[HPFGU-Catalogue] Re: Catching up..

[Barry Arrowsmith]

On 5 Sep 2005, at 20:31, carolynwhite2 wrote:

> --- In HPFGU-Catalogue at yahoogroups.com, Barry Arrowsmith
> <arrowsmithbt at b...> wrote:
> >
> > Erm ... don't think I did.  IIRC the penguini was looking for some
> > modern hard SF -  which CW ain't; she's more into gentler
> speculative stuff.
> >
> > No matter what folk like Attwood say, over the past 20-30 years SF
> > has mutated into a legion of sub-classes, some very subtle indeed.
>
> Um..I think that's the problem. There are some sorts of SF that I
> don't have time for, I agree, the sort that are essentially car
> chases in space with improbable monsters, sonic screwdrivers and
> wearisome missions to save the universe. Oh, and women wearing little
> else but their space helmets..
>

Yes; there are some SF writers that I have no time for either.
The problem for those not familiar with the genre or the writers is  
that it's rare for an SF book to be reviewed in the mainstream press  
- and even then it's even rarer for the book to be referred to as SF.  
It's 'a futuristic novel' or 'an alternative take on history'. It  
seems that in the view of those who consider themselves as literary  
arbiters, admitting that you enjoy SF is akin to - well, there's a  
tale ....

A researcher compiling information on nicknames visits a remote  
Scottish village and starts interviewing the locals. Eventually he  
gets talking to a famous local character.
"And how did you get your nickname?"
"It's most  unfair - I voluntarily helped build half the houses in  
the village, I'm the most successful commercial fisherman for miles  
around, I lead the local Mountain Rescue team, train our championship- 
winning amateur football team, donate half my money to local  
charities - but I shag just one sheep..."

Why do you think that Attwood scrambled so desperately, trying to  
convince everybody that Oryx and Crake wasn't SF when it so obviously  
was? Is there something wrong with a literary lineage that goes back  
to the ancient Greeks (Plato's 'Republic') the satires of Lucian,  
More's 'Utopia', and includes Swift, Verne, Wells, Huxley and Orwell?  
Apparently there is. In the self-referential circles in which these  
people exist, it's the loony aunt, the embarrassing relative that no- 
one talks about.

Sure, there're anoraks; Trekkies, Mully and Scalder fanatics and the  
like. But generally these oddities don't come from readers -  they  
come from viewers, TV or film. And I haven't seen a book cover with a  
shapely bird in goldfish-bowl and brass brassiere in years - wish I  
had, that 50's pulp stuff is highly collectible these days.  
Ironically, it's probably images of these increasingly valuable  
covers that flashes across the frontal lobes of the broadsheet book  
critics whenever SF is mentioned. Ah, if only they knew!

The 'car chases in space' that you mention is now split into two sub- 
genres, one generally referred to as space opera, and the other as  
rubbish. Space opera (the name is a twist on 'soap opera') is  
generally not written as deeply meaningful insights into our place in  
the universe or etc., it's intended as entertainment pure and simple  
- though some of it isn't all that simple and writers are expected to  
show an understanding of physics, its inferences and its wider  
applications in the universe. So stuff like instantaneous travel or  
communication are a no-no, and if included are liable to be severely  
mauled by the fan-base and by other writers, eventually leading to a  
down-grading to that second  category. But if accepted for what it is  
intended to be, it can be fun.

One of the most successful practitioners is David Weber with his  
Honor Harrington series - which he is happy to admit is a homage to  
the Horatio  Hornblower books (though Honor has strong hints of  
Nelson - she loses an eye and an arm in the course of the series).  
He's also very good as a writer at expressing outrage at  
discrimination - particularly sexual and by fundamental religionists.  
A few groan-making puns, too - the main baddies are led by political  
leaders named Rob S. Pierre and St Just - so you've no excuse for not  
knowing where he's coming from.

But look at the SF specialty best-seller lists and books like these  
rarely figure;  nor  do they win the awards at conventions. Those are  
the domain of much more demanding stuff which is almost never  
reviewed elsewhere  and so potential readers never get to hear of it.  
And they never will be reviewed unless critics broaden their minds  
and their reading matter. It's a shame, really. IMO SF has niches and  
sub-sets that can offer something for everyone, but only if it's  
brought to their attention.

> But something that plays with history in an interesting way, if you'd
> count that as one of the new sub-genres, that can be interesting. I
> just finished Ian MacLeod's the Light Ages, for instance, which you
> recommended, and was intrigued. The Dickens/Gormenghast style was
> fascinating - although the industrial revolution plotline somewhat
> predictable and hence I thought it limped a bit at the end. But the
> trolls/people who'd had too much aether were very good and believable.
>

Try 'Pavane' by Keith Roberts. A true classic. And his 'Anita'  
stories, collected in a book of the same name, have a very different  
view of modern witches than that of JKR.

> BTW, if anyone wants extremely fast-paced SF techie meets pixies and
> goblins amusement, try the Artemis Fowl series. Bit like a compulsive
> bag of crisps when you are hungry.
>
>

Mm. Didn't go a bundle on those - mostly I didn't like Colfer's  
style. Personal
tastes intruding again.

>
> I have a (Amazon.com) bookmark with an alleged quote from Erasmus -
> 'When I get a little money I buy books; and if any is left I buy
> food and clothes.'
>

Clothes? Haven't bought any new clothes since ... I forget. Certainly  
not this year; probably not last year either.  Food - and especially  
wine, (not forgetting gin, armangnac and a few other tasty drops)  
that's different. Where Shylock was split between his daughter and  
his ducats, with me it's books and bordeaux. Or Aussie Shiraz, or  
Rhinegau Auslese, old-fashioned Chablis or... never mind, you get the  
picture. The books mostly stay on the shelves, but strangely the  
contents of the wine-racks in the cellar tele-port to the dining- 
table with metronomic regularity. Odd that. Probably obeying some law  
of fluidics that I'm not familiar with.
Still, being a bibulous bibliophile ain't a bad way of passing the  
time, even when bearing a strong resemblance to a perambulating  
bundle of cast-offs long over-due for charity shop recycling.