Comments

Asimov’s Science Fiction for October/November 2012 (3 of 3) — 4 Comments

  1. 2 things on the Jay Lake story: 1. About 2 weeks ago the term “discrimflip” was coined to describe things like this, in response to that ghastly Save the Pearls nonsense. This sounds like it applies.

    2. Lake has been called out for some racist elements in his work before, which he has usually denied on the grounds that his adopted daughter is Chinese sooo. . .then he wrote a book about a Chinese girl being “saved” from the fate of growing up in her culture by magical adoptive white parents.

    Just as data points, I mean.

    • I find discrimflip boring, is the thing. I can’t think of a single example where I felt it added anything to a story. At best it’s some harmless preachiness, and “the Stars Do Not Lie” was pretty preachy already. Maybe I’m overly hard on the story, calling it a steampunk Nightfall pastiche with distracting word choices, but hey, I get about eleven regular readers, so it’s not like I’m taking food out of Jay Lake’s adopted daughter’s mouth.

      • No you’re absolutely right. Discrimflip is stupid and boring and doesn’t do anything worth doing on any level. I’m completely with you on that.

        • It’s like fetish.

          Maybe I’m telling you about this sexy lady and her luxurious hair and her improbable body and her borderline-mental-illness sexual habits, and you’re like go on, and then I start talking about her 1994 Ford Taurus and how much mileage it has and I go into exacting detail about her schedule for maintaining it & changing the oil. Maybe I think that’s super hot!

          Likewise, maybe I’m telling you about this church-and-state-and-pirates steampunk setting, and you’re like, go on, and then I start talking about how the white people are like the black people and vice versa! Maybe I think that’s crazy and exciting and fantastic and different!

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