I don't write sci-fi although spec-fi works for me. Anyhow, I kept this speech around and today seemed a good, rainy day for a re-share. Thanks Udhay.
> > > Saturday, April 30, 2005 > > The Speech I Just Gave at the Nebulas > posted by Neil Gaiman 4/30/2005 11:41:00 PM > > Welcome, to the Nebula Awards, on this, the 40th anniversary of the > founding of the SFWA. That's the Ruby Anniversary, for anyone wondering > what sort of gift to give. > > And forty years is a very short time in the life of a genre. > > I suspect that if I had been given the opportunity to address a > convocation of the most eminent writers of science fiction and fantasy > when > I was a young man – say around the age of 23 or 24, when I was bumptious > and self-assured and a monstrous clever fellow – I would have a really > impressive sort of speech prepared. It would have been impassioned and > heart-felt. An attack on the bastions of science fiction, calling for the > tearing down of a number of metaphorical walls and the building up of > several more. It would have been a plea for quality in all ways - the > finest of fine writing mixed with the reinvention of SF and Fantasy as > genres. All sorts of wise things would have been said. > > And now I'm occupying the awkward zone that one finds oneself in > between receiving one's first lifetime achievement award and death, and I > realise that I have much less to say than I did when I was young. > > Gene Wolfe pointed out to me, five years ago, when I proudly told > him, > at the end of the first draft of American Gods, that I thought I'd figured > out how to write a novel, that you never learn how to write a novel. You > merely learn how to write the novel you're on. He's right, of course. The > paradox is that by the time you've figured out how to do it, you've done > it. And the next one, if it's going to satisfy the urge to create > something > new, is probably going to be so different that you may as well be starting > from scratch, with the alphabet. > > At least in my case, it feels as I begin the next novel knowing less > than I did the last time. > > So. A ruby anniversary. Forty years ago, in 1965, the first Nebula > Awards were handed out. I thought it might be interesting to remind you > all > of the books that were Nominees for Best Novel in 1965... > > All Flesh is Grass by Clifford D. Simak > > The Clone by Theodore Thomas & Kate Wilhelm > > Dr. Bloodmoney by Philip K. Dick > > Dune by Frank Herbert > > The Escape Orbit by James White > > The Genocides by Thomas M. Disch > > Nova Express by William Burroughs > > A Plague of Demons by Keith Laumer > > Rogue Dragon by Avram Davidson > > The Ship That Sailed the Time Stream by G. C. Edmonson > > The Star Fox by Poul Anderson > > The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch by Philip K. Dick > > > I love that list. It has so much going on – SF and Fantasy of all > shapes and sizes, jostling side by side. Traditional and iconoclastic > fictions, all up for the same lucite block. > > And if you're wondering, the 1965 Nebula Winners were, > > Novel: Dune by Frank Herbert > > Novella: "He Who Shapes" by Roger Zelazny and "The Saliva Tree" by > Brian Aldiss (tie) > > Novelette: "The Doors of His Face, the Lamps of His Mouth" by Roger > Zelazny > > Short Story: "'Repent, Harlequin!' Said the Ticktockman" by Harlan > Ellison > > ... it was a good year. > > Forty years on and we're now living in a world in which SF has become > a default mode. In which the tropes of SF have spread into the world. > Fantasy in its many forms has become a staple of the media. And we, as the > people who were here first, who built this city on pulp and daydreams and > four-colour comics, are coming to terms with a world in which we find > several things they didn't have to worry about in 1965. > > For a start, today's contemporary fiction is yesterday's near-future > SF. Only slightly weirder and with no obligation to be in any way > convincing or consistent. > > It used to be easy to recognise SF written by mainstream authors. The > authors always seemed convinced that this was the first novel to tackle > Faster Than Light travel, or downloadable intelligence, or time paradoxes > or whatever. The books were clunky and proud of themselves and they > reinvented the wheel and did it very badly, with no awareness of the body > of SF that preceded them. > > That's no longer true. Nowadays things that were the most outlandish > topics of SF are simply building blocks for stories, and they aren't > necessarily ours. Our worlds have moved from being part of the landscape > of > the imagination to being part of the wallpaper. > > There was a battle for the minds of the world, and we appear to have > won it, and now we need to figure out what we're doing next. > > I always liked the idea that SF stood for Speculative Fiction, mostly > because it seemed to cover everything, and include the attitude that what > we were doing involved speculation. SF was about thinking, about > inquiring, > about making things up. > > The challenge now is to go forward and to keep going forward: to tell > stories that have weight and meaning. It's saying things that mean things, > and using the literature of the imagination to do it. > > And that's something that each of us, and the writers who will come > afterwards, are going to have to struggle with, to reinvent and make SF > say > what we need it to say. > > Anyway. > > Something that, after half a lifetime in this field and a lifetime as > a reader, that I think worth mentioning and reminding people of, is that > we > are a community. > > More than any field in which I've been involved, the people in the > worlds of SF have a willingness to help each other, to help those who are > starting out. > > When I was 22, half a lifetime ago, I went to a Brian Aldiss signing > at London's Forbidden Planet. After the signing, at the pub next door, I > sat next to a dark, vaguely elfin gentleman named Colin Greenland who > seemed to know a lot about the field and who, when I mentioned that I had > written a handful of stories, asked to see them. I sent them to him, and > he > suggested a magazine that he'd done some work for that might publish it. I > wrote to that magazine, cut the story down until it met their wordcount > requirements, and they published it. > > That short story being published meant more to me at the time than > anything had up to that point, and was more glorious than most of the > things that have happened since. (And Colin and I have stayed friends. > About ten years ago, he sent me, without the author's knowledge, a short > story by someone he'd met at a workshop named Susanna Clarke... but that's > another story.) > > So. Twenty two years ago.... Six months later I was in the process of > researching my first genre book . It was a book of SF and Fantasy > quotations, mostly the awful ones, called Ghastly Beyond Belief. [And here > I wandered off into an extempore bit of quoting from Ghastly Beyond > Belief, > by me and Kim Newman, mostly about giant crabs. And space crabs too. I'm > not going to try and reproduce it here, sorry.] > > – and I found myself astonished and delighted by the response within > the field. Fans and authors suggested choice works by authors they loved > or > didn't. I remember the joy of getting a postcard from Isaac Asimov telling > me that he couldn't tell the good from the bad in his works, and giving me > blanket permission to quote anything of his I wanted to. > > I felt that I'd learned a real lesson back then, and it's one that > continues to this day. > > What I saw was that the people who make up SF, with all its feuds – > the roots of most of which are, like all family feuds, literally, > inexplicable – are still a family, and fundamentally supportive, and > particularly supportive to the young and foolish. > > We're here tonight because we love the field. > > The Nebulas are a way of applauding our own. They matter because we > say they matter, and they matter because we care. > > They are something to which we can aspire. They are our way – the > genre's way, the way of the community of writers – of thanking those who > produced sterling work, those who have added to the body of SF, of > Fantasy, > of Speculative Fiction. > > The Nebulas are a tradition, but that's not why they're important. > > The Nebulas Awards are important because they allow the people who > dream, who speculate, who imagine, to take pride in the achievements of > the > family of SF. They're important because these lucite blocks celebrate the > ways that we, who create futures for a living, are creating our own future. > > -- > ((Udhay Shankar N)) ((udhay @ pobox.com)) ((www.digeratus.com)) > > >
