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From: dat@hpcnof.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.books
Subject: Re: Should book ads disclose sexual slant?
Message-ID: <42200006@hpcnof.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 30-Dec-85 00:38:00 EST
Article-I.D.: hpcnof.42200006
Posted: Mon Dec 30 00:38:00 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 8-Jan-86 07:06:02 EST
References: <4729@hlexa.UUCP>
Organization: 29 Dec 85 22:38:00 MST
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Henry Friedman (hlexa!hsf) brings up an interesting point about
the relationship of people who read books to the characters in the
books.

As with Henry, I enjoy books where I can identify with the 
protagonist (vicariously or otherwise) and have started a number of
books that I've just thrown down in disgust after finding NO-ONE and 
NOTHING that I could identify with.  (The example that comes to mind 
is by Michael Moorcock - "The Cornelius Chronicles")


> 1) Should ads for novels at least suggest whether the sex/romance
>   is predominantly straight or gay?  (I don't think this would be
>   necessary if the main themes are not romantic, such as novels
>   about social/political oppression.)

	I don't think so, unless it's significant to the plot of the
book (e.g. a book about sexual repression, for example, should be
indicated as such, but a book where the protagonist is intimate with
a "Significant Other" shouldn't need it (unless the intimacies are
most of the book)).   On the other hand, it's certainly safer to 
indicate - I would, for example, find reading a book about pedophiles 
most disturbing, and would probably be quite unhappy with the store 
that sold it to me for not indicating it was such a story...It's 
just a matter of having honest legitimate summaries of the stories 
on the flyleaf, or the back of the paperback, or whatever.

> 2) Should it make any difference? In other words, should it have
>    mattered to me?

Certainly.  We are what we are, to paraphrase Popeye, and you shouldn't
have to repress your heterosexual bias when you read a book.  If one
feels uncomfortable with a certain area, it's OKAY.  Just be honest 
about it.  I also have hangups about certain things (like rape, and
strange S/M stuff and so on) and prefer to know ahead of time if that
sort of stuff is in a book I'm reading.

> 3) Was it my fault for not remembering or knowing that Delany's
>    sf writing has a gay slant?

	Hmmm...the tone of this is kinda strange, Henry, but I
guess perhaps it was.  If you find an author that has a tendency
towards certain things (like Heinlein and the inevitable older 
man and two younger women *yawn*) that you don't like, you should
perhaps keep that in mind next time you pick a book by the author.

On the other hand, what if you'd never read anything by Delany
before??

> 4) Do I have a point in objecting to the way the book club advertised
>    the book?

	Yes.  See #1.  Write 'em a letter, anyway.

> 5) Was the book such a work of creative genius that it transcended
>    such considerations?

	In a word: Nahhh.  The 'creative license' of artists has
been vastly abused just to feed the public lightly covered pornography 
and other disgusting stuff - and I don't personally believe that I'm too 
"dumb" to appreciate ANY book that I choose to read.  If I don't
like something I find it hard to convince myself that maybe I'm the
one at fault, not the 'critics' or whatever...

	Anyone have further thoughts on this thorny topic?

					-- Dave Taylor

ps: Henry, I applaud you for bringing this important topic up.  Well done!