WTF is with Sci-Fi authors? Orson Scott Card Loves FoxNews

[Killarney]

First Bradbury, now this.

WSJ editorial from author Orson Scott Card about FoxNews
http://www.opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=110005312
High Bias
"Mainstream" reporters aren't just liberal--they're fanatical.

a couple snips

In other words, we want to hear the truth from a friend. From someone who is one of us. And if it took an Australian-born mogul, Rupert Murdoch, to give us an American national news source, so be it.

The fact remains that on Fox News, and only on Fox News, we get television reportage that gives us at least two sides of every important issue. On all the other TV news outlets--and "mainstream" newspapers--we mostly get coverage that is hopelessly biased. The madmen have taken over the asylum and now, dressed in white lab coats, they pronounce the rest of the world insane.

more...

[Forkboy]

1. Jeez,if Kim Stanley Robinson comes out as a right winger

I'm killing myself :)

[kaitykaity]

2. They haven't had a bestseller in a while?

Maybe they want the bulk buys that Coulter, Hannity,
Goldberg et. al. get?

[DrWeird]

3. Of course he does. He's a complete bigot.

See the Civil Rights forum for more details.

[Khephra]

4. Not meaning to offend, and I hate to ask this, but where have you been?

Card is one of the most extreme RW Science Fiction authors out there, and he's always been that way. I've been hearing shit come out of his mouth for at least a decade.

BTW, David Brin doesn't have that good of an opinion of the Left either.

[Killarney]

5. Gee willy I must be the only one who never knew

Card was a RWinger.

I'll delete this entire thread now as it's useless and I'm a wanker.

OK?

[Khephra]

8. Like I said, not meaning to offend

Card has been one of the most outspoken RWers in the fiction field since he started. He's been a frequent topic here on DU too.

[LizW]

12. Do Card's books reflect bigotry and right-wingery?

I ask because I've never read them and Ender's Game is on my kid's summer reading list for school.

[Cat Atomic]

14. I don't think so, personally.

I mean- he's not like Heinlein, who's politics ooze from every page. I read a couple of Card's books without ever picking up on his politics. I think his religious views show up in his work alot more than his political views.

On the other hand, Heinlein was one hell of a writer. I love most of his work. Orson Scott Card is just boring, in my opinion. Even Ender's Game. I think it's highly overrated.

[LizW]

21. Thanks

I appreciate the info.

[LondonReign2]

25. Yeah, his books are pathetic

For the life of me, I can't figure out the obsession with Ender's Game. It is, IMO, a pretty lame book. It has a surprise ending that isn't a surprise, and the "revolutionary tactics" wouldn't cut it in a game of paintball.

Heinlein, OTOH...awesome. And yes, he was a raving libertarian, but god could the man write.

And yup, Card is a fanatical Mormon.

[Lisa]

34. there are some libertarian SF writers ...

Heinlein, as the others mentioned -- and Bradbury, to some extent (though given the Cold War context, it's possible to view this as a rebellion against authoritarianism in general). I get the impression that Card's work become more RW later on. The original "Ender's Game" short story, I think, is more effective than his books. If you're concerned about your kid reading that book, consider going over the short story first with him/her and discussing the implications of a government deceiving its soldiers about a war.

p.s. this got me thinking about various SF authors' treatment of war. Recently I read Greg Bear's "Anvil of Stars", where one of the characters destroys an entire solar system based on the suspicion that they might be concealing WMDs (incidentally, this was written a long time before Bush took over). Bear doesn't glorify the character, but I still don't think he addressed the situation fairly (another character who raises the possibility that they're all being used as pawns is dismissed as a raving loonie).

Robert Silverberg -- and certainly Ursula K. LeGuin -- give different perspectives. And I finally got around to reading "Downwards to the Earth", which uses an SF background to critique imperialism.

[Forkboy]

13. I've read a couple interviews with Brin and he's an ass

Which is a shame because I loved both Earth and Kiln People.

[Khephra]

15. I had a brief extended email conversation with Brin on politics

I wish I still had his letters. I stopped before he did as I was growing sick of his comments.

[Forkboy]

18. It's just not right I tell you!

Oh well,as long as the politics doesn't bleed into the story too much I can deal,and I haven't really gotten that from the books of his I've read.

Same with Bradbury.I've read damn near everything he's written and never really gotten an idea of his politics until I saw an interview with him years ago on when his show was on.I still think his books are great reads.Sometimes I wish I didn't know about the authors.

and hey,new Skinny Puppy is really cool! :)

[Khephra]

20. Glad you liked it!

With both Ministry and SP back in their prime it seems like the early 90's again...the good part of the 90's that is.

