But who will read Holly Lisle’s books?

Sci-fi author Holly Lisle resigns from the Science Fiction Writers of America over the *shocking* idea that the organisation might start winning funds to pay grants to writers. Because of course an additional funding stream for sci-fi writers is the Worst Imaginable Crime Ever.

“Giving” grants taken from tax dollars is nothing less than theft of taxpayer money. This action forces people who have no interest in the careers of writers receiving grants to support those writers’ work, no matter how distasteful, badly written, or objectionable they might find it.

It is institutionalized thuggery, and were I to remain a member, I would brand myself complicit with the thugs.

It’s always trivially easy to demonstrate the short sightedness of Libertarian “thinkers” of this kind. Ms Lisle is an author who wants to sell popular fiction to the masses. How on earth does she intend to do this without the tax funded state education system and the massive increase in literacy rates it facilitates? Unless of course she intends her work to be audio only.

PS – among the vast number of famous authors have received state grants is none other than…J K Rowling! Without the £5000 grant she received from Arts Council England to write Harry Potter, the British economy would have lost billions from its publishing, film, culture and tourism industries. Awww…Libertarians are fun but not so smart.