I've been researching terms, Ms Ward. NEVER say Sci-Fi, it is a real
clanger; it's used to refer to things like the Star Wars spinoff
books. The preferred acronym is SFF - science fiction/fantasy - but
that loosely tends to cover horror as well. The "class" epithet is
"speculative fiction" (that's what they call the Aurealis Awards here
- that award's subcategories are Horror, SF, Fantasy and YA. My book,
which I thought was firmly YA or Fantasy, was shortlisted in Horror
and Fantasy - which goes to show that you can never tell.)
"Speculative fiction" is a broad church and means that you can include
The Master and Marguerita as a genre masterpiece...
Doris Lessing is a class act, in my view. Genre doesn't seem to have
harmed Margaret Attwood. Or has it?
All the best
A
On 1/26/07, MC Ward <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Many thanks for your warm welcome, Alison (and others
> who remember me).
>
> The SF discussion (and divide from mainstream fiction)
> prompts an appeal from me to see SF as such a generous
> genre as to include horror and fantasy. King (and
> Peter Straub, another fine writer) rightfully belong
> to horror, whereas Peter S. Beagle's _The Last
> Unicorn_ I would term fantasy.)
> But what do people think of Doris Lessing's SciFi?
> It's rumored to have spoiled her chances for the Nobel
> Prize.
>
> Finally, on a technical note, are others who use Yahoo
> having trouble sending posts? Please back-channel me
> to compare notes--and maybe solutions as well
> (thanks).
>
> Great to be back!
>
> Candice
>
>
>
> --- Alison Croggon <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> > Hi Candice - how wonderful to see you back!
> >
> > Frederick, a belated response, for which I
> > apologise.
> >
> > > Alison, I have the impression that science fiction
> > is more respected, and
> > > more integrated into the literary mainstream, in
> > Australia than in the US.
> > > Certainly Australia has produced some first-rate
> > SF writers: George Turner,
> > > Jack Dann, John Baxter. There is no American
> > equivalent to Peter Carey's
> > > The Unusual Life of Tristan Smith (one of my
> > all-time favorite novels). Nor
> > > can there be, because it's about NOT being
> > America.
> >
> > I wonder if that's true? Certainly Harold Bloom has
> > conniptions abouty
> > Stephen King being admired as a writer. (I've read
> > very little King,
> > only some of his Dark Tower SFF series, and for my
> > part I was
> > impressed and think Bloom misses the point by a
> > cubic mile). But I am
> > immediately thinking of Cormac McCarthy's The Road,
> > an extremely
> > impressive book which has had a lot of attention.
> > It's certainly
> > speculative fiction, but maybe they don't _call_ it
> > "SFF" for fear of
> > literary nose-pulling. Certainly among genre types
> > there's a lot of
> > discussion of this so-called literary SFF, which
> > gets put on the
> > literary shelves rather than with Conan the
> > Barbarian. I confess, I
> > don't have much interest in those kinds of
> > categorisations: but things
> > like "The Time Traveller's Wife" or "Jonathan
> > Strange and Mr Norrell"
> > or even Mieville's sprawling urban fantasies are
> > marketed as
> > absolutely mainstream fiction, in the US as well as
> > the UK, although
> > they are certainly genre books.
> >
> > Chris, isn't all that rather related to Kinsella's
> > musings on the
> > pastoral? He's written at length about all this.
> > I've finally finished
> > my own essay on this question, including that famous
> > "split", which is
> > I think a misleading way of mapping Australian
> > poetry. I'll probably
> > put it in the next Masthead (due midyear at this
> > stage, I have this
> > novel to finish first). No, I don't think anybody is
> > talking about
> > rural idylls; it seems to me much more interesting
> > and complex than
> > that.
> >
> > all the best
> >
> > A
> >
> >
> > --
> > Editor, Masthead: http://www.masthead.net.au
> > Blog: http://theatrenotes.blogspot.com
> > Home page: http://www.alisoncroggon.com
> >
>
>
>
>
> ____________________________________________________________________________________
> Sucker-punch spam with award-winning protection.
> Try the free Yahoo! Mail Beta.
> http://advision.webevents.yahoo.com/mailbeta/features_spam.html
>
--
Editor, Masthead: http://www.masthead.net.au
Blog: http://theatrenotes.blogspot.com
Home page: http://www.alisoncroggon.com
|
