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 319: The Books of 2018
Episode 318: The End of the Year
Episode 317: Irene Gallo and the Art of Science Fiction
Episode 316: Nnedi Okorafor, Akata Warrior, Binti, and Beyond
Episode 315: Liz Bourke, Niall Harrison and Debut Novels of 2017
Episode 314: Annalee Newitz and Telling Stories About the Future
Episode 313: Jeffrey Ford and The Twilight Pariah
Episode 312: Fantasy 101, Helsinki and more
Episode 311: Walter Jon Williams, Kelly Robson and Helsinki!
Episode 310: The Years Best Books So Far, the XPrize and more
Episode 309: Epic fantasy, Campbell Awards and more
Episode 308: Paul Kincaid, Ken Macleod, and the works of Iain (M) Banks
Episode 307: Theodora Goss and the Alchemist's Daughter
Episode 306: Geoff Ryman and 100 African Writers of SFF
Episode 305: Kim Stanley Robinson and the Drowning of New York
Episode 304: A New Theory of Science Fiction
Episode 303: John Kessel and James Patrick Kelly at ICFA
Episode 302: The State of Short Fiction
Episode 301: On Literary fiction and genre, the moon and more
Episode 300: Kij Johnson Exploring Old Worlds
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