For our 350th(!) episode, Jonathan and Gary basically just ramble on. We begin with the question of how long to stick with a novel which seems to be going off the rails, and comment a bit on what different kinds of readers expect from long novels.
Later we move on to questions about anthologies, and what to expect from recent anthologies of Chinese, Korean, South Asian, and Israeli science fiction: should they try to represent an entire national tradition, or simply focus on excellent stories? And can readers not from those cultures ever fully appreciate the full nuances of such fiction?
That, in turn, leads us to discuss anthologies that have been historically important, although not always widely recognized, such as Vonda McIntyre and Susan Anderson’s Aurora: Beyond Equality from 1976, and anthologies widely celebrated, like Harlan Ellison’s Dangerous Visions. On a personal note, anthologies that shaped our own reading included (for Gary) Judith Merril’s horribly titled England Swings SF and (for Jonathan) Michael Bishop’s Light Years and Dark. And we end briefly discussing an issue, raised by Fonda Lee, about writers gaining shelf space in bookstores amid all the perennial classics and bestsellers.
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 572: Genre, change, and the passage of time
Episode 571: The New Year and New Books
Episode 570: Coode Street’s Books to Look for in 2022
Episode 569: A Thank You for Supporting Us for So Long
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