[lectrobyte]

24. exactly -- I'm surprised anyone would be surprised by this

[mainer]

6. As opposed to mystery writers

who tend to be way left.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

11. They do indeed tend to be left,

especially the writers of the grittier, more realistic mysteries, as opposed to the Jessica Fletcher-type "cozy" writers.

Dealing with the seamier side of life, they are unable to pretend that everything's fine and dandy in our society.

[MetaTrope]

7. As a longtime science fiction reader

It saddens me to say that the vast majority of SF writers are pretty much clueless when it comes to, you know, people. My head went through a 360 degree spin when I reread some favorite Larry Niven novels after I had gained some familiarity with cultural anthropology.

Michael Moorcock is the only one I know who seems to have a handle on what's happening with the junta. And Ellison, but he's not talking about it.

Along similar lines, I'm disappointed that so many of the rancoteurs and professional gadflies have pretty much fallen silent since Bush took office. Hunter Thompson seems to be the only one with a regular gig, and that's on ESPN...

[Khephra]

10. Try China Miéville

("Perdido St. Station", "King Rat", "The Scar" and "The Iron Council".)

He ran as a Socialist in the UK and is friends with Moorcock (who is back editing INTERZONE).

Here's a list of China Miéville's that's useful for Lefties:

Fifty Fantasy & Science Fiction Works That Socialists Should Read

http://www.fantasticmetropolis.com/show.html?rw.50socialist

[blindpig]

26. Mieville is the stuff!

Best new sci fi/fantasy author that I've encountered in a long time. Cannot wait for The Iron Council! Wasn't aware of his politics, might have something to do with why I like his work.

[vision]

46. Moorcock has a new book comig out

It is a 4 issue limited series being put out starting in September from DC with art by Walt Simonson. "Elric: The Making of a Sorcerer" http://www.multiverse.org/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=72
http://www.dynamicforces.com/htmlfiles/p-C101615.html

It should be great IMO. Simonson is a fantastic fantasy artist and should work will with Moorcock.

Also another lefty Sci-Fi writer is Peter David. http://peterdavid.malibulist.com/ He has written some of the best Trek novels out there and his comic work is great also.

Neil Gaiman is another writer that leans to the left. Sandman is top-notch and I am looking for his Neverwhere TV series as I enjoyed the book. http://www.neilgaiman.com/journal/journal.asp

So there are some Sci-Fi that is still liberal.

[stinkeefresh]

9. he's a hard-core Mormon

that pretty much settles his politics.

[GreenPartyVoter]

16. Didn't know OSC was a RWer :^(

[starroute]

17. SF writers were overwhelmingly left-wing in the 50's and 60's

There was always a right-wing/libertarian component (Heinlein, Poul Anderson, Larry Niven), but they were a minority. The most typical 50's writers, like Fred Pohl, were classic lefties. And 60's writers tended to be cultural radicals, like Joanna Russ, Samuel R. Delany, Tom Disch, or Norman Spinrad.

Something changed in the 70's and 80's, though. Partly the field got more commercial and less idealistic. Partly the old liberal dream of a bright techno-utopian future sputtered and died. Except for the cyberpunks, most 80's SF was retro, militaristic, or libertarian. And though the space mercenary genre seems to have died a merciful death, things in general haven't gotten much better.

Even fantasy these days tends to be more liberal than SF, though generally in a wiccan/tree-huggie sort of way. (That's not meant as a put-down -- I just mean your typical heroic fantasy doesn't have a real strong sense of class warfare.)

It would be nice to see SF shaken up again.

[Lisa]

39. Terry Pratchett does a nice job of bringing up class issues ...

I've noticed that some of the situations he satirizes in the "Discworld" books go right over the heads of many North Americans, though.

I have wondered about trying to write a novel that exposes a certain classic work of heroic fantasy as the "CNN" version of what really happened -- there would be shrieks of outrage from Tolkien fans though (not to mention the copyright issues!), so I'd basically have to make up both the propaganda and true stories.

[starroute]

42. I've been thinking about Pratchett's "Night Watch" a lot lately

It's his second most recent (from 2002) and has a scary amount of relevance to what's going on this country today. I keep wondering about just how prophetic it's going to turn out to be . . .

[toddaa]

19. I surprised...

...that anyone is really astonished by this. Pick up any hard SF novel, and it tends to generally be about shiny guns, military conflict, and enlightened despotic ruler wannabees who know better the misguided rable.

Wouldn't it be really cool of PK Dick was still around? He'd love GW.

