Slipstream (genre)

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Slipstream is a generic literary term used to describe works from the border area between modern and postmodern literature on the one hand and science fiction and fantasy (SF&F) on the other. Boundaries can be crossed in both directions; authors of the postmodern novel can pick up on elements of the SF&F without fully adapting to the conventions of these genres , and authors of the SF&F can adopt peculiarities of the postmodern novel, for example unreliable narration , fragmentation and playing with narrative perspectives.

The term was coined in 1989 by SF writer Bruce Sterling . There is no consensus on the definition of slipstream , but the discussion about the term and its suitability in relation to other, similarly oriented terms has continued since then.

Concept formation

In Jeff Prucher's science fiction dictionary Brave New Words , slipstream is defined as follows:

"Literature that uses the tropics and techniques of the science fiction and fantasy genre, but is not considered science fiction or fantasy."

In a reference cited there, the working definition of a slipstream magazine is given, the content of which is everything that "is not SF, but SF readers are probably interested".

Slipstream referred eigentlichden slipstream or more generally, the wake flow of an object that moves through a liquid or gaseous medium. The use of this flow to save energy, for example when a cyclist saves energy by moving in the slipstream of another, is known as "slipstreaming". The word slipstream also suggests the mainstream , ie the “mainstream” or “mainstream” of a literature or art.

The formation of the term therefore suggests that mainstream authors made it easier for themselves by using the mechanisms and means of science fiction and fantasy, for example by allowing themselves to be “supported” by the broad fan base of these genres. In this respect, the term is at least slightly derogatory, which John Clute also criticized in the corresponding article in the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction . In a neutral way, the term describes the border area between literary realism and science fiction, analogous to magical realism , which characterizes the border area between realism and the tradition of literary fantasy .

The term slipstream is traced back to an article by Bruce Sterling from 1989. This in turn was a reaction to an interview with SF author Carter Scholz from 1988, in which he complained about the state of the genre-compliant science fiction at the time. Scholz said that the best speculative literature that has appeared in recent years does not come from genre authors and has not won Hugos or Nebulas , but that they are books by authors who actually belong to the literary mainstream, whereby he Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale and other works are an example . Sterling agrees with Scholz's criticism of the perceived rigidity and sterility of contemporary SF and says that this is precisely why the best SF writers distance themselves from SF: "Don't ask what you can do for SF - make sure you back away and still sell there. ".

Sterling not only diagnosed rigidification and dogmatism, but also saw interesting common features in a group of contemporary works and thus the outlines of an emerging genre, which he calls slipstream , distinguishing between “category” and “genre”. According to Sterling, one category is a bookseller classification, so the science fiction category includes everything that stands for science fiction on the shelf in the bookstore. A genre, on the other hand, is a literary-critical classification. The Slipstream genre is after Sterling

"[...] a contemporary kind of writing which has set its face against consensus reality. It is a fantastic, surreal sometimes, speculative on occasion, but not rigorously so. It does not aim to provoke a “sense of wonder” or to systematically extrapolate in the manner of classic science fiction. Instead, this is a kind of writing which simply makes you feel very strange; the way that living in the late twentieth century makes you feel, if you are a person of a certain sensibility. "

“[...] a contemporary form of writing that opposes the reality consensus. Fantastic, sometimes surreal, sometimes speculative, but not conforming to the rules. It does not want to stimulate the "sense of the wonderful" or systematically extrapolate like classic science fiction. Instead, these texts make you feel completely alien; just like life in the twentieth century feels if you have a certain sensitivity. "

Sterling then elaborated on a number of features that he saw as defining Slipstream , both positive - what Slipstream is - and negative - what Slipstream is not . However, since these features can hardly form a generic definition, as he himself admitted, he added a list to the article from which a definition would result inductively , so to speak. What is striking about this list is that it is by no means limited to mainstream authors, but also contains numerous authors originally from the SF who broke through the boundaries of the genre. Since this was exactly one of the aims of the British New Wave in SF, its authors such as JG Ballard and Michael Moorcock are also represented here.

Sterling also took on some works from non-English literatures, in particular some works of Latin American magical realism, such as by Allende or by Fuentes . The fact that Grass' Tin Drum and Frisch's Homo Faber also appear in the list is somewhat astonishing for the German reader. Correspondingly, in his essay Of Slipstream and Others , Paweł Frelik criticized the fact that Sterling ignores the completely different contexts of other literatures here - what appears to be crossing borders from the perspective of Anglo-Saxon literature does not have to be in another literature with its completely different narrative traditions and conventions.

