At first, I was all militant and wanted all sf fans to boycott the book (I did speak to the publisher's rep and explained how offensive Miss Atwood's comments were), but now, I kinda like the big 'whatever, lady' the sf world is giving her as it shows up on various sf bestseller lists and the SFBC.
She said it wasn't science-fiction. (To be fair, I think what is more annoying is the various literary reviewers who have fallen over themselves going "Of course Oryx and Crane isn't science-fiction, why, why, it's a fine novel"....)
Aside from asserting that Oryx and Crake isn't science fiction, she has very explicitly associated "science fiction" with bug-eyed monsters and ray guns, as if the entirety of the genre were still back in the 50's pulps. She also, in her review of Le Guin's most recent collection (The Birthday of the World, I think) tried to argue that Le Guin isn't science fiction, either.
I don't care if she wants her book to be called "science fiction" or not. What pisses me off--and I tried to say this on a panel at Wiscon but got tangled up in the distinctions I was trying to make--is that she's asserting a definition of science fiction which (a.) merely reveals that she's never actually READ any science fiction written after about 1960 and (b.) perpetuates an ignorant stereotype guaranteed to keep science fiction down in the ghetto where it's been languishing lo these many years.
She's an active participant in the myth that genre fiction can't be good literature--despite fucking well WRITING genre fiction--and since she IS a very influential writer, and since no one is forcing her to say such stupid and crassly bigoted things, I find it profoundly irritating that's she's up on her soap-box spreading disinformation.
It may also be that I take this whole thing a little too seriously.
Also, because I'm a spaz and forgot to say this, I just want to point out that what they print in the catalogue is an extract from the "afterword to the book club edition." Now, since the SFBC is only one branch of the whole book-club umbrella, I'm guessing that her afterword was NOT written for the SFBC edition, but for a more general "book club edition" which the SFBC is now carrying.
I fully admit I don't know that--I may be maligning her unfairly--but the phrasing is suggestive.
Okay, I looked a little more closely at that; I forgot that the SFBC was only one numerous related Book Clubs. It does seem to indicate that it's from another club, else they would merely have said, "From the Afterword" or something similar.
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momijizukamori
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no subject
Date: 2003-07-08 10:44 am (UTC)hee hee
Date: 2003-07-08 11:33 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-07-08 01:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-07-08 01:58 pm (UTC)What did she do/say to annoy people?
What annoyed SF fans about Margaret Attwood and her novel
Date: 2003-07-08 03:32 pm (UTC)Re: What annoyed SF fans about Margaret Attwood and her novel
Date: 2003-07-09 01:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-07-08 03:58 pm (UTC)I don't care if she wants her book to be called "science fiction" or not. What pisses me off--and I tried to say this on a panel at Wiscon but got tangled up in the distinctions I was trying to make--is that she's asserting a definition of science fiction which (a.) merely reveals that she's never actually READ any science fiction written after about 1960 and (b.) perpetuates an ignorant stereotype guaranteed to keep science fiction down in the ghetto where it's been languishing lo these many years.
She's an active participant in the myth that genre fiction can't be good literature--despite fucking well WRITING genre fiction--and since she IS a very influential writer, and since no one is forcing her to say such stupid and crassly bigoted things, I find it profoundly irritating that's she's up on her soap-box spreading disinformation.
It may also be that I take this whole thing a little too seriously.
no subject
Date: 2003-07-08 04:02 pm (UTC)I fully admit I don't know that--I may be maligning her unfairly--but the phrasing is suggestive.
no subject
Date: 2003-07-09 01:38 pm (UTC)And genre bashing really annoys me. Really.
snackle
Date: 2003-07-09 05:22 am (UTC)Re: this should annoy Margaret Atwood
Date: 2003-07-10 04:01 am (UTC)