Login
Forgot Password?

OR

Login with Google Login with Twitter Login with Facebook
  • Join
  • Profiles
  • Groups
  • SuicideGirls
  • Photos
  • Videos
  • Shop
Vital Stats

keith

Member Since 2002

Followers 107 Following 93

  • Everything
  • Photos
  • Video
  • Blogs
  • Groups
  • From Others

Monday Apr 10, 2006

Apr 9, 2006
0
  • Facebook
  • Tweet
  • Email
One of my favorite, and certainly my favorite in the realm of sci-fi/fantasy, authors, Michael Moorcock, wrote some interesting essays on the hidden conservative nature of most science fiction and "high" fantasy. I spent an hour or so tonight reading them.

One is called "Epic Pooh", and takes writers like Tolkien and C.S. Lewis to task for their reactionary, anti-modern Tory conservativism.

If the Shire is a suburban garden, Sauron and his henchmen are that old bourgeois bugaboo, the Mob - mindless football supporters throwing their beer-bottles over the fence - the worst aspects of modern urban society represented as the whole by a fearful, backward-yearning class for whom "good taste" is synonymous with "restraint" (pastel colours, murmured protest) and "civilized" behaviour means "conventional behaviour in all circumstances".



The other is called "Starship Stormtroopers", and discusses the crypto-fascist, authoritarian, and paternalistic nature of a lot of science fiction.

Next time you pick up a Heinlein book think of the author as looking a bit like General Eisenhower or, if that image isn't immediate enough, some chap in early middleage, good-looking in a slightly soft way, with silver at the temples, a blue tie, a sober three-pieced suit, telling you with a quiet smile that Margaret Thatcher cares for individualism and opportunity above all things, as passionately in her way as you do in yours. And then you might have some idea of what you're actually about to read.



Interesting stuff.

flux:
It's so true.

The genre is, as a whole, fucking disgustingly crotchety.
Apr 10, 2006

More Blogs

  • 02.21.05
    17

    Monday Feb 21, 2005

    I have a new group! Steampunk In addition to my other group, Emul…
  • 02.19.05
    7

    Saturday Feb 19, 2005

    Read More
  • 02.13.05
    12

    Monday Feb 14, 2005

    Read More
  • 02.13.05
    4

    Sunday Feb 13, 2005

    My wife and I starting to get into the whole self-reliance / simple l…
  • 02.13.05
    0

    Sunday Feb 13, 2005

    Funny how a quick scan of Instapundit yields 1 mention of "Jeff Ganno…
  • 02.10.05
    0

    Thursday Feb 10, 2005

    A lobbyist, on his way home from work in Washington, DC, came to a de…
  • 02.10.05
    3

    Thursday Feb 10, 2005

    Read More
  • 02.09.05
    4

    Wednesday Feb 09, 2005

    Read More
  • 02.08.05
    2

    Tuesday Feb 08, 2005

    Well, I thought it was sad that Karl Haas died.
  • 02.08.05
    1

    Tuesday Feb 08, 2005

    Quote of the Day "...the only reason it's a shame that someone els…

We at SuicideGirls have been celebrating alternative pin-up girls for:

23
years
11
months
13
days
  • 5,509,826 fans
  • 41,393 fans
  • 10,327,617 followers
  • 4,605 SuicideGirls
  • 1,113,755 followers
  • 14,959,694 photos
  • 321,315 followers
  • 61,491,604 comments
  • Join
  • Profiles
  • Groups
  • Photos
  • Videos
  • Shop
  • Help
  • About
  • Press
  • LIVE

Legal/Tos | DMCA | Privacy Policy | 18 U.S.C. 2257 Record-Keeping Requirements Compliance Statement | Contact Us | Vendo Payment Support
©SuicideGirls 2001-2025

Press enter to search
Fast Hi-res

Click here to join & see it all...

Crop your photo