Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/17/84 chuqui version 1.7 9/23/84; site nsc.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!ihnp4!nsc!chuqui From: chuqui@nsc.UUCP (Chuq Von Rospach) Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers Subject: Re: THE PROBLEMS OF SCIENCE FICTION TODAY, PART III Message-ID: <2781@nsc.UUCP> Date: Fri, 31-May-85 01:31:11 EDT Article-I.D.: nsc.2781 Posted: Fri May 31 01:31:11 1985 Date-Received: Sat, 1-Jun-85 00:40:37 EDT References: <1092@druri.UUCP> Reply-To: chuqui@nsc.UUCP (Chuq Von Rospach) Organization: The Blue Parrot Lines: 87 Summary: > > THE PROBLEMS OF SCIENCE FICTION TODAY > > PART III: Self-Censorship And The Science Fiction Establishment > > by Davis Tucker >______________________________________________________________________________ Our dear friend Davis Tucker has spent a lot of time (and a lot of wordage, at that) attempting a literary criticism of the Science Fiction Genre. After wading through Part III, it is time to make some comments of my own, mainly because I won't bother with part IV or any future parts that he may decide to post. [I refuse the make the comment that it was posted here because this was the only place he could publish it without having to pay someone, but from the quality of the criticism, I probably could. Ditto, of course, to what I say here, but at least I'm concious of that fact.] The comments that Davis made can be summed up into the following generalized arguments: o if reading it is fun, it isn't literature o sf is a genre o genre's are not literature o if it isn't literature, it isn't good o I don't like it, so it CAN'T be good Of all of his points, the last one is the only one that REALLY matters, of course. I won't try to refute him on a point by point basis. If you like SF, the refutations will be intuitively obvious; if you agree with him, nothing I can say will help. One specific comment, though, ought to be addressed. 'Dr. Jeter' is a book that is rather similar to 'The Tin Drum' by Gunter Grass. If there is any reason for the Grass book to be published quickly when the 'equivalent' book goes wanting, it is because Grass was an established author. It is difficult for a publisher to justify a book that doesn't have a demographic attraction, because that is what pays their bills. If you have a very good but unusual book (of which both qualify) then SOMETIMES the publisher will take a chance, but only if he has enough in the budget. In the case of an established author, you are less likely to have a complete bomb because there is a known audience that is likely to buy anything that the author publishes, so the risks are less. Hence, a good book like 'Dr. Jeter' has a lot of strikes against it in the publishing game, since there isn't a name recognition involved and since there isn't a known audience and since the publisher may have to eat the galleys for breakfast if he guesses wrong. Just for reference, it is a LOT easier to get new works published in the SF or Fantasy genre than anywhere else in publishing (excluding self-publishing). My father has been trying to get a book bought for a number of years, so far with no luck. The books are good, very publishable, but mainstream, and getting a first book published out there is almost impossible. He is starting to slant towards other genre's now, because that seems to be the only way in. From my discussions with authors, agents, and publishers, I feel that if he had been working in this genre he would have been published long ago. The publishers out there in the genre DO take chances, a lot more often than other areas of publishing. They do this because the readers support them by buying the new writers and supporting them in taking chances. As an example of what it is like in the rest of the world, there is a not-so-apocryphal story of a person who took the final shooting script of 'Casablanca', retyped it under the original name (Everybody Eats at Sams) and ships it off to 230 agents in the movie industry. Something like 60% returned it as not professional or appropriate for the industry. Something like 15 recognized it as Casablanca. it's tought anywhere in publishing, folks... As a side note, the people who publish the Gor books not only acknowledge that it is garbage, but have also pointed out that those books make enough money to help support a number of other books on their lists that would never have been contracted and published if it wasn't for their subsidies. They also pointed out that the Gor books outsell most of the rest of their publishing lists in the genre combined. to have some winners to support a loser -- :From the misfiring synapses of: Chuq Von Rospach {cbosgd,fortune,hplabs,ihnp4,seismo}!nsc!chuqui nsc!chuqui@decwrl.ARPA This space for rent. Political, religious and racist quotes need not apply.