"Twee" sounds so derogatory when people use it.
That's because... it is? I mean, when I call something "twee" usually I mean it belongs in a Miss Marple mystery. Not in a good way.
See, snotty punk rock criticism can be fun!
Or just... snotty. As you know, Bob, my foot resides in the asses of people who get shirty with the general public for being the general public.
One might easily conclude this after perusing the vapid "Letter From the Clearys," the pompous and bloodless "Sur," or the Abbess-phone-home fakery of "Souls."
Ironically, at least two of these three are not just award-winners -- and by female authors --, but they're the two SF short stories I can think of most commonly anthologized in non-SF collections. ("Sur" is in the Norton Anthology of Women's Fiction, e.g.) But the fact this writer goes out of his way to call out two of the more highly-regarded female authors (Le Guin and Willis; I don't know who wrote "Souls") -- a bit suspect, right there on its face.
Suddenly, perhaps out of sheer frustration, fantasy has movement and color again.
Uh huh. I think I have a new social axiom: Any literary movement that requires a manifesto receives my foot in its ass.
Contrary to popular misconception
This (my whole misunderdstanding of cyberpunk, not the above statement) is one of those examples where I start to think I'm smart and well-read and urbane, and then I wander amongst the Buffistae and realize that no, I'm really just a brain stem in a jar.
t edit
Suddenly I can't even remember what "urbane" means! Maybe it wasn't the word I wanted to use after all!
[begin brain stem communication]
blink...breathe...blink...breathe...blink...breathe....
I think "urbane" is right. I THINK.
I join you in brainstemness, Tep.
insect-eating SCA freaks
Gosh, thanks, I love being sneered at by people on a "my intelligentsia is hipper than yours" kick.
Any literary movement that requires a manifesto receives my foot in its ass.
I'm with Nutty.
What? No love for vituperation and poison pens? How oppressively moderate.
What? No love for vituperation and poison pens? How oppressively moderate.
I have some love, but I think that The Manifesto veered too far into "Goddamn, we are hipper and smarter than you, nyah-nyah nyah-nyah" posturing.
How oppressively moderate
How self-consciously avant garde.
How self-consciously avant garde.
That's redundant, I think. The avant garde is always going to posit itself against something else, which requires some self consciousness. You can't be the leading edge of something without knowing where the previous boundaries were and critique them.
I prefer civil discourse among friends, but I think that in the world of ideas it's better to make your claim boldly and make enemies. Incremental changes can be stultifying and frequently things need to be shaken up and challenged. Orthodoxies get set and moderation really does become oppressive.
