This week (episode 3 of season 13) we return to our tradition of almost entirely unstructured rambling. Jonathan and Gary consider such questions as to whether a novel can be good SF, but not much good in literary terms, or a good literary novel not much good as SF.
While we recognize that many popular subgenres, from military SF to heroic fantasy, have plenty of readers loyal to the old traditions, we muse about whether many of today’s writers feel some pressure to meet both traditional literary and SF standards, and Jonathan namechecks R.F. Kuang. Some writers we mention, such as Arkady Martine, seem to effortlessly do both. On the other hand, why were several genre mystery readers of the 1930s and 1940s, like Hammett and Chandler, were later recognized as major literary figures, the same didn’t seem to have to SF writers of the same period.
Toward the end, we touch upon Paul Kincaid's provocative new essay, "A Taxonomy of Reviewing" and his book on Brian W. Aldiss, amongst other things.
As always, we hope you enjoy the episode.
Episode 375: Ten Minutes with Jeffrey Ford
Episode 374: Ten Minutes with Tochi Onyebuchi
Episode 373: Ten Minutes with Alix E. Harrow
Episode 372: Ten Minutes with James Bradley
Episode 371: Ten Minutes with Nisi Shawl
Episode 370: Ten Minutes with Ian Mond
Episode 369: Ten Minutes with Sarah Pinsker
Episode 368: NK Jemisin and The City We Became
Episode 367: Ken Liu and the Power of Good Story
Episode 366: Apocalypse, awards, and others
Episode 365: On talking about SF (or chatting under the influence)
Episode 364: On being a fan
Episode 363: Books We're Looking Forward to in 2020
Episode 362: The Year in Review 2019
Episode 361: Jack Zipes at WFC 2019
Episode 360: Margo Lanagan, Ellen Klages and Eileen Gunn at WFC 2019
Episode 359: That Old Literary Divide
Episode 358: Science fiction, open borders, and porous boundaries
Episode 357: Library of America and the year's end...
Coode Street Roundtable 2.1: Annalee Newitz’s The Future of Another Timeline
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