Language and Labels

Posted by Colin Harvey Aug 31, 2009

I've had some interesting discussions lately with Gareth L Powell and Jason Sanford, the latter whose stories dominated the 2008 Interzone Readers Poll. "The Ships Like Clouds, Risen by Their Rain" has justifiably been selected by Hartwell & Cramer for their latest Year's Best.

The conversation has been about whether there has been a new trend in SF, or simply the extension of an old one, the New Weird, typified in such novels as Perdido Street Station. Jason believes that New Weird really only covers fantasy, whereas the new trend is much more about SF.

Actually, what spawned this post was the discussion over Jason's use of the term 'Sci-Fi' in the discussions about 'Sci-Fi Strange.' Some readers took him to task. You can see Jason's further comments through the link to the subject, but it's caused me to examine and admit to my own motives.

I personally abhor all the variations on Sci-Fi. The most recent example I've encountered of its use as a perjorative came from an odious little tick at a talk I gave to the Keynsham reading group a couple of years ago. His lip visibly curled as he asked why I wrote "all that sci-fi stuff." It simply reinforced my views on the abbreviation and its (mis-)use.

And I don't buy into the theory that people will think 'SF' is necessarily an abbreviation for San Francisco. Depending on the context, I think that it's very unlikely that people will think one is reading a city.

I actually prefer 'spec-fic,' since I prefer good fantasy to bad SF, but apparently some people believe that 'speculative' is a synonym for 'not commissioned.'

And the reality is that oddly enough, I didn't actually mind Jason's coining the particular term. Whether the adherents of 'SF' like it or not, the abominable label is gaining currency. My own publisher described Winter Song as 'Rock hard sci-fi adventure,' while my own job description for Suite101 is Featured Writer for Sci-Fi and Fantasy.

So there seems little alternative but to suck it up, to use an American phrase. Get over it.

Because ultimately the labels we use are secondary to the subject matter. Whether writers like Gareth, Jason, Paolo Bacigalupi and Ted Chiang are writing SF or sci-fi is irrelevant; it's the language, the stories that count.