This is on the subject of people 'in the SF community' getting exercised when someone like Margaret Atwood says 'oh what I write isn't SF because it doesn't have magenta cyber-badgers'. For a while I have been meaning to post, asking why people care...
Apart from atavistic tribal loyalty I find it hard to understand why people on the SF side of the great divide get so exercised by this. It seems to be a '2 bald men arguing over a comb' situation. Clearly as mr zengineer says the sensible reaction is that they should be pitied. However people on 'our side' are irked which to me suggests a suspicion that on the other side lies more money and better parties. Or perhaps better trousers in the manner of the *** WARNING SPOILER FOR SOMETHING YOU SHOULDNT READ IF YOU HAVE ANY SENSE COS ITS SHITE *** fake *** DID YOU SEE WHAT I DID THERE *** magazine in Spook Country, described as being 'A Belgian version of Wired with better trousers'(*).
Since I am not a big fan of parties I cannot speak to this, but I think we have pretty good parties, and actually all the geeks grew up and became reasonably happy, ahhh.
It is not, for example, as though there are more 'lit-fit' movies or TV programmes / series than SF ones.
I think it must be the parties.
(*) and if this phrase enough doesn't demonstrate Gibson's tin ear for the high tech world of the 21st century I don't know what does.
