Join John and Mary’s Insect Army!

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We Can Do It Insect Army by Ursula Vernon

“The problem is that the “vocal minority” of insects who make up the new generation of writers don’t scramble for the shadows when outside lights shines on them—they bare their pincers and go for the jugular. Maybe it is a good thing that SFWA keeps them locked up. The newer members who Scalzi et al. brought in are an embarrassment to the genre.” — (name withheld) on SFF.net, during the recent unpleasantness.

One of the things that troubles me is seeing women who say that they were apprehensive about entering SFF because they don’t want to attract the sort of bile exposed in the quote above. They see attacks like this and want nothing to do with it.

It’s not just women, of course. It is any group that has been historically underrepresented.

For all of you… we have your back. There is strength in numbers.  Join our insect army.

(Art by Ursula Vernon)

Our recruitment center is on John Scalzi’s blog .

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21 thoughts on “Join John and Mary’s Insect Army!”

    1. annalee

      I may need to revise my answer. There are SO MANY COOL BUGS TO CHOOSE FROM.

      Currently thinking firefly (Who can say no to bioluminescence?), but I don’t want to wind up being canceled before my time.

      1. Timothy Cramer

        Isn’t a Firefly an insect? => “You can’t take the sky from me …”

        Ain’t Jayne a girl’s name? Can’t Zoe kill you with her Pinkie? Can’t River kill you with her brain?

        And, on a totally different subject, can’t Kylie kill you with her sass? (My prefered choice!)

        Seriously, Mary and John, you should think about enlisting the browncoats. They stand up for equality – see http://www.cantstoptheserenity.com/ – and they can blow a whole new crater in any little moon.

        Because if some local color shows up, a great entrance will not go amiss …

  4. Froonium Ricky

    Already signed up at Scalzi’s, but it struck me that this army’s gonna need lots of cool slogans and gifs and recruiting vids and such, and I would humbly suggest that one such might be the FARSCAPE clip where Rygel proudly proclaims, “I’m nobody’s puppet!”

    There’s also a clip where Rygel explodes into a swarm of alien insects…

  6. rachel

    Consumer, not producer, of fiction here. I discovered Mary’s writing because of the recent unpleasantness as reported on Facebook,and I have since bought multiple copies of several of her books to share with friends. Count me in to the Silverfish Auxiliary.

  7. peterlewerin

    I commented at some length at John Scalzi’s blog: I’d like, if I may, to post the coda of that comment here as well:

    […] it is quite a comfort despite [the heartbreak caused by seeing authors I once admired as signatories to that infamous petition] to see rational, enlightened, witty people like you and Mary Robinette Kowal weighing in. You give me hope in spite of all. Good luck and long live the Insect Army!

  8. Liz Argall

    Ah, The Insect Play by Josef and Karel Capek! I will always love that play and how fitting to be associated with the czech author who coined the word Robot (coming from the czech word for slave).

    Truly this is a fine lineage of socially conscious and creative science fiction that spans the ages and continents.

    But what insect to play? I played the moth in year seven, spoke only in rhyming couplets and died before I achieved any of my lofty dreams. What would I be now? Perhaps a moth that seeks to do more and live longer? Or something sturdy like a Hercules Moth?

      1. Liz Argall

        Sometimes comments on Scalzi’s blog with links get auto moderated. They might come out of the ether later (the only reason they might not given you’re not spamming and it’s on topic is that he might have some pretty hefty mallet duty!)

        Hmmm, I have learned from goat.scx that if anyone says you can’t unsee something you don’t click the link! It’s taken me many decades to learn, but I’ve finally learned not to click!

  14. Nonny Blackthorne

    I posted this on Whatever, too, but I’m also in. I doubt I’ll qualify for SFWA anytime soon (well, unless they change things to recognize self-publishers, which is likely the direction I’ll be going, after some very bad experiences with small digital first presses) but count me in 🙂

    Also, I realized that I was missing your first two books from my collection; I had forgotten I had first read them from the library. I have now rectified this. ^_^

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