"Realistic fiction leaves out too much." - Gene Wolfe

Jerry Friedman · 01 May 2011, 03:53 · from 2011-April.txt.gz

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From: jerry_friedman at yahoo.com (Jerry Friedman)
Date: Sat, 30 Apr 2011 20:53:17 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: (urth) "Realistic fiction leaves out too much." - Gene Wolfe
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Both /The Dispossessed/ and /Starship Troopers/ had to be SF because they're
about societies that have never existed.  Otherwise, it's true they don't 
provide
much in the way of stfnal thrills beyond the suits in ST and the description of
Shevek making his discovery in TD.  There's nothing in either that you could
call religious or spiritual (I think), either.  As some of the Kesh say in 
/Always
Coming Home/, the problem with novels is they never go beyond the Five
Houses (the material world, sort of).

Is Heinlein's "lunar imperium" story /The Moon is a Harsh Mistress/?  I can 
certainly
see thinking of /The Dispossessed/ as a response to that--a different kind of
anarchy.  (I don't know about "imperium", though.)  And what's his "stellar
imperium", /Starship Troopers/?

Jerry Friedman

----- Original Message ----
> From: David Stockhoff <dstockhoff at verizon.net>
> 
> Precisely!
> 
> On 4/30/2011 8:15 PM, James Wynn wrote:
> > I think  Wolfe's problem with it was that there was no reason not to have 
>written the  story in the Realistic genre. It was a Naturalism story with SF 
>scenery.  Pointless. It didn't deal at all with all the "other stuff" that Wolfe 
>thinks  Realistic fiction cannot address.
> > 
> > Of course the same could be  said of Heinlein's "Starship Troopers" -- just 
>War fiction with lasers.
> >  J.
> > 
> > On 4/30/2011 5:51 PM, David Stockhoff wrote:
> >>  It's disappointing to many readers of science fiction. I wonder if it's  
>disappointing to fans of college professor fiction?
> >> 
> >> I  always thought of it as a response to Heinlein's lunar/stellar imperium 
>stories,  which certainly needed one.

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