SF Diplomat

Short Fiction : Do we need it?

My brother in Christ Paul Raven has produced THIS rather smashing post about the dwindling fortunes of short fiction magazines.  He's reacting to THIS post by Doug Cohen.  Paul's in an interesting position because while he's long been an eloquent mouth-piece for the cause of digitising genre magazines, he's also a member of the editorial staff for one of the oldest and best known dead tree SF publications there is, to whit, Interzone.  As a result, Paul hints at digitisation but then agrees that we should all subscribe to a short fiction publication if we can afford to.

I'm not so sure.

Rending the Blogosphere

The Estimable Niall Harrison has drawn my attention to a report about the goings on at Readercon.  In particular the ideas that emerged during a panel discussion called "Reviewing the Blogosphere".  Niall describes the panel in these terms :

John Clute needs no introduction. In the online world, he writes a column for Sci-Fi Weekly, occasional reviews for Strange Horizons, and has even posted reviews on his blog … sort of. Kathryn Cramer blogs, and is an editor at NYRSF. Jim Freund is the host of a long-running NY radio show, Hour of the Wolf, in which sf writers and professionals are interviewed; the shows are archived online. Ernest Lilley is Senior Editor at SF Revu; Tom Purdom is a music critic, and writes online for the Broad Street Review, but is obviously better known around these parts as a writer. Gordon Van Gelder is, of course, editor of F&SF, but also wrote a fair number of reviews for NYRSF in its early days. (I have the issue with his piece on “Kirinyaga” in; it’s good.)

I recommend having a look at the various reports and discussions because they are genuinely interesting (if you have an interest in the activity of writing about SF, as opposed to just reading it).  However, a couple of points jumped out at me and I thought I would make them here as they're a little long-winded to fit in the comment box on Niall's blog.

Sanford and Cheney on Genre and the Literary Establishment

The last week or so has seen an interesting discussion echo round the blogosphere.  The discussion was prompted by an article by Jason Sandford in the latest issue of NYRSF.  Evidently, this article so enraged The Mumpsisimus' author Matthew Cheney that the normally mild-mannered and cerebral litblogger went off on a rant.  The discussion spread and Sanford felt obliged to respond that Cheney was missing the point.  In fact, Sanford has been putting out fires left right and center and as a part of this desire to right a wrong, he contacted me and asked me to take a look at the original piece following my response to Cheney's original post.  Seeing as my copy of the NYRSF seems to arrive by donkey, I agreed.

Is Cheney being unfair to Sanford?  partly, but in quite an interesting way.

Is SF institutionally xenophobic?

So over the last couple of weeks a huge debate has been raging, hither and yon, across numerous blogs and forums about whether or not women are under-represented in the SF field.  As the debate has raged on it has prompted people to say some quite extraordinary things that have prompted me to wonder how progressive and open the SF field actually is.

International Man Booker Prize 2007

According to the Indie, the second biennial International Man Booker Prize shortlist has been announced. A cousin of the, perhaps better known, Man Booker prize for fiction, this international award focusses less on individual books and more upon their overall achievements and influence.

This year's list of nominees are:

• Chinua Achebe
• Margaret Atwood
• John Banville
• Peter Carey
• Don DeLillo
• Carlos Fuentes
• Doris Lessing
• Ian McEwan
• Harry Mulisch
• Alice Munro
• Michael Ondaatje
• Amos Oz
• Philip Roth
• Salman Rushdie
• Michel Tournier

Apparently, Lessing's latest novel The Cleft talks about a time in the past when all-female reproduction would occur and male babies would be fed to the birds while female babies would be suckled by does. As with the work of fellow nominee Margeret Atwood, I'm sure that despite being entirely speculative, someone will reassure us that The Cleft is not in the least bit Science Fiction and nor is Lessing's Canopus in Argos series that deals with accelerated evolution.

The British Science Fiction Association Awards 2006

Via Niall

Best Artwork
Angelbot, Fangorn (Cover of Time Pieces, ed. Ian Whates)

Best Short Fiction
The Djinn's Wife, Ian McDonald (June edition of Asimov's)

Best Novel
End of the World Blues, Jon Courtenay Grimwood (Gollancz)

I am currently doing that dance where you put your fists together and make them go round in a circle in front of you as not only did the book I've been so loud about end up winning (congratulations Jon!) but I picked the winners in the two other categories too. I'm definitely getting better at this whole punditry lark.

Speaking of punditry, I think we should all join together and get a few belly laughs going regarding Paul Raven's much vaunted liveblogging of Eastercon. Far from the daring piece of journalism promised us, we've had some photos, some apologies and Paul saying he's having a nice time. Frankly, the genre community would have gotten as much in-depth coverage if he'd sent us postcards.

Hopefully all information worth consuming will filter out once they get home.

I don't know... you wouldn't get this from Hunter S. Thompson would you?

It's Either Egotism or Paranoia...

