FutureTense

So ya wanna be a genre writer. Should you start off in short fiction or dive right in to novels? [Write Hemisphere]

Jeff VanderMeer is a name that pops up from time to time when discussing strong writers producing striking new work. (City of Saints and Madmen, Veniss Underground and the forthcoming Secret Life)

Recently, I asked him for a list of writers he thought worthy of note but who had somehow escaped the public eye. He was kind enough to make the following suggestions.

Below Radar

Michael Cisco

Rhys Hughes

Stepan Chapman

Anna Tambour

L. Timmel Duchamp

At Radar Level

Paul Di Filippo

Hitting Starlight

KJ Bishop

Enjoy!

Alan Lattimore

Gabe Chouinard takes a look at the future of science fiction. He rocks to the return of hard SF/space opera, but ultimately finds

…radical hard SF/new space opera displays all the worst traits of modern SF. It’s written primarily by fans, for fans. While soaked in widescreen skiffy imagery pulled straight from the movies, radical SF, by embracing ‘hardness’, instead alienates itself from the average reader. Have engineering degree, will travel.

I don’t know if it’s a disagreement or merely a refinement. For me, the “fan” referred to here is a dedicated, knowlegable genre insider, not the fan referred to in the next quote who is more a part of the mundane world.

Gabe has clearly picked up the cultural dichotomy faced by SF. SF/F is at its historical peak in terms of gross, audience and interest. But not on pages electronic or otherwise. No, no, no Mr. Bill. In the theaters and on the little screen.

In his essay “Paradise Charted”, Algis Budrys mentioned (way back in 1980) that Fandom “…could probably exist and even prosper independently of science fiction, so intertwined and vociferous are its interpersonal concerns.”

Fans made Harry Potter a success, not some clever marketing scheme or pandering ad campaign. That all came later, after everyone already knew about it. Gabe turns to smart mobs as one way the industry is likely to feel its way forward.

In the end, Gabe suggests the future of SF/F will be a blend of the two. Science Fantasy, sometimes pronounced “New Weird.” I wish I could agree: Gabe is an optimist. I wish I was, too.

For me, the distinction between SF and fantasy lies not so much in their subject materail as in their approach. SF generally tends to appeal to the intellect, providing the analytical satisfaction of a puzzle solved. If I read a story and I feel done when my mind goes “click” because I’ve figured out the riddle, I’m reading science fiction, even if the garments are Elizabethan.

The pay-off for fantasy sneaks in under the radar of rational thought. It appeals to the intuitive sense of rightness or wrongness in our cultural universe. Which is why fantasy and horror are so closely related they can be united in dark fantasy.

You can get the two approaches together–intuitive and intellectual–but it requires either two part epoxy or a stunningly exceptional writer.

SF and fantasy will have to find their way toward renewed vigor, probably independantly. New movements like “New Weird” or interstitial are not a rescue remedy for the field at large (or probably even those sliver thin sub-genres) because smart mobs don’t buy lables. The golden goose of brand loyalty is emiting radioactive particles and irradiating those who insist upon holding on to the old way of doing things.

Smart mobs don’t even buy authors. The franchise is dying. Wake up and smell the coffee. Want to bet whether J. K. Rowlings next book outsells her last book? The smart mob–your neighbor up the street, your dentist, your mother–had better find the next one to be an improvement or sales will gutter. Who wants to trade places with Lucas? He thought he had a sure thing that he could market to death. After “Send in the Clones,” they had to discount Star Wars ™ toys just to get them off the shelves. Toy merchants were burned severely since they, too, believed the myth.

SF has come to rely on the old faithful reader who buys everything published in the field and reads voraciously. This approach might have worked through the late sixties but it doesn’t fly any more.

SF is dead like presidential hopeful Howard Dean. Lots of people like the message. No one is buying the books. Part of the anti-Renaisance must be the image projected to the audience. Hard for me to fathom in an age where Geek is almost cool and knowing the clock speed of your CPU and how much RAM you need to run Windows is something everyone knows from geezer to cholo to skateboarders putting together their homemade videos.

The popular shows are voyages of exploration and discovery, galactic empires, adventures, danger and Romantic heroes. (I don’t mean romance heroes. Different breed.) Stargate. Quantum Leap. Firefly. Babylon 5. Dare I mention Buffy and Angel? The sleeper of the year? Pirates of the Carribean: Curse of the Black Pearl.

I think those smart mobs have judged print SF and fantasy uninteresting. Unsexy. We won’t get them back until the genre, the industry can prove the contrary. No amount of “success by fiat,” where real live experts announce the robust health on convention panels, will overcome that. The jury isn’t interested in what we insiders think about our nice little ghetto. They’re only interested in what they think. Smart mobs are, in part, a response to manipulative marketing. The consumer doesn’t want to be the victim of “the experts” any more: the consumer wants to be the expert.

SF and fantasy need to get sexy again and I don’t think that’s going to happen just by sticking blasters in the same blender with Harry’s wand. This isn’t what Gabe is hoping for when he suggest the future of the genres will be found in a combination. He’s hoping that the relaxation of rules will encourage a new wave of authors who will bring a fertile appraoch to the freshly emancipated field.

My fear is that the same, tired, worn out approach will be applied until the creative fervor of “New Weird” is buired under a tsunami of caped vampires in rocketships as overworked marketing departments mash genre tropes together into the bland, greay paste of breakfast aboard the Nebuchadnezzar. An attitude of “get by” mediocrity and mining the reader for what ever we can get out of them is what landed us in this mess to start with. No relief of the rules can overcome that inertia without a willingness to change.

Right now I’m looking primarily at the writers who desperately want the good times to keep on rolling, to somehow keep the wallowing vessel afloat. without actually having to leave the comfort zone and do things differently. They’ve become miniature Hollywood studios remaking movies from the 1950’s: hogtied by the desire for guaranteed success without risk.

This ain’t a strategy that’s working so well for Hollywood these days, either.

Best regards,

Alan