according to http://www.jackiekessler.com/blog/2009/11/19/harlequin-horizons-versus-rwa/, the Mystery Writers of America have just chimed in with the RWA and declared that Harlequin authors aren't eligible for the Edgar award anymore, too.
I mostly just lurk here, but always find the conversations to be enlightening and thought-provoking. Like OtterB at 187, I am trying to define my own beliefs and where I draw the line at respecting other's.
For me, the questions that any belief-system has to answer are 1) is it life-affirming and 2) does it foster personal liberty. If the answer to either is no, then I have no respect for it at all.
I'm not sure what I feel about the "fairies at the bottom of the garden" type. I tend to think that the "wishing makes it so" crowd are deluded. Sometimes, shit just happens, and it's nobody's fault, and there's nobody to blame, there's only living with it and getting on with life as best you can (the attitude I have about my own mental illness).
I personally identify myself as a pagan/agnostic (atheist when the wind blows from the right direction). I'm not sure I believe in a god or gods, but I have a deep sense of wonder at the universe, and everything I learn about science reinforces that sense of wonder. I have a need for ritual in my life, and like the symbol-set of the particular branch of paganism that I follow. it may be True in some ways, for me, but that doesn't necessarily make it true (for differing values of "true").
The notion of taking the law into one's own hands disturbs me. Granted, I grew up reading Simon Templar, but still... my 17yo daughter is a fan of the tv show Leverage, and of other such shows (wasn't there one called Hustle about a bunch of "good" con men?), and I wonder what kinds of moral lessons she's internalizing.
Similarly, the notion of redemptive violence distresses me. Violence (like torture) is permissible, even a good thing if it's done by the "good guys." the success of shows like 24 baffles me.
Xopher: I knew there was a reason I'd stopped reading him. Thanks for confirming that.
I stopped reading Spider Robinson years ago - could you give some examples of his characters acting in less than ethical ways? I'm curious, just not curious enough to, you know, actually read him.
And speaking of uncomfortable things, is anyone else bothered by things like "I hate depressing books; if I wanted that, I'd watch the news"? A few people have chimed in with almost that exact phrasing, and it feels like a dismissive sneer to me.
I'm one, and I don't mean it to be dismissive, and I'm sorry if it comes across that way. Rather, it's a recognition of my own limitations as a reader. For whatever reason, the mood of a book (perhaps overly) sets my mood, sometimes for days after reading a given book. Dystopias upset me. I know, they're supposed to be upsetting. But there is so much that is upsetting (particularly in the political news) that I have no control over, and can do nothing about! I therefore choose to don rose-colored glasses and to read only things that have optimistic endings. I am prone to dark depressions, and controlling my reading this way is one way that I attempt to control my mood.
I don't read all fluff. I very much enjoyed The Lace Reader, for example, and was in awe at the artistry of The Thirteenth Tale. But in both these cases (and in others like them), I admit to jumping to read the end, just to reassure myself that the ending would, at the least, be optimistic.
re: OtterB and Vicki: we seem to have similar reading tastes - we share a lot of the same favorite authors.
I tend to mostly read mysteries, romance, romantic suspense these days (I'm loving going back and re-reading the Georgette Heyer novels as they're being re-released), not so much SF or fantasy as I used to. This is partly because I've found some really good review sites that review those genres - I may not always agree with the reviewer, but I can always tell from the reviews whether I'll like a book or not. I haven't found any source of SF/F book reviews that I can trust that way.
I pretty much stopped reading SF/F when it seemed like every other book I picked up was dystopian or ended badly for the protagonists. About the only fantasy writer who is currently an autobuy in hardback for me is Terry Pratchett. I can always trust him to not let me down.
I like books where Justice is Served, where the protagonists look like they'll have a better life after I've closed the book (in a good way, not necessarily in a sadder-but-wiser way). I like my books to end optimistically. Otherwise, as have many people above said (and more eloquently than I do), I'd read the newspaper.
@467 - part of the reason I tend toward genre fiction over general fiction is that I know that my trust will be rewarded. Too often my experience of "literary" fiction is that I feel my trust in the author is betrayed.
I have tended to avoid litfic in any of it's various guises since high school and college classes seemed to say that "literature = depressing" and I do not care to get depressed any more than reading the newspaper will do to me.
at age 15, going to a fencing lesson with a friend, which led me to meeting Bob Asprin, which led to the SCA which led to Fandom which led to my having a bad case of the what-the-hells and flirting with a fascinating stranger in an elevator (whom I married 12 years later). branching, Fandom and the SCA led to my meeting a woman who later became a midwife and was the matchmaker for us and the woman who became the birthmother of my two children. I owe my entire life to that one fateful meeting.
knowing Bob led to my owning the Myth books, which were the first books my son ever read willingly and which has finally got him to catch fire on reading... now there's no stopping him.
Long time lurker here, never had the courage to post before, am in awe of the puns and literary endeavors of the regulars here.
"If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues -
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.*"
-Wilfred Owen, 1893-1918
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