Comments | silk_noir: Mike Ashley

silk_noir

Mike Ashley

Aug 04, 2009 09:04

I did a little looking around on Mike Ashley, editor of The Mammoth Book of Mindblowing Science Fiction. (See previous post). Seems he's been doing this editor thing for a while, and has a whole bunch of Mammoth short story collections running around.
( Read more... )

race, feminism, science fiction

Leave a comment

Back to all threads

Women in SF anonymous August 4 2009, 18:54:20 UTC

It seems the male-only content of my MAMMOTH BOOK OF MINDBLOWING SF has caused quite a bit of angst, and a lot of questions have been asked. Since the one on this blog is direct, I thought maybe I'd comment ( ... )

Re: Women in SF ktempest August 4 2009, 19:21:06 UTC

Dear Mike Ashley,

Even if I were to accept this as a reasonable reason, that does not explain where all the people of color are. Just sayin'.

Re: Women in SF silk_noir August 4 2009, 19:25:44 UTC

Mike, thank you!

After looking through your work, I thought it was supremely peculiar (mind blowing, in fact, in I may) that someone as cognizant as you would have left out the women. I for one look forward to the apocalyptic sf anthology, as I'm fond of that trope.

As for your statement about stories concentrating on people, etc., rather than hard science concepts, I can't say whether I hope that will change or whether that's all to the good.

Perhaps one day the woman writer who obviously employs both concerns will show herself.

--Marguerite

Re: Women in SF catvalente August 4 2009, 19:35:16 UTC

Women are every bit as capable of writing mindblowing sf as men are, but with women the stories concentrate far more on people, life, society and not the hard-scientific concepts I was looking for.

I can't believe this statement is even remotely acceptable, being a gross generalization and a repetition of something we've heard over and over from male editors, most memorably in the F&SF debate. I find it nearly as offensive, if not more, than the TOC itself.

Women's stories and men's stories are not different. To make a vast, sweeping statement about all women's fiction as a defense against not including them is revolting, and Not Helping.

Re: Women in SF rachel_swirsky August 4 2009, 20:40:39 UTC

And not true, except insomuch as stories by women are going to be read as being about people and stories by men are going to be read as being about science.

Swanwick wrote the introduction to at least one of Tiptree's collections. Are we to credit the argument that none of those stories about science?

Re: Women in SF maevele August 4 2009, 22:13:39 UTC

naw it's that tiptree didn't write any really 'mind-blowing' stories.

Re: Women in SF rachel_swirsky August 4 2009, 23:57:34 UTC

I sooo took you seriously for a second there.

Re: Women in SF maevele August 5 2009, 00:06:48 UTC

oops. i need to use sarcasm tags.

but really, it's easier to assume i am always sarcastic.

Re: Women in SF samhenderson August 5 2009, 01:54:41 UTC

Gotta agree. Nothing innovative or unique about "Love is the Plan, the Plan is Death," nope.

Re: Women in SF icecreamempress August 5 2009, 18:20:25 UTC

It's not just ethically suspect, it's incompetent bullshit.

Seriously, someone who knows so little about the current state of the field to opine something so demonstrably false should really rethink whether he is the right person to be editing anthologies at all.

Re: Women in SF anonymous August 6 2009, 22:06:22 UTC

Long time science fiction reader here.

In my experience, yes - men and women write science fiction differently.

Re: Women in SF catvalente August 7 2009, 05:02:58 UTC

No more differently than the spread between authors of the same gender. All humans write science fiction differently.

Re: Women in SF witling August 10 2009, 22:56:34 UTC

This.

Re: Women in SF tablesaw August 4 2009, 21:14:48 UTC

Maybe, in retrospect, I should've looked harder, but I didn't want to include women writers on a purely token basis. I did in fact contact a couple of women writers early on hoping they could contribute new stories, but one didn't respond and for the other, the timescale for compiling the anthology proved too tight, which was a shame.
Just to clarify. By "a couple," you mean don't mean the informal "a small but undefined number"; you mean two (evidenced by the rest of thes sentence).

I only point this out because on a casual reading, I got hte impression that you contacted more than two women writers. I wouldn't want anyone else to suffer the same confusion.

(The comment has been removed)

Re: Women in SF silk_noir August 4 2009, 21:53:16 UTC

I know a lot of us disagree with what Mr. Ashley says here, but he's being polite. We should be no less.

Back to all threads