Wordcraft -- Do we outgrow imagination?

I’ll finish this series on the panel discussion earlier this month about what it’s like -- or should I say, was like -- to grow up in a world shaped by science fiction. It began when Dallas Big Read emphasis on Ray Bradbury’s classic Fahrenheit 451 brought together Ken Ruffin of the North Texas chapter of the National Space Society, Jerome Weeks of local public radio, Charles Dee Mitchell of the literary community WordSpace, and Phillip Washington of WordSpace’s affiliated science fiction reading group. And three out of the four dropped the bombshells -- they stopped reading science fiction after reaching their teens.

One or two even made the admission jokingly, as if science fiction was one of the childish things adults could be expected to lay aside. I read a similar comment in the review of a popular science book in Sunday’s Dallas Morning News.

“. . . most kids lose the dinosaur obsession about the time puberty hits,” wrote Alexandra Witze, listed at the end of her review as a correspondent for the journal Nature.

I might have brushed off the Big Read panelists as anomalies, but I feared Witze knew what she was writing about. So here are a couple more statistics: adolescence is when girls lose their edge in science and mathematics. Adolescence is also the age when boys lose interest in recreational reading of any sort.

Statistics like that should have anybody who treats the loss of wonder and imagination as a joke positively rolling in the aisles. I’m not one of them.

But it’s not enough for us as writers, parents, mentors, teachers, to tell young people, far less adults, to read because it’s good for them. We know how much being good for us did to increase the popularity of cod liver oil.

A blog post entitled “Season of Wither: Why is Science Fiction Dying?“ at B&N Community caught my attention with a quotation from George R.R. Martin. Right, the
Game of Thrones author, who also used to write science fiction.

“. . . social changes over the last fifty years,“ Martin wrote, “have made the future something that we no longer want to go visit the way we did when I was a kid. Back in the ‘50’s and ‘60’s when science fiction was perhaps as popular as it has ever been, we really had a lot of belief in the future. . . People no longer believe on some level that the future is going to be a good place.”

And although it might seem that the countries of vampires and zombies aren’t good places either, Martin hit on another problem of writing when the future has become the now.

“Fantasy is silver and scarlet, indigo and azure, obsidian veined with gold and lapis lazuli,” he wrote in the short essay “On Fantasy.” “Reality is plywood and plastic, done up in mud brown and olive drab. . . Fantasy flies on the wings of Icarus, reality on Southwest Airlines. Why do our dreams become so much smaller when they finally become true?”

I found more material about this subject than there’s room to reference here. But for the complete post about the future of science fiction, see
http://bookclubs.barnesandnobel.com/t5/Unabashedly-Bookish-The-BN//Season-of-wither/.

I also enjoyed Australian writer Graham Storrs’ post at http://grahmstorrs.cantalibre.com/19/05/2012/why-is-science-fiction-dying/.

(There’s still time to sign up for the DFW Writers Conference in Hurst, Texas, this coming Saturday and Sunday, at http://dfwcon.org/. I’ll be there, sifting for those nuggets of gold-veined obsidian to present at next Monday’s Wordcraft.)

Totally Texas -- Art, books, causes and kids

It’s one of those weekend when I wish I could clone myself. Fortunately, my favorite events are at overlapping times so, just maybe, I can make more than one of my favorite events without major help from technology.

Dallas Etsy’s Spring Handmade Bash runs from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday, April 27; the Dallas Public Library’s International Book Fair is noon to 5 p.m. Saturday; Dallas Big Read’s read-in honoring Fahrenheit 451 is from 4-6 p.m. Saturday; and the Nasher Sculpture Center’s Great Create is Sunday, April 28, from 1-4 p.m.

Etsy first. My daughter and I attended a previous Spring Bash, and were amazed at the range and quality of crafts on view. Offerings at this year’s bash run the gamut from accessories through art, baby and kids stuff, bags and purses, body care, clothing, housewares, paper goods, and pets. Everything is handmade -- no resale, commercial products, vintage or supplies.

This spring’s bash is at The Shops at Park Lane, 3030 Park Lane (Park Lane at Central Expressway). Considering how busy that site across from NorthPark gets on Saturdays, I’d suggest coming in from the back, on Greenville. Besides, that’s where the free parking is and the nearby Park Lane DART station.

