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

[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...)