"But if we accept that SF is struggling as a literary genre because of a combination of the shift towards blockbusters-as-adaptation impacting the tie-in market, having caught up with the grim future predicted in lauded sci-fi of decades past, and the rise of new genres and subgenres drawing away the educated, persistent, high-volume readers who constitute SF’s core readership then there remains two final questions: can we save SF and should we?"
@MLClark I...don't buy this guy's assessment, especially when he shifts into Rite Gud's Squeecore critique and attributes it to the "science fiction convention scene." That raises huge red flags for me. Then he goes off into raving about Jeff Vandermeer. But he also condemns fandom as being "reactionary..."
Lots of red flags for me.
My assessment? Genres come and go--look at horror. Or Westerns. More in the next post.
@MLClark Part of what I see in the field right now is, bluntly, a pushback by middle-aged white men from all sides of the political spectrum against BIPOC, LBGTQIA+, and women. Just because he uses left terminology doesn't mean he's not unbiased.
(I have spent too much of my life being told that the class war will solve everything, don't worry your pretty little head over it)
And as an older white woman, I'm seen as a target for some of these guys.
@MLClark But part of the problem that I see in the field right now, both tradpub and selfpub, is that priority is given to those SF works that have hard systems which are explained in detail. This is shaped by reviewer expectations. You see the same thing in fantasy where, again, priority is given to "hard" magic systems that are explained in detail.
Even the more "literary" works focus on "hard" systems.
And yow, does the guy ever have a thing about John Scalzi. Which...
@MLClark Scalzi is a very effective barometer by which to measure critique. He is popular because he writes rather effectively in a mode that is readable and accessible. And...he doesn't write "hard" systems. He's an exception but make no mistake. There's depth there. Even in Redshirts or Starter Villain.
It's telling that McNeil elevates Vandermeer. While Vandermeer says some interesting things, I've stopped reading him because I'm not into that absurdist edginess.
@MLClark Vandermeer also makes the mistake of many enviro activist sorts in applying his circumstances universally. Having been an enviro activist myself and realizing suddenly the degree to which enviro activism can slide into problematic areas if you aren't careful, I'm pretty strict in my critiques about people who push that advocacy in their work.
And that's where Vandermeer and squeecore / cozy SF all converge under the same umbrella of issue crafted by their shared publishing context: they're all more or less coming from the same geopolitical foundation / regional interests, which presents some real limits to how much they can write effectively about solutions that serve more holistically.
🔥 See, now this is the benefit of posting a provocative essay!
If it motivates you to write more of the untold and VITAL stories of agricultural technology in your neck of the woods, that is AMAZING.
(And keep me informed when you dive into that rich territory!)
@MLClark well, the Martinieres kinda get into that world. Problem is, tech is moving fast. I wrote a short story about using drones and chip/tag implants to herd stock...um, it's already happening. Invisible Fence for livestock.
(Sorry, I got off hold with CRA, so I had to talk taxes for a bit.)
I suspect that this is where Gibson's and Doctorow's approach to "SF of the present" works really well.
One does not need to anticipate future tech to write moving sci-fi. One simply needs to imagine innovation - in cultural attitudes, in workflow, in unexpected consequences - around said tech, for the work to have a "science-fictional" feel. So don't feel like you need to stay ahead of progress to write!
@MLClark yeah, I tend to focus more on control of technology than the details of the tech itself.
@MLClark exactly. I suspect that one reason why my work hasn't been picked up by tradpub is that I use the Pacific Northwest as a setting, in both science fiction and fantasy.
I'm surprised as well that no one, NO ONE has done much with developments in agricultural technology. OMG there is SO MUCH THERE. I kinda got distracted by family power dynamics but...gonna mine that field some more once I'm done with the Martinieres and write the fantasy trilogy.