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 470: Ten Minutes with Premee Mohamed
Episode 469: SF, 2020, and the Anxiety of Influence
Episode 468: Ten Minutes with Tad Williams
Episode 467: Ten Minutes with Stefen Brazulaitis and Tim Thomas
Episode 466: Ten Minutes with Ursula Vernon
Episode 465: Ten Minutes with Walter Jon Williams
Episode 464: Ten Minutes with Derek Künsken
Episode 463: Ten Minutes with Sam J. Miller
Episode 462: Ten Minutes with Catherynne M. Valente
Episode 461: Ten Minutes with G. Willow Wilson
Episode 460: Ten Minutes with F. Brett Cox
Episode 459 Ten Minutes with P. Djèlí Clark
Episode 458: Ten Minutes with Raymond E. Feist
Episode 457: Ten Minutes with Sean Williams
Episode 456: Ten Minutes with Isobelle Carmody
Episode 455: Almost Outta Gas, But We Can See The Golden Age...
Episode 454: Ten Minutes with Adam Roberts
Episode 453: Ten Minutes with Gregory Norman Bossert
Episode 452: Ten Minutes with Usman T. Malik
Episode 451: Ten Minutes with Aliette de Bodard
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