Subtext is Everything

[leahbobet]

It seems there is a new FAQ at the very top of the SFWA home page, titled "Why Should I Join SFWA?" and featuring responses from the current president to "real letters" asking this very question.

I browsed through and found one of the questions/answers notable.

Q: I've heard there's some tension in SFWA between the old crowd of established writers and the "newbies" like me. Will I feel uncomfortable?

A: A good rule to follow is: Never give too much weight to a few strident voices. For as long as the organization has existed, a few loud voices have always declared that the Old Farts should dry up and blow away and make room for the Young Writers Who Really Have Something To Say. Most new members' experience is of how open to questions and how generous in giving advice the more established members are.

I find the subtext to this answer -- and the very existence of this FAQ -- interesting in the extreme.

Discuss?

Comments

[squirrel-monkey.livejournal.com]

In terms of writing, it is even more complicated than that -- some of us (me) started writing well in our thirties; thus, in terms of publishing experience/taste some of the chronologically older people might find themselves ideologically closer to the twenty-something set. They're also the newer SFWA members who are often in disagreement with the old guard -- even though they might be not that different age-wise.