Where Has All the Science Fiction Gone?

[mmcirvin]

Recent Campbell award winner John Scalzi lectures on the state of science fiction in a refreshingly unpretentious manner at a library in Covington, Kentucky (streaming WMV video over an hour long). As he says in his post on the subject, he's a bit fidgety and says "you know" a lot, but it's a good introduction to all the "whither science fiction?" arguments of the past several years, suitable for a general audience. One thing I like about it is that he covers the bases without just lapsing into the usual death-of-the-genre or everything-sucks-now handwringing.

Comments

[lots42.livejournal.com]

All the money is in tie-in novels. We need to spread the word on who can write a good tie-in that can be enjoyed by anyone who hasn't seen the show.

1) Peter David

Heard of this doco?

[timchuma.livejournal.com]

"The What if Man - the Science Fictional Life of Peter Nichols"
I haven't read his encyclopedia, but have heard it is meant to be good. He also comments on the current state of science fiction writing in the documentary.

His pacing

[vardissakheli.livejournal.com]

is positively static in comparison with my favorite instructor ever, whose frenetic hodgepodge of travel notes on his home page might give you an impression of his oscillatory speedwalking from one end of the thirty-foot blackboard to the other.

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

Don't tell me you went to Simon's Rock, too.