New Leaf Nominations for October 2018 • Out of This World: Otherwhence

[Catlady]

Originally Posted by astrangerhere

You shouldn't. Half of the book takes place in an English boarding school. No aliens, space, unusual technology, or any of the like. It's a story about humans, nothing more.

That is what it sounded like--I already had it on my library wish list before it came up here, because of the interesting blurb. My reluctance now is probably based mostly on the spoilery aspect of being aware that there's some edging into SF territory. And because reading it feels like a homework assignment hanging over my head, and I'm putting it off till the last minute.

[Bookpossum]

For what it’s worth, I would not even have thought of it as SF and I still don’t. Go ahead and read it Catlady, and I think you will agree.

[Bookpossum]

On the question about our themes, I think it’s fair to say that we deliberately make them broad. Some of the fun is in choosing a book we think will be enjoyable to many if not all members, which plays with the theme and maybe bends it around a bit.

[gmw]

Originally Posted by Catlady

That is what it sounded like--I already had it on my library wish list before it came up here, because of the interesting blurb. My reluctance now is probably based mostly on the spoilery aspect of being aware that there's some edging into SF territory. And because reading it feels like a homework assignment hanging over my head, and I'm putting it off till the last minute.

My apologies if it was my post that was spoilery ... although I'm hopeful you might have noticed the categories when looking at the Amazon and Kobo links, and so maybe it wasn't my fault.

[gmw]

Originally Posted by fantasyfan

Clarke later wrote a longer version called The City and the Stars. It gets quite a good review in the Science Fiction Encyclopedia. I know I am posting this too late for the poll but if ATFON doesn’t win and/or anyone wants to read Clarke’s final thoughts on Diaspar the later novel (which Clarke preferred) should be easier to obtain.

Ralph brought this up earlier - in time to affect the nomination process. My choice of the earlier/shorter/original version was deliberate.

[darryl]

Thank you to those who responded to my question about Science Fiction.

@issybird. It's interesting to ponder just what is "mainstream"? In the wider world genre fiction seems to encompass fiction other than literary fiction, though there is of course some overlap. In that context I would have thought that genre fiction together with some hybrid fiction is the mainstream.

But of course the book club is made up of its members from time to time, and what is mainstream for the club may of course vary from time to time. My impression is that the club currently tends more towards literary type choices, and has an aversion to science fiction, which does seem to be borne out by the choices so far. I offer no criticism about this. It is the expected and desired result of the voting system.

I am wondering if we need a book club which is more a benevolent and consultative dictatorship rather than a democracy. Or even just a Science Fiction book club. Certainly it seems that many books worth discussing have little or no chance of nomination in either this club or the Literary one. I wonder whether all people interested in book club type discussions are in one or both clubs already. Or are there people who, as I was, simply check the choices from time to time and are not inspired to contribute?

[CRussel]

FWIW, I routinely read both SF (primarily MilSF or Space Opera), and Fantasy both. They're my preferred genre reading. And there will be times in the coming months when I will nominate a pure SF or F book for that month. (I already have one in mind for a coming theme, actually.) And this month, I deliberately did NOT nominate a book because I just had my book selected last month and I like to see it spread around. Instead, I took the two books that I had actively thought about nominating, and instead 'non-nominated' them, in the interests of encouraging discovery while not putting myself forward.

Certainly, there are regulars in this club (which is, after all, a mere 8 months old in terms of book discussions) who don't much like science fiction as a general case. But who will read (and even in some cases, vote for) books which are undeniably science fiction.

One of my problems with nominating SF/F is that most of the books/authors I'm interested in are series and I'm _way_ down the series list for them. (For example, I could easily see myself nominating Foreigner, except it's the first of an ongoing series that I've read every book in more than once. (This is, again, an opportunity for a 'non-nomination', I guess.)

Another consideration -- price. I'm simply not going to nominate a book that's more than $10 USD. And I really like finding books that are $5 or less. When I'm asking folks to read a book that might well be outside their comfort zone, I hate to ask them to spend a lot of money on it. (And at least one major SF/F publisher is simply not available in the library.) Yes, there are older books that are SF, some even PD. But frankly, my tastes have mostly moved away from some of those older themes.

[fantasyfan]

Originally Posted by gmw

Ralph brought this up earlier - in time to affect the nomination process. My choice of the earlier/shorter/original version was deliberate.

My apologies for that needless repetition on my part—

[Catlady]

Originally Posted by gmw

My apologies if it was my post that was spoilery ... although I'm hopeful you might have noticed the categories when looking at the Amazon and Kobo links, and so maybe it wasn't my fault.

No, sorry, I didn't mean your post at all. I was referring to the earlier discussion where a certain word came up.

Spoiler:

zombie

[Catlady]

Originally Posted by darryl

My impression is that the club currently tends more towards literary type choices, and has an aversion to science fiction, which does seem to be borne out by the choices so far. I offer no criticism about this. It is the expected and desired result of the voting system.

Ha. I would say that this book club is filled with people who love science fiction and want to read it all the time! I suppose that's because I dislike it so much, and therefore I am hyperaware of it. Without looking back at the nominations, my impression is that somehow there have been science fiction choices in every month.

