Surely you're not faulting her for not being perfectly untimely and reactionary.
I don't know about faulting her. She was reactionary on many issues, by the standards of her time. Not just by today's standards but by her own times standards. If she was a reactionary in the 20s by the standards of the 20s, then a best guess is that she would be a reactionary today by the standards of today.
Feminism was an exception. She was a feminist in her own time by her own times standards, albeit at the conservative end of the feminist spectrum of her time - thus I'm guessing today that she'd be a feminist by the standards of today, albeit a conservative feminist by today's standards. You can never know something like this for sure - but it seems plausible to translate where she was compared to others in her time to where she'd be today compared to others today.
(Sneaking in just to tell Typo Boy how much I love the tagline)
/alas, back to work
Donna Leon's Commissario Guido Brunetti mysteries are lovely little reads for down time that take place in Venice and have good food porn, Kristin.
Margery Allingham's Campion series is lots of fun, too. She's always struck me as a very modern-type detective writer.
it seems plausible to translate where she was compared to others in her time to where she'd be today compared to others today.
So she'd be just as anti-Semitic as is acceptable today, and reactionary still in the feminism front? Which would make her a bad Buffista how?
Anyone ever read anything by David Brock? The woman next to me on the bus asked me about my book this morning, which happened to be research materials for my WIP, which then led to a discussion of writing and how she likes historical fiction with alternative history and/or time travel twists. Apparently David Brock was one of her high school teachers, and she recommended his debut novel, If I Never Get Back. It's a time travel baseball story, and I've already got it on hold at the library.
At a guess she'd support the Iraq war, support torture, and think the worst racist problem was prejudice against white people. Her positions on gay rights would probably be sufficiently reactionary and insensitive to offend most Buffistas. Her feminism per se would probably be within buffistas norms. And I know there may well be Buffistas who hold those views. But you will note they don't express them on the board. I'm pretty sure this board is not a comfortable place to express those particular views. (The reason I use anti-gay views, is that I suspect homophobia holds approximately the same sway in the U.S. today as anti-semitism did in the UK of her time. )
Is it common knowledge that Larry Niven is nuts?
Yes. And any guy who can make Jerry Pournelle sound like the voice of reason is really nuts.
Well, maybe we wouldn't be sworn bunkies, but she'd get the joke after a little TV when I say "Lupus? It's never lupus."
Although I don't really think she's "someone I could have a beer with," after all.
But I'd owe her lunch, I suppose.
