In Which Rolanni Flails About
Sunday, October 19th, 2008 06:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rolanniThere was at Albacon a panel discussion around the topic of saving SF from academia. I wasn't on it; Steve moderated; it's been blogged elsewhere by another panelist, who is firmly in the "academia is not the enemy" camp. I tried a short rebuttal in her blog, because I'm just as firmly in the "oh, youbetcha academia is the enemy" side of the road. I'm bringing it over here because I don't want to get into a spitting match with this nice lady, but I do want to explore my own thoughts on the matter a little more, because the...strength... of my reaction surprises me.
There are a couple things going on in the deep background behind that question. I'll try to be brief.
Point One
Science Fiction has had an Inferiority Complex almost since its mass market birth, when it was viewed (by academics, my mom, high school English teachers, and other Right Thinking People) as being on the same intellectual level as porn, and was often displayed on the same spinners in the newstands (yes, this was a looooooonnnnnggggg time ago, in a very different world). Since then, it has, as a field, Ached to be Studied. Because Study = Validation. Validation means my Work is Worthy, and writers, as everyone else, need to feel that their work has value.
What seems not to be understood is that academics don't study and write articles in order to Validate the object of their study. Academics study and write articles in order to Validate themselves. As more and more people become academics, they must look further and further afield for subjects, and lo! suddenly Science Fiction isn't genre trash anymore; it's a way to secure tenure.
Still, there will be some folks in the field who lust after that Validation, and who will write in order to be studied. If that's what floats their boat, then they're welcome to it; I'll just sit over here in the corner and write escapist genre novels.
Escapist genre novels.
*Walks around the phrase and admires it from all sides*
Yeah.
Point Two
I write, in the words of the immortal Damon Knight, for people's beer money. My mission is to give you an escape from the mundane world for an hour or three. I do not write deathless, finely crafted prose, my sentences arrayed on the page like rows of cut emeralds. I write space opera, fantasy, and mystery. I write to give people pleasure.
Now, yes, sometimes it's pleasurable to sit down with a book that makes you sweat for every nuance. But that's not the only pleasure to be had from reading. It's perfectly legitimate to read a book because it makes you feel good. This is what genre books are for.
In my humble opinion, college English courses are the main reason that so many people say that they no longer read for pleasure at all. It's this fantastical notion that everything must be analyzed for nuance, scrutinized for detail, examined to discover the Real Story that's hiding under the Apparent Story. The message that many take away from their English teachers is that the only Right Way to read is by the Analysis Method, and yanno? after a long day? Much too fatiguing. Wanna watch a Jackie Chan movie?
Point Three
Some folks want to make the "should we teach SF" question into a discussion of Good Teachers vs. Bad Teachers. This is a Red Herring. The question is not, Should SF be taught badly or well? The question is: Should SF be taught at all? And the answer -- again, from my perspective -- is No.
Teach Shakespeare, teach Tolkien, teach, by all means and with my full support, how to Read Critically. Critical reading is a Necessary Life Skill. But, please, do not teach genre fiction. There's too little fun in the world anymore, and reading is one of life's greatest pleasures.
Sigh.
Well, I don't know that I've solved anything, but I sure feel better.
Edited to Add: Comments have been frozen on this entry as of 4:08 PM EDT Wednesday, October 22, 2008. Pilot's choice.
Son of Edited to Add: Unfortunately, there seems to be no way to disable further commenting on the main post while still allowing the comments that have already been made to remain visible. So, the comments are now invisible, which is a pity, but there you are.
There are a couple things going on in the deep background behind that question. I'll try to be brief.
Point One
Science Fiction has had an Inferiority Complex almost since its mass market birth, when it was viewed (by academics, my mom, high school English teachers, and other Right Thinking People) as being on the same intellectual level as porn, and was often displayed on the same spinners in the newstands (yes, this was a looooooonnnnnggggg time ago, in a very different world). Since then, it has, as a field, Ached to be Studied. Because Study = Validation. Validation means my Work is Worthy, and writers, as everyone else, need to feel that their work has value.
What seems not to be understood is that academics don't study and write articles in order to Validate the object of their study. Academics study and write articles in order to Validate themselves. As more and more people become academics, they must look further and further afield for subjects, and lo! suddenly Science Fiction isn't genre trash anymore; it's a way to secure tenure.
Still, there will be some folks in the field who lust after that Validation, and who will write in order to be studied. If that's what floats their boat, then they're welcome to it; I'll just sit over here in the corner and write escapist genre novels.
Escapist genre novels.
*Walks around the phrase and admires it from all sides*
Yeah.
