On Fri, Aug 7, 2009 at 12:27 PM, Jonathan Sherwood < [email protected]> wrote:
> We all know this is a topic that has been kicked around for at least a > decade, and has been given new vigor due to the acceptance of the internet. > But for the sake of argument (or fruitful discussion) it might be worth > stepping back and: > > - Making sure there really is a problem, and if so > - Making sure we really understand the problem, and > - Discuss whether it's a problem that ought to be fixed, and > - Discuss how the problem might be fixed > > We always talk about the last point, the solution. But I really, really > think we have to make sure we understand what the real problem is we're > trying to solve. > What's "dying" is a special place to sell and read stories that fit a much tighter set of criteria that makes them seem at home in Analog, Asimovs, F&SF or the other "genre" short-fiction outlets. Speculative Literature as something that's true to the definitions we usually apply (versus looking empirically at *what gets published in "our" press*) is clearly healthy as a horse. People write it all the time, and it sells millions of copies. People make big-ticket movies that make lots of $$ for their studios. Films just this week, per IMDB: - Shorts: The Adventures of the Wishing Rock - Cold Souls [Paul Giamatti putting his soul in cold storage for safety] - G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra Next week, and earlier this summer (went back about a month): - District 9 [Alien Nation with a more political edge] - Angels & Demons [anti-matter anyone?] - Half-Blood Prince - Aliens in the Attic - G-Force - Ice Age - Transformers - Ponyo - The Time Travellers Wife - Thirst - Blood - Twilight - Moon - Dead Snow Many of these are lowbrow popular entertainment, but I'm not making an argument about quality, here. Also, I'm very arbitrarily omitting what I see as straight horror, but that would make the list longer. Major mainstream-marketed books from recent years that clearly qualify as Spec Lit: - Yiddish Policeman's Union - Infinite Jest - The Time Traveller's Wife - Children of Men - Angels and Demons - Never Let Me Go (Kazuo Ishiguro) RIght now on Amazon's top 20 (which merges fiction and non): - The Time Traveller's Wife - Two "Twilight" books - The collected Sookie Stackhouse stories (dramedic vampire detectives) ... for 20% (4 of 20) of the merged entries. Gibson and Stephenson routinely sell large numbers of books if their publishers are careful not to market them as "SF". They're still nice to us because they know where they came from and aren't insecure about it. Craig's talked about how not only does Spec Lit do well in theatre, but it's not even really noticed as different. What's dying, IMO: - A particular literary sub-form and its related markets. - The use of special category descriptors (e.g., "Science Fiction", "SF", "Spec Lit") by large classes of people. - Possibly: Short stories above 2K works, including novellas. - *And most importantly, to us:* A mode of expression within the "SF" sub-culture that's primarily literary, due to decline in paid readership by members of the sub-culture. *This is what's taking down "our" market.* Does that mean there's not a problem? Of course not. But let's not pretend that it's a problem with Spec Lit. It's a problem that affects a well-demarcated sub-category -- that is, the genre of Science Fiction, and particularly with regard to the short story, and particularly with regard to the post-Campbell SF-ghetto form of those short stories. -- eric scoles ([email protected]) --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "R-SPEC: The Rochester Speculative Literature Association" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/r-spec?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
