Skip to main content

Times like these

I get e-mailings from Glimmer Train Press. I keep meaning to send them a short memoir type thing I have that is arguably "literary". Anyhow... The e-mail announcing the latest contest deadlines begins...
In these times, we have to keep our eyes on the things that matter most: the life and health of our families, our communities, the planet.
These times? What is that? Mondays?

Oh, I'm fairly certain I know what "these times" is referring to, but I still get a chuckle out of the assumption that those receiving the e-mail will find some connection with that opening statement.

I've talked about assumptions before. And at least Glimmer Train was euphemistic enough that it was amusing rather than annoying.

I'm annoyed enough to stop clicking on Making Light just to check to see if maybe there is something useful about publishing or writing science fiction posted. I've been directed to good threads there about publishing with links from other people but waiting for those links might be my best option because I'm only finding politics when I look, and mostly the "aren't conservatives imbeciles" sort. Knowing that the authors are a couple of the major science fiction editors in the business makes me wonder... does the blog exposure effectively thin their workload of manuscripts containing unwanted ideology?

Well, it can't annoy me if I don't look.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Tyranny.gov vs Tyranny.com

Compulsion is Compulsion, no matter who does it.  This is Brilliant Theft is Theft, no matter who does it. Freedom of Association has no room in it for *private* action   that takes that away Freedom of Association. If I have a business and have voluntary associations such that I choose to serve some people and to not serve others, that might make me a jerk and it might lose me business, it might make me smart and it might gain me business, but it's got to be my choice.  If I would normally serve the current disliked minority in my shop except for the fact that if I'm SEEN to serve them by the wrong people I'll have a private campaign against me as those people do everything possible to ruin me by preventing me from doing business physically or by attacking my customers or suppliers, then I am NOT free to make those choices. Does it really make a difference to losing my CHOICE to voluntarily associate if there's a law that says I may not serve "those people" o...
Post a Comment
Read more

Don't Look Down by Crusie and Mayer

Not really a review, just wanted to say that I enjoyed this book, _Don't Look Down_ by Jennifer Crusie and Bob Mayer. I went to Amazon to get the link and noticed that it's getting trashed in the reviews by people who have been fans of Crusie's romance novels. I can see why they were upset but I hope she continues to collaborate with Mayer because all I can say is "your loss is my gain." I'm also going to be looking for Mayer's books written as Robert Doherty to check them out. _Don't Look Down_ is a silly novel that had me laughing or trying not to let the kids see I was crying... The laughs weren't belly laughs and the tears weren't heart wrenching sobs... It was just fun. And it *was* a romance. With guns. And knives. And Wonder Woman action figures with matching "wonder wear" underwear. And the items the international terrorist was shipping to the Russian mob boss? Pre-colombian jade penises. At least two people get e...
11 comments
Read more

How "Representation" In Fiction Becomes Toxic

  Some things sound so obviously good that they don't need to be examined.  One of those things is the idea of Representation in fiction; movies, television or books.  Entertainment where some people are conspicuously absent would seem to be an obvious problem, right?  A person doesn't have to be "woke" or any sort of feminist to occasionally watch an old television show and realize (for example) that all the scientists and astronauts in an old movie are men. It's as glaring an anachronism these days as watching a show where everyone is chain smoking cigarettes. Entertainment should reflect the diverse nature of real life and society because, in the end, fiction has to be even more real than real life.  If nothing else, it makes that entertainment more interesting to introduce characters with a variety of backgrounds and challenges. And so we're told that diverse fiction is BETTER fiction. The way that this rather obvious truth is often framed, often discussed...
4 comments
Read more