SFF Tropes that Still Make Me Crazy

One thing I've learned from the publication of The Twelve Kingdoms books is that I'm maybe not a true fantasy reader.

Something that had never occurred to me before.

See, I've never been much of a joiner, especially as fandom is concerned. I'm a independent soul and have always read what I liked and violently resisted the pressure that there were certain books I *should* read and particular opinions I was to have about them. I blame the advanced reading teachers who seized me in 4th grade and forced me to read The Deerslayer by James Fenimore Cooper. Before that moment, I didn't know it was possible to loathe a book. After that, I would read the assigned books, but refused to adopt the correct opinions about them.

This is particularly applicable to anything I read for pleasure, which pretty much entirely included anything genre. I have always read widely. I'm not sure there's a genre I haven't read. So my growing up was peppered with books from all walks - romance, hard science fiction, soft science fiction, horror, suspense, literary fiction, memoir, biographies, science, fairy tales. Because I bowed to the academic pressure to discuss and have opinions about assigned reading, I stayed far away from anything that smacked of that in my pleasure reading.

Thus I'd never been to a fan convention of any kind. For the most part, it wasn't until I was into my twenties that I discovered other people who'd read the same books I had. A friend gifted me with some of Robert Jordan's books, after a conversation about fantasy books. He was appalled I hadn't read them and was certain I'd love them.

No, no, no. I forced myself to read the first one (which I then pitched across the room) then quietly donated them to the library. Just not my thing.

This is all by way of introducing this week's topic, which is SFF tropes and tics to avoid and why.

My problem is that I don't seem to know what the Science Fiction and Fantasy tropes really are. I didn't know this until occasional criticism of The Twelve Kingdoms books points out that I don't really follow the accepted tropes.

Which I suppose is true. Yes, I've read Tolkien, but I don't want to write like him. I've read at least one or two books of those considered to be the SFF greats and not many of those authors make my personal favorites list.

You know why? So many of them are men writing very masculine books. For grins I just now Googled "Top Science Fiction and Fantasy Authors" and picked a link at semi-random (that wasn't Amazon) - an NPR list of the Top 100 Science-Fiction, Fantasy Books. I got to Number 20 before I encountered a female author, which was Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley. Of the 100 books, 16 were by women - and interestingly enough, I'd read all of them. I've read - and loved - a bunch of the ones by male authors, too. Others... not so much.I know this is hardly a scientific sample, but seriously - EVERY list I see of SFF authors and books is like this. It's not news, but it's aggravating as hell.

*takes deep breath*

So, I think all of this is by way of saying that I never paid attention to the SFF tropes, because they never seemed relevant to what I liked - for good or ill. Fellow Word Whore Marshal Ryan Maresca wrote an interesting post last week about being a male author writing female characters. He hits on a lot of the characteristics of those classically male SFF books that turned me off. I really appreciate that these conversations are happening.

Thus, I'd venture that the tropes I want to avoid are those that left me excluded as a female reader. I know a lot of women enjoy what I think of as the "boy books" - I like some of them, too. For the most part though, I like my books centered on female characters, ones who do brave things and also fall in love and have amazing sex - which is a no-no for many fantasy readers. (The Publishers Weekly fantasy reviewer commented snarkily on the "explicit lovemaking throughout" in THE TALON OF THE HAWK - something that actually occurs only well past mid-point and is critical to my heroine's character arc.)

I still laugh that a male reader asked me if there were ANY men in positions of power who weren't corrupt in this world. I pointed out there were two, but as for the rest... so it goes!

A bit of a rant - thank you all for your patience in reading this far. I'm sure the other Word Whores will have more substantive - and possibly less reactive - contributions to the topic. :-)

Taking the Torch

by Allison Pang

''Neither as writers nor as readers have you raised the level of science fiction a notch. Women have written a lot of books about dragons and unicorns, but damned few about future worlds in which adult problems are addressed."

~~ Ben Bova, addressing women writers at a Philadelphia convention. In 1980.

Well. I guess that about sums it up, doesn't it? 

I actually don't know where to begin with this topic. Mostly because I see so much of this attitude in nearly everything I like to do. Gaming. Comics. And yes, SFF.

After a while, it's hard not to think that no matter what hoops women creators have to jump through, it will never be enough to warrant the basic respect most male creators get...simply for being male.  Unless the perspectives shown are through a male gaze? They're somehow deemed feminine, and therefore unworthy.

Going off topic for a moment - let's look at Romance. As genres go, it makes some of the most money out there, because...women read. And buy books. And yet it's derided constantly by other genres and the literary crowds.

As soon as we get into that mushy stuff and talk about our feelings? It's romance. And crap.

Unless you're Nicholas Sparks, of course. Who insists he doesn't write romance at all. He writes love stories. Love stories that are all about the same and massively depressing, but hey, it's not romance and therefore? Worthy.  Even though almost all of his stories are essentially:

I love you.
I lost you.
I love you.
I found you.
I love you.
I have cancer.
I'm dead.

(Cracked lays it all down pretty nicely, and with graphics! )

 But here's the thing. If a woman wrote such books, they wouldn't be considered literature. They'd mostly like get put into "women's lit" or "chick  lit" - just the whole idea that there's a separate genre for women writers immediately puts us in a lower position. Our writing isn't being compared to other writers (eg. mostly white male writers, thanks), so much as pigeon-holed away so they don't have to rub shoulders with it.

Now, there is some great discussion on Kate Elliot's blog and NK Jemisin 's blog about women in epic fantasy and the male gaze. I found Jemisin's post in particular rather telling, simply because she talks about the issues she's had with some readers accepting her books as epic fantasy...because of the sex scenes. (Sex being one of those things that is icky.) 

But even aside from whatever issues there are in writing and books, there's still just a general lack of respect that occurs in the SFF enviroments. I know of at least one con where a female panelist was referred to as "the token female" by the moderator. Right off the bat, her position is lowered, simply by being singled out for her sex. (Don't think that's a big deal? Try replacing her with a PoC - how well would that fly?)

Or how about the recent issue over at ReaderCon - the skinny can be found over on Jim Hines' blog, but the meat of it is this post by Genevieve Valentine. Not only treated like crap on her panel...the victim of harrassment by a known con stalker. (So, we not only have vie for respect on panels and our writing...we have to guard ourselves against unwanted touching. Lovely.)

Anyway, the last thing I wanted to mention was the article that quote from the beginning came from. It's here - from the NY Times. Written in 1982. And it's a fascinating breakdown of women in the SF/F industry. And the thing that really struck me was all the names - famous writers all - Anne McCaffrey, Andre Norton, Ursula K. Le Guin, and many more. Many of these authors are still around today. The godmothers of women sci-fi writers. But some are gone, and many are older. 

I guess what bothers me the most is that this article was written 30 years ago, about women writing 20 - 30 years before that. How much has really changed in all that time? What sorts of strides have we taken? Why are we still fighting against snide comments about sex scenes in books, or having to use our initials instead of our real names? Why are we assumed to be mere "tokens" in the industry? But more importantly - where are the torch-bearer writers of the next generation?

We have some, for sure. But not enough.

And that's the most disappointing thing of all.