Re: The SF Style

Hmmmm, so much to disagree with here...
 
I'm not sure why you postulate "obviously hard SF has more exposition than would be permitted in a thriller..."  I don't agree that this is always the case.  Sometimes, sure, but certainly not always.  There are plenty of hard SF stories with almost no exposition, such as the short stories in Asimov's I Robot collection, or a story like Delaney's "Aye, and Gomorrah," (which comes to mind quickly primarily because I just taught it).  I can't remember a cyberpunk novel that I would classify as heavy on exposition.  Now, the subgenre of Utopia practically thrives on exposition, but that's not always hard SF.  I would agree that a lot of the Golden Age stuff has a bit more exposition--but it could be argued that was the modus operandi of that era.
 
Also, I'm not sure why you feel SF starts in the middle more than other literature--surely there are examples of this phenomenon in all genres?  Perhaps it feels that way because when we are dropped into the middle of a mimetic story, we already know how that world operates, so it doesn't "feel" like we've been dropped in the middle--we are at the beginning of a particular aspect of a world we know.   The texts that come to my mind quickly--again, because these are mostly ones I'm teaching now--Neuromancer, Fahrenheit 451, Perdido Street Station, Brave New World--all start at a similar starting place to novels like Huck Finn or Pride and Prejudice--at the beginning of the story--but don't necessarily feel that way because we begin confused and disoriented by the unfamiliar.
 
I do agree with your initial thought that "writing is writing" and that all genres allow for a bit of experimentation with plot structure (consider Vonnegut, even when he's not writing SF) and writing style (Modernist poetry, anyone?).  Perhaps I'm biased because I love SF, but I tend to think that having said the above, SF allows more room for manipulating conventions of writing (Embassytown, for example).
 
My two cents,
Jeri
 
 
Jeri Zulli
[email protected]
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
Date: Thu, 2 Apr 2015 02:08:17 -0400
From: [email protected]
Subject: [SF-LIT] The SF Style
To: [email protected]




Ignoring subject and artistic style, is the plot structure or writing style of science fiction different than other genres? On one hand I tend to think writing is writing with the differences belonging to individual style but maybe that is not entirely true. Obviously hard SF has more exposition than would be permitted in a thriller; it’s clear that the genre has a logical impact in that case. Also I have the impression that more SF starts in the middle of the story (In medias res) than other literature. If that’s true, I can’t see why SF needs to be that way so that would be a convention of the genre, like the short declarative sentences of noir paperbacks.