Tag Archives: opinion

Star Wars, Marvel, and the Multiverse

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In the Star Wars fandom, there’s always some war of words brewing between fans. We’ve seen the Ship Wars, the Prequel Trilogy consternation, the Clone Wars skirmishes. One that has been on slow simmer for years is cold war between Expanded Universe Completists and Film Purists. Countless words have been written defending the merits of one and tearing down another.

To say things have blown up since the sale of Lucasfilm to Disney and the announcement of the Sequel Trilogy would be an understatement. There seems to be a belief among the most ardent of Star Wars fans that the Expanded Universe and the Sequel Trilogy cannot exist simultaneously. One has to vanish in order for the other to thrive.

To borrow a phrase from Nanci earlier this week, I say bullshit.

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On Long Books, Short Books, and Impatience: Why I Refuse to Read Doorstoppers

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When I was younger, I used to love getting my hands on long books. A long book was always better than a short book, because there was more story to tell. And as a practical matter, long books were always worth the money, especially if it was a hardcover. Short books just couldn’t be as interesting; not only that, they were a waste of money. Why should I spend my hard-earned cash on a 200-page book when I could spend the same amount of money on a 500- or 1000- page tome?

(Ignore the fact that storing and carrying around doorstoppers could get old pretty quickly. Thankfully, with the advent of e-readers, I can carry around the entire Harry Potter series without breaking my back.)

As I’ve gotten older, however, I’ve stopped caring how long books are. Actually, that’s not true. Continue reading →

Rethinking Romance

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I read a lot—at least by any average person’s standards. Sure, there are plenty of people in fandom who can put me to shame, but I showed Brian my pinboard a while ago, and he commented that I’d read more fic in the past year than he’s read in his life—and that was just the fic. And I read everything from modern literary fiction to fanfiction.

So, while I’m certainly not qualified to comment on a lot of things about literature and stories, I do feel comfortable talking about why I read, and why I think a lot of people do. It’s an escape, certainly—last night I was unhappy and I immediately went after charming short stories that I knew would cheer me up while distracting me from my own life—but it’s also a reflection of the human condition, pretentious as that sounds. Stories are interesting because the people in them are interesting, because they have lives and struggles and triumphs and failures.

And here’s the thing I think we forget sometimes: romance and love are huge parts of the human condition. People fall in love every day, at parties and jobs and while walking their dogs. They also fall in love during wars and natural disasters, and they will continue to fall in love after the world ends. Girls fall in love and boys fall in love; teenagers and thirtysomethings and senior citizens all fall in love; deaf people and blind people and smart people and ignorant people fall in love. Sometimes the love is requited and sometimes it isn’t.

(More under the jump)

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Karen Miller Discusses Being a Female Star Wars Writer

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As a fandom, we’ve had plenty of reminders that there’s often a stark gender divide in Star Wars. Emily and I have sounded off on the topic in the past. It can be tough for female fans, but it’s just as tough (if not worse) for writers. Expanded Universe author Karen Miller sat down with Tor’s Liz Bourke to talk about that and other topics today.

The Star Wars fan audience, on the other hand, is overwhelmingly male. At least as far as I can tell. The vast majority of writers who do the tie-in novels are also male. There is a definite predominance of male voices and male POVs in Star Wars novels. And that makes a huge difference in the reception of the material.

Everything I write is grounded in character. Everything. It’s the people that make a story for me. So my Star Wars work is as much a character study or exploration as it is an action adventure romp. For some readers, that was brilliant. For others, it wasn’t. For a lot of Star Wars fans—the guys in particular—the story is about fighting and space battles and stuff like that. For them, that’s the whole point. For them, the intricacies of psychological investigation are boring and unwelcome. And I completely accept that. But it’s not what floats my starship—and I felt strongly that I can’t be the only one who is in love with the story because of the characters, not despite them. Or who wants to take a breath and spend some time with them as human beings, who wants to explore what makes them tick, the relationships between them, the strengths and fragilities they contain and share.

She is onto something there. It’s a big reason that things like Fate of the Jedi sell well while more intimate books in the same universe struggle to keep pace, despite the fact the former books aren’t as critically well received as the latter. Another key quote from this interview:

Looking at this, thinking about it, there’s a temptation to castigate the fandom as being unwelcoming to female writers and, by extension, female fans. And to an extent, I think that is the case, which breaks my heart. Some of the vitriol and virtual violence flung at Karen Traviss, for example, is horrific. Absolutely, there is a segment of the male fanbase that resents any incursion by a woman. But since that’s true on a wider societal scale, really, all that proves is that fandom is a microcosm of society.

