We Want the World and We Want it Now
January 16, 2001
7:00 a.m.
"I don't think you're a science fiction writer," the woman said as she handed back one of my stories. I looked up at her from behind my desk. "You write about the human condition in science fiction settings." "Thank you," I replied. We talked a little bit more. She said she had recommended my stuff to another woman, who might be coming by sometime to ask about it. Then she was off and running to take care of whatever issues she had to deal with that day. And I returned to the document on my screen, wishing it was the book, but settling for the fact that it was something called a "Value Package" ... yeah, yeah, yeah, only in Corporate America. But I was pleased. I've always tried to be a character-based/character-driven writer, and apparently, at least on this sample of one, I had succeeded. But later, her comment got me to thinking a bit more globally. "I don't think you're a science fiction writer. You write about the human condition in science fiction settings." What an interesting comment. Think about it for a little bit. What does it say about the definition of science fiction? Or about those who write it? I've been working in the field for the past nine or so years, and through this time, I've heard a lot of discussion about how science fiction has "won," how it has taken its position in the mainstream. And I think that's largely true. Events like "Star Trek" and "Star Wars" have opened the way for a lot of the field, and now you see movies like "Terminator," "The Matrix," and a hundred others beginning to be taken with some degree of seriousness. This is all good, I suppose. Still ... "You write about the human condition in science fiction settings." I do feel complimented. And I still feel pleased about it. But there's something buried in there that tells me that either us SF writers have got a ways to go before we can plant the flag and declare victory, or else we've lost something in the transition.   Have a good day.  So instead you write an entry on the SF condition in a human setting? Daily Persistence is © Ron Collins |
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And why worry about the ending, anyway? Why be such a control freak? Sooner or later every story comes out somewhere. Stephen King |
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