The distinction made by Sterling at the beginning between “category” and “genre” he implicitly abolishes at a later point by lamenting the lack of a “slipstream” shelf in the bookstore - that is, a slipstream category - and the one he claims is deficient The reception of slipstream literature can be traced back to:

"It is very difficult for these books to reach or build their own native audience, because they are needles in a vast moldering haystack. There is no convenient way for would-be slipstream readers to move naturally from one such work to another of its ilk. These books vanish like drops of ink in a bucket of drool. "

“These books have a very hard time finding their audience because they are needles in a huge pile of rotting hay. The prospective Slipstream reader cannot easily find one of these works of the same kind. These books disappear like drops of ink in a bucket full of drool. "

The Slipstream List

The content of the list below is consistent with that compiled by Bruce Sterling in his 1989 article in SF Eye as examples of Slipstream authors and works.

A.
B.
C.
D.
E.
F.
G
H
I.
J
K
L.
M.
N
  • Kem Nunn : Tapping the Source ; Unassigned Territory
P
R.
S.
T
U
V
W.

Feeling Very Strange

“This is a kind of writing which simply makes you feel very strange” wrote Sterling in his essay from 1989 and this phrase was quoted over and over again.

Feeling Very Strange was also the title of one of James Patrick Kelly issued and John Kessel 2006 Slipstream - Anthology . In the introduction, the authors addressed the weaknesses of the conceptualization, the lack of a clear definition and failed to delimit and define themselves. Instead, they took the feeling of foreignness as a point of reference and selection criterion and chose the title of the anthology accordingly. Slipstream is therefore "the literature of cognitive dissonance and triumphant strangeness."

Sterling justified the formation of the term in 1989, among other things, by pointing out that, based on a few given examples, any knowledgeable SF reader could cite a number of other examples, and Victoria De Zwaan noted that, whatever the usefulness of the term as literary tool may be ordered, the concept formation is the breeding ground for some wonderful reading lists and potential anthologies. In this regard, as a collection of fascinating texts, Feeling Very Strange has also received positive reviews. In his review of the anthology, however, Niall Harrison takes offense at the definition of slipstream used by the editors :

“For Kessel and Kelly, there's something about living now that inspires this kind of fiction; for me, slipstream is whatever makes you feel strange in ways that are specific to the time in which it was written. It's a persnickety distinction, but in terms of the usefulness of slipstream as a concept, I find it makes all the difference in the world. "

“For Kessel and Kelly, there is something in life today that inspires this type of narrative; For me, Slipstream is everything that makes you feel strange, in a way that is specific to the time it was made. That is a pedantic distinction, but as far as the usefulness of the term slipstream is concerned, I think that it is very important. "

The conveyance of a feeling of strangeness in the familiar is also described by SF critic Rich Horton as a defining characteristic of Slipstream:

"SF tries to make the strange familiar - by showing SFnal elements in a context that helps us understand them. Slipstream tries to make the familiar strange - by taking a familiar context and disturbing it with SFnal / fantastical intrusions. "

“SF tries to introduce the strange - by showing SF elements in a context that lets us understand them. Slipstream tries to show the known as strange - by creating disturbance in a familiar context through elements from SF and fantasy. "

More terms

In addition to Slipstream, there are a number of other generic terms or approaches to corresponding concept formation, all of which describe new developments in the field of fantasy and speculative literature and more or less overlap with Slipstream . This includes:

  • Avant-pop ,
  • Interstitial fiction ,
  • Liminal Fantasy ,
  • New Wave Fabulism ,
  • New Weird (analogue of Slipstream at the borderline between horror literature and mainstream),
  • Postmodern Fantasy ,
  • Span Fiction ,
  • Transrealist fiction .

Other terms that appear as part of the genre discourse of science fiction, are cross-genre , Nonrealist fiction and post-genre fiction .

As noted above, the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction criticizes the term slipstream . There, with reference to the work of the literary scholar Robert Scholes, the term fabulation is preferred. Clute's definition was taken up several times and contrasted with the term slipstream .

