SuzukiSavage.com - Print Page

SuzukiSavage.com
/cgi-bin/YaBB.pl
General Category >> The Cafe >> Sexual bias in Science Fiction and Fantasy
/cgi-bin/YaBB.pl?num=1316353289

Message started by Oldfeller on 09/18/11 at 06:41:29

Title: Sexual bias in Science Fiction and Fantasy
Post by Oldfeller on 09/18/11 at 06:41:29

Back when I was a kid, there were no female SciFi writers. Fantasy had a few, but just a very few female authors but SciFi had like Zero (0).

Roll forward to today and the majority of authors are female in both SciFi and Fantasy classifications. And there are a heck of a lot more publishing authors now than there ever have been in the past.

And I have to say something -- the women are better writers, they weave more complex and compelling story lines and they catch and hold your attention better.

I have just re-read some of the SciFi classics from my youth and find that I now have new favorites that clearly out weigh the ones from the past.

And every single one of the newest ones was written by a woman.

Title: Re: Sexual bias in Science Fiction and Fantasy
Post by Trippah on 09/18/11 at 07:23:46

Which is why it is often said, men commmnicte using the brain stem and their swords and fists, women use the cortex and words. :D

Title: Re: Sexual bias in Science Fiction and Fantasy
Post by arteacher on 09/18/11 at 09:49:14

The first sf novel was written by a woman-Mary Shelly's Frankenstein. It was, for the time, hard science too.
I was an avid reader of sf, starting at about 12 and going til in my 40's. Now I read a mix of stuff.
Another interesting feature of early sf is that, with the exception of Hienlien there was no sex at all in it, I would guess because it was largely nerdy types that wrote it.
SF can be broken down into two main factions: technology based and humanity based. I will agree that women writers are generally better at humanity based sf, which is the current trend in sf, but the male writers are better at technology based sf.
JMTC.

Title: Re: Sexual bias in Science Fiction and Fantasy
Post by PerrydaSavage on 09/19/11 at 03:32:56

I have been a fan of Sci-Fi (primarily the "hard-core" variety instead of Fantasy) since I was about 6 or 7 years old back in the 60's. The very 1st Sci-Fi books I remember reading were The Runaway Robot by Lester Del Rey and Young Visitor to Mars by Richard M. Elam Jr. ... of course the Apollo Moon missions were on the go at that time and I was totally caught up in the excitement and wonder of all that! Started reading Robert A. Heinlein and Arthur C. Clarke around that time too which was the beginning of a love affair with Sci-Fi novels that lasted well into my 30's ... read most everything written by the Classic Masters, including Asimov, Bradbury, Niven, etc., etc. and bunches more by lesser known authors. Goes without saying that the original Star Trek was my fave TV show ... ended up collecting a LOT of S.T. books over the years!
Have to admit though that I haven read too many female Sci-Fi authors over the years ... really enjoyed a few of Anne McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern series ... Ursula K. LeGuin's The Dispossesed was a fantastic book too ... as was Madeleine L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time
Sadly though, in my 30's, after reading a thousand plus Sci-Fi novels since discovering them in grade school, I "burnt-out" on it ... still enjoy the occasional Sci-Fi movie, but hardly read it at all anymore ...

Title: Re: Sexual bias in Science Fiction and Fantasy
Post by arteacher on 09/19/11 at 10:59:08

Yea- it was stuff like "Farmer in the Sky" "Tunnel in the Sky" and "Have Space Suit Will Travel" by Hienlien, the "Foundation Trilogy", by Asimov, Clarke's "Islands in the Sky" and "Rendezvous With Rama" that got me hooked. I firmly believed they kept me away from the drugs that were going around in those days. Two of my all time favorites are:" A Canticle For Liebowitz" buy Miller, and Frank Herbert's "Dune". I even sprinkled cinnamon through the pages of Dune for the olfactory effect of spice. ;D

BTW one of the more pleasant things about getting old is that you can re-read a book that has been on the shelf for a while and not remember the ending. ;D ;D

Title: Re: Sexual bias in Science Fiction and Fantasy
Post by youzguyz on 09/19/11 at 11:37:14

And.. just in case you didn't know.. Andre Norton (deceased) was female. She started writing Sci-Fi back in the 50's

Title: Re: Sexual bias in Science Fiction and Fantasy
Post by arteacher on 09/19/11 at 15:36:47

That is another thing I had forgotten. ;D

Title: Re: Sexual bias in Science Fiction and Fantasy
Post by Oldfeller on 09/19/11 at 16:23:24

You know, they never said that, ever. No jacket cover pics, no bio data, nothing ....

I thought Andre Norton, he was a guy with a French sounding first name.

Ursula LeGuinn was the first woman SciFi writer I can ever remember it being bluntly said she was a woman.

Like the thread title says, there was a good bit of gender bias back then, really.

Title: Re: Sexual bias in Science Fiction and Fantasy
Post by WD on 09/19/11 at 17:15:57

I really only like two writers in the field, Anne McCaffrey and Hienlien.

FWIW, Franklin W Dixon (Hardy Boys) was the same woman who wrote Nancy Drew.

Title: Re: Sexual bias in Science Fiction and Fantasy
Post by Oldfeller on 09/19/11 at 22:42:26

Dune, oh what a wonder that book was when it first came out.

