#anyway I was just ruminating on how fucking creepy and unpleasant the Vorkosigan universe is

[elainemorisi]

thinking about that thing in scifi where it’ll throw in this retroactive or but-of-course-never flirting/what could have been moment between the [always?] male protagonist and a science-fictionally-nonbinary character to, like, wink at how Openminded And Advanced he/the author is and never, ever, ever even consider the possibility of taking it somewhere

there’s no further point to this post. it’s just ew

#this is apropos of my friend texting me about this woman she's dating #first text: 'I'm dating someone who dislikes The Fifth Season do I dump her?' #me: mostly unserious yes of course does she like sff in general #she: yeah she loves Bujold #me: ...I'll be honest that's not ideal #she: yeah she finds TFS 'too hostile' #me (and she): red FUCKING flag for actual real holy god #Too Hostile I /ask/ you folks #that book's entire... I mean entirety but especially its start is pretty much #'here is some near-unimaginable trauma to go with this unbearable pain and would you care for a side of gruesome suffering' #it is entirely reasonable to not enjoy it or not want to read it (especially these days) #but HOSTILE #of every yikes in the dictionary of yikes #that book is not HOSTILE that book is SUFFERING #anyway I was just ruminating on how fucking creepy and unpleasant the Vorkosigan universe is #and remembered the above-described thing in addition to all my usual gripes #(to be clear I also enjoyed reading those... when I ignored the deeply creepy shit #they're fine books! #well written! #but to have that be the sff you love when that's your reaction to TFS... yeaaaaah) #ANYWAY #to also tagramble about what I'll next reblog #the above-described is somewhat what LeGuin did too #but not totally #Left Hand absolutely ends how it ends out of authorial cowardice #slash failure of imagination #but it's not doing it for the wink wink look at me reason #it is I believe a pretty honest failure