tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11303103.post6627445311076840935..comments2024-03-20T03:12:56.498-05:00Comments on Lou Anders: Why Science Fiction Authors Can't WinLou Andershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00694362734492222851noreply@blogger.comBlogger36125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11303103.post-54911625042771380062019-10-10T08:32:44.211-05:002019-10-10T08:32:44.211-05:00list of education consultants Karachi help student...<a href="https://www.edvisehub.com/" rel="nofollow">list of education consultants Karachi</a> help students with their individual accommodation requirements and guide them with itinerary preparation and flight bookings.<br /><br /> Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11303103.post-528697949411689002010-02-01T09:59:30.971-06:002010-02-01T09:59:30.971-06:00Again and again it must be showed that science-fic...Again and again it must be showed that science-fiction can develop a profound philosophical and political thinking. Another effort: http://yannickrumpala.wordpress.com/category/science-fiction-and-political-theory/Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11303103.post-17984042689758325202009-11-06T05:31:01.614-06:002009-11-06T05:31:01.614-06:00At last someone written article on this topic than...At last someone written article on this topic thanks for sharing..!<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.ghostpapers.com/" rel="nofollow">Term papers</a>Term Papershttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02145417264678061367noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11303103.post-49766929623730650602009-10-24T11:49:16.362-05:002009-10-24T11:49:16.362-05:00Exactly. I love Moorcock for writing everything fr...Exactly. I love Moorcock for writing everything from Hawkmoon to Colonel Pyat, and doing so without pen names, and getting Grand Master awards and Booker & Whitbread nominations both.Lou Andershttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00694362734492222851noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11303103.post-49057447152326260562009-10-24T02:07:20.384-05:002009-10-24T02:07:20.384-05:00You know, sometimes I wonder if Atwood will have a...You know, sometimes I wonder if Atwood will have a special bit in her will - perhaps an attorney reading a statement to the press which reads something like "by the way, I've been writing SF, boys! PWND!!"<br /><br />I really didn't understand the Literati divide existed for a long time. I just knew it was sometimes a bitch to find where a book was in the bookstore (libraries have it right - ALL fiction in alphabetical order, last name first!). <br /><br />During a conversation with a customer, I discovered she was a published author. I mentioned that I was working towards that myself, and she asked what my work was like. I told her that I'd love it if people ever thought my books could go on the same shelf as Kazuo Ishiguro, Walter Tevis, and Margaret Atwood. Her response: "Oh, you're one of those."<br /><br />I had to fight to get her to explain herself. Turns out she was an erotica writer, and much maligned by the Literati. I had to explain what I meant by my statement was that I would like to write whatever story needed telling, even if one story was about an alien crashing on Earth, and the next one about a pool player. Or perhaps a tale about an English butler, followed by a tale about clone children. Or, anything dystopian. <br /><br />I just want to write a story about the human condition. If the marketers and the literati want to box me in, that's going to be rough on all of us. <br /><br />They'll probably just dump me into SF. Funnily enough, I'm fine with that.Jennahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15715761180494476618noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11303103.post-33966323179472516702009-10-17T03:04:09.235-05:002009-10-17T03:04:09.235-05:00There's a fair summary of it here, Lou. The fo...There's a fair summary of it here, Lou. The focus was on Cult, the Rise of the Geek (!) and graphic novels. I only caught the tail end which included the misogyny criticism. The programme is no longer on the BBC iPlayer but might turn up on YouTube at some point. Jeannette Winterson's stance was fairly predictable. She has herself written some interesting fantastic fiction. Oh, no, hang on, in the higher eschelons of literary excellence it is called 'magic realism'. Or, as the Wikipedia entry for Sexing the Cherry puts it: 'Sexing the Cherry is a postmodernist work and features many examples of intertextuality. It also incorporates the fairy tale of the Twelve Dancing Princesses'. So not the genre of the fantastic then! i.e. 'Not only, but also...'