<p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; ">See </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial; font-size: small; "><a href="http://mysite.verizon.net/~vze2tmhh/wolfeint.html">http://mysite.verizon.net/~vze2tmhh/wolfeint.html</a></span></span></b></p>
<p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; "><b>Q:</b> <em>What's available to an adult, adventurous reader in science fiction? Why should they read that genre? Why should they move past realism?</em></p>
<p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; "><b>GW:</b> The adventurous reader has probably already moved past realism. I realize that sounds like a smart remark, but I mean past the kind of fiction that is called "realism" as a literary genre, and that's what it is: a literary genre. It is archtypically the story about the college professor who is married to the other college professor.</p>
<p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; ">Did you read <a href="http://www.uic.edu/~lauramd/sf/leguin.html">Ursula K. LeGuin's</a> novel, <em><a href="http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~brians/science_fiction/dispossessed.html">The Dispossessed</a></em>? It was about the college professor who's married to a college professor, only science fiction, and this planet is Russia and this planet is the United States. When I read it I was so disappointed. I'd had a dozen people tell me how wonderful it was.</p>
<p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; "><b>Q:</b> <em>Yeah, I heard that too. Then I read it.</em></p><p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; "><b>GW:</b> I've read that book before; I've read it as realism many a time. It's a John Updike kind of book. I've read that story so many times ... now I read a book until I can recognize the story, and say, "This is what it is," and that's as far as it goes, since I have no urge to finish it. I'm long past feeling so guilty that I have to finish everything I start. I don't finish ninety percent of what I start.</p>
<p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; ">Look, the reason someone should go past that sort of realism is that it is narrow, stultifying and ultimately false.</p><p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; ">
<b>Q:</b> <em>And the fantastic genres aren't?</em></p><p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; "><b>GW:</b> No, not the better stuff. We're dealing with the truth of the human experience, as opposed to what we are willing to accept from other people.</p>
<p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; "><b>Q:</b> <em>Wait, I don't see that distinction. The truth of experiences versus other people's experiences?</em></p><br><div class="gmail_quote">
On Fri, Apr 29, 2011 at 6:43 PM, James Wynn <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:crushtv@gmail.com">crushtv@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex;">
<div bgcolor="#ffffff" text="#000000">
Well, I understand that Wolfe is saying, among other things, that
Naturalism and Realism address solely what *is* as opposed to What
Might Have Been and therefore cannot state authoritatively "Why What
Is Is". You can't address the nature of Identity in Realistic
fiction. You can't take seriously mythology, miracles, magic or
ghosts (even though people REALLY act as though such things are
true, and some claim experiences that confirm it). <br>
<br>
Still, it's quite a thing to say for an author who typically stops
the narrative just when a big (apparently important) action scene is
about to occur-- a writer who creates vast worlds and has the reader
look at it through a paper towel tube.<br><font color="#888888">
<br>
J. <br></font><div><div></div><div class="h5">
<br>
On 4/29/2011 4:50 PM, Daniel Petersen wrote:
<blockquote type="cite"><span style="border-collapse:collapse;font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">'I do
think he is saying realistic fiction leaves out the unexplained
mystery of life, the majestic grace of the impossible that
creeps into our everyday, that ignores things that are beyond
the rational and explicable laws of the commonly perceived
reality and fiction'</span>
<div>
<font face="arial, sans-serif"><span style="border-collapse:collapse"><br>
</span></font></div>
<div><font face="arial, sans-serif"><span style="border-collapse:collapse">Yes.
So, no. I don't think it's the pot/kettle scenario.</span></font></div>
<div><font face="arial, sans-serif"><span style="border-collapse:collapse"><br>
</span></font></div>
<div><font face="arial, sans-serif"><span style="border-collapse:collapse">DOJP<br>
</span></font><br>
<div class="gmail_quote">On Fri, Apr 29, 2011 at 9:43 PM, Marc
Aramini <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:marcaramini@yahoo.com" target="_blank">marcaramini@yahoo.com</a>></span>
wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204);padding-left:1ex">
Some of Wolfe's interviews are priceless for that quality.
"Looking for the thumb print under the lily"? Oh, it was a
lily, huh?<br>
<br>
Anybody read his contribution to Last Drink Bird Head? I
feel like that little exercise is SO classic Wolfe. Sets up
a scenario, throws in a random plastic toy, and then leaves
us to figure out how the concluding event went down. I
think it is not necessarily an impossible task, but it sure
is a bit inscrutable to fully "get" that conclusion. (Did
Damon Knight get really mad? What happened to the toy? why
is the unconscious guy back there at the end of the bar? Is
that his toy bird?)<br>
<br>
I do think he is saying realistic fiction leaves out the
unexplained mystery of life, the majestic grace of the
impossible that creeps into our everyday, that ignores
things that are beyond the rational and explicable laws of
the commonly perceived reality and fiction, (but we all know
what he was really saying, anyway).<br>
<br>
--- On Fri, 4/29/11, James Wynn <<a href="mailto:crushtv@gmail.com" target="_blank">crushtv@gmail.com</a>>
wrote:<br>
<br>
> From: James Wynn <<a href="mailto:crushtv@gmail.com" target="_blank">crushtv@gmail.com</a>><br>
> Subject: (urth) "Realistic fiction leaves out too
much." - Gene Wolfe<br>
> To: "The Urth Mailing List" <<a href="mailto:urth@lists.urth.net" target="_blank">urth@lists.urth.net</a>><br>
> Date: Friday, April 29, 2011, 12:24 PM<br>
<div>
<div>> I just read this quote by Wolfe.<br>
><br>
> Irony? Pot-Meet-Kettle?<br>
><br>
> J<br>
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