Charlie's Diary

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Fri, 27 May 2005 Oh God, it's that time of decade again There comes a point in any promising science fictional cultural revolution when the authors start scribbling manifestos and then denouncing each other as running dogs over their iced lattes. (It happens about once every two decades and we're currently running two years behind schedule.) I'm old enough to vaguely remember the tail end of the cyberpunk thing back in the eighties, and when I grew up I promised myself that if it happened again I wouldn't indulge in the practice. Issuing literary manifestos is something one tends to live to regret, or at least be highly embarrassed about ten years down the road. But the current ferment in the British SF scene is such that people are trying to figure out what's going on; this leads to pinning of colours to masts and, by way of a slippery slope, to a manifestation of manifestos. The first sign of this came last year, when The Third Alternative's discussion boards hosted a long and insanely recondite discussion of the matter of The New Weird. It turned into a kind of balloon debate, and in the end everybody except China Mieville and M. John Harrison was left behind as the balloon spiralled into the rarefied atmosphere of post-meta-political-para-fantasy or something. (If I sound vague about it, it's because I didn't really understand what the hell was going on. So I said my goodbyes, strapped on a parachute, and bailed out.) Well, the second sign came earlier this year when Geoff Ryman, who is old enough to know better, in conjunction with various co-conspirators, issued the Mundane SF manifesto. (NB: before anyone assumes I'm dissing Geoff, I think he's a national treasure and one of the best working writers in our field. If I have a beef it's with the practice of issuing manifestos in general, not with Geoff.) And now Ian McDonald, who is also old enough to know better, has issued a counterblast. This is not the time and place for me to start banging heads together, or to roll up my sleeves, strap on the virtual reality goggles, and issue an anti-manifesto. (I've got a stinking head-cold, my brain feels like mush, and right now I'm not up to the intellectual challenge of out-thinking a hamster. If anyone gets steamrollered around here, it's probably going to be me.) But I would like to take this opportunity to express my distaste for prescriptive, restrictive definitions of what we should or should not be writing about in fiction. I understand completely why the Mundane SF folks are lashing out against a particularly egregious bonfire of stupidities (hey, can I stick this effigy of George Lucas on top?). And I understand that the MSF manifesto is as much a provocation as a prescription. But I also agree with Ian McDonald about the undesirability of sticking creativity in a box and welding it shut. Mundane SF is a fine description of what a number of the better SF writers are currently writing in reaction against the perceived stupidities of the field, but it's a lousy presription. More subtly, I think the targets of MSF -- the sacred cows they seek to slaughter -- are mis-selected. It is entirely possible to adopt the conventions of MSF and write an unbelievably bad cod-heroic far future fantasy. The MSF manifesto mostly takes aim at hoary techno-cliches, be they faster than light travel, meaningful commerce with alien intelligences, or galactic empires. In so doing, the MSF manifesto completely misses a far more pernicious vice to which SF is prone; the cult of heroism. Your average space operatic hero, stripped of their context, is a sociopathic killer. Your average adventure plot structure is a horrible passage through degradation and slaughter that would leave most real people screaming for antidepressants. Many SF writers display (as James Nicoll recently observed) about as much compassion for their fellow mammals as your average Dalek. In going after the forms of bad SF, the MSF manifesto seems to have missed the substance of the problem -- a form of fiction that has become increasingly detached from humanity. It's not for me to an issue a manifesto (although I'm okay about writing "this worked for me, here's how to do it yourself" pieces), but if I was going to, I'd start by thinking about the values I want my fiction to reflect rather than obsessing over the calibre of bullet to load in my Browning. [Mundane SF] [The inevitable backlash] [Discuss writing] posted at: 15:58 | path: /writing | permanent link to this entry

