Keeping the Conversation Going With L. Jagi Lamplighter (Having only written her name—usually with FB filling it in—I really need to ask L. Jagi Lamplighter what I should call her that involves fewer names.)
Ms Lamplighter attempts to answer what Sad and Rabid pups are objecting to (The Bifrost Between Calico and Gingham). Her answer is different than I would give. Well, I’ll go further than different. She gives an answer that is right for her, but I think has very little to do with the Pups in practice. In specific, I think she shifts what it is that is poking them in the eye, and that is an essential element to the entire discussion. On top of that, she looks at the Pups as engaging in an artistic-political disagreement as opposed to a political-regressive one.
And I don’t think we can do that. Ken Burnside, a firm Pup by my standards and one of the Pups’ 2015 nominees, put it well in his after-Hugo essay, which was mainly pro-Pup, when he pointed out that the basis of the Sad Pups was undermined by Brad’s first post for SP3, when he cut away from talking about good, exciting stories like the ones that used to win, and began talking about a culture war and “victim class check box fiction.” That is, this has little to do with taste and a whole lot to do with misplaced anger.
I’ve seen this play out as rank and file Pups (major Pups avoid specifics) will exclaim their hatred from stories that by the Pup early standards, and by Ms Lamplighter’s explanation, they should love, and seen them love stories that likewise they should hate simply because the author was on the “right” side.
If Brad (and Larry before him) hadn’t gone full-on “the enemy is all around us” then we would be having a very different conversation, like what Ms Lamplighter suggests. It would be a very ‘60s conversation, but it would be different, and preferable.
But OK, let me for a moment take her path, and pretend that this fight is about artistic and entertainment preferences. She uses as an example “Cat Pictures Please,” but I am afraid that is a bad example. Yes, it won the Hugo, but not as the best short story of 2016, but as the ONLY short story of 2016. Publically many Pups will declare the last few years of Hugo nominations were reasonable and non-Pups will declare that the end votes were reasonable, but privately I’ve seldom heard that. I would be surprised if many people are fooling themselves. The noms have been totally about the Pups winning and the final vote has been about stopping them winning. Quality has been meaningless for at least two years.
The Pups left only one legitimate nom: “Cat Pictures Please.” I’d suggest using as an example, “Hungry Daughters of Starving Mothers” by Alyssa Wong as it won the Nebula award (which has managed to avoid Puppy juggling) and it would have made the Hugo ballot had Vox, with some help from the Sads, not kept it off in favor of “Space Raptor Butt Invasion.”
Besides it winning an unmarred award, I’d suggest that switch because “Cat Pictures Please” is a bit too clear on its theme and thus an outlier. It was not a favorite of mine for that reason, and it does bring politics to the front. Not that I cannot jump into less-than-subtle works. “Harrison Bergeron” is nothing but screaming social politics and it is a favorite of mine (that includes me liking its theme). I doubt if there has ever been a heavier dose of message fic than “Harrison Bergeron.” Really, it is all sledgehammer.
“Hungry Daughters of Starving Mothers” on the other hand, is more subtle. Not exactly secretive, but it carries no hammer. And yes, I would discuss it with “Scanners Live In Vain” or “Flowers For Algernon” or “Nine billion names of God.”
Now “Hungry Daughters” has a gay main character. Well, I assume she is gay. Maybe she isn’t. She certainly is so symbolically. And the story, the theme, is one that speaks to homosexual individuals. It also speaks to anyone in a marginalized group. And it does a pretty good job of speaking to everyone, assuming you are willing to listen. If you are not a careful reader, however, it can still work for you as a cool horror story about a girl who feeds on the troubling thoughts of others. Its message shouldn’t poke anyone in the eye unless the mere existence of anyone who might be gay is a poke in the eye (and if that is the case…well, I believe that is exactly the case, but let’s hold on that for a moment.)
“Hungry Daughters” is also beautifully written, far better than many of those stories of old that Pups love to praise. The Golden Age of Science Fiction was not exactly the Golden Age of Excellent Writing.