Let’s just get the Traviss thing out of the way first. The only issue I take with this entire interview is that Miller misses the mark on why there was fan backlash towards Traviss. It was largely to do with Traviss’ professionalism towards fans and her employer, but in fairness to Miller, I have no doubts that there were a minority of fans that did take issue with her gender.

But the macro point Miller is making is spot-on. As a fandom, Star Wars hasn’t felt very welcoming towards female fans and authors. The mere suggestion that the EU creative staff needs to do a better job crafting and utilizing its female characters incited an over-the-top defensive firestorm from fans and necessitated a bunch of followup retorts to illustrate that, yes, there is a problem with how female fans, writers, and characters are treated (see the links above).*

*Required reading: John Scalzi’s post entitled “Straight White Male: The Lowest Difficulty Setting“

What’s the takeaway here? I don’t know. When in doubt I usually go with the philosophers Bill and Ted. Just be excellent to each other, okay?  If what Miller said gets a knee-jerk, negative reaction from you, take a minute to analyze why that is. Nothing she’s said here is particularly inflammatory. They’re issues that we, as a fandom, need to discuss and take seriously.

PSA: Your Blanket Expanded Universe Protest Isn’t Helping

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There’s been a certain sentiment I’ve spotted around the interwebs lately in regards to a few Expanded Universe books that are coming out this year. People are unhappy with what has happened in recent series like Dark Nest, Legacy of the Force, and Fate of the Jedi. So unhappy they claim they won’t be buying books like Mercy Kill and Scoundrels because they want to send a message to the folks at Del Rey at Lucasfilm. They do this despite the claims that they’re legitimately interested in these books. At first I thought that this kind of thought was isolated, but I’ve seen it mentioned by enough people now to warrant some kind of analysis and response.

Now, surely, a lot of this is just hyperbole. I imagine a fair amount of the people making these claims are going to go right out on release day to buy both of these books, but for a moment let’s look at this claim at face value. I’m unhappy with the state of the Expanded Universe so, as a means of protest, I will not buy these books I’m legitimately interested in. I don’t mean to belittle you if this is a mindset you’ve taken up, but I feel it’s important to spell this out explicitly.

A blanket protest of the Expanded Universe will not help your cause.

I apologize for being blunt, but it’s a point that needs to be made (and there’s going to be a lot of bold text in the rest of this PSA to drive the point home in an over-the-top fashion). Here’s the thing, even though sales numbers of EU material are down, series like Legacy and Fate of the Jedi  are still selling relatively well. Well enough that Del Rey and Lucasfilm can continue telling stories like that and still make money. Even if you decide to stop buying books, period. There are enough fans who are content with the state of the EU to continue the status quo without you. In fact, the vast majority of EU fans are content with the status quo. You and I make up a minority. A vocal minority, but a minority nonetheless.

Here’s what your blanket protest will accomplish. If you choose not to buy books like Mercy Kill and Scoundrels, the only thing Del Rey and LFL will stop publishing are books like Mercy Kill and Scoundrels. Tim Zahn said as much during Origins. While his standalone books may be more critically reviewed than a series like Fate of the Jedi, they do not sell as well. The same concept will apply to Mercy Kill.

If you want more books like Scoundrels, you had better buy Scoundrels. If you want more books like X-Wing: Mercy Kill, you had better buy the first X-Wing book published in thirteen years.

If you don’t buy these books, the takeaway on Del Rey and Lucasfilm’s part won’t be that fans are discontent with the state of the Expanded Universe because the EU is still selling relatively well. The takeaway will be that there isn’t a market for the books you are interested in and have been asking for over the last thirteen years.  Now is the time where we, as fans, have to put up or shut up because we’re at a very critical juncture that will determine what kind of stories are told in the Expanded Universe moving forward.

If you’re going to vote with your wallet, you need to be smart about it. Buy the things that interest you, refrain from buying the things that don’t. That’s how you can send a clear message. A blanket protest doesn’t tell Del Rey and LFL anything useful. I can’t make this any more clear. If you are interested in books like these and you want more stories like them, you need to buy them.