specials: Is SF About to Go Blind? -- Popular Science article by Greg Mone Unwirer -- an experiment in weblog mediated collaborative fiction Inside the MIT Media Lab -- what it's like to spend a a day wandering around the Media Lab "Nothing like this will be built again" -- inside a nuclear reactor complex Quick links: RSS Feed (Moved!) Who am I? Contact me Buy my books: (FAQ) Missile Gap Via Subterranean Press (US HC -- due Jan, 2007) The Jennifer Morgue Via Golden Gryphon (US HC -- due Nov, 2006) Glasshouse Via Amazon.com (US HC -- due June 30, 2006) The Clan Corporate Via Amazon.com (US HC -- out now) Accelerando Via Amazon.com (US HC) Via Amazon.com (US PB -- due June 27, 2006) Via Amazon.co.uk (UK HC) Via Amazon.co.uk (UK PB) Free download The Hidden Family Via Amazon.com (US HC) Via Amazon.com (US PB) The Family Trade Via Amazon.com (US HC) Via Amazon.com (US PB) Iron Sunrise Via Amazon.com (US HC) Via Amazon.com (US PB) Via Amazon.co.uk (UK HC) Via Amazon.co.uk (UK PB) The Atrocity Archives Via Amazon.com (Trade PB) Via Amazon.co.uk (Trade PB) Via Golden Gryphon (HC) Via Amazon.com (HC) Via Amazon.co.uk (HC) Singularity Sky Via Amazon.com (US HC) Via Amazon.com (US PB) Via Amazon.com (US ebook) Via Amazon.co.uk (UK HC) Via Amazon.co.uk (UK PB) Toast Via Amazon.com Via Amazon.co.uk Some webby stuff I'm reading: [ Engadget ] [ Gizmodo ] [ The Memory Hole ] [ Boing!Boing! ] [ Futurismic ] [ Walter Jon Williams ] [ Making Light (TNH) ] [ Crooked Timber ] [ Junius (Chris Bertram) ] [ Baghdad Burning (Riverbend) ] [ Bruce Sterling ] [ Ian McDonald ] [ Amygdala (Gary Farber) ] [ Cyborg Democracy ] [ Body and Soul (Jeanne d'Arc)  ] [ Atrios ] [ The Sideshow (Avedon Carol) ] [ This Modern World (Tom Tomorrow) ] [ Jesus's General ] [ Mick Farren ] [ Early days of a Better Nation (Ken MacLeod) ] [ Respectful of Otters (Rivka) ] [ Tangent Online ] [ Grouse Today ] [ Hacktivismo ] [ Terra Nova ] [ Whatever (John Scalzi) ] [ GNXP ] [ Justine Larbalestier ] [ Yankee Fog ] [ The Law west of Ealing Broadway ] [ Cough the Lot ] [ The Yorkshire Ranter ] [ Newshog ] [ Kung Fu Monkey ] [ S1ngularity ] [ Pagan Prattle ] [ Gwyneth Jones ] [ Calpundit ] [ Lenin's Tomb ] [ Progressive Gold ] [ Kathryn Cramer ] [ Halfway down the Danube ] [ Fistful of Euros ] [ Orcinus ] [ Shrillblog ] [ Steve Gilliard ] [ Frankenstein Journal (Chris Lawson) ] [ The Panda's Thumb ] [ Martin Wisse ] [ Kuro5hin ] [ Advogato ] [ Talking Points Memo ] [ The Register ] [ Cryptome ] [ Juan Cole: Informed comment ] [ Global Guerillas (John Robb) ] [ Shadow of the Hegemon (Demosthenes) ] [ Simon Bisson's Journal ] [ Max Sawicky's weblog ] [ Guy Kewney's mobile campaign ] [ Hitherby Dragons ] [ Counterspin Central ] [ MetaFilter ] [ NTKnow ] [ Encyclopaedia Astronautica ] [ Fafblog ] [ BBC News (Scotland) ] [ Pravda ] [ Meerkat open wire service ] [ Warren Ellis ] [ Brad DeLong ] [ Hullabaloo (Digby) ] [ Jeff Vail ] [ The Whiskey Bar (Billmon) ] [ Groupthink Central (Yuval Rubinstein) ] [ Unmedia (Aziz Poonawalla) ] [ Rebecca's Pocket (Rebecca Blood) ] Older stuff: June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 September 2005 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005 May 2005 April 2005 March 2005 February 2005 January 2005 December 2004 November 2004 October 2004 September 2004 August 2004 July 2004 June 2004 May 2004 April 2004 March 2004 February 2004 January 2004 December 2003 November 2003 October 2003 September 2003 August 2003 July 2003 June 2003 May 2003 April 2003 March 2003 February 2003 January 2003 December 2002 November 2002 October 2002 September 2002 August 2002 July 2002 June 2002 May 2002 April 2002 March 2002 (I screwed the pooch in respect of the blosxom entry datestamps on March 28th, 2002, so everything before then shows up as being from the same time)

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