About time for a new remake of Dune the Movie -- every maturing major director wants to take a shot at making his vision of the book come out well on film.

The first part of the Kyle McLauglin / Sting version was very very good, but it was like they simply ran out of money and had to wrap the film up quick like at the end.

(that movie panned big time when first released because unless you were a fan of the books you had NO friggin' idea about what was going on -- on second release they put a cartoon leader on to the front of the movie just to try to get non fans up to speed somewhat, but it was too big of a universe to cover in a cartoon leader and the film still got a rotten rotten review from Siskel & Ebert for being "completely incomprehensible".

No body has ever tried to do Stranger in a Strange Land -- and a few of the other Heinlein stories got butchered up pretty good when they were attempted (Puppetmasters). Star Ship Troopers did pretty good on the very first one, but the follow ups all sucked big time.

They never did get the Mobile Infantry armor suit right at all .... They could do it now, Iron Man showed them the way .....

Title: Re: Sexual bias in Science Fiction and Fantasy
Post by PerrydaSavage on 09/20/11 at 00:40:41

Dune!!! How the hell did I forget to mention that one!! Read several of Herbert's other books in the Dune series, but it was ever only the original novel that did it for me ... man that was one of the BEST!! The film remakes of Dune have always disappointed though ... everyone has a vision of the book in their head and it is certainly difficult to capture a book of that scope that would please everyone. That said, they never, ever got the Ornithopters right ... an ornithopter is an aircraft that is held aloft and propelled by wing movements. Reading Dune as a child, I imagined the Ornithopters as something akin to a mechanical bird ... the Dune films never did capture that ...

Clarke's Rendezvous With Rama ... now there's a book that I'd love to see make it to the Big Screen! McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern too!

Title: Re: Sexual bias in Science Fiction and Fantasy
Post by mpescatori on 09/20/11 at 07:11:38

Guys (and gals) go look for a virtually forgotten collection of articles & essays by Isaac Asimov by the titles
"Is anyone there?" and "Where do we go from here?".

http://img1.etsystatic.com/il_570xN.215365081.jpg

The articles were written in the 50s and 60s and assembled at the end of the decade.
50 years later, the assumptions made and the technology assumed are... moving... :-*

If only Asimov (back way then) could have had just a glimpse of today's average distributed technology (i.e., iPads and iPhones) he would have been shocked.

On the other hand, he would have been disappointed by... no Permanent Space station with a hotel in it, no Lunar Station...

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4037/4520279466_527e6c7412_m.jpghttp://img408.imageshack.us/img408/1220/starbase1.jpg

... nobody on Mars yet (what? Man on the Moon in 1969 and then you sit on your hands?)...

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6208/6052857815_3760a7acbe_m.jpg

And most of all, apparently no Close Encounters of any kind (save for the journalistic bit ;))

I'm an Asimov fan, does it show ? ;D ;D ;D

Title: Re: Sexual bias in Science Fiction and Fantasy
Post by arteacher on 09/20/11 at 12:10:08

If you haven't read "A Canticle For Liebowitz" you should. It is an after the nuclear apocalypse story, which spans the 1000 years after a nuclear war sends us back to the dark ages. It is very well written. The author, Walter M. Miller wrote several short stories, but only only the one novel, and disappeared from the literary scene for many years. Finally after his publisher and fans of the book begged him, he wrote a sequel "Saint Liebowitz and the Wild Horse Woman". It is kind of a missing "chapter" (450 pages) for "canticle". Interestingly it was first published in 1960 but has NEVER been out of print. I have read it a dozen times and find new imagery every time I read it.
That would make a great movie.

Title: Re: Sexual bias in Science Fiction and Fantasy
Post by arteacher on 09/20/11 at 12:17:53

Mpescatori- did you know that Azimov holds the record for the shortest short story ever written? It was written on a bet with some other sf writers over a few beers. It had to have a beginning middle and end, and a theme. It is 25 words long.

Title: Re: Sexual bias in Science Fiction and Fantasy
Post by WD on 09/20/11 at 13:42:05

I think we have those first 2 Azimov books in the attic, along with a bunch of early sci-fi anthologies. Lisa's trip, I prefer Cussler.

Title: Re: Sexual bias in Science Fiction and Fantasy
Post by Trippah on 09/20/11 at 20:41:25

I gave my collection of SF pulp..about 300 paperbacks to my SF college prof..I was leaving for NAM soon and figured that would be the best place for such good stuff. Interestingly I googled my name a few years back and low and behold a fellow with my name wrote a SF Book back in the '60s. Given that my first name is Kirby it was quite a shock as I didn't write it. Life is strange. Haven't been able to trace the author ....

Title: Re: Sexual bias in Science Fiction and Fantasy
Post by mpescatori on 09/21/11 at 06:23:12

3833333A3639382223570 wrote:

Thanks, Arteacher, you have now made me sleepless !!! ;)

I didn't know of the 25-word story, so I googled, yahood, Amazoned, whatevered, but could not find any related link.

Do you have the text ?

:)

Title: Re: Sexual bias in Science Fiction and Fantasy
Post by arteacher on 09/21/11 at 14:51:45

I am pretty sure it was in one of the "Black Widowers" collections, and as I have never thrown out our otherwise got rid of a book I probably still have it.....somewhere. ;D