About a month ago I asked for advice on learning more about literary criticism, especially as pertains to science fiction. I promised I’d summarize the results.
Jess left a very good comment, discussing different forms of criticism and a few resources. She also pointed out the essay collection Bringing the Devil to His Knees: The Craft of Fiction and the Writing Life, edited by Charles Baxter and Peter Turchi. I haven’t tracked it down yet, but it does look interesting.
I also asked an expert. Elizabeth Bear suggested John Clute and Joanna Russ as exemplars of the kind of SF criticism I was asking about. Another commenter on her blog reminded me of Jo Walton’s contributions to Tor.com. I read those regularly, but didn’t think to mention them. As a bonus, Jo and I seem to share similar taste in reading material, so I’ve already read many of the works discussed.
In the intervening time, I read The Dreams Our Stuff Is Made Of: How Science Fiction Conquered the World by Thomas Disch. Part history, part criticism, part anecdote; I enjoyed it, and learned some things about trends within the field that I’d dimly perceived but hadn’t understood. I didn’t realize until just now, getting the GoodReads link, that it had won a Hugo in 1999 — but I’m not surprised.
If you run across other interesting sources, please let me know.
🙂
I just read that Elizabeth Bear essay you linked in the sidebar– great stuff. I know she *says* she’s only talking about her job, but I think she’s also talking about my job. More to the point, she’s saying things about my job I’ve either forgotten or ignored. Thanks for pointing me to that.
Elizabeth Bear rocks. I’ve learned a lot from her just through her online presence.