[hunter]

22. Orson Scott Card opened up the door to the real world...

...and in a raw panic he slammed it back shut again. This was back when he and I were both Atari 800 computer geeks.

Before Card's brain froze into it's current dismal crystalline state I had a friend who pulled up her shirt and asked him to autograph her breasts. Someone should ask him about that. Why not? It couldn't hurt.

Anyways, it's not true that all right wing or libertarian authors have frozen brains. Pickled maybe, but not frozen.

[DrBB]

29. American SF has always leaned Libertarian

...from before Libertarian was a word. Heinlein's the classic example, of course. Thing I liked best about Verhoven's film of Starship Troopers was he proved you could parody Heinlein simply by taking him at his word.

Important exceptions include Le Guin, P K Dick, and Gibson. But the so-called "hard" SF writers have long tended this way. Niven, Pournelle--I could cite a lot of examples. It's not coincidental that the pre-WWW internet (back in the alt. days) leaned hard in this direction--lotsa hard-SF readers among the programmers, and the two communities overlap quite a lot.

[hunter]

31. Pournelle has turned against Bush.

I see this happening a lot. People who call themselves Libertarians or Classical Conservatives who were mildly supportive of the Bush Administration are now turning against it.

They may have voted for Bush in the last election, but this election they will vote third party or, in their own words, hold their noses and vote for Kerry.

[wellstone_democrat]

38. Pournelle turned? I'm shocked

he and Niven creeped me out with their nihilistic views of the future and the strong-man world that "naturally" evolves.
A new-ish boyfriend recommended their books and ....well, that made me look more than twice at the boyfriend. Anyone who raves about the "realistic view of human nature" that these two have is (and was!) a candidate for a kick to the curb...

[DrBB]

40. Yes, well, "LIbertarian" after all means

... "I sometimes pretend to be independent." A few of 'em are even honest about it.

[Beacho]

23. Trying to remember one author

I was grabbing up books when I was going to a field exercise, way back when.

Just grabbed what I could, this one space opera had the premise that democracy was actually evil and the monarchist were the good guys! I stopped reading after four or five chapters. Looking at the back, I was horrified that it was a series!

Now I read, and am entertained, by militaristic, reactionary sci-fi as something to to get me through the day(Pournelle, Drake, Saberhagen). Rock 'em, Sock 'em, cowboy scifi is a guilty pleasure of mine. But PRO-MONARCHY, ANTI-DEMOCRACY propaganda? I swear this crap made Tom Clancy look like Ursula K. LeGuin!

Yikes!


I tossed it under the treads of my Bradley, when we moved out.

[bobbieinok]

27. John Ringo writes pretty good military sci-fi but he's also pretty

right

[bobbieinok]

28. Analog (I think) use to drive me crazy it was so anti-environmental

concerns.

Nearly always some recap of 'recent' history in which the green neo -luddites destroy society

[hunter]

30. Yeah, Analog, back when Ben Bova was editor...

But that was a long time ago. Stanley Schmidt, the current editor sometimes prints a story like that, but more often he'll print stories depicting earth (or another planet) suffering under man-made environmental catastrophes.

[xocolatl]

32. The only sci-fi I could stomach was Ursula LeGuin

whom I love. She's fairly left-wing, from what I can tell.

The people I know who are into sci-fi are generally apolitical.

[Lisa]

33. so maybe he just appreciates a fellow purveyor of fiction?

After all, that's what you get from FOX.

[ikojo]

35. One reason I found myself reading less and less

sci fi in the 1980s and attending fewer conventions. I was awaking to my political self and found most sci fi fans were libertarians and that did not sit well with my politics.

[starroute]

43. Not all SF fans are kneejerk libertarians

I'll grant you that there are far too many among the standard clueless nerds who make up the bulk of convention attendees. But it does get better if you lift your sights a couple of notches. See, for example, the blogs of Avedon Carol (http://www.sideshow.free-online.co.uk) and Patrick Neilsen Hayden (http://www.nielsenhayden.com/electrolite).

[Pepperbelly]

36. Heinlein was a rightie.

It broke my heart when I found out.

[xocolatl]

45. No wonder I could never connect with his work.... (n/t)

[Chovexani]

37. Card sucks anyway

I've never been a fan of his stuff. I think Ender's Game is mucho overrated.

You want good SF read Octavia E. Butler...she has some great stuff and is about as liberal as they come. Try her Earthseed books, they are prophetic for our times.

[midnight armadillo]

41. Try Frank Herbert

He considered "Dune" to be a novel about environmentalism. That's not your usual right-wing topic :-)

[xocolatl]

44. Also sympathetic to A-Rabs

... not even in a subtle way ...