NEAL STEPHENSON ON SCIFI AND LITERATURE

Occasional scifi author Neal Stephenson (Snow Crash, Cryptonomicon, the Baroque Cycle) was recently interviewed on Slashdot. Someone asked him why scifi doesn’t get reviewed in the mainstream press. I would have said a) because most of it is bad, and b) didn’t you know that the NYTimes Sunday book review has a monthly scifi column? Stephenson, however, took a decidedly different tack, casting the situation in economic and sociological terms.

In his lengthy but worthwhile response, he describes the world of novelists as divided between those who make a living off their work, and those who don’t, and thus depend on patrons like universities or funds and endowments. The latter group, he claims, are beholden to the whims and ideals of the world of literary criticism, because their potential patrons turn to the critics to determine who is most worthy of their money. The popular money-making novelist doesn’t owe anything to the world of literary cricitism, and thus is ignored by that world. I assume he places all scifi authors in the latter camp. I’m not sure I buy it, but it’s certainly a different take on things.