This year’s Bash includes live music, entertainment, food, and a play area for kids. It’s free, and the first fifty shoppers also receive free goody bags. The Bash is sponsored by Etsy Dallas, which has the blessing of, but not affiliation with the online marketplace Etsy, Inc. (And keep an eye open later this year for the Spring Bash’s sister, Jingle Bash.)  For more information, see www.handmadebash.com/.

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In downtown Dallas, the Dallas Public Library‘s Central Branch, 1515 Young Street, hosts an afternoon of books, kids crafts, storytelling, and more at its 13^th annual International Book Fair from noon to 5 p.m. I’m looking at the session with Carve magazine editor discussing how to get short stories published, from 2-3 p.m. or lunch with Nancy Smith, author of Dallas International with J.R. Ewing.

Or maybe I should check out the exercise program, or the theatrical skits, or the screening of Like Water for Chocolate (17 years or older, or with parent/guardian). Or the storytelling and poetry reading or -- well, you get the idea. See
http://dallasinternationalbookfair.com/.

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Sometime in between, it’s off to Klyde Warren Park, over Woodall Rogers Freeway between St. Paul and Pearl streets, where Dallas’ Big Reads month of focus on Ray
Bradbury’s classic Fahrenheit 451 concludes with a read-in from 4-6 p.m.

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All of the above events are free. However, you will need a ticket ($75 for individuals as available, free for children age two and under) to attend Sunday’s The Great Create at the Nasher Sculpture Center, 2001 Flora St. This is a family-focused fundraiser featuring workshops with arts, as well as live entertainment and kid-friendly food. Events are intended for children age 12 and younger, with teens invited to assist the artists and younger guests. Please note that the museum will be closed to the public all day Sunday for this ticketed event.  See
www.nashersculpturecenter.org/.

Wordcraft -- Has science fiction lost its magic?

Recently, a panel of literary and science geeks to honor a month of collectively reading Ray Bradbury’s science fiction classic, Fahrenheit 451. Panelists Ken Ruffin, Jerome Weeks, Phillip Washington and Charles Dee Mitchell had gathered to discuss what it was like for them to grow up with science fiction. They ended by admitting they loved the genre as youngsters, but by adulthood, all but one had abandoned science fiction.

It’s not that they stopped loving science -- Ruffin, after all, is president of the North Texas chapter of the National Space Society. Or that they stopped reading -- panel members Mitchell and Weeks are respectively immediate past president of the literary society WordSpace and a member of the National Book Critics Circle. OffWorld book club host Washington still reads science fiction, but even his group’s current reading is by 1960’s writer Philip K. Dicks.

What’s happened to science fiction recently? Is the genre truly dying, supplanted in popularity by fantasy, as has been reported for years? And if so, can science fiction be resuscitated? Or, should it, like extinct biological species, be left to die in peace?

In biological terms, one way of measuring a group’s success is the number of species it generates. I did a quick straw poll by comparing interests expressed by agents at the upcoming DFW Writers Conference, and was immediately struck by the proliferation of subgenres within fantasy on the agents’ preference list -- five, not including horror. It may also be overly generous to including paranormal romance as a fantasy subgenre. Even without horror or paranormal romance, eighteen agents reported actively liking one or more fantasy subgenres.

Science fiction garnered only two subgenres, if I include steam punk, whose validity as science fiction I personally find questionable. Only eight agents reported themselves actively seeking either science fiction or steam punk. If agents want to represent books they think they can sell, what does that say about the salability of science fiction?

What on Earth -- or off of it -- caused this discrepancy between the two imaginative genres of science fiction and fantasy?

“Star Wars came,” Weeks said, “and it was all fantasy.”

But it was more than the lack of scientific veracity, he believed, that killed science fiction. “I found, ultimately,” Week said, “I wasn’t interested in the technology. Ray Bradbury ages better because of his lack of technology. It’s the question of all fiction -- is it plausible? And does it say something to you beyond getting to Jupiter?”

I agree,” Ruffin said. “People tend to be not as impressed with science.”

“I grew up in a science fiction universe,” Washington said. “We live in a science fiction universe now. I don’t think people are that future oriented any more.”