Now Ms Lamplighter takes the Pups at their word (ignoring all those words about enemies and how we have to defeat the secret cabal against us)—their literary word. That they just want good stories, but that good stories include awesome science fiction concepts.
Pups, according to her, are willing to put up with a lot for awesome science fiction concepts, but don’t like getting poked in the eye, same as non-Pups. Strong politics that disagree with one’s world view is a poke in the eye.
And I agree with that. Though it does make for some pretty delicate readers, both Pup and non-Pup. After all, I am a fan of The Weapon Shops books while I find their theme as dumb as a box of rocks. (So yes, I want my kudos now. Though I much preferred “The Seesaw” to either novel. I find van Vogt a fantastic short story writer, but only a so-so novelist.) But if there is one truth to The Pup Mess, it is that most everyone is extremely sensitive and easily offended. I’ve found the Pups to be extraordinarily easy to offend, but I fear they are correct in asserting that those they oppose are quite easy as well.
So, poking in the eye is bad. Stories that counter one’s world view are a poke in the eye. Yup. I buy that. I think Ms Lamplighter is correct. It is sad, but still, I think she is correct.
Here is where we divide, at least in part, and what I find fundamental: What is a poke in the eye? She states it has nothing to do with racism or homophobia, but is a matter of things agreeing or disagreeing with ones world view. Yes, but I think we should not take racism or homophobia or sexism, etc, off the table, as those are the world views that are behind much of this. Yes, “Abortion is a woman’s choice” could be in there (though for the life of me I can’t think of any abortion spec fic stories—and no, finding one or two does not make a difference).
For the Pups, a whole lot of things poke them in the eye. It isn’t themes that promote other world views (well, it is, but that’s a small part), but simply being reminded that reality isn’t as they insist it is.
“Gays are great,” is a theme, but Pups more often object not to that, but rather to, “Gays exist.” To so many Pups, if a story has a few Black characters, then the story is about being Black, which is hammering diversity at them, which is a poke in the eye. To a Black author, having Black characters is pretty normal—to life though not literature—but to Pups it is weird. Same as gay characters. Same as Asian characters.
No, Pups don’t think: “Blacks are bad. I don’t like them. Don’t put them in stories because I don’t like them.” It is more built in to that world view. Old stories from the Golden Age don’t mention Black characters, so when they see any, it stands out, and that’s odd—it doesn’t fit. (And that, by the way, is the racism normally discussed about the Pups, not anything about disliking a race or racial superiority, but simply sticking with what they assume is a status quo, which they don’t even realize is a White status quo.)
Pups often talk about the glories of the Golden Age, of Campbellian SF and the pulp fic that came before that. Of those space stories with rocket ships and ray guns. But those stories, all of them, were White Americans in space. Every single one. That’s all we were fed. Some are good. Some are bad. But they all have the same perspective. They are all written with the same outlook, and more often than not, with the same style. Even as we get later, it is still the same. I love Dune, but for all its nobles and flashy tech, it is White Americans in space. (In that case, overwhelmingly so as that’s the theme.) Much of my artistic problem with Pup-recommended stories is that they have no voice, or more accurately, they have the same voice. With a few exceptions (such as John C. Wright) all those stories could have been written by the same person. They feel the same. The sentences are the same. The world is the same. It’s copies of copies and I can’t for the life of me figure out why I’d want to read a second rate copy of Heinlein when I can just read Heinlein.
Much of the history of science fiction is one voice, with one perspective, saying the same thing in the same way.
And to the Pups, this is normal. They copy it. They study it. They eulogize it. This same world view. “It isn’t,” they say, “White America because it is in space far beyond Caucasians and the USA.” They don’t even see it. They don’t notice all that’s changed are a few bits of background. They miss that it is the same old White guys because that’s what they are used to seeing. That’s what they expect. That’s what’s normal.
And if it is normal, then anything else is abnormal.
