4 ms·

Having read Asimov's autobiographical inserts in anthologies such as Before the Golden Age and The Early Asimov, I get the idea that young (as in prior to the a

Having read Asimov's autobiographical inserts in anthologies such as Before the Golden Age and The Early Asimov, I get the idea that young (as in prior to the age of 30) Asimov suffered from a problem similar to many male mangakas: their exposure to girls/women is so minimal as to be almost non-existent (in the case of mangakas, of course, this comes primarily from the work schedule), and with such a paucity of experience, they flounder to construct such characters except within the bounds of extreme stereotype.

StrictDabbler 4y ago
I've read those inserts too. They're a little convenient. Pretend he's sincere. He then spent thirty years being a notorious... I struggle for a description. Womanizer? Hound? He called himself a dirty old man and a lecher, and claimed he had been one from the age of fifteen. He wrote a book called "The Sensuous Dirty Old Man". If he weren't already dead years ago he'd have been metooed into the Earth's core. He was literally famous for pinching women's butts when they didn't expect or want it. And he came back from that in the 80s and had learned nothing about women. His female characters are all sex and smugness. I suppose that's common in the mangakas too. Few of them learn how to deal with women as human beings instead of sexual objects.
- apocalypstyx 4y ago
  One can be lecherous from the age of 15 onward and never actually get to know any women, so the two aren't mutually exclusive (actually, the first might contribute to the problem of the second.) Oh, I know all too well of his numerous sexual assaults. When it gets to the stage that Harlan Ellison makes it a point to get between him and women as they're going up a set of stairs...yeah not great, not great at all. I don't want to downplay it in the least.

4 ms·

Having read Asimov's autobiographical inserts in anthologies such as Before the Golden Age and The Early Asimov, I get the idea that young (as in prior to the a

by apocalypstyx 4y ago

StrictDabbler 4y ago
I've read those inserts too. They're a little convenient. Pretend he's sincere. He then spent thirty years being a notorious... I struggle for a description. Womanizer? Hound? He called himself a dirty old man and a lecher, and claimed he had been one from the age of fifteen. He wrote a book called "The Sensuous Dirty Old Man". If he weren't already dead years ago he'd have been metooed into the Earth's core. He was literally famous for pinching women's butts when they didn't expect or want it. And he came back from that in the 80s and had learned nothing about women. His female characters are all sex and smugness. I suppose that's common in the mangakas too. Few of them learn how to deal with women as human beings instead of sexual objects.
- apocalypstyx 4y ago
  One can be lecherous from the age of 15 onward and never actually get to know any women, so the two aren't mutually exclusive (actually, the first might contribute to the problem of the second.) Oh, I know all too well of his numerous sexual assaults. When it gets to the stage that Harlan Ellison makes it a point to get between him and women as they're going up a set of stairs...yeah not great, not great at all. I don't want to downplay it in the least.