Are Science Fiction Short Stories Too Literary?
My recent post about the Future of Science Fiction Short Stories started a very interesting discussion that has opened up a number of additional questions. One of the biggest ones I think is the suggestion that maybe the science fiction short stories being published in magazines are simply too literary for many people’s tastes.
Now I want to make clear than no one who said this was suggesting that literary science fiction is a bad thing. Its just not what they enjoy reading. And since we’re talking about magazine sales, that’s a problem.
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Short Fiction vs. Long Form
I’ve noticed that at least on the internet there is a very vocal fanbase that enjoys science fiction short stories. It’s not that uncommon to see discussions where people proclaim that they prefer them to novels. That group of people is so vocal in fact that it’s easy to think short stories are more popular than novels. But they’re not.
I don’t have any numbers to back this up, but I suspect there is a heavy correlation between the subscribers to these magazines and the part of fandom that is actively involved in events like WorldCon. As evidence I’d point to Hugo nominations and awards.
There are inherent differences between short stories and longer fiction of course. Certain types of stories just work better at a specific length. But does that mean that mean that all short science fiction has to be experimental or a character piece? Is it impossible to do space opera in short form for example?
What People Want
If you look at the most popular books in the genre you aren’t going to see too many hard science fiction books. Plenty of fantasy, some space opera, some genre classics and then some hard science fiction (usually from a name author).
This of course has nothing what so ever to do with quality and everything to do with what people like to read. Literary fiction of any sort doesn’t tend to sell as well as mysteries for example. So if people want action stories or space opera or, traditional fantasy stories, why would they buy the fiction magazines which don’t supply that sort of story?
If the current magazines and their editors want to continue focusing on high quality, cutting edge stories then they should be encouraged to do that. But they will also have to accept that they are targeting a very small market and they need to adjust their delivery mechanisms accordingly.
What Short Fiction Would You Like To Read?
Well that’s the question isn’t it. If you don’t want to read what’s currently being offered, what sort of stories are you looking for? What would make you read a short fiction magazine?
Are you looking for big name authors? Or a particular style of story? Do you want it themed, or prefer a wide variety of different topics in a single anthology? Should magazines be offering more serialization?
10 Comments, Comment or Ping
Simon Haynes
About five years ago I helped to set up a new genre mag here in Australia. I’m still involved as the webmaster, and we just published issue 36. The reason we started the mag is because all the other markets in this country seemed to be hell-bent on publishing award-worthy stories … aka depressing, dark, gloomy & go-nowhere stuff without plot, character or any kind of resolution. (I exaggerate a little, but we basically wanted a market for the fun side of the genre)
Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine is the name of the mag, and you’ll find our website here: http://www.andromedaspaceways.com
If you’d like to be added to the mailout for review copies (print or PDF) just let me know. I’m sure I can get you a sample issue or two, although if you’re outside Australia the PDF will save us a lot of postage.
Aug 13th, 2008
Lisa
High quality and commercial saleability are not necessarily mutually exclusive, especially when it comes to storytelling. If an author can’t captivate an audience, then s/he’s not succeeding at storytelling and shouldn’t be rewarded. Why are we awarding stories that don’t captivate? Part of art’s reason for being is to entertain and if it succeeds at that, then it can fulfill it’s other functions regarding social commentary etc. What’s the point in making social commentary if no one is watching, reading, or listening? Some literary fiction is entertaining and I like to read it when that happens, but otherwise I’m not interested. Commercially successful fiction, whether in its short or long form, can also be well-written fiction.
Lisas last blog post..I’ve been hacked!
Aug 13th, 2008
Dave Tackett
I hate to be so unusually agreeable but I really agree with everyone on this. (So much for affecting a curmudgeonly attitude).
The views and and tastes of small loud internet fanbases virtually never reflect the larger whole (if I’m wrong Ron Paul will win the presidency in a landslide). This must be a strong factor with certain editors seeming surprised about declining sales.
“depressing, dark, gloomy & go-nowhere stuff without plot, character or any kind of resolution.” nails the problem. There is no pleasure to reading the stories that dominate the biggest print SF mags.
And Lisa is absolutely correct about commercial fiction being able to be high quality. Most great literature has been commercial. People forget that Shakespeare, M. Shelley, Dickens, and most other great writers wrote entertaining commercial fiction. They just wrote it very well.
Aug 13th, 2008
Eoghann
Well I think one of the things is that the stories winning awards do captivate an audience. Its just maybe quite a small and closed audience.
I think it’s interesting that this week there’s been a lot of talk about the “graying of the Hugos” and how Hugo awards no longer seem to represent that nebulous beast science fiction “fandom”.
People tend to congregate in groups of who think like they do. It’s just human nature. I think the print magazines are largely run and influenced by a particular part of fandom (the sort that are likely to attend Worldcon for example). Which is fine until people start thinking that that is representative of fandom as a whole.
I’m certainly not lobbying for less of the fiction we already get, but I’d like to see more of other types of stories to go with it.
