Trace Elements
Conversations on the Project of Science Fiction and Fantasy
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- 14,99 €
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- 14,99 €
Descrizione dell’editore
From two of the most acclaimed writers in the field today, a groundbreaking look at how SF and fantasy writing—and reading!—work.
Jo Walton and Ada Palmer are two of the most innovative and insightful writers to emerge in the SF and fantasy genres in this century. As writers of fiction they’ve each won multiple awards. As commenters on SF and fantasy in print and in visual media, they’ve both sparked new conversations that expanded our imaginations and understanding of how SF and fantasy work, and what more it could be doing.
Now, in Trace Elements, Walton and Palmer have come together to write a book-length and supremely entertaining look at modern science fiction and fantasy, at how our genre is written and how it is read, that will join nonfiction works like Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Language of the Night, Samuel R. Delany’s The Jewel-Hinged Jaw, and Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud on the short shelf of titles essential to all readers of our genre.
Subjects covered include the nature of genre itself, the history of SF publishing, the implicit contract between author and reader, the ways SF and fantasy disguise themselves as one another, what SF&F can learn from outside influences ranging from Shakespeare to Diderot to anime, the role of complicity in reading, the need to expand our “sphere of empathy”, and finally the need for optimism, the importance of rejecting “purity” culture, and the fact that the human story for centuries to come will be composed of hard work.
At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Fantasy and science fiction authors Walton (Or What You Will) and Palmer (Perhaps the Stars) present a thorough collection of columns, essays, and conversations on the nature of genre fiction. The authors differentiate between "imprint science fiction and fantasy" and "external science fiction and fantasy," arguing the former comes from authors who read a lot of work from SFF imprints and are responding to these books with their own work, while the latter comes from writers who are shaped by other genres (mainstream literature, mystery, etc.) but still employ speculative elements in their work, say a sentient robot or a vampire. In defining genre itself, the authors elucidate the two commonly used explanations: genre is a marketing category that publishers use to communicate with readers and bookstores, or genre is determined by "the furniture of the story" (the use of rockets and robots in sci-fi or sorcerers in fantasy). Ultimately, they argue, genre is "a set of promises, pacing, and protocols—it's in how the reader goes about reading the story, what the reader expects." Elsewhere, the authors trace the history of science fiction publishing, share their own paths to publication, and consider SFF's ability to expand readers' empathy. Deeply researched and entertaining, this is a treat for genre fans.
