Prime Time Replay:
Ellen Datlow on fiction in cyberspace
MsgId: *emedia(2)
Date: Mon Mar 31 21:04:22 PST 1997
From: OMNI_Moderator At: 204.30.67.150
Hi, Ellen! And hello to the audience. Welcome to E-Media--the future of media. Tonight's guest is Ellen Datlow, OMNI's science-fiction editor; she'll be discussing where SF is going, as well as how OMNI promotes the future of the genre.Thanks for being here, Ellen. First, if you can talk a little about your background and how you became the SF editor....
MsgId: *emedia(4)
Date: Mon Mar 31 21:07:57 PST 1997
From: EllenDatlow At: 206.80.173.179
I originally started in book publishing and Omni was my first magazine job. I was Associate Fiction Editor under Robert Sheckley for a year and a half before he left and then I was appointed fiction editor by Ben Bova around 1982 or so.
MsgId: *emedia(5)
Date: Mon Mar 31 21:09:48 PST 1997
From: OMNI_Moderator At: 204.30.67.150
Were you originally into SF, or did your interest in it get stronger as you worked on it in editorial?
MsgId: *emedia(6)
Date: Mon Mar 31 21:11:55 PST 1997
From: EllenDatlow At: 206.80.173.179
I was always somewhat into science fiction -- actually read it more for pleasure when I didn't work in the field than I do now. I took a few courses in sf while I was in college among all the other literature courses. I've always been much more interested in the sf/fantasy/horror short story than the novel in those genres.
MsgId: *emedia(8)
Date: Mon Mar 31 21:13:53 PST 1997
From: OMNI_Moderator At: 204.30.67.150
Why short stories and not novels as much?
MsgId: *emedia(10)
Date: Mon Mar 31 21:16:27 PST 1997
From: EllenDatlow At: 206.80.173.179
I think the short story can be far more effective than the novel form for certain types of fiction. Certainly the horror story. And I was just more attracted to short science fiction & fantasy growing up -- Ray Bradbury and Harlan Ellison, EA Poe, de Maupassant, Hawthorne. Mythology. I'm really not sure why. But certainly that interest has carried over into my adult reading; although I'm not all that fond of most mainstream short fiction. It isn't as "vital" in some way.
MsgId: *emedia(12)
Date: Mon Mar 31 21:19:35 PST 1997
From: OMNI_Moderator At: 204.30.67.150
What do you find different in today's SF writing than that of the genre's forefathers? Do you think that the worlds created by H.G. Wells and Asimov are more complicated than those created by today's writers?
MsgId: *emedia(13)
Date: Mon Mar 31 21:23:20 PST 1997
From: EllenDatlow At: 206.80.173.179
I don't think HG Wells' worlds were very complicated -- his *War of the Worlds* was a pretty simple invasion of England story and his *Time Machine* extrapolated the existing conditions of Great Britain at that time to depict the Morlocks and Eloi. Today's writers do the same thing. They extrapolate from what we see around us. eg. William Gibson's "sprawl" stories about grungy urban outsiders does that. Bradbury's Mars was beautiful, strange, and dangerous, but not very realistic. The Mars of Kim Stanley Robinson, Paul McAuley, Greg Bear, and other writers is far more complex and certainly more realistic because they're based on scientific research that has given them information to work with.I think one big difference is that it's more difficult to make space exploration believable in general because of what I said above. Writers can't fudge it any more. We have just enough info to make them have to work harder.
MsgId: *emedia(16)
Date: Mon Mar 31 21:28:36 PST 1997
From: OMNI_Moderator At: 204.30.67.150
And you don't need to have a science/engineering degree or background to write SF novels anymore. Which author is your favorite? Who are some of the new SF writers that you think are going to last?
MsgId: *emedia(17)
Date: Mon Mar 31 21:31:25 PST 1997
From: EllenDatlow At: 206.80.173.179
I have a lot of favorite sf writers but as I work with so many of them I think it would be ungentlewomanly of me to name favorites. I don't think it's possible to know what's going to last but I'd suggest at the very least some of William Gibson, Pat Cadigan, Bruce Sterling, Jack Womack.To be simplistic, my favorite writers are the ones I publish. But more to the point, I have favorite pieces of fiction rather than favorite writers.
