The State of the Genre: some observations

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Over the past few months, I have perused many science fiction fan sites on the internet. According to the general consensus within the subculture:

science fiction is dead
science fiction is dying
science fiction has gone downhill
science fiction is in crisis

Rubbish. Looking backward over the past score of years and comparing them to the present, the genre has never been healthier.

In reference to the first two fannish claims, I present the following observations.

Within a medium-sized Canadian city (population 300,000) that does not have a specialty store devoted to the genres of science fiction and fantasy, in most general bookshops, science fiction and fantasy command, on average, a larger proportion of shelf space than any other fiction genre. Only the romance section offers any real competition in the quest for shelf space. True, individual stores will vary, but on average, science fiction and fantasy have larger sections. This pattern is very apparent in the book superstores, such as Chapters and Indigo.

Now, it is also true that the majority of small general book retailers, such as Coles here in Canada, tend to stock their science fiction sections with a predominance of Star Trek, Star Wars, and other media related novels and novelisations along with copies of genre bestsellers. That said, these are general book retailers. I do not expect to find the re-issue of Ellison's Deathbird Stories in the science fiction section any more than I would expect to find a re-issue of Solzhenitsyn's One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich in the literature section at my local Coles. However, if I want a copy of either book I can order it into the store or purchase it online.

There are more science fiction books being published than ever before. In the magazine trade -- while the fates of individual science fiction and fantasy magazines ebb and flow -- there is an increase in the number of professional science fiction and fantasy magazines published.

Media science fiction has established a definite niche for itself to the extent that science fiction has become -- just like medical, lawyer, and police shows -- a standard genre on television. Similar for film. And, like the other standard genres, one can expect that there will be at least one new television series produced and at least one new film released each year that is science fiction.

There is little observable evidence to indicate that the genre is dead or dying.

The claims that science fiction has "gone downhill" or that it is "in crisis" are highly subjective statements. Usually, these claims refer to the decline in the frequency that new material is being published within the claimant's preferred subgenre of science fiction -- be that hard science, military, science fantasy, "New Wave', or whatever. The popularity of individual subgenres fluctuates over time and the current popularity of any given subgenre is not a reflection of the health of the genre as a whole.

What these doom and gloom claims are actually in reference to is the perceived loss of science fiction as the special literature to specific group of people -- science fiction fandom. Science fiction fandom no longer owns the genre; nor has it for quite some time, but the belief that fandom owns science fiction is now much harder to maintain with any degree of rationality.

If there is any group that can be said to own the genre, it is the readers -- be they casual or steady. And most readers are not fans. And a good thing too. If the genre had to depend solely upon fandom as its audience, it would have become extinct decades ago. Fandom itself is not a large enough market to sustain the genre. Readers sustain the genre. And the overwhelming majority of science fiction readers are happily oblivious to the existence of fandom. Some have had a taste of fandom, usually through attending a local convention, and found it to be either unsatisfactory or unpalatable and therefore do not seek to repeat the experience. And others are ex-fans, such as myself.

While science fiction readers tend to be unaware or indifferent to fandom, fandom tends to harbour a strong dislike and distrust for those that are "just readers". Readers, well, aren't fannish. They don't know all the subcultural acronyms and sayings, they call the genre sci-fi, they don't know what the regional convention circuit is, they don't realise that the person they are disagreeing with about the fact that “The Postman’ was originally a piece of short fiction is the Lord High Ruler of the Video Room and a local Big Name Fan. In short, they are not fans. They are not part of the science fiction fan subculture. And, most have no interest in becoming members of that subculture. Readers are outsiders...

Or are they?

A better case could be made that science fiction fans are the outsiders, given that the readers must outnumber them by a factor of no less than ten to one.

As for the state of the genre -- From my perspective, it is healthy, strong, and fully integrated into popular culture. Things have never been better.

Swill @ 30 -- thirtieth anniversary site

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