In which Chaz is vexed. Again.

[desperance]

Hmmph. The new Interzone has an interview with Christopher Priest, which I read straight off, having so much enjoyed the movie of "The Prestige". And he said, on the essential difference between SF and fantasy:

SF is in the end about human responsibility: actions lead to consequences, and the fiction describes, discusses and evaluates those consequences. Those actions can be couched in reality, or they can be speculative in nature. Thus it is a moral fiction, and the highest forms of it can be accepted as literature. Fantasy is the opposite: it is about the intrusion of irrational and uncontrollable events, over which man has no control, or only nominal control. Once fantasy attempts to grapple with reality it ceases to be fantasy, so the generalisation holds.

So what are we to take from this: that fantasy is not a moral fiction, because it does not address human responsibility? Actions do not lead to consequences, in even the highest forms of the genre? 'Scuse me, but both parts of that seem to me to be large and pendulous bollocks, only waiting for the snip.

Also, that last sentence is a weasel. It's the squids-in-space argument: "I do not write [genre of your choice], because it is without merit; where it has merit - or indeed where I write it - then it is not [genre of your choice]."

Bah, I say. Also, humbug.

Snip.

Comments

Bah, humbug, indeed.

[gauroth.livejournal.com]

What I take from this, after 40+ years of reading SF and F, is that Mr Priest hasn't a clue about Fantasy. I also only mention in passing that saying events(,) over which man has no control isn't going to earn him any kudos with anyone whose intellect has moved on from the sexist attitudes of the '60s: Casey and Miller's Handbook of Sexist Writing has been around for long enough.

Some examples to back up his generalisations would be nice. I wish people who write about 'reality' in fiction would define what they mean by it - usually they mean 'realism' which ain't the same thing at all. Whenever anyone, anywhere writes about the SF:F debate (or SF/F:literature) there are never any examples offered as possible proof. It's just so sloppy!

Ooh, I'm annoyed!