Commentworthy
In its first 24 hours, the new article about the cancellation of Farscape at SH has racked up 43 comments on our Forum page, which I think is at least double the number that anything we've ever published has ever received. Clearly, people feel strongly about this issue.
I'm a little amused, because what I expected to get lots of comments this week was our fiction: Ken Brady's "Emergency Claus." I figured it was likely to stir up a little controversy, but nary a peep so far. Perhaps readers are used to us being irreverent about Christmas icons after Jay's "Christmas Season" a few months back, but even so I figured the overt political commentary would get some attention.
While I'm talking about the magazine, I'll mention last week's fiction: "The Bear Dancer," by Lee Kottner. I normally don't comment on the fiction we publish, 'cause I don't remember to comment on all of it and it somehow seems a little unfair to single out stories for special attention. But this one didn't get any comments last week, and I think it's a really excellent story, and I happen to be in the mood to mention it, so I'm going to make an exception. I generally hate stories about What It Means To Be A Man, but this one is a more interesting, and more compelling, and less straightforward, look at masculinity than I'm used to seeing; it helps that masculinity is not the only thing the story's about.
I really like Cynthia Rudzis's illustration, too.