Направих тази вечер research във връзка с моят (измъчен) следващ роман, като написах небрежно в Гугле "what makes a good space opera" и първия "резил" беше тази статия:
http://io9.gizmodo.com/5943934/how-to-write-a-killer-space-adventure-without-breaking-the-speed-of-light
Статията е пълен боклук (лично мнение), но ето нещото, което ме разби (коментар):
В удебелен шрифт са ключовите фрази. Уникалното е, че този пост успява на 98% да се припокрие с моето мнение относно състоянието на настоящата "mainstream" научна и приказна фантастика.Eridani wrote:Me and Abraham, man. That dude knows what's up. Science fiction doesn't sell because it's largely fucking boring these days. These bros listed above are the purveyors of boring shit and they would like others to bring their stuff down to that same level of boring. It's like an infomercial, "Become 300% less interesting - ask me how!"
You know where dynamic, interesting sci-fi is being written these days? Romance and YA. You can have sprawling space opera and a love story that's actually about real people and feelings and sex and space battles and ray guns and all that shit and do you know why? Because the people reading it aren't sci-fi fans. They're romance readers or older kids and they have none of the prejudices we've built up over the past 20 years. This is a crowd that absolutely does not give a shit if a spaceship goes faster than light and they have more interesting books because of it.
As an aside to this rant, there's some beautiful epic fantasy being written in the romance space, too. Fantasy as a genre has began to go very dark - Reynolds, Abercrombie, Weeks, etc - but you can read some gorgeous, lush epic fantasy in the romance space that is still uplifting and filled with joy.
I sometimes feel like the sci-fi genre has in the past ten years headed determinedly up its own ass, do not pass Go, do not collect $200. It kind of reminds me of the quote from The Matrix about "the desert of the real." I don't think great sci-fi comes from making sure everything we write is inside the box.
Та... има тук на този форум хора, четящи (или техни познати), които четат романтична и "зряло-младежка" литература? Чели сте нещо, което да отговаря на горните твърдения?
В случай, че отговорът и на двата въпроса е да, горещо очаквам вашите отговори/препоръки. Ако в днешно време мляс-мляс и тинейджърските неволи крият зад себе си епичните сюжети и свръх-мащабния размах на въображението, готов съм да ги изтърпя в името на новите хоризонти, които жадно очаквам да намеря.
ПП. Не знам темата дали е в подходящия раздел, но ако има проблеми, моля любезно за модераторско съдействие.
ППП. За мързеливите, ето и единствената извадка от статията, която всъщност има смисъл (включва споменатият по-горе Абрахам):
One dissenting view
James S.A. Corey's series that begins with Leviathan Wakes is often described as "mundane science fiction," but co-author Abraham doesn't really like the term — or the notion of trying to exclude anything too fanciful. "If you look at the kinds of things Ryman was calling stupid, it's all about making science fiction more serious and rigorous," says Abraham. "It's about limiting the literature to being sort of the fiction arm of Popular Mechanics. It's an interesting enough project inside science fiction, but God help us if we start taking it as the definition of good."
Abraham says that one reason why science fiction doesn't sell as well as fantasy in the book world, even as it's conquering movies, is partly because of this drive to make it more and more serious and scientifically plausible:
It seems to me that the common wisdom that "science fiction doesn't sell" grew out of a failure that started in the 80s, when science fiction writers started trying to be Very Serious People who were doing Very Important Work, and we started getting manifestos aimed at narrowing the field and appealing to a narrower and narrower — and more to the point, purer and purer — audience. Mundane science fiction turns its back on the "stupidities" that underlie books like Dune, The Left Hand of Darkness, The Dispossessed, The Forever War, Ender's Game and Startide Rising. I would prefer my stuff to remain in that company.
