The death of Harlan Ellison underscores something in science fiction for me.
With the current social justice warrior gatekeepers forcing authors to toe the line or publishing, awards, recognition and publicity will be withheld.
With this structure in place, that means we won't get stories which challenge or assault the established way of thinking of things...
My generation isn't going to have a Stranger In A Strange Land moment.
Yes, you can and will. Authors are going indie and publishing on the web direct. This will happen more and more as the Amazon's of the world turn gate keepers, suppressing what they don't want the unwashed to read. Granted it may become more difficult to find such genre. Sad that Fahrenheit 451 has become a "how to" guide as opposed to dystopian fiction. Been reading SF, Mystery, Historical fiction and anything else that fell of the shelf for over 58 years. There are very good current authors out there, even if I find the personal politics of some abhorrent, I will read a good work of fiction so long as they don't go full berserk Hollywood/Dimocrat on me. Encourage new authors who show potential. For example, I am buying everything old NFO is writing, he is improving as he goes along. I miss EE Doc Smith, Heinlein, Pournelle and many now gone, but there is always a new gem out there.
ReplyDeleteYou've covered publishing.
DeleteNo publicity, awards or recognition.
Word of mouth takes it only so far, the gatekeepers presently prevent it getting past that for anything which challenges the status quo.