<br /><br />http://www.bleedingcool.com/2009/10/09/mark-millar-and-kevin-smith-do-bbc-newsnight-review/Nicknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11303103.post-24258004660570125472009-10-16T16:10:45.876-05:002009-10-16T16:10:45.876-05:00Thanks for that.Thanks for that.Lou Andershttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00694362734492222851noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11303103.post-64860089158522485532009-10-16T15:56:19.839-05:002009-10-16T15:56:19.839-05:00Coda:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2...Coda:<br /><br />http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2009/oct/13/sci-fi-futureNicknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11303103.post-6872054832518296212009-10-13T03:41:02.557-05:002009-10-13T03:41:02.557-05:00Damn right. Pwnd.Damn right. Pwnd.Nick Cirkovichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16032740830320521883noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11303103.post-57152773059810304182009-10-12T09:17:39.723-05:002009-10-12T09:17:39.723-05:00Dealt with.Dealt with.Lou Andershttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00694362734492222851noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11303103.post-17085489281218268952009-10-12T04:09:39.909-05:002009-10-12T04:09:39.909-05:00Some cheeky bugger spammed you, Lou!Some cheeky bugger spammed you, Lou!Nicknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11303103.post-62792491576212059432009-10-09T14:48:39.586-05:002009-10-09T14:48:39.586-05:00Blue: Yep! For an academic class that spends much ...Blue: Yep! For an academic class that spends much of its time pointing out the shifting nuances of a supreme irony in a given text, it's, um, a bit ironic. Heh!<br /><br />I studied 'classic lit' at university, got a degree in it and love it profoundly. But I've hopefully learned to distinguish between that sort of love and wearing it like an elbow patch. A lot of them haven't.Nicknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11303103.post-1451410441293431702009-10-09T09:16:44.453-05:002009-10-09T09:16:44.453-05:00What I'm surprised about is that no-one though...What I'm surprised about is that no-one thought to call the Oxford don type out about calling others weird geeks in their little rooms.<br /><br />What do they think the average person thinks of them exactly? Something like nebbishy wussboy monomanical ultranerds that hang out in smoky rooms away from everyone else (and all the women) expressing their love for the 13th line of 15th century poems perhaps?<br /><br />They'd never dream of attending conferences about arcane inconsequential minutae, ever, would they? :)Blue Tysonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01090584083476832111noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11303103.post-73850110786762719432009-10-09T09:16:32.112-05:002009-10-09T09:16:32.112-05:00Don't disagree with that at all. But think tha...Don't disagree with that at all. But think that, as with so many things, its the executive not the subject matter. I know swords and sorcery covers that look sloppy and I know swords and sorcery covers that look amazing. It's down to the skill of the individual illustrator/art director.<br /><br />As I've said before, it's about making those genre elements inclusive rather than exclusive. But I am very opposed to attempts to market books sans all genre elements.Lou Andershttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00694362734492222851noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11303103.post-49377287346092797072009-10-09T06:39:06.658-05:002009-10-09T06:39:06.658-05:00What Joe said. This idea of some monolithic establ...What Joe said. This idea of some monolithic establishment is just wrong. But, I love it when I see writers expressing that opinion, since it just means I have a lot less competition getting leverage and gigs and other opportunities from people and institutions a lot of genre writers just assume are hostile toward them. Of course, one thing is true: if SF and F keep trending toward godawful pseudo Romance covers or really sloppy-looking swords and sorcery covers, most authors won't have a chance because regarding delivery systems and perception of content, there is at least one prejudice across the board: people outside of genre (and thankfully at least a few inside genre) do not like things that look stupid, regardless of whether the content actually is or not. --JeffVAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11303103.post-2421137195352925872009-10-08T22:33:20.078-05:002009-10-08T22:33:20.078-05:00Reuben, love your second paragraph but disagree wi...Reuben, love your second paragraph but disagree with your first. I spent about two days a week in coffeeshops and have done for several years now (it's where I read manuscript submissions). I pay a LOT of attention to what other people read there, and I frequent see SF&F being read. Most common are RA Salvatore, David Weber, and Steven Erikson. All have pretty unabashedly genre covers and nobody seems embarrassed. I've come to think the "I'm afraid to be seen reading this on my commute into work" is a myth publishers tell themselves and that the rest of the world really doesn't care. Also, I feel very strongly that SF&F art, and the history thereof, is one of the unique virtues of our field, something to celebrate. But to get back to the topic, the number of people who see SF&F as stigmatized verses the number who don't... well, genre IS mainstream now. I'm amazed by the number of people who approach me enthusiastically when they find out what I do. I think the minority that still thinks