Anyone else concerned by the fact that Baen Books has become hard-right-wing in the past few years?

[BreweryYardRat]

They used to publish some of Harry Turtledove's and Esther Friesner's work, which ar about as far from right-wing as you can get without being Michael Moore.

But lately, Baen's stopped producing anything other than jingoistic right-wing crap (John Ringo, David Weber -- who used to be a moderate conservative, which I can tolerate, but no longer is -- and some other hacks I can barely remember.) I gave up on them a couple years back, because the stories turned into utter shit, but now they're putting propaganda on the fucking dust jackets.

I saw a book in Barnes and Noble the other day, and didn't pay attention to the publisher's mark until after reading the summary and author bio.

Said author, one Steve Kratman, gave his consent to this phrase in his author bio: "escaped from the People's Republic of Massachusetts." (Something originally used as a line in the book that made me drop them completely.)

I damn near puked on the book.

Scary thing is, they're one of the biggest publishers for the sci-fi market. Which means they can indoctrinate a lot of impressionable teenage minds.

Ugh. :puke:

[pitohui]

1. baen has ALWAYS been hard right wing/libertarian

from day one, ALWAYS when picking up baen books, you had to assume that you were getting right wing crap unless a very careful inspection of writer/story proved otherwise -- i didn't know he'd ever carried friesner or turtledove but you know those weren't always especially big authors with especially big followings, back in the day they had to take what they could get and i doubt they got much $$$ out of baen

as far as jim baen, he's always believed this right wing/libertarian crap or at least he did way back in the 80s, and as publishers become more about filling special interests and niches, i guess a creep's gotta do what a creeps gotta do -- and if he wants his brand to be a little more clearly what it has always been, it isn't too surprising given the reality of today's publishing market

it's about like waking up and suddenly becoming concerned that larry niven is a winger or jerry pournelle a warmonger, those leopards haven't ever changed their spots

[DavidDvorkin]

3. Jim Baen died a while ago

I've been wondering if the publishing line would change as a result.

[avenger64]

2. Right wing nut jobs provide a safe, stable market...

... a lot of the (e.g. Scaife or Coors-funded) RW think tanks buy up books by conservatives just to get them on the bestseller lists. That way the right gets their ideas out there, and the media takes them on as legitimate in the public debate. And the publishing companies get their money.

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

4. Is Harry Turtledove really a lefty? I didn't know.

I've always avoided him because some editorial notes by him in an anthology I read seemed very RW, but maybe I was misinterpreting. At the time I had been re-reading some Heinlein and Niven/Pournelle and tried out an Orson Scott Card, so I was hypersensitive to RW elements in sf.

[LeftyMom]

5. Card is such a douche.

He got worse as he started writing formulaic sequels and using the Enderverse as an ATM machine, but I don't know if disrespecting his audience made him go crazy right wing or vice versa.

[BreweryYardRat]

7. Yeah, he is. He devoted a ten-book series to disproving one of the RW's most treasured myths.

Said treasured myth being this bizarre fucking belief they have that America would have been better off if the South had won the Civil War.

Turtledove spent a ten-book alternate history series showing that last century, for all its horrors, would have been much worse off if the South had won. He makes it very clear that it's not something reasonable people should support.

[Fire Walk With Me]

6. Weber is a republican? I like some of his work. Oh well..

You just have to worry about folks with so much military action on their minds...Remember Card's last one, about the RW coup? I can't even remember the title, and don't care to do so.

Just please tell me that L.E. Modessit Jr. is a lefty. It would break my heart if he weren't.

Thanks for the warning about Baen. They've always seemed to be an "action" oriented brand.

[Babel_17]

8. Link to their free library

http://www.baen.com/library/home.htm

Haven't really been following the politics of publishing.

My Cliff's Notes impression of the industry as a whole is that the days when reactionaries like Pournelle were in favor are long over.

Imo voices like those of Iain M. Banks have replaced them.

I liked a lot of what Turtledove wrote but, IIRC, my spider-sense was tingling during passages of some of his civil war stuff. (But it's been several years since my last reading so take that with a grain of salt.)

Though I really dug how he reminds us of the irony of republicans calling themselves the party of Lincoln.

Military sci-fi is a real niche genre ...... I don't see many authors going out of their way to disrespect the political sensibilities of their core group of readers.

Science fiction isn't what it used to be. You can no longer assume that any two self described fans will have experienced many of the same authors.

Wake me up when the next Chtorr novel gets published. :) lol

[Mythsaje]

9. I don't know.

Don't care.

I read Weber because I like military sci-fi. That and space opera are the only two sci-fi sub-genres I generally like. Fantasy is more my thing.

I haven't really noticed a major trend toward the right, but, then again, a lot of stuff I've read from the beginning had very righty ideas. Nothing new about that. Some of them are good, some of them aren't.

The best military sci fi I've ever read, in my opinion, was "The Regiment" and "The White Regiment" by John Dalmas. Published by Baen Books.

If I remember right, so was "The Blackcollar," by Timothy Zahn. Rather subversive, I think. I really wish he'd write a third book in that series.

A good novel about Revolution, on the other hand, is "An Enemy of the State," by F. Paul Wilson. He's a libertarian. Also wrote a book about legalizing pot. And the Repairman Jack novels. Interesting fellow. He's an M.D., I believe.

There's a lot of thinking necessary to enjoy sci fi. And there's a lot of good, nuanced stuff out there as well. I think it counters the RW stuff fairly well.

Star Trek really helped launch the modern age of sci-fi, and it was most definitely lefty.

So was Star Wars, really. The Empire used Xenophobia and a belief in human superiority to rise to power. A warning, that's for sure, however subtle.

Harry Potter, which has DEFINITELY influenced a generation, is very anti-authoritarian.

That kind of hard, military sci fi certainly doesn't tend to sell better than fantasy. And that's where all the real fun is anyway.

:)