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scieNce fictioN is the oNly literature
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Science Fiction Is the Only Literature
People Care Enough About to Steal
on the Internet
(Originally published in
Locus,
July 2006.)
As a science fiction writer, no piece of news could make me more
hopeful. It beats the hell out of the alternative — a future where
the dominant, pluripotent, ubiquitous medium has no place for
science fiction literature.
When radio and records were invented, they were pretty bad
news for the performers of the day. Live performance demanded
charisma, the ability to really put on a magnetic show in front of a
crowd. It didn’t matter how technically accomplished you were: if
you stood like a statue on stage, no one wanted to see you do your
thing. On the other hand, you succeeded as a mediocre player,
provided you attacked your performance with a lot of brio.
Radio was clearly good news for musicians — lots more mu-
sicians were able to make lots more music, reaching lots more
people and making lots more money. It turned performance into
an industry, which is what happens when you add technology to
art. But it was terrible news for charismatics. It put them out on
the street, stuck them with flipping burgers and driving taxis.
They knew it, too. Performers lobbied to have the Marconi radio
banned, to send Marconi back to the drawing board, charged
with inventing a radio they could charge admission to. “We’re
charismatics, we do something as old and holy as the first story
told before the first fire in the first cave. What right have you to
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