Aug 13th, 2008
N.E. Lilly
I’m reminded of Ridley Scott saying that Science Fiction is as dead as Westerns…. if only I had known!
I’m having no problems at all with short fiction at SpaceWesterns.com (which is far from “literary”). The readers are seeming to respond to the fiction that I present there.
N.E. Lillys last blog post..The Hard Deal, by John M. Whalen
Aug 13th, 2008
Tania Hershman
Hi, I just stumbled across this blog post and as a short story writer and reader, I thought I would jot down my response. I am coming at this from a different angle: as the editor of The Short Review, a site which reviews ten new short story collections and anthologies every month, I received a lot of review copies, often books by authors I have never heard of and described in terms i am not familiar with. I don’t generally - or I should say that I haven’t until now - read science fiction. Two books opened my eyes to this “genre”: the Logorrhea anthology and Kelley Eskridge’s Dangerous Space. I also recently bought a subscription to Interzone. What I found was that these short stories were simply excellent stories - I didn’t care what shelf they would be put in in a bookstore. They were magical, quirky, well-written, original. They gripped me, and they stayed with me afterwards. That, to me, is the mark of great writing.
I hate labels, I don’t like the word “literary”. We have a section on the site where the short story collections we have reviewed are listed by “category”, but a book can be under any number of categories, because life isn’t so black and white. I thought about adding the “literary fiction” category, and then didn’t - because who am I to say what is “literary” and what isn’t? It’s almost become a dirty word. I agree with Lisa above - if the writing doesn’t entertain, it doesn’t fulfil its function. However, some people are entertained by “depressing, dark, gloomy”, although perhaps not by “go nowhere stuff with no plot or resolution”.
I guess my point is, I have been drawn to science fiction because of the great writing, not because I am a “science fiction fan”, and for me this is the prime consideration when reading a short story, and it transcends all genre boundaries! I invite you to visit The Short Review, (http://www.theshortreview.com) and find some more great stories to read.
Aug 14th, 2008
Ian Sales
In the old days, you’d have to subscribe to a lot of magazines in order to a wide-range of short stories. Every magazine, after all, has its editorial preferences and tends to buy those stories which meet it. So you’d subscribe only to those which intersected with your own tastes.
Now, of course, there are web magazines. And most you don’t have to pay for. You can go out and browse the Web and find the sort of stories which will appeal to you. And you can then support those web magazines - either with cash (which they usually need), or by nominating the fiction they publishing for awards.
As for sf short stories becoming too “literary”… Id’ say rather that they were actually becoming better written. There is a higher standard of writing in the genre now than there ever was before. Compare and contrast Asimov’s ‘Nightfall’ with this year’s Hugo Award winner, Elizabeth Bear’s ‘Tideline’. I don’t see how this can be a bad thing.
I also don’t understand how “literary” has become a pejorative - it means well-written, with the sensibilities of literature. It doesn’t mean gloomy, depressing, plot-less or non-captivating. If it does, I suggest you’re reading the wrong literary fiction.
Ian Saless last blog post..Top 48 Films Based On A Book
Aug 14th, 2008
Eoghann
I think it’s important to note that it’s entirely possible to be better written in a technical sense without actually being more enjoyable. Honestly I get more enjoyment from Nightfall than from Tideline. And that’s not intended as a put down on Elizabeth Bear’s writing. Its a question of preferences in subject matter, tone and style.
I personally found the style of Tideline offputting to read right from the very first sentence:
“Chalcedony wasn’t built for crying. She didn’t have it in her, not unless her tears were cold tapered glass droplets annealed by the inferno heat that had crippled her.”
Is it good writing? Absolutely. It says a lot about the character and the situation in very few words. But I would never pay to read that story.
And there I think is the heart of the issue. The style of SF stories in print magazines currently only appeals to a segment of the SF fanbase. Just as novels classified as literary fiction only appeal to a small segment of the book buying public. Far more people are buying mysteries or romance novels etc.
Aug 14th, 2008
Heather
>What would make you read a short fiction magazine?
>Far more people are buying mysteries or romance novels etc.
If someone puts out a ‘zine of science fiction romance stories, count me in! (From one niche market to another.)
Heathers last blog post..“QUIS CUSTODIET IPSOS CUSTODES,” Part III
Aug 14th, 2008
Dave Tackett
Eoghann, I strongly agree with your assessment here, though I really enjoyed “Tideline.” Unlike too many of its peers, it was not depressing and was clearly SF.
One problem is that “literary” is not a clearly defined term for many people. If I defined literary as meaning “well-written” I might agree with Ian, though “with the sensibilities of literature” is a vague phrase at best. However, “characterized by an excessive or affected display of learning; stilted; pedantic” is a more typical understanding of the term. This is what most readers avoid, and what is at least partially responsible for the decline in SF magazine sales.
The argument over which era had “better” writing standards is purely subjective unless an agreed upon criteria for good writing exists. For me good writing entertains, great writing entertains and inspires in a positive manner.
Dave Tacketts last blog post..Aphelion, Comics, and More.
Aug 14th, 2008
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