macrev (12/19/82)
Andy makes some good points -- I doubt that he'll get many flames, but who knows (looked out at your front lawn lately, Andy?). But he's not telling most of us anything we haven't already thought through many times. Most SF IS something less than literature (I hesitate to say trash -- it's no more trash than most of the other popular fiction on the racks). And maybe our response to the Harper's article was more than it deserved. But why is it that of all the popular genres, SF is the one usually singled out for attacks like the one in Harper's? When was the last time any of you saw mysteries, or westerns, or spy thrillers taken to task? Science fiction is a type of popular fiction, no more, no less. People usually read for pleasure and exscape, and their choice of genre is a personal one. In other words, what I read is my business -- why should it bother someone else? Go ahead and read your westerns, but don't thumb your nose at my science fiction. I've been reading SF for twenty-five years. I began by "chewing through SF pulp," as I'm sure a lot of others did. As SF became more and more popular, its quality began to suffer (my opinion). Now I'm a more careful reader, and as often as not I'll come away from a bookstore with something other than SF -- for example, I just finished John Irving's "Hotel New Hampshire." My point here is that I believe most of us who read and enjoy SF have both feet firmly planted on this planet. This leads me to what I consider an important distinction. There are SF "readers," and there are SF "fans." I have to state here that this is a personal opinion, and I expect flames. Readers are those who have strong feelings about what SF is and should be, and who select their reading carefully. SF fans are those who cling to the "popular" bandwagon, adopting as their own everything given the "SF" label by people who don't know what SF is. Fans engage in endless discussions of movies like Star Wars and Star Trek II. They have "tribbles" in a prominent place on their desk. I have to compare fans to those people who buy the latest in ski wear and hang around the ski lodges without ever putting on a pair of skis. I like net.sf-lovers, and I tune in every chance I get. The SW discussions don't bother me -- I can always type "n," and I do so regularly. I WOULD like to see more reviews of books, and more discussion of SF as a literary genre. Maybe I can start some now. There were three SF novels on the NY Times best seller list last week. Anybody know what they were? Any reviews?