Too many links and you have a chain

[threemonkeys]

While I'm in the mood for linking to rants, there is a really interesting one over on Paul McAuley's blog about definitions in SF and the undesirability of creating limiting definitions. It is worth following the links and also the links from this earlier related post.

Comments

[cat-i-th-adage.livejournal.com]

With regard to Ms Rusch's article, I tend not to read tie-in novels because they tend to be bland. There are exceptions (Barbara Hambly's Star Trek and Star Wars novels in particular), but mostly they seem to read like John Clancy novels. I'm not using that comparison in a complimentary way, either.

[cat-i-th-adage.livejournal.com]

Don't get me wrong, I like Space Opera, it's just that novels written as tie-ins, in general, don't have the spiciness I'm looking for.

[threemonkeys.livejournal.com]

They do seem bland to me too. I think the reason is that too many media tie-ins are written to order. The publisher says we will pay you $x to deliver a product in 6 weeks. There is no engagement of interest on the part of the author - it is just a job to make a few bucks in what, for most writers, is a fairly marginal existence.

It is interesting you mention barbara Hambly. I remember hearing her talking about writing Star Wars novels and you could tell that she loved it. She was totally invested in the whole universe. When you get committment, you get spiciness.

[cat-i-th-adage.livejournal.com]

For some reason, I am reminded of Raymond Chandler's The Art of Murder, where he stated that he didn't write literature, and explained exactly why.

[threemonkeys.livejournal.com]

I remember Neil Gaiman talking about SF being in the gutter and reveling in it. It isn't literature - it is its own thing.

[cat-i-th-adage.livejournal.com]

...or some other tick mark that meets the approval of the Guardians of the True Quill

It's sort of funny how both Ms Rusch and Mr McAuley seem to dislike the Guardians. And from your comments I'd surmise that you do, too. So where, then, is the disagreement?

[threemonkeys.livejournal.com]

Well I suspect that McAuley thinks Rusch is a guardian.

To be honest I don't really think much about genre guardians at all - Neil Gaiman may well though. It is probably a writer thing. Concern over who will publish their work and how it is received critically. I suspect that editors and critics (or even revewers) are where they are concerned.