Really Snarky Observations on SF/F at the Present Moment

[pantryslut]

These questions are semi-rhetorical. :P

1. Do you think the reason certain people can't tell the difference between fanfiction and parody is that so much of SF/F is already brand-name knockoff material, so that nobody can figure out that for some purposes you might want to specifically *not* file off names and serial numbers?

2. Is it just me or are we seriously in an era in love with the Golden Age Retread -- complete with all of the icky, icky, icky politics thereof? (ObComplaint: "Politics? You're the one concerned with politics! I just want me some good old escapist reading!") Should I blame the end of the space shuttle program? The election of Obama? The economic morass in general? Something else? All of the above?

3. Do you think there might be a link between all of the above and my recent disinclination to read fiction in general? (Fiction I am reading or have read recently: a couple stories in My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me; Baba Yaga Laid an Egg; Sensation; Fire on the Mountain.) I am seriously wondering about my ability to read genre fiction at all these days after a couple of bounce-off experiences with books I expected to dig. (I have some suspicions that my tastes may have changed -- and in what directions -- but I'm still sorting it all out.)

Comments

[bifemmefatale.livejournal.com]

2. Empires in decline always wax nostalgic instead of dreaming of new futures. Partially the economic morass, yes, partially the general decline in US and European power in the world, the basic standard of living declining for our generation, and the sense there's only more to come.

[trinker.livejournal.com]

Retread is the newest round of backlash, to go along with "oh, but it's cis straight white Christian men who are the most oppressed!" trope.

My tastes have changed. I'm no longer willing to put on the blinders I need to be happy reading fiction that Others and erases me.

[elusis.livejournal.com]

If you're still not totally done with genre fiction, I just read "Zoo City" and then "Moxyland" by Lauren Beukes, which suffer from none of the above problems.

[pantryslut.livejournal.com]

I am not at all done with genre fiction; just large swaths, maybe. (Mostly those set in other worlds than our own. Maybe...)

[marrythebed.livejournal.com]

What did you think of My Mother She Killed Me My Father He Ate Me?

[pantryslut.livejournal.com]

I liked it and I mean to get back to it soon.