Over atConceptual Fiction , music writerTed Gioiaasks , “ Did sci - fi writers from the 1940s and fifties anticipate the future of serious lit better than the so - called serous writers ? ”
Gioia ( not to be confused with his brother Dana the poet ) is known for his books West Coast Jazz and Delta Blues . But he was drawn to science - fabrication as an adult with little setting in the genre , and came out of the experience convert that mid - one C SF was a literature of ideas , rich and in some ways more complex than works of literary modernness that focus mostly on lingual innovation .
He writes :
Is it possible that the thought of “ naturalism ” as a head rule for fabrication is itself unrealistic ? After all , there are no Newtonian law in history - an apple can just as easily pilot up from a tree as drop curtain to the priming . character can mount a magic carpeting as easily as walk . Any restrictions are imposed by the author , not by any international “ reality , ” however defined .
The first storytellers understand this intuitively . That is why myths , legends , folk tales and other traditional story know no Newtonian ( or other ) limitations on their narrative accounts . These were the first examples of what I call “ conceptual fiction ” …
Read morehere .
The web log is also work on its style through the SF canyon . Today ’s recapitulation is ofArthur C. Clarke ’s 2001 : A Space Odyssey .
Gioia ’s latest Word is The Birth ( and Death ) of The Cool . Here‘s my interview with him on cool as a cultural force .
Image courtesy Conceptual Fiction
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