Cat Vincent ([info]catvincent) wrote,
@ 2007-12-11 00:39:00
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Current mood: amused
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Entry tags:mundanes, sf

On lit-fic versus SF
Scalzi, in the midst of reaming out another PC idiot who tut-tuts about the horrible influence of Heinlein on modern SF, perfectly sums up the difference between creators of 'literary' fiction and writers of SF, thus:

"People start writing literary fiction as they tumble through writing programs at Sarah Lawrence or Bennington or Iowa because that’s what they’re expected to write and they want to impress their professors and fellow students; people start writing science fiction, on the other hand, roughly ten seconds after they set down The Star Beast or Ender’s Game or Snow Crash because they get done with the book and think, holy crap, I want to do that. Academia generally wants you to show you can write; science fiction generally wants you to tell a story. "

Nice.
And don't get me started on lit-fic wrters who steal SF ideas and claim they're not doing SF but something *better*...




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[info]sunfell
2007-12-11 03:22 am UTC (link)
I'll take a good SF book over lit-fic any time.

I might write one, too. That Brin quote got my gears a-turnin'. It's been a long time since I've written fiction. Maybe I need to get back into it.

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[info]velvetdahlia
2007-12-11 09:06 pm UTC (link)
Well, to be fair-- having come from a competitive MFA program and having gone to countless conferences where these people mix-- that's exactly what's behind most writers who are in academic programs as well-- they are writing because they are passionate readers.

The genre differences are more more about marketing. What's happening in academic programs is for the most part removed from what's really being bought and sold in the mainstream-- SF or "lit-fic."

Anyway you slice it, it's a racket, and there's mediocrity on both sides.

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[info]catvincent
2007-12-11 10:24 pm UTC (link)
"Anyway you slice it, it's a racket, and there's mediocrity on both sides."

Granted. It's just that I think I prefer the pretentions on the SF side far more than the mundane!

(Reply to this) (Parent)


[info]vogelbeere
2008-05-09 10:33 am UTC (link)
lit-fic writers who steal SF ideas and claim they're not doing SF

I call that "strain-meme" (Spoonerism of mainstream). Because they borrow our memes and have no idea of the previous uses of them in SF, and one usually finds that their take on that particular meme was done 20 years ago by an SF writer, and done better.

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