Debate over a Mundane SF
Posted by Trent Walters at 2:36 PM
Ian McDonald responded to my request to hear about his perspective on Mundane SF. Charles Stross and Patrick Nielsen Hayden also responded. I'll respond at length as soon as time permits.
8 Comments:
If you don't edit out that hyphen, the Tor goons will darken your doorstep, turn over your trash can and infect all your cats with wood ticks.
I've seen them at work and they are serious about it.
Why would I want to read mundane science fiction?
What possesed y'all to choose that name for your movement?
It's Mundane SF, with a capital. Look up "mundane" in the dictionary: of the world. Not to mention the irony.
More importantly, having read the manifesto, it comes across as saying that sf writers should abandon the old Golden Age cliches of aliens, timetravel, FTL ships and trade them in for nanontechnology, VR and quantum mechanics --welcome to the mid-nineties!
It's always convenient for people to read just as far as they want so that they can miss the point.
Touchy touchy!
Aaaarrgh! I've just come across this whole 'manifesto' tosh via Charlie's blog and can't say how annoyed I am. I am working on a few stories and decided, quite by myself -- thank you, to focus on near-future SF because the human race faces some formidable challenges. The last thing I want (should any of my stuff make it into the public domain) is to be labelled as a "Mundane" SF writer.
Next I'll be working on some stuff with aliens and FTL in it and bugger all that 'hard' SF stuff (that was one label I did not mind having, but not if it means giving up having fun)!
Interesting reaction to reject the label even though you quite independently wandered into its territory (or terror-tory as our president might say). I guess that's the "irony" part Trent refers to. The last thing I want to be labeled is "close-minded" but I'm not sure I want to give up the clubhouse key. They have diet sodas in there that taste like the real thing.
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