A statement a younger member of the audience agreed with. “Science fiction isn’t imaginary any more. It’s real.”

(Next Monday, this subject is so dear to my heart, I’m going to extend the discussion one more week with suggestions about what might save science fiction, including comments from writers in the genre. In the meantime, a Dallas Big Reads month of Fahrenheit 451 has more events on offer, ending with a read-in at Klyde Warren Park Saturday, April 27, from 4-6 p.m. See www.bigreaddallas.org/. )

Wordcraft -- Growing up with science fiction

Ray Bradbury originally insisted his 1953 dystopian classic Fahrenheit 451 was about censorship. But he didn't underestimate the role -- good or bad -- technology would play in our future.

From ear buds (he called them “shells”) streaming music relentlessly to twenty-four hour talk and reality programs shown on wall-sized screens to designer prescription drugs for every psychic ailment -- Bradbury imagined them all. Generations after the technology he foresaw, it was pertinent in this month of the Dallas Public Library’s Big Read emphasis on Fahrenheit 451 to consider what it was like -- and is like -- to grow up in a world shaped by science fiction.

So last Tuesday, Dallas literary organization WordSpace brought together a panel of literary and science geek speakers to discuss the role of science fiction played in their lives.

WordSpace’s programming co-chairperson Charles Dee Mitchell moderated the discussion by Dallas public media KERA’s Jerome Weeks, National Space Society of North Texas president Ken Ruffin, and WordSpace’s OffWorld Science Fiction Book club host Phillip Washington.

Joking that Washington -- obviously too youthful to have read Fahrenheit 451 at its initial appearance -- “kept this from being a panel of middle-aged men,” Mitchell asked, “what was your first science fiction experience?”

Washington cited Orson Scott Card’s 1980’s Ender's Game, “not because it has spaceships and interstellar aliens, but because it was the first book I read that made me consider long durations of time. It was mind bending.”

“My first exposure to science fiction was watching Star Trek,” Ruffin said. Too young to remember the show during its original 1960’s seasons, he saw it in later syndication. “My aunts and uncles were talking about this weird show with these fake-looking aliens -- it was ’60’s special effects. I’m eight years old, and I sat down in front of the TV and was mesmerized.”

(Not even Bradbury would have quibbled over Ruffin’s choice. Biographer Sam Weller notes that Bradbury, who would write many scripts for TV joked, “I never said I was against all television. I am just against bad television!”)

“Between the age of six and thirteen,” Weeks said, “I read everything in my suburban (Detroit) library” including anthologies that introduced him to such science fiction writers as Robert Heinlein and Bradbury. “My sister also subscribed to two science fiction magazines.”

Oh, those wonderful, pulpy science fiction magazines, Mitchell reminisced. The ones he looked at longingly on the book store shelves but couldn’t buy because their covers invariably displayed scantily-dressed women, “usually clutched by aliens, with tentacles covering the interesting parts.”

And then, somehow, the magic disappeared. No panelist except Washington would confess to reading or even watching science fiction after passing adolescence. Even science fan Ruffin said, “I have not re-read any novels -- as much as I enjoyed them when I was younger. I was afraid they wouldn’t have the same effect on me.”

What killed science fiction for them? And how do the newest generation of young adult readers view the genre? Can it -- should it -- be revived, or is it as dead as a T. rex? I'll continue the discussion in next Monday’s Wordcraft. Additional Big Read events include Bradbury biographer Sam Weller on a panel discussing censorship this Thursday, April 18, at Dallas’ Bar Belmont, 901 Fort Worth Avenue, from 7-8 p.m. The discussion is free, drinks are on you.   See www.bigreaddallas.org/.

Wordcraft -- Spot the scams, no fooling!

Two weeks ago I wrote about one of my favorite free websites for writers, QueryTracker (“Tracking the right agent for your work,” March 18, 2013). It offers a wealth of information about potential agents. But before you actually hit “send” on that query letter, there’s at least one more site you should check -- Preditors & Editors. Conveniently, QueryTracker provides a link. Or look at it directly, http://pre-ed.com/.

