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 589: Announcing a Coode Street Advent Calendar
Episode 588: Let’s Talk About Space (Opera), Baybee...
Episode 587: Eileen Gunn and the Night Shift
Episode 586: Ray Nayler and Breaking Down Communicating
Episode 585: Caution - May Contain Traces of Kitten
Episode 584: Back on the ramble
Episode 583: John Kessel and a Life in Science Fiction
Episode 582: Rachel Swirsky and the Universality of Caring
Episode 581: Kate Heartfield and The Embroidered Book
Episode 580: Christopher Rowe and the Instrumentality of Influence
Episode 579: Remembering Patricia A. McKillip
Episode 578: Kind of dull, but it’s something
Episode 577: Books, classics, and collecting
Episode 576: Nicola Griffith and Spear
Episode 575: New books, old readers, and such
Episode 574: Kickstarters, communities, and more
Episode 573: The 2021 Locus Recommended Reading List
Episode 571: The New Year and New Books
Episode 570: Coode Street’s Books to Look for in 2022
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