Point Two
I write, in the words of the immortal Damon Knight, for people's beer money. My mission is to give you an escape from the mundane world for an hour or three. I do not write deathless, finely crafted prose, my sentences arrayed on the page like rows of cut emeralds. I write space opera, fantasy, and mystery. I write to give people pleasure.
Now, yes, sometimes it's pleasurable to sit down with a book that makes you sweat for every nuance. But that's not the only pleasure to be had from reading. It's perfectly legitimate to read a book because it makes you feel good. This is what genre books are for.
In my humble opinion, college English courses are the main reason that so many people say that they no longer read for pleasure at all. It's this fantastical notion that everything must be analyzed for nuance, scrutinized for detail, examined to discover the Real Story that's hiding under the Apparent Story. The message that many take away from their English teachers is that the only Right Way to read is by the Analysis Method, and yanno? after a long day? Much too fatiguing. Wanna watch a Jackie Chan movie?
Point Three
Some folks want to make the "should we teach SF" question into a discussion of Good Teachers vs. Bad Teachers. This is a Red Herring. The question is not, Should SF be taught badly or well? The question is: Should SF be taught at all? And the answer -- again, from my perspective -- is No.
Teach Shakespeare, teach Tolkien, teach, by all means and with my full support, how to Read Critically. Critical reading is a Necessary Life Skill. But, please, do not teach genre fiction. There's too little fun in the world anymore, and reading is one of life's greatest pleasures.
Sigh.
Well, I don't know that I've solved anything, but I sure feel better.
Edited to Add: Comments have been frozen on this entry as of 4:08 PM EDT Wednesday, October 22, 2008. Pilot's choice.
Son of Edited to Add: Unfortunately, there seems to be no way to disable further commenting on the main post while still allowing the comments that have already been made to remain visible. So, the comments are now invisible, which is a pity, but there you are.
(frozen) no subject
Date: 2008-10-21 03:28 am (UTC)I think there's plenty of sci fi (and fantasy) that is ripe for academic scrutiny, but I'm also not worried that all authors equally are likely to make it on the list-of-books-to-be-studied. Some books ARE obviously just for pleasure, and I don't think that makes them of lesser value in any way, it's just for a different intent. But there are plenty of sci fi and fantasy novels that are written as social or political commentary that beg to be part of academic discourse. I don't see any point in cutting them out of the field, and as someone who has taken courses with sci fi and fantasy novels as part of the curriculum, I remain of that opinion.
Nancy D'Inzillo
http://www.mightypenediting.com
(frozen) no subject
Date: 2008-10-21 10:01 am (UTC)I'm very glad to hear this, because I've heard the opposite so often it's frightening. What do you read for pleasure?
Some books ARE obviously just for pleasure, and I don't think that makes them of lesser value in any way, it's just for a different intent. But there are plenty of sci fi and fantasy novels that are written as social or political commentary that beg to be part of academic discourse. I don't see any point in cutting them out of the field, and as someone who has taken courses with sci fi and fantasy novels as part of the curriculum, I remain of that opinion.
You sort of make my point for me -- that some books are written for pleasure, and so ought to be read with the internal Analysis Program turned off -- but then we wander off into worrisome territory again with this talk of "worthy." I don't think I've said anywhere that some books are more worthy than others, nor have I said that the ability to read critically is a Bad Thing. If that's somehow crept into a subtext somewhere, I apologize.
What worries me is that the folks I've talked to who no longer read for pleasure think that the only way to read is in Analysis Mode. Or, another way: It has somehow not been made clear to them that reading for pleasure is OK. And so they stop reading.
As a professional writer, this concerns me.
(frozen) no subject
Date: 2008-10-22 03:57 am (UTC)What I have tried over several years in different environments to get people to acknowledge is something they don't seem to get: some people get pleasure from analysis.
Is that really that alien? I'm sure engineers get pleasure from designing really cool bridges, and admiring the bridges that other engineers design.
I get real pleasure from looking at your sentences, and your structures, and the motives of your characters, and then writing about it.
Are you about to tell me that my way of enjoying your books is the wrong way to enjoy them?
It's not like I'm *eating* them.
(frozen) no subject
Date: 2008-10-22 10:15 am (UTC)No, I get that, and have said so repeatedly in this thread.
Are you about to tell me that my way of enjoying your books is the wrong way to enjoy them?
Apparently it is time for a recap of Why No One Ever Reads Exactly the Same Book. Not for a couple days, though; I've got Stuff to do.
In short, though, I obviously can't tell you that your method of reading is "wrong." You're gonna do what you're gonna do and I hope the payout is pleasurable for you.