It seems particularly relevant to what's in the SFF media at the moment--that (now slightly old) review of the television adaptation of G.R.R Martin's Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire)--that I should post this now. Whilst not strictly related to the unashamedly stupid, and senseless review of the latest fantasy thing to hit the mainstream, there is a link with what's been on my mind at present. Namely, rewriting.
Recently, following a BBC show that apparently "sneered" at genre fiction, seemingly recognising only literary fiction as a valid 'genre' in which people really read, 85 authors--not all SFF writers--took enough offence to put their names to a complaint in regard to the 'treatment of genre fiction', which was subsequently sent to the BBC.
Various blog posts sprung up following the New York Times' review, and more after the BBC's obvious snobbery. But Daniel Abraham's posting at Orbit ("Reviewing the Reviewers") struck a particular chord.
"From the creative writing professor who won’t accept “that kind” of work". A single line that reminds me why instead of being deep into the second (or even third) novel in my planned trilogy, I am trudging away trying to unravel and mend everything that was written during my Bachelors and Masters degrees with a single goal in mind: twisting my SFF genre writing so that my lecturers would accept it.
Having spoken with other students still studying for their BAs, I have to realise how lucky I was; in some instances, certain lecturers have begun to outright refuse SFF and genre fiction, in favour of what (unfortunately) used to permeate critique sessions throughout both degrees--transgressive and literary fiction.
"I don't want any goblins!" a recent PhD student-teacher announced to her class, much to the bemusement of the girl I know who studies her under, since, to her knowledge, not a person in the class had decided to be "old school" enough to involve just goblins in their SFF work. Nevertheless, I was lucky.
I managed to submit my genre fiction (usually science-fantasy, or high-fantasy) with little trouble, whilst still receiving very high grades and absolutely no disrespect toward my chosen genre. In fact, I recall critique being carefully constructed and honest; my tutor did not understand SFF, but he understood writing and in his eyes, if the writing was good enough, the genre was of little importance.
Unfortunately, I didn't remain under the tutelage of this man for very long, and soon I found myself forced to add elements to my writing I simply did not want to add. To "spice" up my fantasy I felt the need to add transgressive aspects, and more of the supposedly "fantastic" or "gothic" than required, merely to be able to justify the work better with a strong "literary" bibliography of references and influences.
For my BA dissertation I wrote sci-fantasy/sci-fi; I managed to keep it precisely as I desired. However, I made the decision at the beginning of the project to refuse the guidance of my tutor. Why? I worried I'd be "encouraged away" from SFF, and be gently nudged toward lit-fic. Needless to say, this was the last thing I wanted. So, I swore off dissertation meetings, and essentially avoided university for the duration of the write-up. This might have gotten me a lower grade--I'm certain no tutor enjoys being ignored--but since the grade was high in the end, I still feel that the decision was the best I could make.
But the point is that I shouldn't have needed to. Nor should I have needed to alter the plan for my novel, just so that I could comfortably submit excerpts of it throughout the duration of the course. The fact is that I had to. Or at least the treatment genre fiction received made it feel this way. By the end I became sneaky and I was submitting even transgressive sci-fi for the modules where "transgressive" was subtly forced into the curriculum at the last minute, and science-fantasy poetry for the obligatory modules.
I am stubborn; other students were not so adamant in their approach to writing precisely what they wanted and subsequently changed their work.
It's not fair, and it's certainly not right. It's not right that a university advertises a "Prose Masterclass" module, and then announces to students the day the course runs that it is to be a transgressive literature module, with nary a hint to such before. But, it happens. It shouldn't, but it does.
For the MA, I buckled. Desperate to actually pass the damn thing I changed what I wanted to write. I'd wanted to write a science-fantasy novel (or at least 20,000 words of it...) and submit that with an accompanying study of the genre, its evolution and an exploration of precisely what sci-fantasy is. I even got as far as submitting my proposal, before I bottled out.
It is an unpleasant experience to avoid meetings with tutors, simply because you know they're going to essentially cajole you into not writing SFF. That's the crux of it. In the end, I turned in something essentially sci-fi, with elements taken from modern Japanese lit-fic as a way to steer around what was "accepted". Accompanying this was a detailed study on the evolution of cyberpunk, through to postcyberpunk, and the areas in which Western sci-fi and Japanese sci-fi meet. That, and how oddly transferable the themes found within Japanese lit-fit are.
I struck gold and fascinated one tutor, but the other remained snobbish about little other than the plot of the piece. Still, thank the SFF gods for dual markers. The man I struck gold with? Yes...the lecturer I'd been so grateful for at the beginning of the course. Personally, I think it's the worst thing I ever wrote and I hate the damned contrived thing, but I walked away, Masters in hand, and vowed never to touch that particular university again. Which is a pity...since I'd wanted to study for a PhD.
It's an unfortunate fate for anyone who so much as even likes SFF to be considered differently by their peers. Genre fiction, specifically SFF will never be mainstream, but that doesn't mean it can't be accepted, and coexist peacefully alongside other genres.
The whole "university experience" was dampened by this, and in the end, although I'm standing here, two degrees in hand, my novel is presently being torn apart and rewritten to remove all the "necessary" sludge I inserted, just to feel passable in class. With a whole book ahead of me to polish, finish and revise, after having wiped off its stage make-up, I'm wondering if either degree was worth it.
I suppose I have the degrees, I have the few vague lessons I learned, and I still have my novels--incomplete or otherwise. The trilogy of The White War is coming along, and it will become what it was always supposed to be; not a dressed-up piece of garble that was forced out on demand, aiming to please all the wrong people.
