A Guide to Squeecore

In 1936, anthropologist Ralph Linton said, “The last thing a fish would ever notice would be water.” It’s difficult to see the medium that encompasses everything around you, especially when you’ve never known anything else. Well, if fish were contemporary sci-fi/fantasy readers, the last thing they would notice is squeecore. What is squeecore? You’re soaking in it! Squeecore is the dominant literary movement in contemporary SFF, a movement so ubiquitous it’s nearly invisible. But in this episode, we are taking notice of how speculative fiction got watered down.

(Note: there was a slight audio delay during recording so we interrupt each other constantly.) Joining us is J.R. from The Podhand.

Also, thanks to the amazing @GynoidGearhead, we now have a transcript for this episode available.

Links:

The Podhand
A brief history of Squee
A Tor article that definitely isn’t an unattributed rehash of another article
Hugo Awards Host DisCon III Apologizes for Taking Money from Defense Company
A Hugo-nominated blogpost about George RR Martin by a writer whose partner works for Raytheon
The Smol Bean Emperor
Porpentine
Clarion West Selected as Amazon Literary Partnership 2021 Grant Recipient
What is the Model Minority Myth?

About Rite Gud: Raquel S. Benedict is an author, appearing in Fantasy and Science Fiction and Gardner Dozois’ The Very Best of the Best: 35 Years of The Year’s Best Science Fiction. Matt Keeley, founder of Kittysneezes, is producing Rite Gud for KS Media, LLC. Rite Gud is a Kittysneezes production. If you have questions, comments and concerns, email ritegud – at – kittysneezes – dot – com. Rite Gud is also on Patreon, at patreon.com/ritegud. Patrons receive access to the official Kittysneezes Discord, exclusive episodes, critiques and more.

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