Trust me, it sounds better when Elvis is singing it.
An interesting post over on SF Signal asking some author-types If You Could Change Any Aspect of The Science Fiction Field, What Would it Be?. I was particularly struck by Paul Kincaid's answer: an end to the ghetto mentality:
I've been guilty of this myself (e.g. bitching about Michael Chabon getting a Hugo nomination while, say, Richard K. Morgan doesn't) but I think Kincaid's on to something here. We're so concerned with the 'genre' being taken seriously that we choke the life out of the genre with our seriousness. Or something... I'm not feeling very coherent today. Anyway, worth a read.
An interesting post over on SF Signal asking some author-types If You Could Change Any Aspect of The Science Fiction Field, What Would it Be?. I was particularly struck by Paul Kincaid's answer: an end to the ghetto mentality:
It's an easy get out: it allows us to feel persecuted by everyone else and to exclude everyone else all at the same time. So when someone says something sniffy about science fiction, we can just ignore them: they're not part of sf, they don't understand. Well, a lot of the time that is true, because we don't make it easy for people from outside the ghetto to understand. But sometimes they make a criticism that is acute and valuable, but we ignore it because they're not one of us. When an sf writer writes a non-sf novel, we like to feel betrayed. When a non-sf writer writes an sf novel, we like to feel superior.
I've been guilty of this myself (e.g. bitching about Michael Chabon getting a Hugo nomination while, say, Richard K. Morgan doesn't) but I think Kincaid's on to something here. We're so concerned with the 'genre' being taken seriously that we choke the life out of the genre with our seriousness. Or something... I'm not feeling very coherent today. Anyway, worth a read.
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jgstewart- J G Stewart
- The Wages of Sin
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I believe that was the anti-point to my post about Dr. Who; We don't take ourselves seriously enough, so why should anyone else?
db
(Whether Dr. Who is the former or the latter is a different discussion.)
This post is talking more about our tendency to define 'serious' or 'real' sci-fi by its use of specific tropes, and more importantly by which side of the 'genre wall' its creators land--e.g., no-one is arguing that Michael Chabon is a hack turning out mindless garbage in a cynical effort to sell to the 'sci-fi' audience... but people are arguing (as I did at first) that Chabon isn't a 'real' sci-fi author and therefore shouldn't get the Hugo. The point isn't about quality, nor am I arguing that we should ignore or diminish the quality work that falls under the category of hard-core spaceship/robot/lasergun sci-fi. But we shouldn't limit ourselves to our own ghetto just because the mainstream world looks down on us. That only hurts us in the long run.
I don't know if I'm making any sense here, but I don't think my point contradicts yours.
I think the simplest solution is to not nominate anyone who isn't a member of the SF community, e.g., not a member of SFWA.
That would identify the "eligible" members for the major literary awards. If a first novel was nominated, obviously that person should be given an opportunity to join.
And if a mainstream author wants to write a book with SF elements in it but isn't a member of SFWA, they shouldn't be nominated.
That's my take.
db