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SF Tidbits for 10/6/09
SF Signal —
Interviews & Profiles: @Apocalypse Now: Adam Rapp (Ball Peen Hammer). @Bibliophile Stalker: Tor.com's Pablo Defendini.
@SCI FI Wire, Paul Di Filippo asks: Do classic science fiction stories still matter?
@SFFMedia: Why science fiction authors just can't win.
@Cinematical: Why Zombies Make Better Horror Movies Than Vampires.
@The World in the Satin Bag: Entrenched Opposition: Science Fiction Ain't There Yet (Part ...
Why Science Fiction Authors Can't Win
Bowing to the Future —
Read this article, by John Howell, entitled "Why Science Fiction Authors Can't Win." Then come back and read this quote, by James Enge: I believe that the greatest danger to genre fiction nowadays is not the denial of respect from some notional group of literary tastemakers but the very real likelihood that sf/f may become respectable. Those who thirst for the foamy gray poison of respectability should consider the fate of jazz, once a popular medium, now respectable, ossified and ignored. ...
October 7, 2009 Links and Plugs
Bibliophile Stalker —
... Speakman on What If... These Three Books Published On The Same Day? Kassia Krozser on In Defense of Single Purpose Devices. David Parkman on The Book Industry is in Trouble. But Piracy is Just a Symptom. Mark Coker on Why We Need $4.00 Books. Index // mb on Against Forecasting: A Case for More Agility in Book Publishing. Lisa Abeyta on Life After Magazines. John Howell on Why science fiction authors just can't win. Rachelle Gardner on Dedicated to the Lone Ranger. ...
[links] Link salad wishes my sister a happy birthday
Lakeshore —
My book is mine, not Google's — More on the banal evil of the rights grab that is the Google Books Settlement. Why science fiction authors just can't win — More notes from the ghetto. Undead Machinery — deadmachinery with a very strange and spooky video of a pair of derelict steam locomotives being moved by rail. Animals Survived Apocalypse by Burrowing — But can you burrow to survive the zombie apocalypse? A double-ringed basin on Mercury ...
Why science fiction authors just can't win
Pat's Fantasy Hotlist —
... Disown the genre as emphatically and publicly as possible. As a writer there are tremendous advantages to avoiding the label science fiction, and Margret Atwood has successfully done that throughout her career and gained literary credibility in exchange. In her defence, Atwood's apparent fear that once the label "science fiction" is attached to a novel the literary establishment will treat it differently seems well founded. You can read the whole article here. Lou Anders posted a link to Howell's piece on his blog, and he tempers ...
So the old argument for SF "respectability" rears its ugly, dead horse head again
OF Blog of the Fallen —
... John Howell starts this off with "Why Science Fiction Authors Can't Win," including repeating the same, old, tired quotes from the usual suspects from the past generation or two. ...
Science Fiction Is Gonna Go Eat Worms
The Crotchety Old Fan —
Nobody likes me, everybody hates me, I’m gonn go eat worms.
Just about everyone is linking to, commenting on or clipping from John Howell’s piece Why Science Fiction Just Can’t Win.
The OF Blog offers a commentary round up illustrative of all of the link happiness.
Including Nick Mamatas’ piece wherein Nick shows the hammer hidden under his overcoat and turns things into a slight rant about the failure of blog reportage, here
At the risk of getting bonked, I took a look at the fairly well redacted ...
Interview | Blake Charlton, author of Spellwright
A Dribble of Ink —
... momentum going. I do hope its authors can come up with a better name. If they write “non-conciliatory fantasy” then the rest of us write “conciliatory fantasy,” which makes them sound arrogant and us sound like milquetoasts.
Another hot topic recently has been speculative fiction’s place in the gutters of literature, and what sort of effect (positive and negative) it might have on the genre and its authors.
It started with an article by John Howell, Why Science Fiction Authors Can’t Win:
...
