By way of our friend Anthony Sacramone (I’d link to his blog, but he’s in one of his hiatuses. Hiati?) an excellent article from Intercollegiate Review, “Heinlein, Hugos and Hogwash,” by John C. Wright concerning the sad state of the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America, an organization from which I have also withdrawn:
The purpose of all this hogwash is not to aid the plight of minorities. The purpose is power. The purpose is terror.
One need not ignite a suicide-bomb to enact a reign of terror. One need only have the power to hurt a man’s reputation or income, and be willing to use the power in an arbitrary, treacherous, lunatic, and cruel fashion. For this, the poisonous tongue suffices.
At one time, science fiction was an oasis of intellectual liberty, a place where no idea was sacrosanct and no idea was unwelcome. Now speculative fiction makes speculative thinkers so unwelcome that, after a decade of support, I resigned my membership in SFWA in disgust. SFWA bears no blame for all these witch-hunts, or even most; but SFWA spreads the moral atmosphere congenial to the witch-hunters, hence not congenial to my dues money.
Read it all here.
Interesting. I’ve never quite understood the kerfuffle about Mike Resnick and Barry Malzberg. I mean, I read their comments, and while they sounded gauche, I would hardly think they could be accused of encouraging sexual assault (as one SF whose Twitter account I follow implied).
What do you know about Wright, Lars? He sounds like he’s in a righteous fury, which I don’t think I’ve ever seen in an SF writer.
The kerfuffle comes from the fact that the SFWA has adopted the speech codes of a liberal arts college. I don’t know much about Wright, except that he’s highly respected and a Christian.