The Fork in the Road: Can Science Fiction Survive in Postmodern, Megacorporate America?
SF has a problem: it has linked its fortunes with a publishing industry whose raison d'être is irrelevant (perhaps even inimical) to the interests and desires of the community of SF readers and writers. Like all postmodern multinational corporate sectors (which it has largely become), the publishing...
| Publicado en: | Science Fiction Studies Vol. 18; no. 1; pp. 11 - 53 |
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| Formato: | Artículo |
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University of California Press
Mar91
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| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hlh&AN=23563228&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: hlh uiTerm: 23563228 longDbName: Humanities International Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 00917729 SFS jtl: Science Fiction Studies issn: 00917729 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Mar91 vid: 18 iid: 1 pid: 414 pub: University of California Press artinfo: ui: 23563228 10.1525/sfs.18.1.011 ppf: 11 ppct: 42 formats: fmt: @attributes: type: P size: 9.9MB tig: atl: The Fork in the Road: Can Science Fiction Survive in Postmodern, Megacorporate America? aug: au: Sedgewick, Christina su: Publishing Literary criticism Science fiction Authorship Professionalism Author-reader relationships Fiction publishing United States sug: subj: United States Publishing Literary criticism Science fiction Authorship Professionalism Author-reader relationships Fiction publishing ab: SF has a problem: it has linked its fortunes with a publishing industry whose raison d'être is irrelevant (perhaps even inimical) to the interests and desires of the community of SF readers and writers. Like all postmodern multinational corporate sectors (which it has largely become), the publishing industry seeks to standardize its product and efficiently manage its producers and consumers in order to maximize its profits. Writers and editors have assisted the industry in accomplishing these objectives by subscribing to ‘professionalism’ an ideology that encourages writers to take editors and bookstore-chain executives rather than readers as their primary audience. Since ‘professionals’ place pleasing their employers above their own creativity and vision, professional SF writers censor themselves both consciously and unconsciously in order to meet their employers' perception of the ideological bottom line. The pressures on SF writers to toe this ideological bottom line have become so massive that even consciously resisting writers find them difficult to withstand. The SF community is therefore urged to wrest SF's fate from the hands of the megacorporate publishers and bookstore chains so that diverse tastes can be served by diverse books, something the publishing industry has no interest in doing. La SF fait face à un problème fondamental: elle s'est alliée à une industrie de l'édition dont la raison d'être est sans rapport et parfois même hostile aux intérêts et aux désirs de la communauté d'écrivains et de lecteurs de la SF. Comme toutes les corporations multinationales postmodernes, l'édition cherche à standardiser ses produits et à gérer créateurs et consommateurs afin de maximiser ses bénéfices. Ecrivains et les éditeurs ont aidé l'industrie à atteindre ces buts en souscrivant à l'idée de ‘professionalisation,’ une idéologie qui encourage les auteurs à viser les édeteurs et les cadres des grandes maisons d'édition comme public. Puisque pour les ‘professionals’ le désir de plaire aux patrons est plus importante que leur propre imagination créatrice ou leur vision individuelle, il en résulte que les écrivains professionels de la SF s'autocensurent consiemment et inconsciemment afin de s'aligner avec l'idéologique de ces mêmes patrons. Les pressions à se plier à ces exigeances idéologiques ont atteint un tel niveau aujourd'hui que même les auteurs qui s'y opposent consciemment ont du mal à y résister. On conseille vivement à la communauté SF d'arracher la SF à l'emprise de ces méga-éditeurs et de ces chaînes de maisons d'édition pour satisfaire à la diversité des goûts, chose à laquelle l'indistrie de l'édition ne s'intérsse guère. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: Y custom: Copyright of Science Fiction Studies is the property of University of California Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. item: Science Fiction Studies holder: University of California Press dt: @attributes: year: 1991 holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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