But it's hard to not feel one's ears burn when I make a post like THIS one...

and a little while later the following appears in New York Review of Science Fiction :

"There have been interesting discussions on the web about criticism in the sf field, and how difficult it is to break in, that have us scratching our heads. Every critical magazine in the field is looking for reviewers and for well-written and well-thought-out essays, both online and in print. In case you are wondering, anyone who contacts by mail or email is welcomed--encouraged, even--to submit reviews for us, a policy we have had for nearly twenty years. We email people whose reviews we read and ask them if they have time to review for us, too. Apparently we are too formidable for some people, who never contact us because they already know we would reject them. and some of them feel this way because we are a print magazine, rather than electronic -- print is for the old elite closed network, or some such. In fact, we have run reviews and essays by intelligent teenagers, as well as intelligent PhDs with formidable reputations, and we intend to continue. And we wish well to everyone who wants to write about sf, whatever the venue. Please feel free to email the addresses on page 3.

-- David G. Hartwell and the Editors"

They seem to be repeating what Kathryn Cramer said at the time with regards to accepting email submissions but it's interesting to note that the online NYRSF writers' guidelines haven't been updated (since 2001 in fact), and they still say that they don't accept unsolicited email submissions which is, apparently, quite a common policy. So if they have in fact changed their policy regarding e-submissions over the last 6 years then this should be applauded, even if this official statement of editorial policy does comes with a large dose of sarcasm.

Speaking of which, Paul Raven's VCTB has news of an even more sarcastic opinion on the dead-tree/digital format debate, this time from Scott Edelman at SciFi Weekly.

Stay tuned to SF Diplomat for the next exciting episode of "Which respected member of the SF Community can Jonathan piss off next?"

The Great SF Diplomat book Giveaway!

A little while ago, someone was kind enough to contact me asking if I would like to receive free books to review on this here site.  Being a tight sort and always in the mood for goodies, I agreed.  Then I didn't hear anything for a while.  Then I received a knock at the door.

It was a man from DHL with a box large enough to contain a severed human head.  Obviously I was worried.  Had Frank Schatzing read my review?  or was it blowback from that time I got invited onto BBC Radio 5 live and accused the Pope of being 140 years old?  Christ... I don't even know Gwynneth Paltrow!

Gingerly, I opened said box and discovered it to be a rather large collection of books.

Now, normally this is a reason for rejoicing but this has placed me in a rather tricky situation... if I review all of these books then I won't be able to review anything else for the next six months and a couple of these are sequels to books I haven't read.  Obviously, I can't possibly review all of these and I don't particularly want to sell them or give them away.

This is where YOU come in.

 

 

I have extracted a couple of books that I am planning to read and review but the rest I have decided to give to whomever wants them and promises to produce a short review for me in return.  I don't mind how long you make the review or even how coherent it is as long as you react to the book and send your reaction to me.  If you want to you can produce a long critical piece or maybe an obscene limerick, a piece of interpretative dance or even just a photo of your genitals with the title of the book scrawled crudely in eyeliner along the glans.

So here is the list of books :

* Dragonmaster: The Omnibus Edition by Chris Bunch, which is a complete trilogy in one book.

* The Wishsong of Shannara (Book 3 in the Shannara series) by Terry Brooks

* The Sum of All Men (The Runelords Book 1) by David Farland

* Brotherhood of the Wolf (The Runelords Book 2) by David Farland

* Burning Tower (Sequel to Burning City) by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle

* Traitor to the Blood by Barb and J.C. Hendee

* Smoke and Mirrors (Book 2 of the Vicki Nelson Mysteries) by Tanya Huff

* In the Earth Abides the Flame (Book 2 of the Fire of Heaven series) by Russell Kirkpatrick

* Last of the Wilds (Book 2 of the Age of Five series) by Trudi Canavan

All YOU need to do to get your hands on one of these beauties (wherever in the world you might be, I'm happy to pay for postage) is click on the "ABOUT" link and then send me an email giving me your book request, your name, your address and if you've got a particular idea about the kind of piece you want to produce for me then let me have it.  If there's more than one person asking for the same book I'll most likely give it to the person who seems the most likely to do something creative with it.

I'm not even going to give you grief over the copyright of your creation... if you want to blog it or put it up on another website then that's absolutely fine by me.

Also, if anyone reading this has a blog then I'd be most happy to have you post a link so that your readers can benefit from this bumper giveaway too.

I await your emails with bated breath.

UPDATE : As of Thursday 2050 hours GMT the following books have been nabbed.

• Traitor to the Blood
• The Sum of all men
• Dragon Master
• Smoke and Mirrors
• Last of the Wilds
• Burning Tower
• In The Earth Abides the Flame (maybe)

Leaving only the Terry Brooks and the Brotherhood of the wolf.

I'll keep updating this until they're all gone :-)

Thoughts on SF Criticism, Technology and Accessibility

An interesting thought just occurred to me and seeing as I'm procrastinating fiercely, I thought I'd share it with all and sundry.

One thing that I thought was particularly interesting about the discussion regarding the British Science Fiction Association's Award for Non-Fiction was that a number of established critics seemed to have quite an elitist view of the nature of professional SF criticism (namely the production of critical pieces for which you are paid).  For many, it appears that the field of debate is the dead and processed tree.

