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Don't like the sound of that Jeanette Winterson by nebbish (4.00 / 2) #1 Tue Dec 11, 2007 at 09:57:19 AM EST

at all. Is it a bit structureless and all over the place? It also annoys me when authors write SF and distance themselves from the genre - though I must admit Margaret Atwood does the same and is very good.

Did you see Jeanette Winterson defending homeopathy in the Guardian? Jesus. Still, judge the art not the artist and all that...

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It's political correctness gone mad!

It was quite heavily structured by TheophileEscargot (4.00 / 1) #2 Tue Dec 11, 2007 at 10:15:39 AM EST

But didn't seem to quite fit together. Apparently she says she hates science fiction though. I don't know why she (PowerBook, this) and Margaret Atwood (Handmaid's Tale, Oryx and Crake) keep writing so much SF when they claim to hate it...
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"Everything is vague to a degree you do not realize till you have tried to make it precise." -- Bertrand Russell
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I don't know about Handmaid's by MartiniPhilosopher (4.00 / 1) #3 Tue Dec 11, 2007 at 10:41:07 AM EST

but Oryx and Crake was very short on the science and I had a lot of trouble when reading it seeing the SciFi part beyond her version of the near future. There was a lot of glossing over of how the science of her world was working that what I see as a good SciFi book would have gone into, mostly out of trying to convince the reader that it was entirely possible. See: The Gap Series.

Whenever I hear one of those aforementioned douche bags pontificate about how dangerous [...] videogames are I get a little stabby. --Wil Wheaton.
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I thought the genetics was OK by TheophileEscargot (4.00 / 1) #4 Tue Dec 11, 2007 at 10:46:24 AM EST

It did bug me when in this super-paranoid future world of terrorism and genetically modified diseases, the commercial artist character sends out a portfolio as a physical package by mail.

I suspect in the future they may well have some form of electronic mail...
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"Everything is vague to a degree you do not realize till you have tried to make it precise." -- Bertrand Russell
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I don't think SF needs to have science in it by nebbish (4.00 / 1) #5 Tue Dec 11, 2007 at 11:34:30 AM EST

Which does sort of bugger me for any kind of definition... Anyway, I never read Oryx and Crake (and should, really), but think the Handmaid's Tale is an absolute classic, one of the best ever dysopias and a feminist masterpiece.

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It's political correctness gone mad!
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: It depends, I think by MartiniPhilosopher (4.00 / 2) #11 Tue Dec 11, 2007 at 12:26:55 PM EST

on where you're attempting to place the emphasis of the story. If the story's emphasis is going to be on how technology/technological change affects humanity then I think you had better get a good grasp on the science behind it. Otherwise you run the risk of having your own ignorance of such shining through and ruining what is otherwise a good story. This is what has happened to me with many of the cyberpunk and other computer-related goodies that seem to have captured a lot of my generation's imagination. I have a hard time getting past what I know and into their "what-if".
Whenever I hear one of those aforementioned douche bags pontificate about how dangerous [...] videogames are I get a little stabby. --Wil Wheaton.
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short on/glossing over science by clover kicker (2.00 / 0) #19 Tue Dec 11, 2007 at 01:32:23 PM EST

I don't think Zelazny ever explained a single bit of the science in his books/stories, and it didn't hurt a bit (admittedly I'm a drooling Zelazny fanboy).

But I think most would agree that a story about the consequences of ubiquitous reincarnation machines doesn't suffer by omitting how the machines operate.

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Genre fiction is seen as "light" by nebbish (4.00 / 1) #6 Tue Dec 11, 2007 at 11:39:05 AM EST

Whereas proper fiction (about relationships, set in north London) is serious and adult. So what to do when you realise SF isn't light at all, and in fact you are writing some? Well, instead of sticking up for the genre and its authors, continue to dismiss it by refusing to associate yourself with it, whilst plundering its ideas. Cowardly and dishonest.

As you can see, gets right up my nose.

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It's political correctness gone mad!
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Dunno by TheophileEscargot (4.00 / 1) #7 Tue Dec 11, 2007 at 11:44:12 AM EST

I don't think Margaret Atwood could have read much SF, since she clearly thinks she's being daringly original with pretty old ideas (like rich people living in heavily guarded gated communities with Mad Max-style anarchy outside).
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"Everything is vague to a degree you do not realize till you have tried to make it precise." -- Bertrand Russell
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Cynical answer by ucblockhead (2.00 / 0) #8 Tue Dec 11, 2007 at 12:11:02 PM EST

"Literary" books earn more than "Sci Fi" books.
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_{ウセーバラケダ}
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: and by MillMan (2.00 / 0) #20 Tue Dec 11, 2007 at 02:20:45 PM EST

are taken far more seriously by pundits / intellectuals.
When I'm imprisoned as an enemy combatant, will you blog about it?
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