MsgId: *emedia(19)
Date: Mon Mar 31 21:34:38 PST 1997
From: OMNI_Moderator At: 204.30.67.150
What about SF films? Would you rather read *Fahrenheit 451* or watch it? What did you think of "Independence Day"? And the cynicism of reviewers now concerning the "Star Wars" trilogy?
MsgId: *emedia(20)
Date: Mon Mar 31 21:37:51 PST 1997
From: EllenDatlow At: 206.80.173.179
I'm embarrassed to say I haven't read *or* seen Farenheit 451, but re: *Blade Runner* I cannot sing its praises loud enough. I've seen it several times, director's cut and not, and each time I love it as much as before. I think it is a perfect film. Unfortunatey, I read the book after I saw the movie and was disappointed in Dick's novel, *Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep.* I think on the whole Hollywood has done terribly by sf, although there have been a few exceptions -- the first two Alien movies, Miracle Mile, much of David Cronenberg. I happened to like Independence Day and loved Mars Attacks! which I thought was hilarious. I recently saw The Empire Strikes Back and I liked it while watching it (I had seen it when it first came out). Afterwards though, when I thought about it I was disappointed. It isn't very good. And certainly not particularly original. The best thing about the movie was to see Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher so young.
MsgId: *emedia(23)
Date: Mon Mar 31 21:46:20 PST 1997
From: OMNI_Moderator At: 204.30.67.150
Harrison Ford *young*? He wasn't young even in "American Graffiti"! :-) Do you think "Independence Day" will seem as disappointing to its first audience as the "Star Wars" trilogy's watchers/reviewers think of it now? What elements of SF do you think are missing from Hollywood SF films?
MsgId: *emedia(24)
Date: Mon Mar 31 21:50:42 PST 1997
From: EllenDatlow At: 206.80.173.179
Humphh...I actually think he looks younger in Empire than he did in American Graffiti:)Independence Day was fun for me but no one can claim depth for it -- it's blowing up the white house and stuff like that that makes it fun. I don't think anyone will remember it in 10 years. The Star Wars Trilogy did something new at the time -- it brought George Lucus's vision to the screen. Indepence Day is the opposite. It took everything that's ever been done in sf movies and threw it all into the mix. I found it entertaining and liked the "in" jokes but I certainly don't think it's art.
The way Hollywood studios work I think it's virtually impossible for anyone to make a film of any kind with vision there. Only very a very few directors have the cache to do that. Coppola, Spielberg, Stanley Kubrick, Woody Allen. If something excellent gets made in Hollywood, it's an accident. There are too many people sticking their noses in.
And I'm not even bitter -- I've never worked in Hollywood. :)
MsgId: *emedia(27)
Date: Mon Mar 31 21:56:04 PST 1997
From: OMNI_Moderator At: 204.30.67.150
Do you write SF yourself?
MsgId: *emedia(28)
Date: Mon Mar 31 21:57:40 PST 1997
From: EllenDatlow At: 206.80.173.179
No. I don't write any fiction and never have.
MsgId: *emedia(29)
Date: Mon Mar 31 22:00:00 PST 1997
From: OMNI_Moderator At: 204.30.67.150
No interest in writing SF at all? What are some new elements in SF novels that impress you most?
MsgId: *emedia(30)
Date: Mon Mar 31 22:04:57 PST 1997
From: EllenDatlow At: 206.80.173.179
Nope. Well, as I mentioned I don't get to read that many sf novels these days but what I see in the stories I read and enjoy are the exploration and confrontation of gender issues and the continued exploration of what is human. Also, although I usually feel there's too much concern with "virtual reality" when the concept is used to explore other themes it works -- eg. a new novel by Pat Cadigan I've just read in mss. Also, I enjoyed Elizabeth Hand's new sf novel Gimmering which confronts AIDS straight on. I think it's important to take on crucial issues that affect all of us and put them in an sf setting.
MsgId: *emedia(32)
Date: Mon Mar 31 22:09:09 PST 1997
From: OMNI_Moderator At: 204.30.67.150
Thanks, Ellen, for coming on tonight! Ellen Datlow is the Science-Fiction editor at Omnimag.com, and you'll find her work online every time you visit the site. Next week's guest are Bill Ulrich and Ian Hayes, whose book, "The Year 2000", discusses the technology crisis possible in the next century. Good night!
MsgId: *emedia(33)
Date: Mon Mar 31 22:10:10 PST 1997
From: EllenDatlow At: 206.80.173.179
Good night and thanks for putting me in the catbird seat. :) Ellen
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