The Big Peat
Darth Buddha
- Joined
- Apr 9, 2016
- Messages
- 3,678
A controversial thought here - is it to do with the relevant absence of female writers in classic sf? Is our focus different and more on family matters?
Maybe - but there is a decent whack of female writers and their works aren't much different in terms of the focus on a small group having an adventure of some sort. They might use family as a backdrop, a reason, a hook - Vanye's exile from his half-brothers in Gate of Ivrel, Chanticleer's search for his son in Lud in the Mist - but they don't use them as the whole story the same way Martin approaches doing so, or certain soap operas do.
I'd suggest we're maybe instead looking at perceptions of audience and their interest. Boys like adventure! They don't like complicated emotional stuff. Female fans who do like big ensemble dynamics - see a lot of Star Trek's original fanbase - are shuffled to one side. Female writers who write what boys want are promoted. Male writers who stray aren't promoted as much, although they might find their way there in the end.