cut by the edge

 Recently my wanderings around the net have left me musing about generations of science fiction writers. Back in 1986, my pal Michael Swanwick <michaelswanwick.com> published a remarkable if controversial essay in these pages entitled “A Users Guide to the Post Moderns,” in which he introduced some of the writers of my generation to the readers of Asimov’s. Alas, Michael’s survey does not live anywhere on the web, although it has been reprinted several times. He centered his narrative on the alleged literary wars between the cyberpunks and the humanists, which was actually more like contretemps than combat, but let that go. Because this was Swanwick at his most provocative, there were many quotable passages, but one that has stuck with me through the years assessed the influence of the generation of writers that came immediately before mine on the then-current scene. This would include such worthies as Joe Haldeman home.earthlink.net/~haldeman/, George R.R. Martin <georgerrmartin.com>, Gardner Dozois <en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gardner_Dozois> (who before his stint as editor of this esteemed publication was widely recognized as one of our best short story writers), Gregory Benford <gregorybenford.com>, and Vonda Mcintyre <vondanmcintyre.com>, among others. Michael wrote, “These writers are all still producing, and in many cases turning out their best work to date, but the cutting edge of change has moved beyond them. In biological terms, they have donated their genetic material and are now superfluous to our argument.”

I remember feeling a chill as I read this, since if the cutting edge could pass these talented writers by, many of whom were my literary heroes, might it not someday make my generation genetically superfluous as well?

gapped

This summer the Hugo Award winning writer and keen genre observer Elizabeth Bear <elizabethbear.com > blogged about signs of a generation gap. She asserts <matociquala.livejournal.com/1415042.html> that short story writers of one generation don’t read writers of other generations. “I wonder when the last time was that Bob Silverberg <majipoor.com> read a story by Benjamin Rosenbaum <benjaminrosenbaum.com>, David Moles <chrononaut.org>, or Yoon Ha Lee <pegasus.cityofveils.com>? See, I’m thinking I’m on to something here. There’s a generation gap in SFF; we’re having different conversations, the Greatest Generation, the Baby Boomers, and Generation X. And as the Millennials (really, guys, this Gen Y thing has to stop: grant the kids their own identity) enter the genre, they too will be having their own argument.”

Now there are all kinds of cavils one could make here, starting with the fact that not only has Bob Silverberg read Ben Rosenbaum and Yoon Ha Lee, but he has bought stories from them for Science Fiction: The Best of 2002, which he edited with Karen Haber. And Elizabeth herself is at pains to say, “I read because I know I need to keep an eye on the genre, I need to know what’s going on, I have stuff to keep up on.” Nevertheless, she reports that when she asked around about who had read what stories from the various best of the year anthologies, her admittedly unscientific survey confirmed her suspicions. My own experience is similar: my fellow post-moderns—or Baby Boomers—can be as insular as any other generation. Sure, there are individuals who read widely, but in general, I, too, think Ms. Bear is on to something here.

When John Klima <www.tor.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=blog&id=2815 > mentioned the Unread Generations Syndrome post in several posts on the new Tor <tor.com> website, it sparked a number of interesting conversations. Many complained with justification that it is impossible to track all of the stories published each year. Consider that Mark R. Kelly <locusmag.blogspot.com>, writing in Locus’s <locusmag.com> 2007 year end summary, reports that there were 2109 original stories published in magazines, books, and online—not counting those in semi-pro or amateur ’zines. Readers tend to stick with what they know and, when writers read, it makes sense that they would follow the careers of those with whom they share literary sensibilities. Often as not, these common sensibilities map onto generations, although I wonder whether hard science fiction writers of a certain age take all that much interest in sword and sorcery writers of the same age. Soon posters on the Tor site began to exchange suggested reading lists for those seeking to broaden their horizons, most of which are well worth a peek.

Tor Senior Editor—and Hugo winner—Patrick Nielsen Hayden weighed in with a post entitled “The Dying Earth” <tor.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=blog&id=3316>, in which he wondered why younger writers have been all but shut out of the Hugos and Nebulas. He pointed to the website of astute Irish critic Nicholas Whyte <nicholaswhyte.info/sitemap.htm>, which lists all the winners of these awards <nicholaswhyte.info/sf/nh2.htm>, along with their date of birth. Only two born in the 1970s have won Hugos: the aforementioned Elizabeth Bear and Tim Pratt <timpratt.org>. Patrick wrote, “When I was a young SF reader, Hugos were regularly won by people in their twenties and early thirties.” For example, if you visit Nicholas’s site, you’ll be reminded that Joe Haldeman was thirty-three when he won his first Hugo, George R.R. Martin was twenty-seven, Samuel R. Delany < www2.pcc.com/staff/jay/delany > was twenty-eight, Roger Zelazny <roger-zelazny.com> was twenty-nine and our own Robert Silverberg was thirty-four. Patrick writes, “I argued a bit with Elizabeth Bear’s assertion of a generation gap in modern SF, but I’m beginning to think she may have a point. There’s plenty of SF and fantasy being written by younger people, but evidently the people who vote on the Hugos and Nebulas aren’t among its readers.”

