No matter how he turns it, he’s talking out of his ass.

In his next post “Meta” he claims that he did say that he did not consider it crap, but that is countered by the paragraph (of the *hates* post where he says :

“The biggest weakness of *the entire genre* is this: the protagonists don’t tell us anything interesting about the human condition under science fictional circumstances. The scriptwriters and producers have thrown away the key tool that makes SF interesting and useful in the first place, by relegating “tech” to a token afterthought rather than an integral part of plot and characterization. What they end up with is SF written for the Pointy-Haired [studio] Boss, who has an instinctive aversion to ever having to learn anything that might modify their world-view. The characters are divorced from their social and cultural context; yes, there are some gestures in that direction, but if you scratch the protagonists of Star Trek you don’t find anything truly different or alien under the latex face-sculptures: just the usual familiar — and, to me, boring — interpersonal neuroses of twenty-first century Americans, jumping through the hoops of standardized plot tropes and situations that were clichés in the 1950s.”

He cannot run away from that, though he seems to be moderating his view, having thought a bit about it.

..and to his “squids in space” comment : “errr what ?? How did you know I wanted that ? – oh wait , I do not – maybe I am not modern”

btw I noticed he closed the thread [due to link spammers]

He should have been a guiding light, but he has forgotten ….

(or is that too kind ?)

It’s amazing how out of touch with reality he is, isn’t it? To him, everyone who watches television is stupid by definition.

“modern audiences want squids in space, with added laser”

WOW !!!! talk about a sweeping generalisation, the implied denigrating remark about B5 pale in comparison.

Having met Mr. Stross 2 months ago at a small con in Copenhagen I knew he was not fond of “space opera”. Otherwise, well, he has strong opinions and I had no reason to find him or his views unreasonable at the time.

I also always had a rather positive impression of him.

To find such a bitter hatred was, however a bit of a surprise to me. Agreed that the sweeping statement was, to say the least, a major disappointment.

Exactly. Let people dislike what they will, but throwing everything into the same category and proclaiming it all to be crap – without ever having seen any of it? That’s just strossing.

To find such a bitter hatred was, however a bit of a surprise to me. Agreed that the sweeping statement was, to say the least, a major disappointment.

I like to watch/read different kinds of SF, an I have read his latest novel “Saturn’s Children”. Ironic that this novel is space opera of a sort, with a nice twist. More ironicis that it does not, however, strictly speaking fulfil his own requirement of being about the human condition in a SF setting, since [SPOILER] the protagonist is a robot and humanity is extinct in the story [/SPOILER].

I did like the story, but would be *bored to death* if that would be the only kind of story I had access to.