Comments on: Hey, Why Aren’t More Things Being Written that I Like?

By: Hey, Why Aren’t More Things Being Written That I Like? « Everything Is Nice

Hey, Why Aren’t More Things Being Written That I Like? « Everything Is Nice — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 11:43:35 +0000

[...] Damien G Walter says science fiction used to be too optimistic and now it is too pessimistic. Why can’t it be somewhere in between? To which I would say, why can’t it be anything it wants? I always react bady to this sort of [...]

By: SMD

SMD — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 02:17:17 +0000

You know, if you’re proposing we flirt more with what was the “Golden Age”, then I’m very with you. Yes, I do like reading the stuff that really rocks my brains and deals with complex, hardcore issues, but I also like the good space adventure story, and it seems to me that a lot of people do. I’d even like to write them if there was a market for them, but it seems like the “pulpy” days are mostly dead, which is terrible in my opinion. What’s wrong with high-flying adventure in space? It works for TV, it worked for SF literature for a long while (despite the literary folks saying it wasn’t literature, even though it was), why not now?
I agree with Whitmore about reading YA stuff. Westerfeld’s Peeps was an amazing read, in my opinion, and altogether fun and enjoyable. It took the vampire mythos and twisted it so there was a science-fictional element to it (i.e. a logical, realistic reason for vampirism, or at least as realistic as you can get). I’m sure there are loads of other great stories. There’s John Scalzi, who has a lot of great adventure in his stories, also dealing with some deep issues, which I find compelling, and Tobias S. Buckell, who writes similar adventure-filled SF with some political/cultural intrigue thrown in to stir the pot up a bit. My problem is with short stories: I love shorts, but I get the impression that a lot of the adventure stuff gets lost. It’s there, but it sort of comes and goes I suppose.

I’m rambling though. I do wish we’d have an infusion of pulpiness though. I liked the pulps. Nothing wrong with them at all.

By: Justine Larbalestier » Things I REALLY don’t like

Justine Larbalestier » Things I REALLY don’t like — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 15:32:22 +0000

[...] so they should all be set in Bolzano, Dapto, Enugu or Guayaquil. On your bikes. Except for Alan, of course.

Posted by Justine at 11:32, April 19th, 2008 under Bloggery

[...]

By: Chrononautic Log 改 » Blog Archive » The Decline of Things That I Like

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 16:05:00 +0000

[...] osed it into a different key, folks, don’t think we can’t still tell you stole that riff from Alan.
(Via Jeremy T.) This entry was posted on [...]

By: Tom Whitmore

Tom Whitmore — Tue, 12 Jul 2005 02:16:53 +0000

There is a lot of what you’d like being published. But Gresham’s Law is working — bad (for any one person’s definition of bad) fiction drives out good.

In terms of amazingly good story values, look in kid’s books (Scott Westerfeld, Garth Nix, Peter Sis, Diana Wynne Jones, for simple examples).

There is more of what you want to read out there than you are finding. There is more of what I want to read out there than I am finding. The field of SF and fantasy is getting more dilute each year.

By: Jonathan Vos Post

Jonathan Vos Post — Thu, 07 Jul 2005 04:26:39 +0000

Of course, it could be that EVEN MORE cool stuff is being published, and there is a conspiracy not to tell you WHERE.

If you could program your search engines to sort with Coolest first, you just might find some…

The issue is not “why is there less cool stuff?”
The issue is not “am I paranoid?”
The issue is “am I paranoid ENOUGH?”

By: gabe chouinard

gabe chouinard — Wed, 06 Jul 2005 20:59:16 +0000

Just brilliant.

Except, why isn’t there more of what *I* like to read, because everyone knows that *MY* tastes are more important than *YOURS*.

By: Teresa Nielsen Hayden

Teresa Nielsen Hayden — Wed, 06 Jul 2005 20:32:49 +0000

That’s just frightening, in an appallingly accurate kind of way.

By: Jed

Jed — Sun, 03 Jul 2005 01:02:42 +0000

Hee! Very nice.

The really sad thing is that in about twenty years, I expect to be saying all that non-ironically. (Only instead of “the 1940s” I’ll be saying “the 1990s,” of course.)

So I hope you’ll re-post this in about twenty years, to the VR Web or whatever’s au courant at the time, just to remind us all. Or at least to remind me.

By: Ray Davis

Ray Davis — Sat, 02 Jul 2005 16:27:43 +0000

It gives me special pleasure that with just a few plucks (”adventure” & “Sturgeon’s Law”) this cri de coeur could also be sold as a piece on the state of poetry or the high-mundane. Alan, you have a fine career waiting for you on the dark side.