tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8524497770619950288.post877426425007664007..comments2023-12-18T18:23:05.715-05:00Comments on Marooned Off Vesta: a year of reading short science fictionEthan Robinsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11207042480666924085noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8524497770619950288.post-63080362025163364322017-09-25T20:29:42.426-04:002017-09-25T20:29:42.426-04:00Gotta lotta sci-fi in Seventh-Heaven...
Yeah [yaw...Gotta lotta sci-fi in Seventh-Heaven...<br /><br />Yeah [yawn] I'm a total pariah...<br />yet, I'm going to Seventh-Heaven.<br />Where you going?<br />If 1-outta-1 bites-the-dust<br />and if you dont yet know,<br />lemme show you how to wiseabove...<br /><br />DATS D'FAK, Jak:<br /><br />When our soul leaves our body<br />and we riseabove to meet our Maker,<br />only four, last things remain:<br />death, judgement, Heaven or Hell.<br />(which is exactly what happened to me:<br />Im an NDE - my colorFULL nomenclature).<br /><br />Find-out what RCIA is and join<br />(ya might wanna check-out<br />'Lui et Moi' by Gabrielle Bossis -<br />a French writer, translated;<br />a wonderfull novel which'll<br />ROCK, YOUR, WORLD, earthling).<br /><br />Make Your Choice -SAW<br />Google+: kold_kadavr_ flatlinerAnonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09161116712679365281noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8524497770619950288.post-62380915368829589492017-09-25T19:37:31.521-04:002017-09-25T19:37:31.521-04:00The term 'FEAR GOD' simply means
AWE and R...The term 'FEAR GOD' simply means<br />AWE and RESPECT which most of<br />U.S. dont have anymore due to the<br />horrific nature of abortion.<br /><br />FEAR GOD, mortal, and join this<br />sinfull mortal Upstairs when we<br />perish.<br /><br />Honor N respect Jesus, earthlings...<br />or He wont do likewise at death's hour:<br />Only 2 realms after our<br />lifelong demise, folks...<br />and 1 of em aint too cool..Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09161116712679365281noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8524497770619950288.post-79241482358924249902017-09-25T19:37:01.048-04:002017-09-25T19:37:01.048-04:00Gotta lotta sci-fi in Seventh-Heaven...
Yeah [yaw...Gotta lotta sci-fi in Seventh-Heaven...<br /><br />Yeah [yawn] I'm a total pariah...<br />yet, I'm going to Seventh-Heaven.<br />Where you going?<br />If 1-outta-1 bites-the-dust<br />and if you dont yet know,<br />lemme show you how to wiseabove...<br /><br />DATS D'FAK, Jak:<br /><br />When our soul leaves our body<br />and we riseabove to meet our Maker,<br />only four, last things remain:<br />death, judgement, Heaven or Hell.<br />(which is exactly what happened to me:<br />Im an NDE - my colorFULL nomenclature).<br /><br />Find-out what RCIA is and join<br />(ya might wanna check-out<br />'Lui et Moi' by Gabrielle Bossis -<br />a French writer, translated;<br />a wonderfull novel which'll<br />ROCK, YOUR, WORLD, earthling).<br /><br />Make Your Choice -SAW<br />Google+: kold_kadavr_ flatlinerAnonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09161116712679365281noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8524497770619950288.post-89274128797927576252017-02-06T09:35:27.828-05:002017-02-06T09:35:27.828-05:00Your post is awesome. You have shared very valuabl...Your post is awesome. You have shared very valuable information to us. Thank you so much for sharing this.<br /><a href="https://www.goupte.com" rel="nofollow">Magic to .Net</a>Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05933253257525088918noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8524497770619950288.post-1826892919470900362016-02-29T16:18:39.563-05:002016-02-29T16:18:39.563-05:00I'm glad you mentioned Elysium, as I had been ...I'm glad you mentioned <i>Elysium</i>, as I had been eyeing that recently as a possible read. I will check out the others, too. I'll admit that much of Aqueduct's title list did not look appealing to me on first glance, simply based on reading their descriptions. But personal recommendations go a long way toward convincing me otherwise.<br /><br />I've had bad experiences reading 'alt lit,' enough to make me averse to even considering reading a title falling somewhere within its vague parameters. I've also read effusive reactions to Butler from some people whose opinions I normally respect, but his books never sound appealing to me.<br /><br />Perhaps this younger generation of up-and-coming writers doesn't have the patience and/or attention span to accomplish the extensive worldbuilding I like to see. The 'vague fabulation' you speak of is, I believe, arguably easier to pull off than creating an entire universe that operates within its own logical framework.<br /><br />Agreed, too, about the self-publication conundrum. Could be some jewels hidden in there but they don't tend to rise to the top unless someone sees a possible blockbuster film adaptation.<br /><br />Ultimately you may need to start your own press. :)seanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15355042947106909540noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8524497770619950288.post-12940329043875389632016-02-29T13:16:52.967-05:002016-02-29T13:16:52.967-05:00Hah, no worries, I saw through your clever disguis...Hah, no worries, I saw through your clever disguise...<br /><br /><i>In recent decades one has been able to find occasional non-traditional SF stories published in small literary journals, but what about novels? Is there no one willing to publish them or is there just no one writing them? I find the latter hard to believe.