Fantasy Is Bad For Western Civilization

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April 7, 1970: Our attentions were drawn to... 1970?

Most of us could have sworn this wank was posted on February 26, 2006, but the FW archive, which never lies, says it was April 7, 1970. The Cabal's time travel experiments are darkly muttered about, but no one's been willing to come forward yet.

Anyway, our attentions were drawn to Gregory Benford, a hard science-fiction author, who had seen the future, and instead of glorious rocket ships and interstellar travel, had seen the Fantasy genre destroying Western Civilization.

“	So I think we should be seriously worried about where the West is going. We can distract ourselves with our fantasy novels, our buzz and sass—but not the Chinese and the Indians and the Japanese...	”
	— {{{source}}}

The day will come when we will remember those prophetic words, as we shine the boots of Chinese astronauts and shamefully read our Harry Potter doujinshi behind closed doors.

Benford's rant [1]

Not everyone agreed. Scott Lynch pwned Benford.

Wank Report

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Quotes

"But now, most of the readership is running away from these problems, perhaps terrified by them. So instead, while reading doorstop sagas they can pretend that they’re really wielding swords in defense of the king, or something—a retreat that horrified people like Isaac Asimov. He saw this as just an old intellectual cowardice. But of course, people do it for emotional reasons. They like to pretend that they’re really the princes from another land. But they’re really corporate serfs." - Gregory Benford[2]

"So I’ve decided to write no more sf novels for a while, concentrating instead on nonfiction essays. I’m writing reflections on our time and science with Michael Rose, instead. It seems better than writing fiction, somehow, in the gathering dark of our time." - Gregory Benford[3]

"All fantasy, after all, is medieval in nature and in setting. Jeff Vandermeer, Hal Duncan, and Neil Gaiman held a science-textbook burning on the campus of MIT last week!" - Scott Lynch[4]

"So, what does that make us soft science fiction fans? People who want to be princesses in rocketships?" - nebbieq[5]

"So it's the old "omg why dun ppl like my fic the best its rly gud" thing? I would hope that professionals would rise above it, but I'm not surprised they haven't managed it." - crysiana[6]

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