The LW concept of “fuzzy clusters in thingspace” has been most useful to me in thinking about these things.
Off-topic: how did you feel about Ballard and Moorcock? (The latter’s SF-leaning stuff, not the fantasy-leaning stuff.) And the New Worlds bunch in general.
(I’ve been getting back into Ballard since rejoining the JGB list, a remarkably high-quality list. Full of Ballard’s editors, translators and people who write books on him …)
I think “fuzzy clusters in thingspace” is sound, but it doesn’t explain why people get so emotional and rigid about definitions.
I liked some Ballard in moderate doses. I remember “Chronopolis” fondly, and the one about breaking the time flowers to keep the barbarians away—for a while, and something about orchids which produced music and (same series, I think) cloud sculptors.
I don’t think I read much of Moorcock’s science fiction. I liked Gloriana, but bounced off Elric.
More generally, at the time I saw a hard split between writers I liked who I thought were just writing science fiction (perhaps with fancier prose, but I wasn’t terribly sensitive to that) and who I couldn’t figure out why they were classed with writers I detested or couldn’t see the point of (David Bunch).
These days if I see contemporary writing that looks like New Wave, I get a little nostalgic even if it’s the sort of thing I otherwise don’t like.
By the way, I didn’t think of mentioning specifics of sf as trolling, but I did think of it as rather like dragging the cat toy along the floor.
The LW concept of “fuzzy clusters in thingspace” has been most useful to me in thinking about these things.
Off-topic: how did you feel about Ballard and Moorcock? (The latter’s SF-leaning stuff, not the fantasy-leaning stuff.) And the New Worlds bunch in general.
(I’ve been getting back into Ballard since rejoining the JGB list, a remarkably high-quality list. Full of Ballard’s editors, translators and people who write books on him …)
I think “fuzzy clusters in thingspace” is sound, but it doesn’t explain why people get so emotional and rigid about definitions.
I liked some Ballard in moderate doses. I remember “Chronopolis” fondly, and the one about breaking the time flowers to keep the barbarians away—for a while, and something about orchids which produced music and (same series, I think) cloud sculptors.
I don’t think I read much of Moorcock’s science fiction. I liked Gloriana, but bounced off Elric.
More generally, at the time I saw a hard split between writers I liked who I thought were just writing science fiction (perhaps with fancier prose, but I wasn’t terribly sensitive to that) and who I couldn’t figure out why they were classed with writers I detested or couldn’t see the point of (David Bunch).
These days if I see contemporary writing that looks like New Wave, I get a little nostalgic even if it’s the sort of thing I otherwise don’t like.
By the way, I didn’t think of mentioning specifics of sf as trolling, but I did think of it as rather like dragging the cat toy along the floor.