3 ms·

F/SF, as a publishing field, seem hell-bent on 'forgetting their greats'. Until the excellent Fantasy Masterworks and Science Fiction Masterworks series appeare

F/SF, as a publishing field, seem hell-bent on 'forgetting their greats'. Until the excellent Fantasy Masterworks and Science Fiction Masterworks series appeared, it was more or less routine that books considered 'classics' of these genres would be out of print more often than not. Meanwhile, anyone who can manage the sleight-of-hand will ensure that their F/SF books are filed under 'literature', regardless of how shamelessly they pillage the F/SF world for ideas (looking at you, Atwood).

freddie_mercury 8y ago
You can say the same for any field of literature. Have you heard of Sully Prudhomme, Theodore Mommsen, Rudolf Eucken, or Eyvind Johnson? All of them won Nobel Prizes for literature and -- if you're lucky -- you'll find one or two of their books in print. Years of Grace by Margaret Barnes? Guard of Honor by James Cozzens? Both are Pulitzer Prize winners that are out of print. The Private Life of Helen of Troy by John Erskine? Sold over 500,000 copies, critically praised, even had a movie made out of it that got some Academy Award nominations. Also out of print. For noir you've got imprints like Hard Case Crime that have rescued dozens of once well known & regarded books from decades of obscurity. I dunno, I think that F/SF is probably about the same as anything else when it comes to "forgetting their greats".
CydeWeys 8y ago
I don't understand the hate against Margaret Atwood. Who cares what shelf her books are on in bookstores. If she makes more money under "Literature", then good for her. She's not "pillaging" anything; she's adding to the established body of published SF/F with her excellent works, regardless of what shelf they're on at the bookstore. You're free to shelve them properly at home.
- glangdale 8y ago
  It's not the fact that she is shelved in fiction. It's the fact that she openly derides SF as “talking squids in outer space” while freely pillaging the SF treasury of ideas for her (imo increasingly schlocky and lurid) writing.
  - drb91 8y ago
    I can’t see a lot of harm in this. Writers talk shit across genre boundaries (in this case, maybe in an attempt to define one!) all the time. The “arguments” they present are almost always terrible.
    - glangdale 8y ago
      I can't see that much "harm" in it either. I'm not asking for Atwood to be arrested. I'm just explaining one of the reasons I don't like her (that, and her increasingly schlocky writing, jmo of course).

freddie_mercury 8y ago

You can say the same for any field of literature. Have you heard of Sully Prudhomme, Theodore Mommsen, Rudolf Eucken, or Eyvind Johnson? All of them won Nobel Prizes for literature and -- if you're lucky -- you'll find one or two of their books in print. Years of Grace by Margaret Barnes? Guard of Honor by James Cozzens? Both are Pulitzer Prize winners that are out of print. The Private Life of Helen of Troy by John Erskine? Sold over 500,000 copies, critically praised, even had a movie made out of it that got some Academy Award nominations. Also out of print. For noir you've got imprints like Hard Case Crime that have rescued dozens of once well known & regarded books from decades of obscurity. I dunno, I think that F/SF is probably about the same as anything else when it comes to "forgetting their greats".

CydeWeys 8y ago

I don't understand the hate against Margaret Atwood. Who cares what shelf her books are on in bookstores. If she makes more money under "Literature", then good for her. She's not "pillaging" anything; she's adding to the established body of published SF/F with her excellent works, regardless of what shelf they're on at the bookstore. You're free to shelve them properly at home.

glangdale 8y ago
It's not the fact that she is shelved in fiction. It's the fact that she openly derides SF as “talking squids in outer space” while freely pillaging the SF treasury of ideas for her (imo increasingly schlocky and lurid) writing.
- drb91 8y ago
  I can’t see a lot of harm in this. Writers talk shit across genre boundaries (in this case, maybe in an attempt to define one!) all the time. The “arguments” they present are almost always terrible.
  - glangdale 8y ago
    I can't see that much "harm" in it either. I'm not asking for Atwood to be arrested. I'm just explaining one of the reasons I don't like her (that, and her increasingly schlocky writing, jmo of course).