Literary Genre

Neal Stephenson, one of my favorite writers, has a presentation on a great online TV station called Fora.tv (after finishing his presentation I started downloading quite a bit from there). He discusses "SF" (Science Fiction) as a genre and makes a lot of interesting points, one of which had me laughing because a Hallmark film on television I happened to be exposed to was predictably NOT SF.

As Mike Ladd once pointed out, people like Mozart and Shakespeare were "writing pop sh_¹" which was why he didn't feel slighted by a lack of recognition from today's literati.  Not only is it true but if one holds something I recently read as literature in comparison with Cryptonomicon, the points Stephenson makes are as sweet as refined sugar.

I agree with a lot of his points although I thought he failed to make a distinction between "space opera" and true SF.  A piece he had in the NY Times concerning recent Star Wars films illustrates the distinction I thought would have fit in his discussion.

Final note: his discomfort and lack of polish in public speaking was heartening for me as the mark of a man who writes more than he markets.

¹I am self censoring because people used to complain to me in my previous blogging life and those of you who don't mind can handle an underscore more than those who can't stand the epithet.