Originally Posted by CRussel

When I'm asking folks to read a book that might well be outside their comfort zone, I hate to ask them to spend a lot of money on it. (And at least one major SF/F publisher is simply not available in the library.) Yes, there are older books that are SF, some even PD. But frankly, my tastes have mostly moved away from some of those older themes.

At this point, if I have limited or zero interest in a book (SF or not), I won't commit to reading it unless it's available as a library audiobook at Overdrive or Hoopla. I skipped the Stephen Fry book because it wasn't.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by Catlady

Ha. I would say that this book club is filled with people who love science fiction and want to read it all the time! I suppose that's because I dislike it so much, and therefore I am hyperaware of it. Without looking back at the nominations, my impression is that somehow there have been science fiction choices in every month.

My own impression is that while there might have been SF nominations each month we haven't had one as a selection - I don't think Dandelion Wine, for example, qualifies even though Bradbury is known for SF.

So far, so good; I'm pleased that the selections overall tend toward general interest. One of the major changes we made in crafting a new book club was to get ride of genre categories and I think that's been a positive change; as I said above, genre tends to be polarizing. I'm certainly no science fiction fan myself, but if one wins, I'll read it. I figure it won't kill me and perhaps I'll surprise myself. Even at that, while I don't like science fiction in the popular perception of little green men pointing ray guns (sorry, I know this is a gross aspersion, but I couldn't resist!), I actually quite like dystopian fiction which frequently qualifies.

Is Brave New World, for example, SF? I came close this month to nominating a dystopian book I quite liked back in the day which I suppose qualifies as SF, Ira Levin's This Perfect Day. But I knew the technology would be terribly dated, which might have been funny or might have been stupid. Or both.

[gmw]

Originally Posted by fantasyfan

My apologies for that needless repetition on my part—

I just didn't want you to think your post had been ignored ... well, I suppose it had been, but I wanted you to know there was a reason for it.

Originally Posted by Catlady

No, sorry, I didn't mean your post at all. I was referring to the earlier discussion where a certain word came up.

Spoiler:

zombie

Oh dear, that one started with a post of mine too. Not trying to take the blame here, just observing that it is so easy to release a spoiler without meaning to. Normally I wouldn't have thought genre was much of a spoiler, but in the case of Never Let Me Go and The Girl With All the Gifts I can see that it is - both these books are much better started without such preconceived ideas.

Originally Posted by Catlady

Ha. I would say that this book club is filled with people who love science fiction and want to read it all the time! I suppose that's because I dislike it so much, and therefore I am hyperaware of it. Without looking back at the nominations, my impression is that somehow there have been science fiction choices in every month.

Certainly many months have had some sci-fi representation. War and Summer seem to have missed out (unless I missed something), and Friends got a fantasy rather than a sci-fi.

If we were looking at this on a sales-percentage basis then the sci-fi is better represented than romance or religion/inspirational, both of which significantly outsell SF/F (see here), and so we might expect to see more of them show up here.

[Catlady]

Originally Posted by issybird

Is Brave New World, for example, SF? I came close this month to nominating a dystopian book I quite liked back in the day which I suppose qualifies as SF, Ira Levin's This Perfect Day. But I knew the technology would be terribly dated, which might have been funny or might have been stupid. Or both.

Not generally a fan of dystopian fiction either. I wouldn't automatically call it SF, though.

I also read This Perfect Day back in the day, though I can't say I remember it too well. I think it was my least-liked Ira Levin novel.

I'm really not so narrow-minded that I've dismissed various genres out of hand without ever sampling them. I did read SF, fantasy, horror, dystopian fiction, and post-apocalyptic fiction a long time ago. With a few exceptions (e.g., I have the dystopian novel Vox on hold at the library right now), I don't want to read these genres anymore because I stopped enjoying them.

[gmw]

Originally Posted by issybird

My own impression is that while there might have been SF nominations each month we haven't had one as a selection - I don't think Dandelion Wine, for example, qualifies even though Bradbury is known for SF.[...]

Stephen Fry's Making History falls under the sci-fi banner ... sort of, at least enough for Amazon etc. to put it there*. And now Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go falls there too. Neither book may be a sci-fi enthusiasts idea of classic science fiction, but at least by commercial standards they are science fiction.

Originally Posted by issybird

[...] Is Brave New World, for example, SF? I came close this month to nominating a dystopian book I quite liked back in the day which I suppose qualifies as SF, Ira Levin's This Perfect Day. But I knew the technology would be terribly dated, which might have been funny or might have been stupid. Or both.

Yes, Brave New World is science fiction - again, Amazon etc. show it under this category*. It is also literature. And now it can also be considered a classic.

I can barely remember This Perfect Day. It would be interesting to see how it has held up.


* I'm not declaring Amazon the final arbiter, but when it matches my own opinion it seems a useful reference.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by gmw

* I'm not declaring Amazon the final arbiter, but when it matches my own opinion it seems a useful reference.

I am indifferent to Amazon classifications; I don't even notice them, but I wouldn't be at all surprised if books don't frequently have a tenuous relationship to a category but have been shoehorned into it for marketing/exposure and the more categories the merrier at that.