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Genre fiction, whee!
Dec. 28th, 2006 12:23 amHad tons of fun reading Elizabeth Bear and Lyda Morehouse and some other writers whose work I haven't yet read ranting back and forth in a smart nice way about genre (sf/f and sometimes horror) and how it does/doesn't scratch at the deep scary places where the thoughts and feelings duke it out in us.
Of course, I read lots and lots of pure straight up entertainment fiction, but I can still recall the shiver right through me that "Brightness Falls From the Air" invoked. I have never thought about beauty in the same way since. Actually, most of Tiptree makes me shiver. It's all pretty depressing and you get the feeling that Alice Sheldon wouldn't have known a good time if it bit her somewhere, but still, it makes you shiver. As Stephen Donaldson said in the afterword to Theodore Sturgeon's "Godbody" - "it comes through".
Other writers who hit me right in all major arteries/glands:
Connie Willis - whether it's light and funny like "At the Rialto" or quite frankly too scary for me to read twice, like "Schwarzchild Radius" or "Passage", she always goes *jab*
Samuel R. Delany. I really liked Dhalgren. It was clearly about how it feels in your mind if you are a writer. Many books and movies that get reviewed as confusing seem to me quite straightforward, only they are essays in fiction form and not actually fiction. Much of Delany is like this, including all of the Neveryon cycle.
Terry Gilliam's movies also strike me as being more fictional essay than actual story - they always smack you viscerally behind the eyes, but as an argument or analysis more than story.
Joanna Russ. Why isn't she universally loved by odd feminist writer types?
Elizabeth Moon - she has a discussion going all through her latest series about the moral balance being weighed by good people who happen to enjoy violence and killing. Again, that's a fascinating dangerous thing to put into fiction, and she does it with sneaky brilliance (what else would you expect from the woman who wrote "The Speed of Dark"?).
Lots of writers who don't usually get put in the serious writer box do this just fine for me though, including Nora Roberts, Laurell K Hamilton (I think she would get more serious attention as literature if she didn't sell so well? The truth is that scary-smart commentaries on modern feminism and what that means for both women's fantasies and women's relations to men are all through all her books, and the psychological stuff is getting much cleverer in the recent sex-laden ones. And who else could have a best selling conversation with her readership about sexual and moral identity? Fascinating.) And I think Nora Roberts is the single biggest banner carrier for modern feminism that we have. Her books are about the enduring power of the idea of a smart cool woman with smart worthwhile friends pursuing a career and finding a man who totally supports that career. If that doesn't cut close to the bone in a sexist society, what does? It doesn't have to cut close to the bone in a *negative* way to deal with the big issues.
Writers like Charlaine Harris have picked up the threads of Peter S. Beagle and Suzy McKee Charnas (as I ranted about months ago) in discussing how violence and magic can be ways for writers and readers to address some of the BIG issues for women like sexual violence and sexual abuse, and just plain old the terror of sexual vulnerability in a sexist society.
So I guess it all depends on how you see the issues. And I don't think of my own writing as addressing any issues at all. But I suppose in a way it does. Mostly about how hiding leaves you stuck in a corner, and how any kind of human contact is basically much scarier than death for a lot of people. Maybe those are sort of big issues.
I'm going back to reading Diana Wynne Jones's "The Tough Guide to Fantasyland" now. I must sleep soon.
Of course, I read lots and lots of pure straight up entertainment fiction, but I can still recall the shiver right through me that "Brightness Falls From the Air" invoked. I have never thought about beauty in the same way since. Actually, most of Tiptree makes me shiver. It's all pretty depressing and you get the feeling that Alice Sheldon wouldn't have known a good time if it bit her somewhere, but still, it makes you shiver. As Stephen Donaldson said in the afterword to Theodore Sturgeon's "Godbody" - "it comes through".
Other writers who hit me right in all major arteries/glands:
Connie Willis - whether it's light and funny like "At the Rialto" or quite frankly too scary for me to read twice, like "Schwarzchild Radius" or "Passage", she always goes *jab*
Samuel R. Delany. I really liked Dhalgren. It was clearly about how it feels in your mind if you are a writer. Many books and movies that get reviewed as confusing seem to me quite straightforward, only they are essays in fiction form and not actually fiction. Much of Delany is like this, including all of the Neveryon cycle.
Terry Gilliam's movies also strike me as being more fictional essay than actual story - they always smack you viscerally behind the eyes, but as an argument or analysis more than story.
Joanna Russ. Why isn't she universally loved by odd feminist writer types?
Elizabeth Moon - she has a discussion going all through her latest series about the moral balance being weighed by good people who happen to enjoy violence and killing. Again, that's a fascinating dangerous thing to put into fiction, and she does it with sneaky brilliance (what else would you expect from the woman who wrote "The Speed of Dark"?).
Lots of writers who don't usually get put in the serious writer box do this just fine for me though, including Nora Roberts, Laurell K Hamilton (I think she would get more serious attention as literature if she didn't sell so well? The truth is that scary-smart commentaries on modern feminism and what that means for both women's fantasies and women's relations to men are all through all her books, and the psychological stuff is getting much cleverer in the recent sex-laden ones. And who else could have a best selling conversation with her readership about sexual and moral identity? Fascinating.) And I think Nora Roberts is the single biggest banner carrier for modern feminism that we have. Her books are about the enduring power of the idea of a smart cool woman with smart worthwhile friends pursuing a career and finding a man who totally supports that career. If that doesn't cut close to the bone in a sexist society, what does? It doesn't have to cut close to the bone in a *negative* way to deal with the big issues.
Writers like Charlaine Harris have picked up the threads of Peter S. Beagle and Suzy McKee Charnas (as I ranted about months ago) in discussing how violence and magic can be ways for writers and readers to address some of the BIG issues for women like sexual violence and sexual abuse, and just plain old the terror of sexual vulnerability in a sexist society.
So I guess it all depends on how you see the issues. And I don't think of my own writing as addressing any issues at all. But I suppose in a way it does. Mostly about how hiding leaves you stuck in a corner, and how any kind of human contact is basically much scarier than death for a lot of people. Maybe those are sort of big issues.
I'm going back to reading Diana Wynne Jones's "The Tough Guide to Fantasyland" now. I must sleep soon.
