Interesting article on sci fi fiction

[WordInterrupted]

Here's an exerpt:

HERE'S a question I don't expect to come anywhere close to answering by the end of this column: Why does contemporary science fiction have to be so geeky?

As that lone subway traveler who still occasionally rides to work brandishing a dog-eared edition of "A Canticle for Leibowitz" or "The Illustrated Man," I realize I'll never enjoy even a fraction of the social standing afforded to the umpteenth passenger who is just now cracking open a mint-condition copy of "The Kite Runner" or a fresh paperback of "A Million Little Pieces" purchased after it was discredited, and I don't expect this to change any time soon.

But what truly shames me is that I cannot turn to any of these people, or to my friends, or to you, and say: Whether you read books because you have a genuine, lifelong passion for literature or because a feisty woman in Chicago tells you to — you should pick up this new work of science fiction I just finished reading, because you will enjoy it as much as I did.

I cannot do this in good conscience because if you were to immerse yourself in most of the sci-fi being published these days, you would probably enjoy it as much as one enjoys reading a biology textbook or a stereo manual. And you would very likely come away wondering, as I do from time to time, whether science fiction has strayed so far from the fiction category as a whole that, though the two share common ancestors, they now seem to have as much to do with each other as a whale has to do with a platypus.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/05/books/review/05itzkoff.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&8hpib

edit: oops, "sci fi fiction?" I guess that would be "science fiction fiction!"

 

[Morrhigan]

Ya know, this guy has a point. I lean towards fantasy fic because I really don't care how the brilliant main character jury-rigs his space ship to fly through quantula flibbity phenomena. If the author spends more than a paragraph going into the math, quantum mechanics minutia, atomic physics or (dear gods, worst of all) describing the inner workings of the Coolest Machine Ever, my eyes glaze over. At that point I either start skimming, or just put the damned book down.

But then, I guess it is called science fiction for a reason. People who love science are much more likely to love sci-fi. That's not necessarily a bad thing.

Spec fic is a different matter, though, IMO. Spec (speculative) fiction is all about the "what if?" It starts with a "what if..." and answers that question in the course of the story. As a genre, it is often lumped in with sci-fi, but it usually doesn't have as much emphasis on jargon and hard science. So you don't have to be as much of a pointy-headed geek to get into it.

 

[Peter Octavian]

Frank Herbert wrote a wonderful commentary as an introduction to an anthology of sci-fi short stories in which he claimed that the genre should be called "hypothetical" fiction.

Really, the fantasy, the spec, the science fictions are all "what ifs". The problem with a lot of the fiction featuring "gee-whiz" jargon and gadgetry is that the authors have forgotten, or never knew, what good storytelling is.

Arthur C Clarke's work was speculative (and scientists around the world have praised his vision), but he never neglected the human element. Clarke's work made you yearn to live to see a time in which his speculations might come to pass, not so much for the fantastic nature of the technology, but for the fundamental affects that his gadgets had upon the worlds, the societies and the characters which he created.

William Gibson and Phillip K Dick were also pioneers of high-tech gadgetry in fiction, but they too cared for story and character development. The technology was an accessory, a convention, not the reason for the tale.

You have to wonder if authors who are writing "geek fiction" have been inspired by all the flash of their predecessors, and entirely missed the concept that all of the neat toys and impressive sounding terminology was inserted cleverly into "Songs of Distant Earth", "Virtual Light" and "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep" in order to better illuminate, or bring contrast to, some human truth.