Economists say there are weaknesses in India’s GDP data. But statisticians claim the accusations are based on flawed understanding, saying while GDP has problems, the economists are looking in the wrong places.
A next generation extended stand-off air-to-surface missile test fired by IAF, ROCKS has been designed & manufactured by Israeli defence major Rafael, keeping India’s needs in mind.
Have you heard of any of us contemporary Indian writers of science fiction and fantasy? Is that because we’re not good enough? Did you read our works and decide that yourself?
Did…did you just compare yourself with Tolkein & Asimov? Dude, no.
I came across your article on Tor earlier, too. I’ve read more than a few books you had listed. Tell me though – can you name one Indian author who has penned a book with the sublime sense of humour one finds in an Asimov? I fell head over heels in love with the man when I stumbled across his Black Widowers series. Or with the delightful skill to be creative within scientifically logical confines, like James White’s Hospital Station?
All this to say – I don’t think readers choose books on the basis of race, as you claim to be done hard by. They either enjoy a story or they don’t. They either come back for more or they don’t.
Your Juggernaut experience – I feel you. But truly, you’re not the only one going through this. The lack of acknowledgement isn’t a reflection on your identity, your genre or a refusal to give you a platform. Its just the way it is. The publishing industry is still working out how to actually reach readers with different interests – and right now, everything from marketing to infrastructure is aimed at servicing mass authors – the Chetan Bhagat-Amish slice. Just to assure you that I play fair – I don’t enjoy their books or pick them up either. A lot of other people do, though.
I congratulate you very much on your Hugo nomination. I probably won’t read your book because I’m not too much of a non-fiction person. But please don’t react to this wonderful nomination by relieving perceived slights from readers in your home country. Don’t make things more complex than they are. The SFF reader base in India is such a tiny cult and they don’t strike me as the kind of people who would politicise choosing a book to read – that’s ridiculous.
I agree with the writer that most of the Indian readers do not prefer science fiction to other genres. We both start and end our day with technology. Yet, people are sceptical of science fiction as they find them too utopian , or are unable to relate to the content. Science fiction does deal with reality. The readers have to be matured enough to unmask the subtext that deals with social reality…As far as her reference to being a Dalit is concerned, I find it as her political choice to draw attention to her marginalisation. She might have faced humiliation, but in the context of this article, she could have skipped that part.
My main gripe with her article is that she is accusing the nonexistent Indian SF readership of not supporting her and portraying herself as a victim of class discrimination. This is completely unethical, shameful and giving the wrong message to outsiders about Indian SF readership and community! And as a member of this community, I am feeling insulted and betrayed!
1. I didn’t like the way every sentence works its way back to the perceiving and expressing (not using ‘glorifying’, she has earned her glory alright) self. This is too subjective, not to say overly self-obsessed.
2. The book she has edited is a nonfiction. It is, hence, natural that ‘average’ reader won’t read it. It’s a compendium of academic essays on one particular SF writer, and hence more suited for discussions in an academic seminar of similar purpose.
3. That said, what I REALLY don’t get is her constant self-identification as a dalit. How can someone located in WB, in Calcutta no less (now abroad), be a ‘dalit’ in the proper sense of the term? Being a ‘dalit’, or a forcefully peripheralized subset of the demographic is a socio-culturally determined process with sinister outcomes in certain areas of the Northern and Southern India. How has the surname ‘Mondal’ been so harmful in WB so as to seriously jeopardize someone’s aspirations? I’ve got a number of Mondal-s whom I know personally, and they have NEVER had to scream ‘dalit I am’ and ‘look how cruel others have been to me’ to be Doctors or Univ. Professors. What I intend to convey is that she emphatically, even vehemently recognizes herself as a cultural-social subaltern, whereas I find absolutely NO traction whatsoever in what she expects this claim to entail. She may belong to the SC section for all we know and that is probably what she meant; but wherever in WB has someone’s upward passage been thwarted simply because s/he is an SC candidate?
If anything…but that’s a topic more suited for other forums and I’d better keep my fingers shut. I just contested her self-ascertained ethnographic location. Nothing more, nothing less.
Just a note: the book isn’t a compendium of academic essays. It’s mostly made up of letters written by people who are fans of Butler’s work. There are a few essays in there but we worked really hard to choose ones that were accessible to the casual reader. While the book may be more immediately of interest to people who are already know of Butler’s work, many of the letters reflect on Butler’s life, or the intersection of Butler with an individual – those are relatable for anyone.
Alex Pierce, senior editor of Luminescent Threads.
I wouldn’t read a book based on whether you are Brahman or dalit whether you got your degree form India or abroad ( Now a day s they a re also selling degrees but to the rich like children of ambanis, cinema actors, cricket players, politicians. IF you have the millions you can get a degree from Havard(rahul) ,stanford (Lokesh),carnegie,yale,princeton,oxford,cambridge you name it). I will read it and vote for if like the content and only if i find the book interesting enough. Thank god that Indians are not voting , bcuz once they start voting the so called Hugo award will become a sham as every Indian has this strong urge to vote 1000 times with different Ids.
