Comments on: Gunn, Sterling and Nix join Eclipse!

By: Jaquandor

Jaquandor — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 11:04:16 +0000

Nearly 200 years ago, the smart money had Percy Bysshe Shelley’s poetry lasting forever.

It hasn’t?

By: Kevin Ahearn

Kevin Ahearn — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 10:57:29 +0000

Eileen makes excellent points. Nearly 200 years ago, the smart money had Percy Bysshe Shelley’s poetry lasting forever. The idea that the novel written by his teenage wife would ‘eclipse’ every poem he ever wrote no one saw coming.

By: Eileen Gunn

Eileen Gunn — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 04:33:02 +0000

Asking what SF writers will be celebrated 40 years from now is almost as difficult a question as asking what SF writers are celebrated now. Do you mean by everyday SF fans (positing that they still exist, of course), by the American public (ditto), by the dominant world culture (and what will that be?) or by one or another of the groups that arbit high or popular culture. (I’m confident that, whatever happens to the rest of the planet, there will still be numerous groups prepared to tell everyone else what’s culturally worthwhile.)

If I had to put my money on a single horse, I’d lose. But, if we’re talking visionaries, I might put a bit on Butler, a bit on Gibson, a bit on Sterling, a bit on Vinge, and a bit on Doctorow. I bet I’d still lose, because I think the SF writers of right now who will look hot in 40 years are writers of color who can barely sell what they’re writing.

Time will tell. I can’t.

Eileen Gunn

PS: Thanks for the shout-out, Jonathan.

By: Kevin Ahearn

Kevin Ahearn — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 01:38:30 +0000

Stan Lee is also enjoying a resurgence for work he created forty years ago. Seems it takes the rest of the world that long to catch up with what we ‘fanboys’ have known all along.

Think anyone’s going to be celebrating today’s sf two generations hence? The mind boggles!

By: Jonathan

Jonathan — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 00:29:59 +0000

I was talking to some friends just yesterday, and noted that apparently movies based on his stories have now grossed over $1 Billion at the box office. It would, indeed, have been nice if he could have enjoyed. I certainly think he would have struggled to believe it.

By: Ellen Datlow

Ellen Datlow — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 23:41:36 +0000

He’s been flavor of the last decade actually; just continues to entrance the mainstream –if only he had been alive to enjoy it!

By: meika

meika — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 22:55:48 +0000

“Philip K. Dick is the sf ‘flavor of the month.’ What took everyone so long to catch up with him?”

Death becomes him.

By: Jonathan

Jonathan — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 21:19:32 +0000

The series is called Eclipse because ‘strange and wondrous things happen during an Eclipse’. It’s not an expressly SFnal book. In fact, of the 15 stories, only three or four would qualify as SF.

By: Kevin Ahearn

Kevin Ahearn — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 14:28:44 +0000

ECLIPSE, in stellar terms, is most often thought of as a noun, as in ‘solar’ or ‘lunar.’

Not so in sf. Matter of fact, ECLIPSE is the definitive VERB of science fiction: “to be better and stronger, to surpass.”

Suddenly, after how many years, Philip K. Dick is the sf ‘flavor of the month.’ What took everyone so long to catch up with him?

Imagine PKD pounding frantically on his typewriter. Do you think for a moment he sought to pull even with Clarke or Asimov? Not a chance! PKD was out to ECLIPSE the world. Just now too many are finding out he did.