</i><br /><br />This is something I wonder about all the time. Where has this writing gone? I think it's impossible that no one is writing it. But literally no one seems to publish it! You do occasionally see something really singular come out of the small sf presses (I'm forever pointing to <i>Elysium</i> by Jennifer Marie Brissett and Sarah Tolmie's <i>The Stone Boatmen</i> and <i>NoFood</i> - all from Aqueduct, who are putting out another Tolmie book later this year), but even these publishers for the most part seem much more traditional, or mired in a particular style (with some exceptions not much out of Small Beer, say, is likely to interest me, all that vague fabulation). <br /><br />And then there's "alt lit" or whatever, I had Blake Butler's <i>Sky Saw</i> enthusiastically recommended to me once when I asked a similar question, and I despised the living daylights out of the first 20 or so pages before I gave up. But both cases are extreme rarities, and even then not quite what I think we're both talking about, much as I love the Brissett and Tolmie on their own merits. (Of the two I think Brissett is much closer.)<br /><br />And of course self-publication - Metropolarity does phenomenal work - but that's so swamped with big-house imitations, good luck finding anything...<br /><br />So where has this writing gone? What is it doing?Ethan Robinsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11207042480666924085noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8524497770619950288.post-33288355345101705372016-02-27T15:23:26.999-05:002016-02-27T15:23:26.999-05:00Oh sorry, posted under a different name that time ...Oh sorry, posted under a different name that time (the problems of cross-platform commenting!). Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8524497770619950288.post-16725992168340799432016-02-26T18:20:55.753-05:002016-02-26T18:20:55.753-05:00That's an interesting theory about Sheldon'...That's an interesting theory about Sheldon's 'outing' and its possible effects on SF. I hadn't considered that, but your post makes some good points (I still need to read the Russ links--hadn't come across those before). I also agree that publishing became more conservative after the 70s and that probably is related. The growing corporatization of publishing also likely had an effect, and the increase in conservatism was probably directly related to the dollar signs now governing so many publishing decisions, not to mention the predilections of the individual corporate overlords (last I checked there were five corporations holding the majority of American trade publishers). But whereas a good amount of the more radical* literature being written outside of clear genre lines found homes in small presses after the larger houses stopped taking so many chances, there doesn't seem to have been a parallel move in the SF field. Unless I am just unaware of it, which is quite possible. In recent decades one has been able to find occasional non-traditional SF stories published in small literary journals, but what about novels? Is there no one willing to publish them or is there just no one writing them? I find the latter hard to believe. And I'm not talking about slipstream, because I think those novels that can be found here and there. I mean the harder SF stuff that Russ and Sheldon wrote.<br /><br />*please forgive 'radical' like you forgave 'experimental'...seanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15355042947106909540noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8524497770619950288.post-52228565654067992932016-02-25T12:09:36.537-05:002016-02-25T12:09:36.537-05:00! - thank you, both for reading and for commenting...! - thank you, both for reading and for commenting.<br /><br />Almost everything you say here is something I could have said myself. (Though I think my aversion to the word "experimental" is a bit stronger than yours seems to be :p). <br /><br />I tend to think that I and the field went in irreconcilably different directions sometime in the early 80s. (Coincidentally, right around when I was born - which I mention just to say, when I say "I went in a different direction" I don't mean in real time!) I used to look for reasons for this in the field itself - I once attached a great deal of importance to Sheldon's "outing", thinking it was what precipitated the anti-feminist backlash of 80s sf, which necessitated rebranding 70s sf as "stale" - I wrote a post about it, here http://maroonedoffvesta.blogspot.com/2013/10/on-tiptree-and-backlash.html if you're interested - but I'm no longer so sure. It seems to me now, for one thing, that publishing in general became much more conservative, politically and formally, after the 70s, and that sf just went along with it (though one could say that this in itself is a sign of the field's then-new alignment with the so-called "mainstream). <br /><br />And for another thing I'm much more suspicious of, well, everything now - for example, I don't think <i>nearly</i> enough importance has been attached to Sheldon's being a CIA agent. <br /><br />I was about to go off on some big speculative (hah!) lecture, but really there's no need to direct it at <i>you</i> (surely I've already gone on long enough), and it's all stuff I need to work out more. I'm in a phase of major disillusionment, is the upshot.<br /><br />Thanks again for the kind words - it means a lot.Ethan Robinsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11207042480666924085noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8524497770619950288.post-37710326531121904532016-02-24T15:11:50.913-05:002016-02-24T15:11:50.913-05:00I've been following your progress here for a f...I've been following your progress here for a few months, and thought I'd drop in to congratulate you on finishing such a project, despite the disheartening nature of your conclusions. Science fiction has long been the only 'genre' that I ever felt drawn toward as a reader, as someone who tends toward reading so-called experimental fiction (for lack of a better brief description). But most of the promise I've discovered in writers like Joanna Russ and Alice B. Sheldon has not been borne out in my digging for other writers I might like. Granted I have not read far and wide in the genre, especially not among contemporary writers, but your assessment here of the state of today's short SF certainly doesn't embolden my hope for finding new favorites. It sounds as if past writers such as Russ and Sheldon still continue to be the (extreme) outliers.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com