Via Jeff VanderMeer’s blog Ecstatic Days, I just read Richard Bowes in Clarkesworld on why writing can be more fun than being a writer.
It’s a rather rambling discussion of conventions and convention-goers (Richard graciously takes the blame for not really understanding the latter). I can’t say I have any experience with speculative fiction conventions—I only just got the joke about “mainstream conventions”—but the following line did hit home:
… the genre’s writers are rather proud of the fact that they do not draw on personal experience.
That’s kind of a relief, and for me reinforces the idea that speculative fiction is the contemporary genre.
UPDATE 5:05 pm: Jeff points out in a comment below that the last thing I wrote above looks a lot like nonsense. Since I’m deliberately misinterpretting the Richard Bowes quote, it was remiss of me not to say… well, what it was that I was trying to say. My response (below) to Jeff’s comment is intended to clarify my point.
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2 February 2008 at 1:40 pm
JeffVanderMeer
Wow. Fiction that doesn’t rely on personal experience? That’s fiction that’s dead, for the most part. I don’t think you realize what you’ve said.
JV
2 February 2008 at 3:32 pm
Benjamin Carnys
No, no, I came into the world fully-formed, speaking truths and wielding a sword to sever the past from the future… Didn’t I?
Whatever I said, what I imagined that I meant was that contemporary culture is far more defined by shared experience than ‘personal’ experience. That’s ‘ours’ versus ‘mine’, rather than ‘mine’ versus ‘no-one’s’. I see this very strongly in evidence when I write, and knowing about it makes me want to subvert it.
(I’m left not knowing whether tp be pleased that my throw-away line provoked comment or to berate myself for being so hasty in posting it.)
Anyway, anyone who claims not to draw on their personal experience, in the ‘mine’ versus ‘no-one’s’ sense of ‘personal’, is either lying or isn’t likely to be published, or so I would assume. Did I mentioned I am unpublished?
Thanks, Jeff, for dropping by and for calling me out!
6 February 2008 at 8:26 am
Shared experience « That, Which
[...] Others’ Writing Tags: alma alexander, jeff vandermeer, research, richard bowes In the comments of my recent post, Jeff VanderMeer took me to task (quite rightly) for appearing to say that speculative fiction [...]