Tuesday 1 July 2008

PKD News

Long piece by Stephen Burt in this week's London Review of Books. I will return to this, perhaps.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Please return to this. I want to read what you have to say on this. I'm interested because I was kind of brought up to look down on SF. And then one lucky day, I happened to meet a big SF writer. MJohnHarrison. I began to read his books, and was fixated, a little like the way I have become fixated with JM Coetzee of late (no coincidence that I am currently living in South Africa). Anyway, I'd like to know what you have to say on this LRB piece.
I'm particularly taken by his opening line: "When an art form or genre once dismissed as kids’ stuff starts to get taken seriously by gatekeepers – by journals, for example, such as the one you are reading now – respect doesn’t come smoothly, or all at once." That's exactly what I used to think: kids' stuff.
Hang that head in shame.

mckie said...

I've just been trying to find the time.

Mike is a great writer, not just a great sf writer (and a nice man). Actually, The Course of the Heart and Climbers aren't sf at all, and they're maybe my favourites.

I'm glad you like Coetzee, though. I think he's awfully good.

Never disregard any genre. A book which rattles round your head has something in it it, whether it's Anthony Hope, John Dickson Carr, Howard Spring or Barbara Taylor Bradford.

best
A