William, only recently found your publication but looking forward to reading your articles. I have been a sci-fi fan for a long time. My all-time favorite sci-fi author is Ben Bova. I am currently reading The Expanse series (on book #5) and enjoying it. I also have a bunch of Asimov on lineup for this coming year. All the best in the coming year.
Thanks for reading and commenting! I am a big fan of the Expanse TV show and I will probably read the books some years from now once it is less fresh in my mind. I think the show got a lot of things right sociologically and I find Belter patois captivating. For better or worse, to use Amos’ metaphor, I often think of myself as someone who may one day get caught up in the churn.
I just checked out your newsletter a little bit. It seems like we have pretty similar philosophies of reading and self-education. Happy New Year!
I should read that Blish collection! I will say my limited experience with Blish's fiction is pretty negative… but it's interesting that his ex wife (Virginia Kidd) would go on to be the agent for Le Guin and a bunch of other "new wave" / "women" SFF writers.
If you read it, I’d be very interested in your take on it as critical writing, a genre I am trying to learn more about. Something Blish does as a critic that I appreciate is he sort of pushes at my genre ghetto philistinism and makes me consider how science fiction relates to literature and art more broadly. Last night I found myself going, “Ah fuck, now I have to figure out what naturalism.” This is not a trait unique to Blish of course. I get the same nudge from Samuel R. Delaney’s criticism.
In light of this, it’s funny to me that Blish was one of the fogies who was very against the New Wave even to the extent that he criticized Judith Merril for including stories from outside the traditional genre sphere in her Year’s Best anthologies. Sort of a conundrum to be an aesthete with broad horizons and a curmudgeonly sf traditionalist.
William, only recently found your publication but looking forward to reading your articles. I have been a sci-fi fan for a long time. My all-time favorite sci-fi author is Ben Bova. I am currently reading The Expanse series (on book #5) and enjoying it. I also have a bunch of Asimov on lineup for this coming year. All the best in the coming year.
Thanks for reading and commenting! I am a big fan of the Expanse TV show and I will probably read the books some years from now once it is less fresh in my mind. I think the show got a lot of things right sociologically and I find Belter patois captivating. For better or worse, to use Amos’ metaphor, I often think of myself as someone who may one day get caught up in the churn.
I just checked out your newsletter a little bit. It seems like we have pretty similar philosophies of reading and self-education. Happy New Year!
I should read that Blish collection! I will say my limited experience with Blish's fiction is pretty negative… but it's interesting that his ex wife (Virginia Kidd) would go on to be the agent for Le Guin and a bunch of other "new wave" / "women" SFF writers.
If you read it, I’d be very interested in your take on it as critical writing, a genre I am trying to learn more about. Something Blish does as a critic that I appreciate is he sort of pushes at my genre ghetto philistinism and makes me consider how science fiction relates to literature and art more broadly. Last night I found myself going, “Ah fuck, now I have to figure out what naturalism.” This is not a trait unique to Blish of course. I get the same nudge from Samuel R. Delaney’s criticism.
In light of this, it’s funny to me that Blish was one of the fogies who was very against the New Wave even to the extent that he criticized Judith Merril for including stories from outside the traditional genre sphere in her Year’s Best anthologies. Sort of a conundrum to be an aesthete with broad horizons and a curmudgeonly sf traditionalist.
*what naturalism is