I don't go to TOR.com very often, because frankly it is painful. It's the Stupid. It burns.
But today, by misadventure, I went there, and found this:Five SFF Novels Featuring Men Who Don't Give Up Easily
"When one thinks of science fiction and fantasy protagonists, one thinks of figures like Morgaine (Gate of Ivrel), Essun (The Fifth Season), Cordelia Naismith (Shards of Honor), Beatrice Clayborn (The Midnight Bargain) and Anna Tromedlov (Hench). A casual glance suggests these are generally women, which only makes sense. The majority of fiction readers are women and of course they want relatable characters."
Bilbo Baggins? Allen Carpentier? Harold Shea? (Yngvi is a louse!)
"However, it's entirely possible to write a book with a strong male protagonist at its centre ("strong" as in striking, resolute, and/or determined, not as being able to dead-lift surprising amounts of weight, of course—assessing male characters purely in physical terms would be offensively reductive). Consider these five recent examples:"
And then he outlines five books I've never heard of, by authors I've never heard of except for C.L.Polk, another Canadian. Her I've heard of, she's nominated for a Nebula this year.
Now, leaving aside the obscure recommendations, I really do take exception to the "majority of fiction readers are women" business. That's true if you take the entirety of all fiction genres. Are the majority of SF readers women? I strongly doubt it.
The final howler is here:
Of course, I could have chosen other examples. There are literally dozens of books that feature strong male protagonists!
Dozens? Maybe only dozens published by TOR, that's a possibility.
But my vote for "strong male protagonist" in a book coming out this year is Owen Zastava Pitt.
10 comments:
I've been boycotting Tor since Irene Gallo with the support of the Tor editorial staff, slandered the campaigners against puppy-related sadness: calling Peter Grant, Sarah Hoyt, Jagi Lamplighter, (and other men and women who are the Tor crew's moral and intellectual superiors), stupid, hate-filled Nazis.
Clearly, I have missed nothing.
Really, you haven't. I feel dumber for having read that travesty.
They're called Tor-pedos for a reason;
They're bombs so low they're below sea level.
What, me snarky?
I didn't read the link; I felt their was no point.
In response to the reader's claim - there are MILLONS of books out there; to claim you had trouble finding a particular archetype you wanted shows you are either ignorant, lazy, or disingenuous... most likely a combination of the 3.
But since Kitchener is a wealthy liberal suburb of a wealthy liberal city in a wealthy liberal province, unfortunately I'm not surprised!
Greetings, Orvan and Jonathan. There really are millions of books out there with strong male leads. Just none that are nominated for Hugos and none being published by TOR this year.
I like Orvan's TOR-pedo. Even lower than a snake's belly in a tractor rut.
James Nicoll has been reviewing SF since the 1980s at least; I was reading him on Usenet back then. He definitely is leftist, but he also definitely knows the material.
The "literally dozens" line is a dead giveaway that the piece is tongue-in-cheek.
File this post with Vox's "Scalzi admits to being a rapist" nonsense.
Funny that you felt moved to defend Mr. Nicoll's post if I'm so wrong, Rollory.
Also funny that every time I simply cut and paste what one of you Leftists said and then make fun of it, some minion leaps to his feet and yells "the piece is tongue-in-cheek!!!11!"
New Rules, dude. Nothing is ever a joke, nothing is ever "the piece is tongue-in-cheek." If JW Campbell was a racist, then Mr. Nicoll is serious. You asked for it, you got it. Toyota.
But then, the supporting evidence, there are my lying eyes. Most Big 5 published SF these days, since about 2009/2010 has women being "strong" at the expense of men either being losers or being the enemy. This year's Nebula and Hugo nominees were filled with it.
Mr. Nicoll is preaching to the choir. He is deadly serious, just as Scalzi was deadly serious when he threw his hat in the ring for cancelling the Retro-Hugo Award. https://phantomsoapbox.blogspot.com/2020/08/sff-fandom-lets-erase-past.html
Now run on back to vile 666 where nobody calls you on your bullshit.
None of your response has anything to do with what I actually said.
As an aside, I still find it funny that I can get responses ranging from "you're a vile communist" to "you're a shitty right-wing fascist" to "you're a fed agent provocateur" to "ARE YOU A JEW????" just by stating the truth in plain and simple terms.
"None of your response has anything to do with what I actually said."
Sure it does. You just don't like it. We warned you the New Rules would suck, but you insisted, and here we are.
"As an aside, I still find it funny that I can get responses ranging from "you're a vile communist" to "you're a shitty right-wing fascist" to "you're a fed agent provocateur" to "ARE YOU A JEW????" just by stating the truth in plain and simple terms."
I find it hillarious that you think "The "literally dozens" line is a dead giveaway that the piece is tongue-in-cheek" is stating the truth in plain and simple terms. I literally cut-and-pasted what the guy said, and then made fun of it. You don't like my interpretation, so now you're raging on trying to impose your own.
All I did was call you a minion. Truth hurts, eh minion?
Even funnier, some dickhead wanted to know if I was a Jew right here: https://phantomsoapbox.blogspot.com/2021/06/google-dont-be-evil-to-jews.html?showComment=1622660030509#c1292678289725014963
I gave him the response he deserves.
Now hurry home, China Mike is missing his idiot minion. (Does he pay you guys?)
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