By this I mean that "serious criticism" isn't something that occurs on blogs or websites but in books of collected criticism, critical journals and maybe dead tree magazines.  If you spend a bit of time immersing yourself in this world (as I have in an attempt to improve the quality of my output) you'll find that a lot of the same names keep popping up.  As one participant in the thread put it, they all know each other to have a been with.

In and of itself, this very top-down structure is not a problem.  By and large the "usual suspects" are excellent insightful writers who frequently earned their reputations after decades of work pumping out book reviews and editing journals, magazines and websites.  My problem is not that there IS an elite (because every discipline needs one) but rather the distinct lack of permeability to the upper echelons of critical discourse.  The reason for this is not a lack of quality writers (because a look at any decent SF review site will show you how good some writers can be) but rather barriers to access that are becoming increasingly absurd with every passing year.

One of the more interesting links on the British Science Fiction Association's website leads you to Rob Hansen's potted histories of British SF fandom and the BSFA.  One of the more interesting historical notes buried in the avalanche of names, dates and acronyms is the initial reaction to the concept of the SF fan.  Quite a recent invention, the implications of populism and uncritical love that seemed to accompany the term initially repulsed many of the more established fans.  The result seems to have been a polarisation of interest in SF.  On the one hand you have fandom, a once geeky cult that has now turned into a billion dollar industry and on the other you had the critics who infiltrated academia and tried to carve themselves out a niche there, combatting the indifference and scorn of mainstream litgeeks.

The result of this schism was the appearance of peer-reviewed "critical journals" such as today's Foundation and New York Review of Science Fiction.  A look at both websites will reveal something quite interesting.  Both publications are quite expensive and exist solely in dead tree form.  This is not because they are particularly well made publications (the NYRSF, much like its website, looks amazingly unprofessional) but because they use the academic publication model.  This model publishes for a niche market and relies largely upon volunteers for content and peer review but, because it produces for such a small market, the costs are high despite the seemingly low overheads.

One thing you'll notice about both of these publications is that they pretty much both ignore the internet.  Their business model unchanged they produce dead tree journals that they pay to ship around the world to their subscribers who all pay by cheque.  Not only can you not pay online for anything (except through third party re-sellers) but you can't access the articles online.

This is a real physical boundary as it means that in order to even gain access to high quality critical content, you have to subscribe to some expensive magazine that will take ages to get to you OR you have to buy the frequently ruinously expensive non-fiction genre publications.  This boundary is so real that many in the discussion over at Torque Control even see it as reason for not having a non-fiction award.  In fact, I think that many like that boundary being there... keeps the "fans" out.

The problem with this model is that not only is it needlessly exclusive seeing as online publications such as Strange Horizons and The Internet Review of Science Fiction (with all of its administrative difficulties) can and do publish really top level criticism but it's also actively behind the times in academic terms.  Many academics such as Nick Bostrom (who I interview here) put their articles online for free download.  The reason for this is that research and discourse only ever benefit from having more people look at it and engage with it.  By locking itself away behind the walls of an anachronistic business plan, SF criticism is not only making itself less accessible to people who might have something to contribute to it, it's also making itself less and less relevant to the experience of reading SF.

To say that it is ironic that SCIENCE FICTION criticism is reliant upon anachronistic business models is something of an understatement.  My only hope is that such needless barriers to discourse are merely a reflection of carelessness and laziness rather than any concerted effort to keep non-academics out.

2007 Arthur C. Clarke awards

(Via Niall)

The 2007 Shortlist for the Arthur C. Clarke Award has been announced...

• End of the World Blues by Jon Courtenay Grimwood
• Nova Swing by M. John Harrison
• Oh Pure and Radiant Heart by Lydia Millet
• Hav by Jan Morris
• Gradisil by Adam Roberts
• Streaking by Brian Stableford

Well, it's certainly an interesting list, but then anything less would have been a disappointment.

I'm not going to go into a detailed discussion of the list at this point as I've only read the Grimwood but, interestingly, I've read rather mixed reviews of the Roberts and the Harrison.  I'm inclined to trust those reviews as I struggled terribly with Harrison's Light and think that Roberts is a far better critic than he is a writer.

The Morris and the Millet are the mainstream novels that the Clarke award so often includes (even if it's comparatively rare that they actually win) but the Morris is one of those works that could be called genre as it deals with a fictional european state.  The Millet, on the other hand, appears to be a work of "science fiction" in the sense that it deals with real science in a fictional setting.  Needless to say, both have been largely overlooked by the usual genre websites.

Brian Stableford's Streaking is undeniably genre.  However, going by the PS Publishing website, it only got a tiny print run of 500 (hence the huge price tag), so in choosing it the Clarke board have given it a good dose of publicity.  Having said that, the great Clute seems to have had mixed feelings about it.

Once I get out from under the pile of books and DVDs I've promised to review (not to mention my review of Watts' Blindsight which has been formenting all weekend) I might try and do a long piece about the different books and what their chances are.  Especially if someone commissions me to do it *cough*.