SF Tidbits for 11/29/07
By John DeNardo |
Thursday, November 29th, 2007 at
12:15 am
- At SciFi Wire, John Joseph Adams profiles Joe Abercrombie, author of The Blade Itself. Also: Joe Abercrombie has been added to the list of sf/f authors who blog.
- John Scalzi rants against Dragon magazine’s call for fiction, which includes a lower than average pay and complete and total ownership of the writer’s work.
- Movies online looks at The Great Misconception Of Science Fiction. “…science fiction is a setting and not a genre….the Gods of television have brainwashed us into thinking that science fiction and fantasy are the same thing.”
- USA Today has an excerpt Jane Espenson’s non-fiction book, Serenity Found: More Unauthorized Essays on Joss Whedon’s Firefly Universe, a follow on to Finding Serenity. The excerpt is the humorous essay written by the Firefly star Nathan Fillion, “I, Malcolm“. [via Whedonesque]
- Geekend unearths a talking Bender replica that dispenses beer.
Related posts:
- Is Firefly Good Sci-Fi?
- Finding Serenity
- Updated Pinyan Firefly Reference
- UK Firefly Fans Get the Shinier DVD of Serenity
- Serenity World Premier Footage
Filed under: Firefly • Tidbits
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“the Gods of television have brainwashed us into thinking that science fiction and fantasy are the same thing.”
This is evident in the print world as well. It seems(the book stores I shop at)independent bookstores don’t separate science fiction and fantasy 8o|
Jim
I’d have to sort of agree with the Gods of Television, then. While Science Fiction and Fantasy are NOT the same thing, they are very much intertwined in my mind and separating the genres is a BAD thing, making it more difficult to move between the genres and authors when, say, Orson Scott Card’s work will be in different sections and Ender’s Game won’t be on the same row as Seventh Son. Or, George R. R. Martin if Dying of the Light is not shelved with A Game of Thrones. I think it would hurt a SFF author’s sales, and making the genre poorer for it.
And then what do you do with those interstitial works where there is a blend of science fiction of fantasy? Where do they get shelved?
[Morgan comments:]
“SF is a setting not a genre.” Oh, man. *bangs forehead against wall* Do I ever disagree with this. A story in an SF setting without any other reason for it to be science fiction is pointless to the point of making my eyes bleed.
Science fiction is about the idea, the effect of science and technology on people. Why waste the reader’s time? Any writer who thinks using a science fictional setting for a non-science-fictional story (to use the writer’s example, Scrubs or House set two hundred years in the future) reveals a level of ignorance that is truly staggering about why SF works as a genre. Attitudes like this writer’s are what result in crappy media SF productions, and crowd out the good stuff.
Keep this person well away from SF scripting sessions!”