they win brownie points by acting snide are dinosaurs crowded in the last warm valley, and are waking up to how out of touch with reality they are. Which is not to say that everyone *needs* to enjoy genre, only that more and more people recognize that more and more people do.Lou Andershttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00694362734492222851noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11303103.post-35282011617422727032009-10-08T13:35:28.079-05:002009-10-08T13:35:28.079-05:00I think that part of the problem is that for a lot...I think that part of the problem is that for a lot of people, sf/f is a guilty pleasure. Not that I want to take away from that, but how often do you see someone openly reading a Tobias Buckell or David Gemmel novel at the coffee shop or on the bus? Now how often do you see someone reading John Grisham or Dan Brown in the aforementioned places? We've got to stop being emberassed about these fantastic novels that bring us so much pleasure. I believe that if people who don't primarily adorn themselves in black trench coats and skull shaped jewellery, (kudos to them by the way for having the courage to be interesting!) start publicly professing their love for speculative fiction, maybe it will become a little more acceptable. Either way, why are we hiding it? Geez, I know that there are tons of sf/f fans out there, I just never see you!<br /><br />I don't believe that gaining respectability for sf/f will compromise the genre. SF/F's very nature is to challenge convention. It is also by nature very entertaining. Reading SF is probably the only way I'm ever going to meet someone from another star. Reading fantasy is the only way I'm ever going to meet a dragon and live to tell about it. If I wanted to meet people with failed marriages and cancer who never do anything interesting, I'd go to a hospital. I'd much rather read about someone with a failed marriage and cancer who owes money to a witch doctor and argues with demons about football matches. <br /><br />Oh well, you can't please everybody, so why worry about it?Reubennoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11303103.post-46685649302833780832009-10-08T11:22:02.328-05:002009-10-08T11:22:02.328-05:00I'm with Chadbourn here. While I don't lik...I'm with Chadbourn here. While I don't like the fact that a percieved proper fantasy or SF author is incredibly unlikely to win the Booker, I'm happy with the boundaries that frame the SFF genre. What I don't like is the much-repeated opinion of a few that the genre contains nothing of value and, crucially, is only for the sad geeky club and their closed little worlds. By repeating the accusation that SFF is a closed world, they're firming it up in the collective unconcious and dissuading some from trying it for themselves. The dismissive, slightly contemptuous attitude is one I see in publishing quite a lot - You don't write proper books, just geeky ones, so jolly well done but don't pretend it has any artistic merit.<br /><br />While I'm never going to have the issue that Atwood would if she admitted her next novel was 'proper' SF, this perception does matter and does limit the genre overall - just as some of the artwork on the books will because they're so focused on a specific target market they'll put off others from considering the book.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11303103.post-21601894273354990972009-10-08T09:46:21.296-05:002009-10-08T09:46:21.296-05:00Karol,
Come, come. 5 or 6 out of the last by a ve...Karol,<br />Come, come. 5 or 6 out of the last by a very broad definition of fantasy. What if we consider the last 20 years instead of your rather arbitrary 9? What if we look at the shortlists as well as the winners? What if we also consider that fantasy greatly outsells sf (and by your broader definition that would presumably include YA, horror, and alternative history, stupendously outsells it)?<br /><br />The Hugos are nominally for anything speculative but they have a healthy bias towards a certain type of hard-ish sf, and I don't see the problem with that. It's a natural function of the tastes of the body that votes for the award. Again, who gives a toss? I don't have a problem with it any more than that the British Fantasy Award tends to have a horror slant, or that (yes) the booker prize is nominally for all fiction but tends to go to a certain style of literary/historical fiction. Moreover, readers who care about literary prizes (and I don't think, on the whole, there are that many) come to recognise the style of a given award and trust that the judges will deliver the style of winner they like. They read all the Hugo winners, for instance, because they like the books that get picked. I'm not sure winning the booker prize would do all that much good to, say, an epic fantasy, because people who care about the booker don't read epic fantasy (they'd turn off as soon as they saw the magic sword on the cover), and people who read epic fantasy don't much care about the booker (bloody literary illuminati, how dare they tell us what's best). All you'd get is a small spike in sales, a lot of confusion, and an agreement that categories may not make much sense but they do indeed