it all comes down to research.
 
I have no idea how people did anything back in that dark time when “cyberspace” was just a wacky term being used by William Gibson. Falling victim to scams or being clueless about how to approach agents or format a manuscript seems valid when resources were not readily available. 
 
But today? What is your excuse? You don’t have one, and as far as I’m concerned you deserve every bit of derision and/or misfortune that’s coming your way. There’s this tendency to excuse certain idiotic behaviour from “artists” because they’re “following a passion” but so are many other people not trying to make a living from the stage or pen. 
 
And scam artists will continue to operate, so long as the “passionate” continue to act like clueless monkeys. 

There are three major websites warning people about writing/publishing scams. 
 
There are countless pages of advice on how to approach an agent.
 
If you’re really that egomaniacal or moronic to not Google anything and everything before you make a move, you get no empathy from me. Laughter; yes, plenty. But empathy is reserved for people that are not victims of their own doing.