It is hilarious to read some of the sniping from that wankland occupied by many critics and wannabe academics of SF world. In that place it is possible to get away with the most egregious left-wing fuckwittery but, if you do not agree with their common purpose, you are first described as a clumsy and generally bad writer, then farcically branded ‘too political’! If an author writes the most grotesque Marxist diatribe dressed up as SF, the critics from this region will be fulsome in their praise, their literati masturbation frenetic as they mount his leg like over-excited terriers.
The above is my brief reaction to some shite I’ve read on the Internet about my stuff. Some while ago an American SF writer was in contact with me. With a degree of disbelief he said, “You’ve actually admitted to being Conservative … and you write science fiction?” Actually, I disagree. Since you’d have difficulty slotting a fag paper between the British Conservative and Labour parties, and since they are equally undemocratic and authoritarian, I style myself Libertarian i.e. I’m for small government, less interference and hey, let’s stop the growth of the thought-police right now. But I knew precisely what that writer meant by his comment, and am relatively unsurprised by the reaction I get from some quarters.
Damn but it must peeve these people to know that despite my not buying the party line I’m simply not failing and fading away into obscurity.
No, I’m not paranoid, though I’m sure the guy following me is.
11 comments:
...and of course "conservative" for yanks means something completely different from the old-boys-club-lawyers that make up any of our mps (any party).
personally i'd like to see the entire political system changed to reflect something akin to a libertarian meritocracy.
Respect to our host for not linking to the wankery concerned - far better to rise above such things. Also, I have to say that, having read pretty much all of the books, it has never occurred to me to wonder what the Author's political leanings might be. Not everybody has such blythely disinterested political antennae I guess, but it is funny what some people can get aerated about.
Well... you have to remember that for every left-wing fucktard there's an equally brain-dead right-wing SF'er who's answer to every question is "Have you read Ayn Rand?"
You're correct Jebel. Their centre ground is to the right of ours. The poles of right and left seem almost irrelevant now and should be replaced with authoritarian/ libertarian.
Redcoat, linking gives them oxygen, which I won't do. As for you not noticing my political leanings, that's because, like most sane people in this country, you're not meticulously searching for that opportunity to be offended, point a finger, and hysterically scream "Racist! Sexist! Capitalist!" or whatever 'ist' or 'ism' is preferred.
Totally disagree, Ian - there isn't that degree of balance. Would the American SF writer I mentioned be so worried about wearing his politics on his sleeve if that were the case? No. Left-wing fucktards outnumber right-wing fucktards in the SF world.
Funny you should mention Ayn Rand. I'd heard 'Atlas Shrugged' often mentioned so I thought I ought to try reading it. It's well written and probably quite apposite, but I'm finding the endless depictions of human stupidity quite wearing. I suspect it's one I won't finish.
I can only remember one time where I got an impression of your politics from your fiction, which is a pretty amazing batting average, considering even the most evenhanded writers have some bleed through of their personal sentiments. I do think it is interesting that the Polity is not really that close to a libertarian ideal, but the AI's do let us pretend we are living in a libertarian ideal if that's our bag. Keep thinking like that and you might just be one of us Americans at heart after all, Neal.
On the subject of paranoia, I do have to say that I often praise you on comment boards, but there is the slight hesistation where I think "everyone's going to assume I agree with everything on his blog," which I do not. But then I say the hell with the wankers: good SF is good SF. (However that Twilight deal is a whole other matter; I really cannot associate with people who are into that sort of thing...next it will be Barney the dinosaur and reality TV, yeesh.)
Think is, privateiron, if I concentrated on writing an SF story to the 'libertarian ideal' I would then be concentrating on politics and not entertainment.
I judge books not a writer's politics. There's a lot of books out there by some real hard lefty types, and a lot of those books I really love.
I think my Twilight addiction got broken by book three. I can be very slow, which, incidentally...
Who cares he's a Yank. Nuff said.
(Checks passport and realises self was born in U.S.A)
Haha (laughing it out). There, settled.
Atlas Shrugged is on my bedside table, but I haven't started it off yet. Doesn't really pull you hard like insane war-drones and joke-cracking golems does it.
in the beginning there was Heinstein who's brilliant Saudi politics turned into alien orgies and eventual mushy pap.
then came Jerry Pournelle. empires have a dull far away look sorta interesting off and on.
"Dont Fuck With The Culture"
then Ken McLeod and Bruce Sterling's gift culture short story that i cant think of what the title was..."Maneki Neko"?
comrades,
none of these had any affect on me, heil hitler.
Atlas Shrugged seems to keep cropping up wherever I go on the net lately. Must find out what it is!
Fuck em Neal, you bring balance to the force if you sit on the other side of the fence.
Leftwing Nazi tossbags. Who gives a flying fig, about your politics, your a writer. The mind truely boggles. I've said it before... but I have an easier time understanding Particle physics, Brane holes, and underspace than I do understanding politicos and the religious. I've now got a stress headache and I think I'm going to have to kill some Mink or maybe a whale.
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