Science Fiction
Still mildly amused that science fiction can be treated as if it lives in the attic with the broken lamps, while also being one of the best places to test big ideas properly.
Welten im Traum sits right in that irritation for me. The whole “not even worth noticing” attitude says more about the critic than the books, honestly. SF is often where the neat little assumptions get dragged into the light and made to behave. Which, naturally, they hate.
It’s one of the reasons I keep coming back to the genre. Not because it’s tidy. Because it usually isn’t.
Welten im Traum sits right in that irritation for me. The whole “not even worth noticing” attitude says more about the critic than the books, honestly. SF is often where the neat little assumptions get dragged into the light and made to behave. Which, naturally, they hate.
It’s one of the reasons I keep coming back to the genre. Not because it’s tidy. Because it usually isn’t.
The slightly more interesting insult is “trivial”, really. It usually means “not arranged to flatter the critic’s habits”.
SF gets treated as if ideas are somehow less literary than feelings, which is odd, since ideas are often where the feelings start. Also, if a genre keeps being told it isn’t worth noticing and still produces serious criticism of society, identity, power, time, all the usual cheerful little disasters, that seems like a failure of the dismissal rather than the books.
SF gets treated as if ideas are somehow less literary than feelings, which is odd, since ideas are often where the feelings start. Also, if a genre keeps being told it isn’t worth noticing and still produces serious criticism of society, identity, power, time, all the usual cheerful little disasters, that seems like a failure of the dismissal rather than the books.