FallenJoe t1_jcm3qd9 wrote on March 17, 2023 at 8:40 PM

Reply to comment by Eeeegah in Do you ever look up the authors you're reading to get to know them better? by justkeepbreathing94

Never look up the lives and opinions of most of the classic sci-fi and fantasy authors. They were an overwhelmingly shit group, it's like every person who was a terrible person fucked off to write sci-fi. Just read their books and be happily ignorant.

If someone starts a conversation about boycotting books due to the views of the author and a bunch of people start sidling for the exit, they're probably sci-fi fans.

Some of them were just incredibly fucked up as people. H.P. Lovecraft in particular was basically a walking bundle of neurosis, fear, and hatred of just about everyone and everything, with a special emphasis on Blacks, Irish, Italian, and Jews.

aFairVeronesa t1_jcnh7ph wrote on March 18, 2023 at 2:46 AM

I really hope my homie Le Guin didn't do anything much worse than use all male pronouns for the aliens in The Left Hand of Darkness.

QueenRooibos t1_jcnoe5f wrote on March 18, 2023 at 3:51 AM

You definitely don't need to worry about Ursula! How I miss her....

https://www.neh.gov/article/ursula-k-le-guin-was-creator-worlds

Fun fact about her -- she never drove. She got a drivers' license in 1947 "but I just never drove, and people who know me are thankful for that".

KiwiTheKitty t1_jcpeejp wrote on March 18, 2023 at 3:18 PM

>Just read their books and be happily ignorant.

I mean it kind of leaks through into a lot of their books, doesn't it? I used to think I hated scifi because of how much sexism and racism was obvious in 20th century stuff (not all of it but a lot of it). Thankfully things are a lot better now!