SF or F? (Link soup edition)

[alanajoli]

As you guys know, I'm interested in how the genre market inside of speculative fiction swings and sways, so I was glad to see a couple of article recently about new (and sometimes not so new) trends in Spec Fic.

Jason Sanford wrote an article about a new trend he calls SciFi Strange, linked to by eugie (Eugie Foster, author of Returning My Sister's Face). It's an interesting article for its own thoughts and ideas, but particularly because of some of his classification: He writes about Eugie's "Sinner, Baker, Fabulist, Priest; Red Mask, Black Mask, Gentleman, Beast" (up in Apex Magazine) as SciFi Strange. As a reader, when I read the same story, I thought it was a brilliant and haunting fantasy story. It never would have dawned on me that it was SF.

So, I asked Eugie, and she also categorized the story as SF, though acknowledging it was on the science-fantasy end of things.

All of which supports my theory that the boundaries of spec fic are so fluid you can't always tell where you are in the spectrum (despite my blogging efforts in defining bits and pieces). And I love it.

Over on Pop Syndicate, frost_light delves into why paranormal fiction (just another word for spec fic, right?) isn't anything new -- and thus, despite the huge burst of popularity, isn't going anywhere. It reminds me of some of the articles that were coming out as Peter Jackson's adaptation of Return of the King hit the theaters: the real difference between fantasy now and fantasy then is that there's such a much greater intersection now with pop culture and what used to be the domain of geek culture. (Think about it -- the newest Star Trek movie is in the top fifty of American box office successes, according to Box Office Mojo. Does that scream sub-culture or pop culture to you?)

Comments

Re: natural science fiction

[alanajoli.livejournal.com]

Oh, I love Annie Dillard. She's so poetic. Your idea of natural science fiction makes me think a bit of asakiyume's photographs, which I always think of as rather nature-fantasy. She captures moments that are utterly magical, but, of course, taking place quite literally in this world. :)

[lyster.livejournal.com]

I asked China Mieville a question once that boiled down to: "You were writing weird fusion sf/f/urban stuff before it was a thing that publishers recognized. How on earth did you make that work?"

His reply (not verbatim, filtered through my memory): "You just tell the story you want to tell, and then leave the agents and publishers to worry about pigeonholing it. If your story is good enough, they'll bore a new hole."

[alanajoli.livejournal.com]

That sounds roughly like something I heard that Michael Chabon said at a convention. To paraphrase, "I've been writing genre fiction for years. My publishers just haven't figured it out yet."