Huh

[james_davis_nicoll]

That's one long rambling intro for a recommended list.

Comments

[patrick_morris_miller]

Saw the URL and noped.

[dragoness_e]

Who or what is Tangent Online that you nope out at first sight? I've never heard of them before, but I am not what you might call "widely read" in online SFF.

About the time I hit the "cultural marxism" dog-whistle, I realized this was another (probably antisemetic) conservative curmudgeon blathering on about how being a rude asshole isn't free from consequences anymore even if you're a white man.

OTOH, the answer to "Could a story be sold today if it was (blatantly sexist/racist/antisemetic/fill in the blank)?" is 'yes', given some of the authors Baen publishes. Also, for someone who thinks you could publish anything back in the 1970s, he seems to have forgotten that Harlan Ellison called his anthology "Dangerous Visions" because the included stories had themes that were too controversial for the mainstream SFF markets of the time.

Oh lord, he's worried about the commies under the bed! He also seems to regard murder-suicide as a "misstep". Aaand he's a racist, using the usual racist,alt-right dog-whistles about BLM.

[eagle]

Tangent Online is run by Dave Truesdale, whom you have just experienced. It's basically his personal fanzine, and he regularly writes things like this there.

[elf]

"I have personally never experienced an instance of sexism at an SF convention of any type. My first con was in 1974. 2024 will be my 50th year of attending SF conventions of all stripe: local, regional, national; Worldcons, Nebula Award weekends from Los Angeles, to Kansas City, to New York, World Fantasy Award conventions from Monterey, CA to Corpus Christie, TX, and specialty literary cons like Readercon in Boston, MA. Nowhere have I ever seen or heard a sexist remark or observed an obvious unwanted encounter between a male and female."

Ah. ...Does he think "a sexist remark" means "an open declaration of intention to molest someone?" Because I will grant that those are somewhat rare, especially in public spaces.

[patrick_morris_miller]

'Female' as a noun. What is he, a Ferengi or something?

[ethelmay]

"But he said male TOO, so it's EQUAL TREATMENT! Dehumanizing everyone, just to be safe!" /s

[eagle]

News flash: fish is extremely upset about the appearance of fresh water in the ocean, where no water has ever previously existed.

[pameladean]

"Overheard sleights!" That's a great description of the essay so far as I read -- I bailed at the moment when he brought up how Alice Sheldon had her name "stripped from" an award. Though I just read that bit automatically while goggling at the question of whether anybody had ever wondered why the name of the Campbell Award was changed. Nobody has to wonder, good grief.

P.

[oursin]

'fashionably members of the local socialist or communist branches; it was the cool thing to do at the time'

Gosh, we wonder why, we really, really do.

[jesuswasbatman]

I was particularly surprised by his claim that there are no SF stories offering solutions to climate change. Or does he mean only solutions that don't involve any changes to his lifestyle, or nonsense ideas about "renewable resources"?

[alicebentley]

It's been at least twenty years since I've encountered a Truesdale screed. For a short while I carried his newsletter at my bookstore - taken in by the whole "genre's premiere review magazine" - and I see nothing has changed.