At some point, I’d like to put together a recommendation list of awesome stuff (science fiction and fantasy, probably only short fiction because that’s where I feel like I really have a specialty) by conservative or right-wing authors.
Unfortunately, I don’t have the time to do it in the next couple months. :( But I hope it is a project I can get to sometime.
I don’t know everyone’s politics, so I wouldn’t know who to include. Are you a conservative or right-wing author who would like me to look at your work? Please let me know. Or do you have someone to recommend?
Of course, since it would be a recc list I’m assembling, it would reflect my taste. But I think it would be fun, interesting, and worthwhile to have a list of works by conservative or right-wing authors that do suit the taste of this particular bleeding-heart liberal.
I would like to do this in a spirit of celebration of our common love of science fiction and fantasy. We have our differences, and they can be major. But, I hope, there’s lots to appreciate from each other, too.
Maybe it’s just me but I can’t think of any right wing authors I like
The names I’m hearing most often right at first blush are Gene Wolfe and Tim Powers, so that might be a place to start.
Libertarians too? I don’t know about the actual politics of the authors, but I’ve enjoyed a bunch of the usual suspects from the Prometheus Award – Vernor Vinge, Ken MacLeod, Neal Stephenson. Although I don’t think I’ve ever read any short fiction by MacLeod or Stephenson and I think Vinge’s novels are stronger than his short works, so that may not be helpful to your project either. I’m definitely curious to see what you end up with though!
Tim Powers & Gene Wolfe? I’m glad I never delve into authors’ lives. If Powers is a right winger, I’d guess that James P. Blaylock is, too.
Hrm. Is there an index of author’s political views I can look up? I find myself looking at my bookshelf and scratching my chin.
Aha! If I leave the country I can help you. Masamune Shirow is definitely right-wing, bordering on fascist, and his Ghost in the Shell is pretty good and basically a series of short stories. Fair warning: the women in it (including the main character) are drawn extremely sexualized and pin-up-y.
yrs–
–Ben
Orson Scott Card’s politics (both the neocon prowar stuff and the social conservative/anti-gay stuff) are atrocious, but he’s an excellent sci-fi writer. His Pastwatch is the best example of alternate history worldbuilding I’ve ever seen.
Amy: Ken MacLeod is a post-Trotskyite who’s still basically on the Left, but has had friendly ties with a lot of libertarians. He’s interested in all kinds of free market-leftist, free market-syndicalist, etc., fusions that are hard to convey without actually reading his novels. The Star Fraction is as good as any to get a feel for his body of work.
I’m letting authors define for themselves whether they feel they would be appropriate for me to include. If there’s a question and it’s someone I feel I can reasonably contact, I’ll go ahead and do that.
A lot of times, we really *don’t* know authors’ politics from their books. I know the award given to libertarian fiction has gone to at least one liberal. So, I’m not going to be making any assumptions.
If a libertarian feels they want to be included, I’m okay with that.
Ideally, I’d like to find recent short fiction. Even more ideally, I’d like to find promising early- or mid-career writers. But we’ll see how the reading goes.
Ken MacLeod is in no way on the right. People have attempted to tar him with that label because he was against Scottish independence, so it’s really sad to see that they’re being successful.