Currently Reading #12

[littlerdog.livejournal.com]

I picked up Connoisseur's Science Fiction, edited by Tom Boardman, almost at random as something to read last night before going to sleep. If I'm very tired but need to settle down before I can sleep, I usually need something not too mind-taxing to read. Regency Romance fills that category a lot of the time.

The book is somewhat old (which might explain why it suddenly fell into two pieces), having been first published in 1964. My copy is probably from the 1976 reprint, however. I must have picked it up secondhand somewhere. At the back of my mind is the idea I have two copies, although I've no idea where #2 is. Perhaps that's still in one piece.

The anthology contains ten stories, all reprints:

'Disappearing Act' by Alfred Bester;
'The Wizards of Pung's Corners' by Frederik Pohl;
'Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow' by Kurt Vonnegut;
'Mr Costello, Hero' by Theodore Sturgeon;
'Quit Zoomin' Those Hands Through the Air' by Jack Finney;
'Build-up' by J.G. Ballard;
'The Fun They Had' by Isaac Asimov;
'Diabologic' by Eric Frank Russell;
'Made in U.S.A.' by J.T. McIntosh and
'The Waveries' by Fredric Brown.

Unless you had to google J.T. McIntosh, like I did, you may have noticed one factor all these authors have in common.

Which leads us to the question, can men write Science Fiction? After all, if it's necessary to have an anthology dedicated only to their work, it does lead the reader to wonder why they can't get published in the mixed anthologies that are open to both women and men. It's not that I object to opportunities being given to authors who may be unfairly disadvantaged because of their gender; it's just that I feel that had the editor had the decency to include the words 'by Men' in the title of the anthology, I would at least have known what I was getting into. Positive discrimination does have its place, but if these authors really have been unfairly overlooked, their work shouldn't need to deceive the consumer in order to succeed.