A serious article that's funny! - The Barrow-Downs Discussion Forum

Faramir Jones · 01-17-2010, 10:22 AM

A while ago, I came across a column written by Bidisha, a novelist and critic, in the UK newspaper The Guardian on Thursday, 22 May 2008. Her piece that day was entitled 'When Harry met sexism'; and she was attacking what she felt was the indifference of many to female speculative fiction writers. I cracked up when I read this passage:

Readers who rave about the scope of Lord of the Rings, in which a club of white men flee (a) a big burning vagina and (b) some black guys in hoods, are simply unaware of the awesome complexity of Katharine Kerr's Deverry sequence of Celtic fantasy novels. They hail William Gibson's prescience, oblivious to Marge Piercy's prophetic sci-fi masterpieces Body of Glass and Woman on the Edge of Time and Liz Williams's intelligent, knotty novels like Darkland.

Yes, readers, this female writer called the Eye of Sauron 'a big burning vagina'!

And I thought that men were the ones accused of thinking about sex all the time!

For those who want to read all of the piece, here is the link:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisf...rypotter.women

What do people think?

01-17-2010, 10:22 AM	#1
Faramir Jones Ghost Prince of Cardolan Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: Lonely Isle Posts: 706	A serious article that's funny! A while ago, I came across a column written by Bidisha, a novelist and critic, in the UK newspaper The Guardian on Thursday, 22 May 2008. Her piece that day was entitled 'When Harry met sexism'; and she was attacking what she felt was the indifference of many to female speculative fiction writers. I cracked up when I read this passage: Readers who rave about the scope of Lord of the Rings, in which a club of white men flee (a) a big burning vagina and (b) some black guys in hoods, are simply unaware of the awesome complexity of Katharine Kerr's Deverry sequence of Celtic fantasy novels. They hail William Gibson's prescience, oblivious to Marge Piercy's prophetic sci-fi masterpieces Body of Glass and Woman on the Edge of Time and Liz Williams's intelligent, knotty novels like Darkland. Yes, readers, this female writer called the Eye of Sauron 'a big burning vagina'! And I thought that men were the ones accused of thinking about sex all the time! For those who want to read all of the piece, here is the link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisf...rypotter.women What do people think?

Thread Tools
Show Printable Version Email this Page
Display Modes
Switch to Linear Mode Switch to Hybrid Mode Threaded Mode