Book Review: The Secret History of Science Fiction

[Dave Monroe]

Book Review: The Secret History of Science Fiction
edited by James Patrick Kelly and John Kessel
Author: Tim Gebhart — Published: Oct 04, 2009


The Secret History of Science Fiction, a new anthology aimed at
questioning the existence of genre boundaries, could be a victim of
the very issue it seeks to address. It uses the term "science fiction"
in the title.

The anthology proceeds from an interesting premise. Thomas Pynchon's
Gravity's Rainbow was nominated for the 1973 Nebula Award for Best
Novel, given by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. It
didn't win. But then, the SFFWA treated Pynchon better than Pulitzer
Prize officials. In 1974, the three-member fiction jury unanimously
recommended the book receive the fiction award but the Pulitzer board
vetoed the recommendation, calling the novel "unreadable," "turgid,"
"overwritten," and, in parts, "obscene."

Yet given that Gravity's Rainbow is viewed as a classic of postmodern
literature, James Patrick Kelly and John Kessel ask what impact it
winning the Nebula Award might have had on science fiction.
Specifically, would that have eliminated the distinction between
literary fiction ('li-fi") and science fiction ("sci-fi"), a
distinction many, myself included, have led to unequal treatment of
the two? Would they have merged into a literary universe that had no
regard for genre as opposed to creating new labels, such as
slipstream, as an accommodation? In making the case that genre labels
should be meaningless, The Secret History of Science Fiction also
demonstrates how pervasive they are.,..

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