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From: psc@lzwi.UUCP (Paul S. R. Chisholm)
Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers
Subject: On the growth of fantasy
Message-ID: <306@lzwi.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 18-Sep-85 22:53:46 EDT
Article-I.D.: lzwi.306
Posted: Wed Sep 18 22:53:46 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 20-Sep-85 04:38:14 EDT
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<from the "Lincroft-Holmdel Science Fiction Club Notice", the largest
*weekly* publication in all SF!  Mark Leeper, editor; Evelyn Leeper,
publisher; open to all employees of AT&T, mail the Leepers to join.
This is from my occasional "column" of reviews, mine and others'; this
week, Evelyn had some short reviews, and so did I.  They started with:>

  A lot of this week's column conists of reviews of fantasies by new
writers.  It isn't because Evelyn and I prefer fantasy to SF.  Instead,
the new crop of writers seems to prefer it.

    Why?  A lot of it may have to do with the weak press the space
program's been getting, and NASA's "success" at replacing dreams with
engineering in orbit.  This is *not* necessarily a by-product of having
dreams come true!  A counter example, the explosion of accessible,
personal computers, proves that.  The "hacker" and similar communities
have managed to keep their discipline while expanding their creativity.
(Indeed, I wonder how many would-be hard SF writers ended up writing
software instead?)

    To a large extent, a single writer made fantasy both artistically
and commercially accepted.  In 1965, J. R. R. Tolkien's fifteen hundred
page novel, THE LORD OF THE RINGS, created a world more rich and vivid
than any SF novel (even DUNE, which was published in the same year.) My
copy (from 1973) came from the thirty-ninth printing!  Publishers
realized this thing could sell, and looked to buy more.  What followed
was a classic example of positive feedback: writers wrote more,
publishers sold more, readers bought more, leading editors to buy
more. . . .

    Twenty years after THE LORD OF THE RINGS, we're through at least
the second generation of "modern fantasy" writers.  The commercial
feedback has lead to a artistic one.  Young writers in the field are as
likely to be impressed by fantasy writers as SF writers.  When they hit
their mark, it's often fantasy they've been aiming for.  Today, it seems
most of the bright, exciting SF writers aren't writing SF at all!

    Maybe it's somehow related to the "new wave" of experimental SF
that rose in the 60's.  (By encouraging writers to stray from hard
science?  Or by discouraging them from SF?) DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS and
other fantasy role playing games probably had some influence, too (the
greatest influence on *them*, though, was Tolkien).  Anyway, the genre
is now entering its third decade of crying for new hard SF writers.  The
60's brought Larry Niven, and others; the 70's, John Varley, and others.
This decade will see more new faces, but "hard SF" will continue to bend
in new directions.
-- 
       -Paul S. R. Chisholm       The above opinions are my own,
       {pegasus,vax135}!lzwi!psc  not necessarily those of any
       {mtgzz,ihnp4}!lznv!psc     telecommunications company.
       (*sigh* ihnp4!lzwi!psc does *NOT* work!!!  Use above paths.)
"Of *course* it's the murder weapon.  Who would frame someone with a fake?"
-- 
       -Paul S. R. Chisholm       The above opinions are my own,
       {pegasus,vax135}!lzwi!psc  not necessarily those of any
       {mtgzz,ihnp4}!lznv!psc     telecommunications company.
       (*sigh* ihnp4!lzwi!psc does *NOT* work!!!  Use above paths.)
"Of *course* it's the murder weapon.  Who would frame someone with a fake?"


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