Certain things on the Internet just will not stop. SFWA drama is apparently one of them. Yesterday I learned that I am one of a mysterious and dangerous faction known as “the Young”. I am also, apparently, an evil ageist who is horribly oppressing older writers, many of whom are, I suspect, quite a bit younger than I am. Next I expect to get told to “act my age”, by which those lecturing me will mean, “stop listening to other people, get grumpy, and help get those darn kids off our lawns.” I am such a bad old bitch.
But that was yesterday. This morning I awoke to the news that the Women Destroy Science Fiction Kickstarter blew through the 1000% funded barrier on its final day.
It did occur to me when I saw that news that the funding target for destroying all three genres (science fiction, fantasy and horror) had been just $35,000. As Lightspeed now had over $53,000, I wondered what they were going to do with all of the extra money. It didn’t take long to find part of the answer. Waiting for me in my inbox was an email to backers announcing the fourth special issue. Gentle beings, I am delighted to bring you news of:
Public Service Announcement: The US Government has declared a 50 mile exclusion zone around Dave Truesdale’s head. Citizens are warned that there is a high risk of dangerous explosions. Please do not approach, especially if you are prone to signing petitions without thinking.
Of course there are three other special editions to produce first, so John Joseph Adams and his team have sensibly scheduled this one for 2015. But that gives plenty of time to work on it and make it truly spectacular. I get the impression that there may be a new fundraising campaign too. I do hope that they ask me to write something for them again.
I also very much hope that there will be an Afrofuturist special issue in the near future as well. Being a very bad person, I want to call it Aliens Destroy Science Fiction, but I suspect that some people might not get the joke.
I’d back a project called ‘Aliens Destroy Science Fiction’. Apt on so many levels.
It’s how we’re seen.
Well technically all foreigners are “aliens” as far as the US Government is concerned. It doubtless goes hand-in-hand with their idea of “world”. But it would be very easy for someone to see that title, not get the reference, and take offense. And then the whole project would get derailed in a flame war. Not worth it.