So if the bridge of a ship is filled with Asian women, then that isn’t diverse fiction, but it is fiction about diversity. It must be making a point about Asians and women and that’s poking me in the eye. If on an alien planet the culture has gay males, then that isn’t diverse, but again, must be making a point about diversity and poking me in the eye. The person who drains the dark thoughts of others is a woman, an Asian, and seemingly homosexual—that’s poking me in the eye.
Reality pokes them in the eye. They want a past that never was, of White Americans in space as written by Heinlein and Asimov and Herbert. But new authors don’t have the same background. They write from their own background, and the mere existence of that pokes Pups in the eye. And some White male authors now acknowledge that the world is more than White Americans in space, and that pokes Pups in the eye. And the very occasional non-White, or less often, non-American, in a Pup story does more to demonstrate this than contradict it. (Though truthfully, I’ve never seen a character without an American point of view in a Pup story.)
I had this discussion with Brad, and he was utter incapable of seeing the difference between spec fic becoming more diverse, and stories having the theme of diversity. Sure, some stories do have a theme of diversity (and sadly, that seems to poke Pups in the eye), but many more just are about a larger world, and Pups don’t want to see that world.
Of course this makes it seem that all the sore eyes are on the Pup side. One thing I have to give to the Pups, when it comes to message fiction, no one does it louder. The Pups talk as if what they love are meaningless exciting tales of engineers in space solving tricky SF puzzles, and Ms Lamplighter assumes the same with her comment on “the science fiction is so awesome.”
But that isn’t what Pups write. They write politics. They write messages fic. Generally they write slow message fic. Brad writes about a man dwelling on the need for religion. Sure, there’s a battle around him, but that’s secondary. The point is the need for religion. John C. Wright and Vox also fill their stories with religious themes. Tom Kratman is just a huge mass of right wing political messages. Steven Diamond: message fic. Steve Rzasa: message fic. Lou Antonelli: message fic. Larry advertises his story based on message (“I made FDR the bad guy and that will drive libtards crazy?”) Now it turns out, I am fine with message fiction. I like it a bit more subtle generally, but since fiction is pointless without a message, I’m glad the Pups in truth are big time message writers.
So it isn’t that the Pups care so much about awesome SF ideas, but simply they don’t like getting poked in the eye and are happy to poke others in the eye with the messages which are the heart of their fiction. That’s fair. I have no problem with that. It is just that awesome SF means no more, and no less, to Pups than to non-Pups. This is about message, and the Pups like their messages, which, as I said, is fair. (Taking over an award and causing a huge fight in fandom because they like their message better–that’s not so fair.)
So, ignoring “we must defeat our enemies” and “awesome SF” I agree with Ms Lamplighter. People don’t like being poked in the eye, so Pups don’t like being poked in the eye.
So now what?
As I’ve said before, now nothing. But I’ll pretend that there is a solution. What, besides people being less sensitive? I’ll grant non-Pups could use some work in that area. A lot of work. As for Pups, they are sensitive not only to other themes of other world views, but of reality, of any change, and of the existence of other people.
There is a kind of answer: read.
Non-Pups, at least of the type that discuss SF in geekish glee don’t have homework do to, because we’ve read the Pups’ world view. If you talk SF with even minor authority, then you’ve read their world. I’ve read Anderson, Asimov, Blish, Brown, Card, Herbert, Heinlein, Pohl, Simak, Sturgeon, van Vogt. I’ve read a whole lot more. I know their world. I’ve done my homework. They haven’t done theirs.
The Pups need to expand out from that. They need to read not a few stories that pop up on nomination ballots, but hundreds of things that are not the same old thing, till the same old thing stops being the definition of normal. And sure, if they decide what they like is the same old thing, fine. But they need to understand that there is more out there, and believe that other people like other things. And they need to feel that the mere existence of other things shouldn’t be a poke in the eye.
Until then, there’s a problem, because the other world views that poke them in the eye aren’t just conservative political or religious views, but the mere existance of others. It is racist and homophobic and a whole lot of other things that they don’t like being accused of. But that is the world view of The Golden Age, where nothing existed by one view and Heinlein putting in one South American character is a big deal worthy of discussion. That is White Americans in space. That is their normal. And it shouldn’t be.