Greg Bear and John Carter

As I have been perusing the reviews for John Carter, one thing continues to stand out to me--a lot of the mainstream critics don't get it. They don't get how important a book this was--and thus how important the movie is to the genre. They don't get the time the movie is set in. They don't get how the characters are a function of that time.

It could easily be argued that the movie fails if it doesn't convince the viewer of these things. But it's difficult not to wonder if perhaps the critics are harboring some other biases. And given my general impression of how hypocritically speculative fiction is treated in the mainstream, I'm willing to indulge in that doubt a little bit. And now that I have read what Greg Bear has had to say, I'm willing to indulge it still further. You should check out what he has to say: http://www.gregbear.com/other/johncarter.cfm.