I stand corrected, Ms. Croggon! (Even if "speculative
fiction" has a certain--je ne sais quoi--Wall St. ring
to it.) Thanks for putting me right on this--Candice
--- Alison Croggon <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> 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
> > >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
>
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>
>
> --
> Editor, Masthead: http://www.masthead.net.au
> Blog: http://theatrenotes.blogspot.com
> Home page: http://www.alisoncroggon.com
>
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