The Decline and Fall of SF

[andrew at cee.hw.ac.uk]

Jay Herzog writes:

> 	I think Gibson shows Pynchon's influence in his
> technological/media metaphors("the sky was the color of a television tuned
> to a dead channel"), paranoia, pop culture and drug references, though I
> think he owes more to Burroughs and Ballard stylistically. . . .

That line is utterly brilliant particularly as an opener. But can
anyone remember any other great phrases off the top of their head?
Nope, didn't think so. Whereas Pynchon . . .

And I agree that there is still lots of great `grown-up' science
fiction to replace the early baby stuff. Only by virtue of growing up
and moving out of the ghetto (and all the narrow horizon a ghetto
implies) it starts to be called something other than sci-fi.

Ballard is a very good example. What has Crash got to do with trad
science fiction? Nothing much. The Atrocity Exhibition is maybe a bit
nearer - with it's half real world populated with recognisable people
and places in amongst the invented elements it reminds me of a much
more upmarket version of Michael Moorcock's The Tank Trapeze or maybe
his The Conditionof Muzak, both of which are pretty firmly located in
the sci-fi genre - but in both Ballard's books the `sci' element is
pretty conventional. Ballard does not play around with wierd science
as most trad SF does, rather with the `fi' part.  It's sex, personal
relations and culture which get the wacko treatment and aren't these
domains the province of more trad authors?

So, is Ballard `sci-fi' by virtue of the fact that he plays with
characters who have wierd experiences in or reactions to extreme or
unreal circumstances?  That would cover a lot of stuff which is on the
edge of sci-fi e.g. Ghormenghast. But does it not also make Pynchon
sci-fi? Or The Wasp Factory? Or Ada? Or Lord of the Flies? Or Therese
Raquin?  Or Dicken's Christmas Carol? The term is so vague I don't
think it is much use outside of the era in which it was coined.


Andrew Dinn
-----------
And though Earthliness forget you,
To the stilled Earth say:  I flow.
To the rushing water speak:  I am.