THe problem with the Emily Dickenson analogy...is that in the 19th
century...women didn't have the luxury of having a job to pay the rent and one
to do for fun. Women had children, stayed home, and did womanly things.
Emily couldn't even go out and get a job, (well maybe schoolmistress or some
such designated job...as long as it conformed to womens work) let alone have
an identity. WOmen were largely dependent upon the males. Think "Sense and
Sensibility." If you didn't have a father, you were married off, or went to
live with an uncle. Writing for many women was their way of expressing
themselves in a confining patriarchal structure. (SO nothing has changed ;)
Julien
----------
From: For discussion of feminist SF, fantastic & utopian literature on behalf
of Vonda N. McIntyre
Sent: Sunday, November 09, 1997 3:05 AM
To: FEMINISTSF@LISTSERV.UIC.EDU
Subject: Re: [*FSFFU*] Tie In Novels: The End of SF or the World as We
Know It?
Hi Nina,
I guess an eternal question of writing is the art
v. business aspect.
A benefit of success is that it allows you to
continue doing what you like to do. Did Emily
Dickinson ever have to worry where the next rent
payment was coming from? (Or, if she did, did she
have any reasonable hope of helping contribute to
it, by publishing her poetry or in any other way?
I don't know enough about her or the period she
was living in to make even an educated guess.)
Those of us who write tie-in novels have to put up
with the occasional sneer down the nose from a
certain small subset of our colleagues, who are of
the opinion that we should go out and get honest
jobs -- that the world in general and sf in
particular would be better off, and that we
ourselves would be behaving in a more honorable
manner. Most of the sneerers, I note, are not
among those who have to worry particularly about
paying the rent.
Vonda
On Sat, 8 Nov 1997 09:30:12 -0500, "Nina M. Osier"
<mbarron@MINT.NET> wrote:
>Vonda, thank you for posting your "rant" after all! I do wish I had
>some ideas on how to change the larger world's perception of SF. I
>never cease to be amazed by the otherwise intelligent people who still
>regard speculative fiction of any type as something for adolescent boys
>only.
>
>Speaking as someone still in the process of breaking in, I am also
>saddened that the measure of success in this as in every other field of
>endeavor has to be "how much money have you made by doing it." That's
>our society, I accept it as it is; but it's still pitiful. How much
>money did Emily Dickinson make...?
>
>Nina
http://www.sff.net/people/Vonda
Some official good news at
http://www.bookwire.com/pw/bestbooks97.article$3946
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