Comments on: World SF, Worth Reading BEFORE developing an opinion

By: Societatea Română de Science-Fiction şi Fantasy » Experimentele g.

Societatea Română de Science-Fiction şi Fantasy » Experimentele g. — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 06:04:37 +0000

[...] (14) Nick Mamatas, http://www.haikasoru.com/science-fiction/world-sf-worth-reading-before-developing-an-opinion/ [...]

By: Omonomono » Yukikaze Soars, 80s Appreciation Week C.

Omonomono » Yukikaze Soars, 80s Appreciation Week C. — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 17:00:19 +0000

[...] week or two ago there was this rant on Haikasoru’s website about World SF, and uh, I’m not sure if I have a response to it. It probably make little [...]

By: nickmamatas

nickmamatas — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 16:43:50 +0000

Mike, that 20-second knockout video is amazing, mostly because it is so novel (and was done at a low level of competition). I can think of another capoeria victory in mixed martial arts as well; two competitors rolled out of the ring thanks to bad reffing, and the kempo player happened to land on the floor with the capoeria player on top of him. But in actual practice, outside of utter flukes and events that have nothing to do with the art, capoeria isn’t useful for fighting, and certainly not useful against Knives That Can Cut Through Anything.

By: Dario

Dario — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 16:50:15 +0000

Good article, Nick. I happened to be at your WFC panel where the new award was announced and delighted that the US might–might–just finally be waking up to world SF. That Spinrad column was off to the point of bizarre IMO. It wasn’t remotely about world SF, and it’s hard not to think that the term Third World wasn’t intended to provoke some reaction (Mr. Spinrad has never shrunk from controversy LOL).

I was frustrated most of all by the fact that he had a bully pulpit in Asimov’s from which he could have done LOT to raise awareness of world SF, and he totally wasted it.

By: Mike B.

Mike B. — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 01:02:52 +0000

One of my Brazilian friends, who has studied capoeira, showed me a totally scary video of an ultimate fighting event. In that event, the capoeira practitioner finished off his opponent in a few seconds with a lightning fast roundhouse kick to the head that made Mike Tyson look slow. I’ve been working on a novel involving Brazil and like you would pick BJJ myself rather than capoeira, but I would not dismiss it the way you have here. Perhaps you’ve fallen prey to “Spinrad disease?”

By: nickmamatas

nickmamatas — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 23:02:44 +0000

Starshadow, people with “good” politics can sometimes be boorish to servers. As someone fro a long line of waitstaff and caterers I always look askance at people who treat servers poorly, but I don’t think the issues of the column were necessarily reflected in whatever Spinrad said to that server that day. (Who knows what was going on, after all?) That said, if the best example of Africa in SF one can think of is the work of Mike Resnick, one hasn’t read very widely in years. There does seem to be some truth to the claim that every SFnal generation in the end just reads itself, and few people from younger waves of writers.

By: Foreign Futures « Auxiliary M.

Foreign Futures « Auxiliary M. — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 15:38:37 +0000

[...] it does bring up lots of examples of science fiction from other countries – see Jason Sanford, Nick Mamatas, Fábio Fernandes and a link compilation. Read the comments for specific examples. All [...]

By: HELLO! I’M ONE OF THOSE AFRICAN AMERICAN SF/F WRITERS! HEY! OVER HERE! YOO-HOO! « The Cafe in the W.

Fri, 12 Mar 2010 05:30:43 +0000

[...] the guy basically says that there’s no such thing as an African Science Fiction writer. Which at this very moment is being disputed by many wanting to set this guy [...]

By: “Third World Worlds” Link Compilation « The World SF News B.

“Third World Worlds” Link Compilation « The World SF News B. — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 01:57:12 +0000

[...] Nick Mamatas on World SF, Worth Reading BEFORE developing an opinion. [...]

By: Starshadow

Starshadow — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 01:51:43 +0000

I’m afraid I quit liking Spinrad when I saw him berate a hapless server for the kitchen at an sf con banquet getting his order delayed or wrong, treating her like dirt and acting generally like a boor. His ignorance does not surprise me. It seems over the decades he has chosen to get less informed and more insular.

Spinrad seems to have never grown past WWII. Pity, that, but I’m not surprised.