Mundane?

[Neal Asher]

I think it is all, yet again, that portion of the SFF world ashamed of what they do, ashamed of their genre, and who want recognition from the 'mainstream'. Puleease, I don't do that squids in space nonesense, please please notice me, please take me seriously. I've seen far too much of it and it makes me weary. Choosing the label 'Mundane' and then making a statement of policy is an attempt to be clever, but it's not, it's being blinded by self-importance to what dragged readers into the SFF world in the first place and it is painfully pretentious. But by all means let them produce their mundane fiction and let the market decide. I'll meanwhile draw up proposals for my fourth three-book contract of exploding spaceships space opera with a major publisher and keep struggling to supply those other publishers who want my stuff because it sells. Ho hum.

[Ian Whates]

I love reading all types of science fiction. Which does not mean I like all science fiction, not by any means; there's plenty of rubbish and poor SF out there which still manages to get published, somehow... but that's an entirely different thread.

Neal Asher, who has contributed extensively to this thread, is one of the very best around at writing modern, high-tempo, action-packed space opera-style SF. He delivers entertainment in spades with every book he writes. Geoff Ryman, one of the champions of 'Mundane' SF, writes slower-paced, thoughtful and thought-provoking work, which is invariably admired as much by critics as by his readers.

Me? I enjoy reading them both. Hang labels, sub-genres, movements or any other form of pigeon-hole. A good book is a good book, period.

Sorry, maybe I just suffer from a simplistic world-view.

[iansales]

If they were ashamed of being sf writers, why would they call it Mundane SF? Geoff Ryman is hardly ashamed of being a genre writer - The Child Garden is in the SF Masterworks series, after all. And Interzone is doing a Mundane SF special next year - the Mundane SF people wouldn't have agreed to that if they were trying to distance themselves from science fiction.

While Mundane SF almost certainly won't have the commercial impact of exploding spaceships space opera, it will in all likelihood create something that will be fed back into the genre and will enrich it. That's what happened with the New Wave and the Movement.
It often seems written sf is becoming too much like media sf - shallow and all special effects. Maybe we need a clarion call like Mundane SF.

[steve12553]

I didn't thoroughly read the whole thread, (I need to get to work soon) but mundane merely means grounded or Earth bound. I think the reference is to the setting rather than the quality of the work. It doesn't so much mean ordinary as it means taking place or existing in an ordinary setting. On one hand the meaning is quite accurate and I've really enjoyed certain mundane works of Science Fiction. On the other hand the word has developed such a bad connotation in recent years mundane Science Fiction would never sell.

[Neal Asher]

So really, it should be write a good book and let the book sellers do the genre pigeon-holing so readers know which shelf to head for. Those who enjoy Geoff Ryman won't be looking for a 'mundane' label, they'll be looking for the author's name.

As for the New Wave feeding back into the genre and enriching it, that's something many writers of the time disputed and I would dispute now. Odd how well SF magazines sold before the New Wave and how they went into terminal decline during it, of course it was all about costs, wasn't it? Yeah, right.

[HardScienceFan]

categorizing is for marketing purposes only.
most authors don't bother with labels,thank god
according to most labels Japan would be
arthouse jazzy avantgarde new romantic pop synth disco crossover fretless
Weltschmerz world music

[Neal Asher]

Steve12553, then, doesn't the usage of 'mundane' here display either an ignorance or a contempt of common usage? In fact a cliquey disregard of those who use the word in its more accepted sense?

Anyway, reading up on the New Wave I see that, as I thought, Mundane is not much different. Give it another twenty years and someone will think of the New Mundane. Waves upon waves...

[Who's Wee Dug]

Originally Posted by HardScienceFan

categorizing is for marketing purposes only.
most authors don't bother with labels,thank god
according to most labels Japan would be
arthouse jazzy avantgarde new romantic pop synth disco crossover fretless
Weltschmerz world music

With a bit of headbanging thrown in.