3. Boas, of course, was a major figure in moving anthropology away from hierarchical judgements & trying to understand cultures on their own terms.
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4. If we ask, what was the science of Le Guin's science fiction, the clear answer is anthropology: the ability to imagine & populate societies with rules very different than our own.
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5. Le Guin's anthropological imagination of course went hand in hand with her feminism, since part of what she imagined was societies without contemporary gender binary.
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6. On the whole, with a few noble exceptions, early 20th century American science fiction & fantasy was profoundly xenophobic, in ways both subtle & profound.
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7. It wasn't just the bug-eyed monsters, but also that many SF writers had a hard time imagining future or alien societies that didn't just replicate norms of 20th century America.
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8. Of E.E. "Doc" Smith, one of the great pioneers of space opera,
@john_clute wrote that his work had "a lunatic insensitivity to lifeforms (i.e. Jews)...not found in small America circa 1930."pic.twitter.com/tsx5cKNJ2H
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9. John W. Campbell, a foundational editor of sf who shaped field for decades, had a rule that no alien species could be smarter than humans (by which he meant white people, since he rejected stories with black heroes).
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10. Even someone like Heinlein, more cosmopolitan than most pulp writers, struggled with diversity. He often had people of color in books but they thought, acted & sounded like middle class white Americans.
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11. Le Guin was part of a great shift in science fiction, often called New Wave, which had many dimensions (literary, countercultural, feminist) but was also a move from xenophobia to xenophilia.
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Replying to @HeerJeet
This is not a criticism -- sincere question: who were examples of xenophobic writers?
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E.E. Doc Smith, John W. Campbell, Lovecraft. The Heinlein of Puppet Masters & Starship Troopers (but not the Heinlein of Double Star).
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Replying to @HeerJeet
I figured Heinlein. I don't count Lovecraft as sci-fi, but I guess he is. I read Campbell but can't remember what he wrote. I have never heard of Smith. Thanks for the list.
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