I sensed the lady had other frustrations seething away beneath the surface, and let it go.

Speranza has been on the list of authors for whom I will drop everything and start reading since her days in "The Sentinel" fandom, so I won't fight a good shearing in any case. "Victors" was a special treat for anyone who (a) has ever had to research and write a term paper with a bibliography; (b) anyone who's been through at least one fannish flame war. The conflicting academic quotes in "Written by the Victors" were the biggest and best meta-harpoons in the side of people who take slash v. het or "characterization...ur doin it rong" waaay too seriously that I've ever seen. I wasn't suprised that some of my netpals found it rough going, but the strength of that one reaction was a bit sobering.