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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Pielorinho" data-source="post: 227131" data-attributes="member: 259">A trio of points:--Xarlen, it's not necessarily important whether the sf/fantasy shows i mentioned were high in ratings, so much as it's important that they're the highest in ratings of sf/fantasy shows.  Several of the shows I mentioned were primetime shows on network television; we're not talking about Tales from the Crypt here.  The point is that major mass-market f/sf stories contain strong female leads and intense sexual themes, contrary to AO Scott's claims.--EOL, I don't believe that only a f/sf fan is qualified to write about the genre.  I do believe that if you want to write a survey of the state of s/sf fiction, you gotta do your research.  AO Scott might despise the genre (and, from reading his reviews for the past year or two on the New York Times, I suspect he does), but if he did the necessary research to write intelligently, I wouldn't be complaining.  It's his ignorance, not his bias, that bothers me.--Shadowdancer, I learned the exact opposite what you learned about arguing.  If you want to make a point, you should anticipate and answer the most obvious objections against it.  Mr. Scott had a huge word count, a lot of which he squandered on rhapsodizing about the teenage losers who make up sf's audience; had he cut two paragraphs of that sneering lyricism and replaced it with a short discussion of countervailing trends in the genre (e.g., Buffy, McCaffrey, Like Water for Chocolate), he would have greatly strengthened his essay, by admitting to nuance.  As it is, his thesis is transparently simplistic to anyone with a working knowledge of f/sf.If folks are interested in some intelligent analysis of f/sf, I encourage you to track down "The Trillion Year Spree", a book by Brian Aldiss that offers a wonderful, opinionated history of science fiction; and an essay by Le Guin called something like "Here there be Dragons."  Le Guin also has a cool essay on her Web site called <a href="http://www.ursulakleguin.com/OnDespisingGenres.html" target="_blank">"On Despising Genres</a>; check it out!Daniel</blockquote>

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