Technothrillers vs. Science Fiction


	Technothrillers vs. Science Fiction

iskandar

6-9-2008 2:08 PM

463 views

tags:

books, science fiction, thrillers

iskandar says:

"I'm not sure this explains the sales figures-- after all, people don't generally know the details of the ending before they buy a book-- but I thought it was an interesting remark, and pretty accurate given my limited reading of thrillers."

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<div style="margin: 12px 0px; font-family: arial; color: #333333; background: #ffffff; border: solid 4px #e5e5e5; width: 100%; clear: left;"><div class="CM_CTB_Content_Wrap" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;background-color: #ffffff;"><div style="border-bottom: solid 1px #dcdcdc; white-space: nowrap; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: #eeeeee ;background-image: url(http://clipmarks.com/images/source-bg.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 24px; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle; padding-bottom: 4px; color: #666666; font-size: 10px;" ><a href="http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/" title="see clips that are hot right now"><img src="http://content.clipmarks.com/blog_embed/78010ad1-7954-4089-9b8d-99d4b6647995/2CC22B53-9F29-4611-8D06-418CA4877E57/" alt="" width="19" height="19" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px 4px; display: inline; border: none; float:none;" /></a>clipped from <a title="http://www.netvibes.com/" href="http://www.netvibes.com/" style="font-size: 11px;">www.netvibes.com</a></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.netvibes.com/"><DIV class="title"><H2><A target="_blank" rel="external" class="external" href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ScienceblogsChannelHumanities/~3/308052659/technothrillers_vs_science_fic.php" linkindex="163">link»</A><A target="_blank" rel="external" href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ScienceblogsChannelHumanities/~3/308052659/technothrillers_vs_science_fic.php" linkindex="164" set="yes">Technothrillers vs. Science Fiction [Uncertain Principles]</A></H2><P><SPAN class="author">Chad Orzel none@example.com</SPAN>, <SPAN class="date">Jun 09, 2008 14:32:32 GMT</SPAN></P></DIV></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.netvibes.com/"><P>Reading <A href="http://scienceblogs.com/principles/2008/06/mark_alpert_final_theory_libra.php" target="_blank" linkindex="165"><CITE>Final Theory</CITE></A> last night reminded me of something Patrick Nielsen Hayden said on a con panel once. The question was raised of why thriller-ish science fiction books don't do as well as thrillers with a thin SF gloss-- basically, "Why doesn't Greg Bear sell as many books as Michael Crichton?"</P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.netvibes.com/"><P>Patrick noted that there's a very different attitude toward the products of science in the two genres. In thrillers, he said, the plot is set in motion by the unleashing of some scientific discovery, and the plot is resolved by destroying or covering up that discovery. In genre science fiction, on the other hand, the discovery is still out there at the end of the book, the world is changed, and things don't go back to normal. Basically, thrillers see the scientific mcguffin as a menace to be eliminated, while SF sees it as a change to be adapted to.</P></blockquote></div><div style="margin: 0px 6px 6px 4px;"><table style="font-size: 11px;border-spacing: 0px;padding: 0px;" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tr><td style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;">&nbsp;</td><td align="right" style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;width:107px" width="107"><a href="http://clipmarks.com/share/2CC22B53-9F29-4611-8D06-418CA4877E57/blog/" title="blog or email this clip"><img src="http://content7.clipmarks.com/images/c2b-foot.png" border="0" alt="blog it" width="107" height="17" style="border-width:0px;padding:0px;margin:0px;" /></a></td></tr></table></div></div>

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