Nobody in India is going to take you seriously even after a Hugo nomination as:
1) The topic you have chosen is to alien for Indian audience. May be relevant for USA bot not India.
2) You sounding absolutely pretentious and wannabe in what you have written above.
Have you heard of any of us contemporary Indian writers of science fiction and fantasy? Is that because we’re not good enough? Did you read our works and decide that yourself?
Long answer short: yes.
Did…did you just compare yourself with Tolkein & Asimov? Dude, no.
I came across your article on Tor earlier, too. I’ve read more than a few books you had listed. Tell me though – can you name one Indian author who has penned a book with the sublime sense of humour one finds in an Asimov? I fell head over heels in love with the man when I stumbled across his Black Widowers series. Or with the delightful skill to be creative within scientifically logical confines, like James White’s Hospital Station?
All this to say – I don’t think readers choose books on the basis of race, as you claim to be done hard by. They either enjoy a story or they don’t. They either come back for more or they don’t.
Your Juggernaut experience – I feel you. But truly, you’re not the only one going through this. The lack of acknowledgement isn’t a reflection on your identity, your genre or a refusal to give you a platform. Its just the way it is. The publishing industry is still working out how to actually reach readers with different interests – and right now, everything from marketing to infrastructure is aimed at servicing mass authors – the Chetan Bhagat-Amish slice. Just to assure you that I play fair – I don’t enjoy their books or pick them up either. A lot of other people do, though.
I congratulate you very much on your Hugo nomination. I probably won’t read your book because I’m not too much of a non-fiction person. But please don’t react to this wonderful nomination by relieving perceived slights from readers in your home country. Don’t make things more complex than they are. The SFF reader base in India is such a tiny cult and they don’t strike me as the kind of people who would politicise choosing a book to read – that’s ridiculous.
I agree with the writer that most of the Indian readers do not prefer science fiction to other genres. We both start and end our day with technology. Yet, people are sceptical of science fiction as they find them too utopian , or are unable to relate to the content. Science fiction does deal with reality. The readers have to be matured enough to unmask the subtext that deals with social reality…As far as her reference to being a Dalit is concerned, I find it as her political choice to draw attention to her marginalisation. She might have faced humiliation, but in the context of this article, she could have skipped that part.
My main gripe with her article is that she is accusing the nonexistent Indian SF readership of not supporting her and portraying herself as a victim of class discrimination. This is completely unethical, shameful and giving the wrong message to outsiders about Indian SF readership and community! And as a member of this community, I am feeling insulted and betrayed!
1. I didn’t like the way every sentence works its way back to the perceiving and expressing (not using ‘glorifying’, she has earned her glory alright) self. This is too subjective, not to say overly self-obsessed.
2. The book she has edited is a nonfiction. It is, hence, natural that ‘average’ reader won’t read it. It’s a compendium of academic essays on one particular SF writer, and hence more suited for discussions in an academic seminar of similar purpose.
3. That said, what I REALLY don’t get is her constant self-identification as a dalit. How can someone located in WB, in Calcutta no less (now abroad), be a ‘dalit’ in the proper sense of the term? Being a ‘dalit’, or a forcefully peripheralized subset of the demographic is a socio-culturally determined process with sinister outcomes in certain areas of the Northern and Southern India. How has the surname ‘Mondal’ been so harmful in WB so as to seriously jeopardize someone’s aspirations? I’ve got a number of Mondal-s whom I know personally, and they have NEVER had to scream ‘dalit I am’ and ‘look how cruel others have been to me’ to be Doctors or Univ. Professors. What I intend to convey is that she emphatically, even vehemently recognizes herself as a cultural-social subaltern, whereas I find absolutely NO traction whatsoever in what she expects this claim to entail. She may belong to the SC section for all we know and that is probably what she meant; but wherever in WB has someone’s upward passage been thwarted simply because s/he is an SC candidate?
If anything…but that’s a topic more suited for other forums and I’d better keep my fingers shut. I just contested her self-ascertained ethnographic location. Nothing more, nothing less.
Just a note: the book isn’t a compendium of academic essays. It’s mostly made up of letters written by people who are fans of Butler’s work. There are a few essays in there but we worked really hard to choose ones that were accessible to the casual reader. While the book may be more immediately of interest to people who are already know of Butler’s work, many of the letters reflect on Butler’s life, or the intersection of Butler with an individual – those are relatable for anyone.
Alex Pierce, senior editor of Luminescent Threads.
I wouldn’t read a book based on whether you are Brahman or dalit whether you got your degree form India or abroad ( Now a day s they a re also selling degrees but to the rich like children of ambanis, cinema actors, cricket players, politicians. IF you have the millions you can get a degree from Havard(rahul) ,stanford (Lokesh),carnegie,yale,princeton,oxford,cambridge you name it). I will read it and vote for if like the content and only if i find the book interesting enough. Thank god that Indians are not voting , bcuz once they start voting the so called Hugo award will become a sham as every Indian has this strong urge to vote 1000 times with different Ids.
Nobody in India is going to take you seriously even after a Hugo nomination as:
1) The topic you have chosen is to alien for Indian audience. May be relevant for USA bot not India.
2) You sounding absolutely pretentious and wannabe in what you have written above.