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 432: Ten Minutes with John Berlyne
Episode 431: Ten Minutes with Cat Sparks
Episode 430: Ten Minutes with Karen Burnham
Episode 429: Ten Minutes with Fonda Lee
Episode 428: Ten Minutes with Corey J. White
Episode 427: Ten Minutes with Lois McMaster Bujold
Episode 426: Ten Minutes with Ann VanderMeer
Episode 425: Ten Minutes with Jeremy Szal
Episode 424: Ten Minutes with Eileen Gunn
Episode 423: Ten Minutes with Theodora Goss
Episode 422: Ten Minutes with Robert Shearman
Episode 421: Ten Minutes with David Thomas Moore
Episode 420: Not Locked Down, Locked Up
Episode 419: Ten Minutes with Kelly Robson
Episode 418: Ten Minutes with Joe Monti
Episode 417: Ten Minutes with Alyx Dellamonica
Episode 416: Ten Minutes with Brian Evenson
Episode 415: Ten Minutes with Rick Wilber
Episode 414: Ten Minutes with Elizabeth Hand
Episode 413: Ten Minutes with Joe Abercrombie
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