In the comments section, Elizabeth Bear offers a new data point on the generation gap: “I’ve been observing for a while that there’s a Wiscon crowd and a Worldcon crowd, and they don’t overlap all that much.” The WorldCon, of course, is the World Science Fiction Convention. This year’s edition is Anticipation < anticipationsf.ca > in Montreal. Wiscon <wiscon.info>, for those who are wondering, bills itself as “The World’s Leading Feminist Science Fiction Convention.” It is at once much smaller than WorldCon and vastly more hip. If you want your say in conversations that are shaping the genre, book a ticket to Madison, Wisconsin next Memorial Day. Here’s Elizabeth Bear’s take:

“The Wiscon crowd is younger, queerer, more radical, more female, and more chromatically and culturally diverse. They read and publish in Strange Horizons <strangehorizons.com> and Interzone <ttapress.com/category/interzone>, and they complain that they can’t get any major award recognition or a novel contract, despite all their Pushcart Prize <pushcartprize.com> nominations.

“The Worldcon crowd is older, straighter, whiter, more conservative, and more invested in Fandom As A Way of Life. They read and publish in Asimov’s <do you really need the URL?> and F&SF<fandsf.com>, and they like to complain that there just don’t seem to be any SFF writers under the age of thirty-five.”

Gulp! I’ve been to twenty-one WorldCons but have yet to attend the fabled Wiscon. As someone who regularly checks himself for signs of early-onset superfluousness, you’ll pardon me if I take this opportunity to squirm.

mars needs women

As if it isn’t bad enough that our little corner of literature might be suffering a generation gap, consider that many would argue that we are suffering from gender imbalance as well. While this has been a longstanding perception, it was raised to the level of statistical certainty by a 2002 article in Strange Horizons called “SF and Fantasy in the New Millennium: Women Publishing Short Fiction” <strangehorizons.com/2007/20070820/0women-publish-a.shtml> by Susan U. Linville. Susan found that only 26 percent of the stories published in the “Big Four” print magazines (Asimov’s, F&SF, Analog <analogsf.com >, and Realms of Fantasy <rofmagazine.com>) in 2001 were by women. How to account for this? She discounts the possibility of gender-based editorial bias, since both F&SF and Asimov’s have had both male and female editors over the years and the data on their various tenures suggest that “male editors do not publish significantly fewer stories by women than their female counterparts.” Shawna McCarthy at Realms of Fantasy published a higher percentage of women than men, but Susan opines that this might be because women tend to write more fantasy than science fiction. Perhaps the reason why fewer woman were published was that fewer women submitted to these markets? In a 2007 follow-up article,

SF and Fantasy in the New Millennium: An Update <strangehorizons.com/2007/20070820/1women-update-a.shtml>, Susan Linville obtained access to submissions data from the Big Four and found that “It seems clear that overt editorial bias is not to blame for women’s low representation in short fiction. Instead, lack of participation by women remains the clear villain.”

But if the editors aren’t the problem, then what is? Why aren’t more women participating? What will it take to redress this imbalance? These articles have fanned a firestorm of controversy, as the genre continues to wrestle with an issue that goes to the core of its identity. Recently two roundtables have gathered of some of our best minds to mull the problem over. On the F&SF site, check out “Women Writing Science Fiction: Some Voices from the Trenches” <sfsite.com/fsf/2008/sl0810.htm>, edited by Susan Elizabeth Lyons, which presents fifteen women writers writing about how they came to read and write SF, what has changed over their careers, and what they think about the gender bias question. Meanwhile, at SF Signal <sfsignal.com>, the excellent Mind Meld feature gathered together a group of writers and editors, men and women to address the question, Is There Gender Imbalance in Genre Fiction Publishing? <sfsignal.com/archives/006846.html>. The participants have cast both heat and light on the problem.

exit

 It seems to me that these gaps in science fiction—both generation and gender—are very much related. I’ve been at this writing gig a while and I’ve watched this genre undergo profound change, philosophically, demographically and technologically. Science fiction has become bigger in every sense of the word. Of course readers and writers who are coming into their own in this wonderful and dangerous century deserve to their chance . . . wait, what’s that noise?

Hey, you kids! Get off my lawn.