Itâs solitary enough as it is, in the daily work.
You wrote your PhD thesis on PK Dick. Did you ever meet him? He seems to be on the verge of replacing Asimov as the most familiar SF name. How do you think he would fit into todayâs market?
I met PKD once in a hallway at Cal State Fullerton, where we both had come to see a lecture by Harlan Ellison. PKD rose to his feet during the Q and A after the reading to thank Ellison publicly for raising the level of respect for SF in the general culture; PKD really felt the put-downs of the literary culture back in the 1950s. (This was 1973). Afterwards in the hall I said to him how much I had enjoyed his novel Galactic Pot-Healer . He looked at me like I was insane. He may or may not have said thank you, or anything. But Iâm glad I did it.
I guess he is âthe SF writerâ in American culture now. I think itâs fitting; we live in a PKD reality in a lot of ways, crazier than Asimovâs vision. So many of PKDâs visions now look prescient and like perfect metaphors for life now. He had a big gift that way.
Many of his novels were written in two weeks on speed, and it shows. In todayâs market (especially if all his movies had been made) he would have been able to afford to slow down. He was skillful; if he had to start in todayâs market, he would do okay; if he were still alive and had his real start, he would be huge. And his books would be very interesting no matter what. He was a good novelist.
Tom Disch once said that all SF is really fantasy. Was that just Disch or is there a grain of truth in it?
I think itâs a little of both. Imagining the future; that has to be fantasy, by some definitions. But some of these fantasies of the future can conform to what we think is physically possible, and that would be science fiction, by my lights. A fictional future, meaning there is a historical connection explained or implied between that future and our now, with whateverâs in that future sounding physically possible. This would rule out faster-than-light travel and time travel, which are in science fiction all the time, so maybe thatâs what Disch meant. But you can dispense with those and have a ârealâ SF I think.
Disch got very angry at the SF community, as his home town that had somehow rejected him despite his great work. Too bad. Itâs not the whole of his story, by any means, but part of it. I like many of his books and stories, but distrust anything he said about SF. He was too angry.
SF writers are always complaining about the state of publishing. What do you think would be the proper role of SF in a proper publishing world? Would there be genres or categories at all?
I donât know! Thatâs a real alternative history. If there were no genres or categories, people might be more open to trying new things. That would be good. Iâd love to try it. But itâs not the world we have. Going forward from now, I guess I think every science fiction section in every bookstore should have a sign saying âScience FictionâYou Live Here, why not read about it?â or âScience Fiction, the Most Real Part of This Storeâ or something like that. Something to remind people of reality, which is that we are all stuck in a big SF novel now, and thereâs no escape; might as well accept it and dive in.
You are a minimalist in your long-distance Sierra treks: superlight pack, no tent floor, no poles even, no stove, just a pellet and stones. Does any of this apply to your writing? I know you cover a lot of ground....
No, in my writing I am more of a maximalist. Iâll try anything, include anything; I donât think I have a method that works for everything, as the literary minimalists seemed to think.
I hike ultra-light in the Sierras because I can be just as comfortable in camp, while suffering less on trail when Iâve got my house on my back. Itâs a version of the
You wrote your PhD thesis on PK Dick. Did you ever meet him? He seems to be on the verge of replacing Asimov as the most familiar SF name. How do you think he would fit into todayâs market?
I met PKD once in a hallway at Cal State Fullerton, where we both had come to see a lecture by Harlan Ellison. PKD rose to his feet during the Q and A after the reading to thank Ellison publicly for raising the level of respect for SF in the general culture; PKD really felt the put-downs of the literary culture back in the 1950s. (This was 1973). Afterwards in the hall I said to him how much I had enjoyed his novel Galactic Pot-Healer . He looked at me like I was insane. He may or may not have said thank you, or anything. But Iâm glad I did it.
I guess he is âthe SF writerâ in American culture now. I think itâs fitting; we live in a PKD reality in a lot of ways, crazier than Asimovâs vision. So many of PKDâs visions now look prescient and like perfect metaphors for life now. He had a big gift that way.
Many of his novels were written in two weeks on speed, and it shows. In todayâs market (especially if all his movies had been made) he would have been able to afford to slow down. He was skillful; if he had to start in todayâs market, he would do okay; if he were still alive and had his real start, he would be huge. And his books would be very interesting no matter what. He was a good novelist.
Tom Disch once said that all SF is really fantasy. Was that just Disch or is there a grain of truth in it?
I think itâs a little of both. Imagining the future; that has to be fantasy, by some definitions. But some of these fantasies of the future can conform to what we think is physically possible, and that would be science fiction, by my lights. A fictional future, meaning there is a historical connection explained or implied between that future and our now, with whateverâs in that future sounding physically possible. This would rule out faster-than-light travel and time travel, which are in science fiction all the time, so maybe thatâs what Disch meant. But you can dispense with those and have a ârealâ SF I think.
Disch got very angry at the SF community, as his home town that had somehow rejected him despite his great work. Too bad. Itâs not the whole of his story, by any means, but part of it. I like many of his books and stories, but distrust anything he said about SF. He was too angry.
SF writers are always complaining about the state of publishing. What do you think would be the proper role of SF in a proper publishing world? Would there be genres or categories at all?
I donât know! Thatâs a real alternative history. If there were no genres or categories, people might be more open to trying new things. That would be good. Iâd love to try it. But itâs not the world we have. Going forward from now, I guess I think every science fiction section in every bookstore should have a sign saying âScience FictionâYou Live Here, why not read about it?â or âScience Fiction, the Most Real Part of This Storeâ or something like that. Something to remind people of reality, which is that we are all stuck in a big SF novel now, and thereâs no escape; might as well accept it and dive in.
You are a minimalist in your long-distance Sierra treks: superlight pack, no tent floor, no poles even, no stove, just a pellet and stones. Does any of this apply to your writing? I know you cover a lot of ground....
No, in my writing I am more of a maximalist. Iâll try anything, include anything; I donât think I have a method that works for everything, as the literary minimalists seemed to think.
I hike ultra-light in the Sierras because I can be just as comfortable in camp, while suffering less on trail when Iâve got my house on my back. Itâs a version of the
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