The first think you’ll notice about the site, aside from its quirky spelling, is a notice that it’s being sued and asking for donations for legal fees. As best I can determine, this is part of an ongoing battle with PublishAmerica, a company notably peeved by the site’s “strongly not recommended” assessment. Agents, attorneys, and publishers don’t always like it, but we as writers need to know upfront before wasting our time -- and sometimes our money -- on scam artists.

P&E lists its criteria for dis-recommending agents and companies. The first sin on its list is charging fees up front. Has an agent used an author’s material without permission? Been found guilty of fraud or other crimes relevant to writers and publishing? P&E tells all. (It also notes that threats of physical violence automatically result in a “not recommended” listing. I don’t want to know where that came from.)

Want to know whether an agent you’re looking at belongs to a professional organization that can impose standards of conduct? Or whether the agent used to belong to such an organization but was booted out? Preditors & Editors will tell.

Of course, there’s stuff besides dirty business we want to know. Such as the all-important one -- has this agent actually sold her authors’ works to legitimate, paying publishers?

Among other good to know stuff -- suggested etiquette for contacting agents, and sample query letters. Just don’t copy the samples verbatim. Your intended agent no doubt has seen them often enough. You don’t want to tempt her to do any of that physical violence stuff.

Preditors & Editors itself lists other potentially helpful sites. I’d love to hear some of your best -- or worst -- examples of sites for writers!

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For Dallas-area readers -- the city’s Big Read program aims to start a month-long conversation about Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451. Starting today, April 1, from 6 a.m. to 8 a.m. for commuters at DART’s Union Station. So I’m getting up extra early to publish this and catch the train. See you there! For more Big Read events, see
http://bigreaddallas.org/.

Update -- I halfway expected Dallas Big Read's promised surprise for commuters to be an April Fool hoax.  It wasn't!  Friends of the Dallas Public Library handed out 1,000 free copies of Fahrenheit 451 this morning.  Last one was gone by about 5 minutes till 8.  This Thursday, the Perot Museum hosts a discussion of technology's influence.  Next Tuesday, April 9, Half Price Books, 5803 E. Northwest Highway in Dallas, hosts a discussion of the role of science fiction.

Adventure classics -- Burn, baby, burn

Fahrenheit 451

by Ray Bradbury

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A few weeks ago I mentioned screenwriting teacher Robert McKee’s justification for writing historical drama -- to view contemporary antagonisms from the safe distance of the past. But there are other ways to provide safe distance.  One is from the viewpoint of the future. This is the place of science fiction, at least of the subcategory social science fiction. And this is the territory of Ray Bradbury’s most famous work, the dystopian “Fahrenheit 451.”

First published as a book in 1953 (after a shorter version appeared in “Galaxy Science Fiction,” it presents a future society which bans reading as an aid to critical thought. A society which employs “firemen” not to prevent fires (buildings have been fireproofed by then) but to set them. Specifically, to set fire to books.

As with all book burnings, books were only the shorthand for what was really banned. As the character Faber explains to renegade fireman Guy Montag, “Books were only one type of receptacle where we stored a lot of things we were afraid we might forget. There is nothing magical in them at all. The magic is only in what books say, how they stitched the patches of the universe together into one garment for us.”

In his work, Faber argues for the protection of relatively small numbers of people devoted to thought, railing against “the most dangerous enemy to truth and freedom, the solid unmoving cattle of the majority. Oh God, the terrible tyranny of the majority.”

image: Wikimedia commons

In the coda to the 1979 edition, Bradbury himself,  weirdly curmudgeonly, turns the point of his book on its head, arguing that “. . .it is a mad world and it will get madder
if we allow the minorities, be they dwarf or giant, orangutan or dolphin, nuclear-head or water-conversationalist, pro-computerologist or Neo-Luddite, simpleton or sage, to interfere with aesthetics.”

Well, no one has ever accused Bradbury of being the most clear-thinking of writers.  Science fiction author and critic Damon Knight criticized him for failure to do what authors of the fantastic refer to as world building -- the creation of unique, fully-imagined worlds. But Bradbury himself describes his writing as myth -- and what forlorn but beautiful myths he spins.

(Next Friday: From the alienation of Bradbury’s 1950s to the aliens of Ursula LeGuinn, another way of looking at the future in “The Left Hand of Darkness.”)