I dug out my copy of _The Essential Ellison_, edited by Terry Dowling,
and came across an interesting passage discussing some of his pieces
(such as "The Sky is Burning" and "The Prowler in the City at the Edge
of the World") in "Section VIII: Rococo Technology":
Call it what you like: speculative fiction, futuristic fiction,
science fiction. As long as
you ignore the defamatory neologism "sci-fi," reviled by anyone
who makes even a
meager claim to literacy, you're on safe ground.(409)
Intriguing quote, no? Especially when I remember what happened the week
(years ago) I finally got the Sci-Fi Channel on my cable system: Harlan
Ellison hosted a _The Prisoner_ marathon. I suspect the dislike for the
"sci-fi" label is merely a case of literary snobbishness, and it would
be all the better to stop categorizing things and read and discuss what
one thinks is enjoyable. A canon only exists for the purposes of
shaping thought. Once academia, and the SF (still my favorite term, but
that's my choice) community as a whole, accept that, then we can decide
for ourselves whether or not to read or not read an author's work...
- Geoffrey
-- "Time is an illusion. Lunchtime doubly so." - Ford Prefect
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Thu May 25 2000 - 19:07:34 PDT