Issac Asimov's SF magazine

[taraswizard]

I put this message on the Hangar earlier this year. Now may be I read this all wrong, however, I have verified with the Wood TV website.

Did anyone here know that Issac Asimov's Scienc Fiction Magazine is a smut publication? I read at the Internet Review of Science Fiction www.irosf.com website that Wood TV, the 24 hr. local news and weather cable channel in Grand Rapids, MI, ran a story labeling IASFM as a smut publication!! According to the TV news story, this all came about because IASFM was a magazine available through the local school's magazine subscription fund raiser. Ordered by a local student as their own, and then this student's mother happened to review this magazine and the mother was shocked by the content she saw. As this story was aired it was revealed that the magazine drive service company, owned by Reader's Digest, has removed IASFM from their list of available magazines, unclear to me if this was the reason. Furthermore, the TV news story documented one HS principle who decided to remove the magazine from his school library's periodical list. Lastly, according to the TV news story, IASFM is adopting a policy of judging individual stories for their adult content, and then putting disclaimers on individual stories

[FizbansTalking_Hat]

Interesting but I'd have to have seen the issue that she is referring to before I could pass judgement, it might just be some crazy woman, ah well, to each their own. Cheers.

[Variol Farseer]

I'm surprised it was this long in coming. Asimov's has been publishing the occasional bit of outrageous shock-porn for decades now. The earliest example I can think of offhand is Norman Spinrad's novella 'World War Last', which they printed in 1984, and which is unusually obscene even by Spinrad's generous standards. As I recall, it produced howls of outrage even from the magazine's readers, who lambasted it in the letter column for months after.

(As an over-hormoned teenager in 1984, I didn't mind the obscenity in 'World War Last', but even then I considered it one of the most ham-handed attempts at political satire I had ever read. Spinrad's literary quality reminds me of what one of Winston Churchill's cronies said about that great man: 'Winston was usually right, but when he was wrong, my God!')

[dANdeLION]

Heh, I wonder how that would stack up against Norman's Gor series. Then again, I wonder how Donaldson would stack up, too.....Gap, Mordant and Chronicles all have their moments.

[Roland of Gilead]

I wouldn't classify Gor as obscene. Certainly controversial and most definitely not PC. There was sexual content, but not of a graphic nature, and Norman never used profanity or vulgar language. The controversy was never the sex itself, but the philosophy behind it.

[taraswizard]

the following is Asimov's reply to the Wood TV report.

February 18th 2004
Our response to the sensationalized and highly inaccurate news report broadcast by WOOD TV's 24 Hour News 8 on February 12, 2004, stating that Asimov's is full of "stories about sex, drugs, and molestation."
The editorial offices of Asimov’s Science Fiction were contacted two weeks ago by a parent whose child had ordered the magazine through QSP, an agent that sells subscriptions through school fundraising drives. This parent then contacted her local 24-hour news station in Michigan, WOOD TV 24 Hour News 8, which proceeded to run a story last Thursday that was full of distortions, misrepresentations, and omissions. We would like to set the record straight.

When reporter Kristi Andersen called our business offices, our Associate Publisher, Chris Begley, provided her with verifiable documentation that directly contradicts the information provided in her broadcast and print reports. While Ms. Andersen said that she would let us know when the story was going to run and provide us with a way to see it, she never did provide this information.

Reporter Kristi Andersen and the News 8 anchors portrayed the QSP magazine drive as children buying and selling magazines. As a matter of fact, in this fundraising drive, students sell magazines to their family, their neighbors, and their parents’ coworkers. We reviewed the QSP catalog with the reporter and showed her that many of the magazines are for adults, including Esquire, Vogue, GQ, and Elle. As we showed the reporter, the QSP catalog has a section specifically geared to children, and indicates age-appropriate titles. Asimov’s was correctly listed in the catalog, not under "Children," but under "Science/Technology/Environmental." The reporter chose not to include this information in her report, and, in fact, said that we "did not know it was on the school magazine list."

In Ms. Andersen’s report, she stated that QSP dropped Asimov’s as a result of the parent’s complaint and News 8’s subsequent investigation, saying the "magazine has now been pulled from the list," and that "since 24 News 8 started this investigation, QSP has permanently severed its relationship" with Asimov's. In fact, we provided Ms. Andersen with documentation showing that our relationship with QSP ended several months earlier over remit rates (the amount of money the publisher receives from the agent for each subscription the agent sells), not as a result of this incident.

Reporter Kristi Andersen and the News 8 anchors portrayed Asimov’s as a pornographic magazine. They characterized it as "full of sexual content," "an adults-only magazine," and said that it "contained stories about sex, drugs, and molestation." Probably because it doesn’t fit with their one-sided characterization, they did not mention that Asimov’s is a highly respected literary magazine. Its stories have won numerous awards, including at least 40 Hugo awards and 24 Nebula awards. The magazine’s editors have received 17 Hugo awards for Best Editor. Since it was first published in 1977, Asimov's has carried stories by the leading authors in science fiction, including Joan Aiken, Brian W. Aldiss, Isaac Asimov, Gregory Benford, Pat Cadigan, Orson Scott Card, Greg Egan, Harlan Ellison, Karen Joy Fowler, William Gibson, Joe Haldeman, Janet Kagan, James Patrick Kelly, Nancy Kress, Ursula K. Le Guin, Jack McDevitt, Frederik Pohl, Mary Rosenblum, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Lucius Shepard, Robert Silverberg, Brian Stableford, Bruce Sterling, Michael Swanwick, Harry Turtledove, Kate Wilhelm, Jack Williamson, Connie Willis, and Gene Wolfe. Asimov's consistently provides its readers with quality, thought-provoking fiction.


News 8 should have allowed Asimov’s Science Fiction the opportunity to respond to their characterization of our magazine, and our disappointment in their distortion of the facts is profound. In our opinion, Ms. Andersen and the News 8 channel are not practicing journalism, but sensationalism. They know, better than most, that "sex sells."

[taraswizard]

AFAIK, the following situation occured in Seaside, Oregon in Nov 2004, and has been reported on the SFsite www.sfsite.com At the Seaside HS an instructor was using John Kessel's Stories for men as published in OcT/Nov 2002 issue of IASFM as a part of an elective class in literature curicula. A parent of the class's students read this story and made the determination that this was a story that was unsuitable for a HS student. The parent then presented the story to the HS principal, the principal after reading the story then banned the story from the class's reading list.

Afterwards John Kessel then volunteered to travel to Seaside, Oregon and talk to any of the parties involved (HS adminstrators, HS instructors, students and parents) and talk about his interpretation of the the story, or his thoughts about what the story meant.

[taraswizard]

Here is a link to the story on-line

www.asimovs.com/_issue_0210_11/stories.shtml

Link to SFsite's story about the situation in Seaside, Oregon

www.sfsite.com/columns/news0410.htm

[Nathan]

Ah, a good story, I enjoyed it a lot.

Following complaints by a parent, John Kessel's short story "Stories for Men" was removed from the class curriculum at Seaside High School in Seaside, Oregon. An English teacher, Jan Priddy, gave students a choice between reading Kessel's work or a story by Mark Twain. One of the students who elected to read Kessel's work complained to her mother about the story's sexual content. Kessel has offered to speak to teachers, parents and administrators about the work. The incident occurred during Banned Books Week.

Sexual content? What sexual content? There's more sexual content in the bible!

During banned books week, too, how ironic.