Taking Inventory, Taking Stock

[alexandraerin]

...

You know, I'm going to save the text of the post that was here and look at in a week or so and see what parts of it I stand by when I'm not detoxing from caffeine.

Comments

[brainwane (from livejournal.com)]

That Astrogator's Log piece is completely offbase, as far as I can tell -- or, at least, there is absolutely no reason to believe the fiction department of Strange Horizons is becoming a less friendly place for female authors to submit or get published. Anyone can look at the statistics for 2005-2010 if they don't believe me.

[alexandraerin.livejournal.com]

Well, that's good to know, but there's more to the criticism than "They're not publishing enough stories by women".

I took it as more about the culture of the magazine becoming less friendly for women, which is not something that need effect every reader or writer... witness the number of people involved in the William Sanders/Helix thing a few years ago who only knew of Helix as a venue and Sanders as an editor. People who'd interacted with him on message boards had seem being bigoted and misogynistic and generally showing his ass before. Other people had only submitted to a magazine that showed no outward signs of an editor's ugly biases.

It's something I think writers should think about. As an independent I kind of stand on my own. If there are male reviewers over there going, "Hahahaha, silly woman doesn't know that 'cunt' has been reclaimed.", do I want to make the statement that I stand with that?

I'm not writing SH off. As I said, I'm looking at them sideways... I've only ever really engaged with the fiction they publish, but I'm going to take a long, hard look at the reviews and columns to get a grasp of the culture behind it all before I either un-tilt my head or lock it in place.

[brainwane (from livejournal.com)]

I've looked at the criticism, and there are about one and a half innuendoes and several paragraphs of hot air. It's pretty empty.

[alexandraerin.livejournal.com]

Upon a second reading, I can't say I disagree with the characterization.

[alexandraerin.livejournal.com]

This was neither the best thought-out blog post I've written, nor the post that I sat down to write (which was going to be about the things in my notional manuscript trunk and what I planned to do with them.) I'm going to blank it for now and revisit it at a more considered time.

[brainwane (from livejournal.com)]

Jennifer K. Stevenson, Book View Cafe -- your blog record.

[alexandraerin.livejournal.com]

Thanks, I probably should have checked my Wiscon tags. I get frustrated when I can't remember things, especially since I was -just- looking at her card when I cleaned out my wallet last week.