Anne McCaffrey - 1926-2011

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Anne McCaffrey, author of the fantasy series The Dragonriders of Pern and many other sci-fi fantasy series and collaborations, died yesterday at age 85.

I know many of us had our beefs (not without justification) with some of the content in her books, like the portrayal of women and gays, and thought the quality declined over the years, but there's no denying that woman brought to life more than one universe of fantasy and sci-fi. Today is a sad day.

When I just saw "Anne McCaffrey", I instantly thought it'd be another thing about her banning fanfiction.

But dead? That's quite sad really, I did enjoy a few of her books when I was younger.

I admit I still have several Pern books on my shelf. And, for all the criticisms I could level at her books, I still have always felt it would be fantastic to be a dragonrider. It's a world I'm glad she took the time to share with us, and one I still enjoy.

The world is always a sadder place when an author is no longer in it. RIP, dear lady.

Did she ever recant her tent peg theory?

Shisaiga wrote:

Did she ever recant her tent peg theory?

Far as I know, she tried to pretend she'd never said it in the first place.

Azzandra wrote:

Shisaiga wrote:

Did she ever recant her tent peg theory?

Far as I know, she tried to pretend she'd never said it in the first place.

What's the tent peg theory?

Lady Anne wrote:

Azzandra wrote:

Shisaiga wrote:

Did she ever recant her tent peg theory?

Far as I know, she tried to pretend she'd never said it in the first place.

What's the tent peg theory?

something about tents.

Lady Anne wrote:

Azzandra wrote:

Shisaiga wrote:

Did she ever recant her tent peg theory?

Far as I know, she tried to pretend she'd never said it in the first place.

What's the tent peg theory?

Shoving anything up a man's ass even once will inevitably make him gay. It's totally science. The hormones released by the prostate during anal sex will make a man gay forever. It's totally true and she knew someone it happened to who got raped with a tent peg and was turned into an effeminate gay man.

Yeah.

Shisaiga wrote:

Lady Anne wrote:

Azzandra wrote:

Shisaiga wrote:

Did she ever recant her tent peg theory?

Far as I know, she tried to pretend she'd never said it in the first place.

What's the tent peg theory?

Shoving anything up a man's ass even once will inevitably make him gay. It's totally science. The hormones released by the prostate during anal sex will make a man gay forever. It's totally true and she knew someone it happened to who got raped with a tent peg and was turned into an effeminate gay man.

Yeah.

So by that logic, every man is forced to become gay after 40 years of age with the prostate check?

Does this mean we can write DoP fanfic now?

fapfapfap wrote:

Does this mean we can write DoP fanfic now?

Actually, we've been able to for a while now. McCaffrey walked back from her fanfic freak out ~5 years ago. I think. Maybe longer. My favorite Pern fic on FF.n was started in 06.

I mean, not that I've read a Dragonrider's book in like, 8 years, or ever actually thought to look at any fanfic, but I was just wondering what happens to authors who don't want fanfic to be made of their work (like Rice too) when they die. I guess it depends on whoever's in charge of their estate?

What really got me about the reaction to Dame McCaffrey's death is the number of folks responding to people who hadn't read any of the Pern books with "there's a rape scene in one of them."

Not that such a thing shouldn't ge warned about in this age of Everything Is A Trigger, but I have to wonder how many of those good Samaritans actually read the scene in question rather than reading about it on TV Tropes? (the scene in question is in DragonflightMost Pern fans, while finding the scene questionable at best, chalk it up to a product of the time it was written. ("Bodice Rippers" being in vogue and chock full of that sort of thing).

I like to think Menolly was created as a direct counter to all that.