tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8068873.post3793360882736774736..comments2024-03-20T19:40:58.078-05:00Comments on The OF Blog: Famous writer talks about being classified as a "science fiction" writerLarry Nolenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16001420558511460998noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8068873.post-36602615672366703602015-05-27T11:04:32.172-05:002015-05-27T11:04:32.172-05:00Hey Larry, what do you think of the Shirley Jackso...Hey Larry, what do you think of the Shirley Jackson nominees this year?<br /><br />Bill<br />Billhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15178834776160573717noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8068873.post-55029055684919780692015-04-29T20:40:44.068-05:002015-04-29T20:40:44.068-05:00I haven't seen this and I really can't say...I haven't seen this and I really can't say it's going to end up on any <a href="http://freeflowuk.net/" rel="nofollow"> to-watch</a> list of mine, but the whole thing sounds strangely and appealingly literary for an original property.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10870702017609142525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8068873.post-89924533902641461922015-04-25T14:56:53.284-05:002015-04-25T14:56:53.284-05:00Have you seen Ursula K. LeGuin's gentle and kn...Have you seen Ursula K. LeGuin's gentle and knowing retort to Ishiguro?<br /><br />She also did a follow up.<br />Here's the link:<br />http://www.ursulakleguin.com/Blog2015.html#95IshiguroRFYorkhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09370379965788526986noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8068873.post-85564273697026877992015-04-20T11:34:18.264-05:002015-04-20T11:34:18.264-05:00Hello, Larry.
Great post, many thanks.
It impels ...Hello, Larry.<br /><br />Great post, many thanks.<br />It impels me to contribute with some thoughts of mine on those issues, but in no order or importance, whatsoever.<br /><br />I'm sure that some things in the US and in Europe (at least, some things in the US and in Portugal, from where I stand) diverge considerably; notwithstanding, the sense of community adressed by Vonnegut, concerning the sphere of SF penmanship. My own observations of the SF/Fantastic world -- some of them totaly armchaired observations, I admit -- impressed on me the feeling that community is much more important to fans, but not that much overriding to authors. So, I'm at a fault to understand just what Vonnegut saw that made him say that the social group made up of the SF writers of his day worked internally like some proto-esoteric lodge (despite the fact that some authors might be, for their own sake, very esoteric indeed). The core of Vonnegut's view doesen't escape me -- but, in the other hand, it is something that could be said about the mainstream, as well. The mainstream can be very hermetic: both in the sense of cryptic and in the sense of exclusive, airtight and invulnerable to outside observations and inhabitants. I feel that some SF readers and authors fear and loathe the mainstream, as much some readers and pundits of the mainstream abhor and look down on the SF/Fantastic world.<br /><br />Nonetheless, I have the emotional conviction that some works and authors, despite being labelled SF or mainstream by the SF or mainstream themselves -- descriptive terms or epithets vary in kind, according to the market or the consensus of a particular time -- manage to come forth and persist longly (wearisomely, some might say) in a special place, preserved from the labelling effect. No one can control this, since time, the great devourer, does this singlehandled.<br /><br />In the end, I could not disregard more the question if some work or some author are "SF" or "mainstream": what I care for is if the book or author are good. Some SF books are awful and some mainstream book are negligible, too. And in both these apparently "non-overlapping magisteria" (après-Stephen J. Gould) there can be found sycophants and people that are only interessed in making a buck, with no regard for the literary form whatsoever. Some said mainstream books are just, let's say, not restricted by any sense of shame, in the fact that they are callously conceived to be marketable -- in the most elementary way possible. In the other hand, there are marvelously writen SF/Fantastic books, which prose really deliver.<br /><br />Time will tell.<br /><br />Squirrelly affections,<br />David Soares<br /> David Soareshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17933061362956011218noreply@blogger.com