serve some commercial function...Joe Abercrombiehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04096316583998199176noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11303103.post-76046522090559843732009-10-08T08:45:21.977-05:002009-10-08T08:45:21.977-05:00"HEREIN lies the peculiar significance, the p..."HEREIN lies the peculiar significance, the peculiar sacredness even, of penny dreadfuls and the common printed matter made for our errand-boys. Here in dim and desperate forms, under the ban of our base culture, stormed at by silly magistrates, sneered at by silly schoolmasters -- here is the old popular literature still popular; here is the unmistakable voluminousness, the thousand-and-one tales of Dick Deadshot, like the thousand-and-one tales of Robin Hood. Here is the splendid and static boy, the boy who remains a boy through a thousand volumes and a thousand years. Here in mean alleys and dim shops, shadowed and shamed by the police, mankind is still driving its dark trade in heroes. And elsewhere, and in all ages, in braver fashion, under cleaner skies, the same eternal tale-telling still goes on, and the whole mortal world is a factory of immortals."<br /><br />- G. K. ChestertonBlue Tysonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01090584083476832111noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11303103.post-26609394451849095122009-10-08T06:21:26.145-05:002009-10-08T06:21:26.145-05:00"I daresay one could write a similar complain...<i>"I daresay one could write a similar complaint about the way in which fantasy is looked down on by the sfnal elite and constantly passed over by the Hugo nominators."</i><br /><br />5 (or even 6, if you consider alternate history fantasy) of the latest 9 Hugo winners for Best Novel were fantasy.karolnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11303103.post-28401102282338590432009-10-08T03:59:07.119-05:002009-10-08T03:59:07.119-05:00http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/sep/27/chalco...http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/sep/27/chalcot-crescent-fay-weldon-review<br /><br />Presumably it's a fresh take on SF because it's by Fay Weldon? There is perhaps really no point in trying to engage with such chattering idiocy:<br /><br />'This part of the plot is unashamedly sci-fi, and though Weldon often sacrifices characterisation in order to focus on ideas about nature, nurture and the importance of family, it's her fresh take on the genre staples that makes Chalcot Crescent stand out. Traditional British sci-fi tends to be peopled with the brave and the dutiful; it's a pleasure to have these realistic characters squabbling and sulking on their way to Armageddon instead.'<br /><br />The reviewer is obviously well read. 'Unashamedly'?!<br /><br />BTW. That cut and paste of Shakespeare earlier should have read 'despising'. I had already corrected 'rock o' the fens' to the correct 'reek o' the fens' although Rock o' the Fens is a good fantasy name!Nicknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11303103.post-15098582835639802582009-10-07T19:08:15.858-05:002009-10-07T19:08:15.858-05:00As Coriolanus said:
You common cry of curs! whose...As Coriolanus said:<br /><br />You common cry of curs! whose breath I hate<br />As reek o` the rotten fens, whose loves I prize<br />As the dead carcasses of unburied men<br />That do corrupt my air, I banish you;<br />And here remain with your uncertainty!<br />Let every feeble rumour shake your hearts!<br />Your enemies, with nodding of their plumes,<br />Fan you into despair! Have the power still<br />To banish your defenders; till at length<br />Your ignorance, which finds not till it feels,<br />Making not reservation of yourselves,<br />Still your own foes, deliver you as most<br />Abated captives to some nation<br />That won you without blows! Dospising,<br />For you, the city, thus I turn my back: There is a world elsewhere.<br /><br />The shorthand: The so-called literati can shove it!Nicknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11303103.post-85352048430000559732009-10-07T12:41:47.632-05:002009-10-07T12:41:47.632-05:00Who is it we're supposed to be impressing? If ...Who is it we're supposed to be impressing? If I publish a book like The Ghost King and it sells 100,000 copies in hardcover that's all the respectability I need. The NY literary critical circle jerk can go ahead and tell each other I suck, but critics don't buy books, readers do, and readers like an entertaining, plot- and character-driven genre tale. I take that very seriously and do my best to nurture the best fantasy entertainment I can conjure up. Critical respect? Shrugged that off years ago.Philip Athanshttp://fantasyhandbook.wordpress.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11303103.post-74253253266248634802009-10-07T12:10:57.718-05:002009-10-07T12:10:57.718-05:00Can't say it's always the case, but on thi...Can't say it's always the case, but on this one I find myself <a href="http://nihilistic-kid.livejournal.com/1386509.html" rel="nofollow">in complete agreement with Nick Mamatas.</a>The Spirit of Creative Writinghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08814590995293463174noreply@blogger.com