According to Clute, the realistic novel of the 19th century, like classic science fiction of the 20th century, is based on two central assumptions, namely that the world is firstly recognizable and secondly narrative . In the mainstream literary trend, recognisability through modernism and narration through postmodernism were rejected. According to Clute, an SF work is a fabulation when one of these two assumptions is questioned.

literature

  • John Clute : Slipstream SF. In: John Clute, Peter Nicholls : The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction . 3rd edition (online edition), version dated August 10, 2012.
  • Victoria De Zwaan: Slipstream. In: The Routledge Companion to Science Fiction. Edited by Mark Bould, Andrew M. Butler, Adam Roberts, and Sherryl Vint. Routledge, New York 2009, pp. 500-504.
  • Paweł Frelik: Of Slipstream and Others: SF and Genre Boundary Discourses. In: Science Fiction Studies , Vol. 38, No. 1, Slipstream (March 2011), pp. 20–45.
  • James Patrick Kelly , John Kessel: Slipstream, the Genre That Isn't. In: (dies.) (Ed.): Feeling Very Strange: The Slipstream Anthology. Tachyon, San Francisco 2006, ISBN 1-892391-35-X , pp. VII-XV.
  • James Patrick Kelly: Slipstream. In: James Gunn, Matthew Candelaria (Eds.): Speculations on Speculation: Theories of Science Fiction. Scarecrow, Lanham 2005. First printed in: Asimov's Science Fiction (September 2003), online ( Memento from October 22, 2003 in the Internet Archive ).
  • Rob Latham (Ed.): Slipstream. Science Fiction Studies Special , Vol. 38, No. 1 (March 2011), Overview .
  • Bruce Sterling : CATSCAN 5: Slipstream. In: SF Eye (No. 5, July 1989), pp. 77-80, online ( Memento from May 11, 2017 in the Internet Archive ).
  • Bruce Sterling: Slipstream 2. In: Science Fiction Studies , Vol. 38, No. 1, Slipstream (March 2011), pp. 6-10, online .
  • Bruce Sterling, Lawrence Person: The Master List of Slipstream Books. In: Nova Express , Fall / Winter 1999, online ( Memento from January 24, 2010 in the Internet Archive ).
  • Bruce Sterling (as Vincent Omniaveritas): The New Science Fiction. 1985. German as: Die neue Science Fiction. In: Michael Nagula (ed.): Atomic Avenue. Cyberpunk - Stories & Facts. Heyne, Munich 1990, pp. 448-452.
  • Takayuki Tatsumi: Full Metal Apache: Transactions Between Cyberpunk Japan and Avant-Pop America. Duke University Press, Durham, NC 2006, ISBN 0-8223-3762-2 .
  • Gary K. Wolfe, Amelia Beamer: Twenty-First-Century Stories. In: Gary K. Wolfe: Evaporating Genres: Essays on Fantastic Literature. Wesleyan, 2011, ISBN 978-0-8195-6936-3 , pp. 164-185.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Jeff Prucher: Brave New Words: The Oxford Dictionary of Science Fiction. Oxford University Press 2007, ISBN 978-0-19-530567-8 , p. 189.
  2. ↑ Misha Chocholak: Interview with Carter Scholz. In: New Pathways Into Science Fiction And Fantasy , July 1988, pp. 24-27.
  3. ↑ Ask not what you can do for science fiction — ask how you can edge away from it and still get paid there.
  4. ↑ Paweł Frelik: Of Slipstream and Others: SF and Genre Boundary Discourses. In: Science Fiction Studies , Vol. 38, No. 1, Slipstream (March 2011), p. 34.
  5. ↑ "Where horror is the literature of fear, slipstream is the literature of cognitive dissonance and of strangeness triumphant ." James Patrick Kelly, John Kessel: Slipstream, the Genre That Isn't. In: (dies.) (Ed.): Feeling Very Strange: The Slipstream Anthology. San Francisco 2006, ISBN 1-892391-35-X , p. XI.
  6. ↑ "Once the notion of slipstream is vaguely explained, almost all SF readers can recite a quick list of books that belong there by right." Bruce Sterling: CATSCAN 5: Slipstream. In: SF Eye (No. 5, July 1989), p. 78.
  7. ↑ Victoria De Zwaan: Slipstream. In: The Routledge Companion to Science Fiction. Edited by Mark Bould, Andrew M. Butler, Adam Roberts, and Sherryl Vint. Routledge, New York 2009, p. 503.
  8. ^ Greg L. Johnson: Feeling Very Strange, edited by James Patrick Kelly, John Kessel. In: SF Site Reviews , 2006, accessed October 1, 2018.
  9. ↑ a b See James Patrick Kelly, John Kessel: Slipstream, the Genre That Isn't. In: (dies.) (Ed.): Feeling Very Strange: The Slipstream Anthology. San Francisco 2006, ISBN 1-892391-35-X , p. XI.
  10. ^ A b Niall Harrison: Feeling Very Strange, edited by James Patrick Kelly, John Kessel. In: Strange Horizons , September 4, 2006, accessed October 1, 2018.
  11. ↑ Quoted from: James Patrick Kelly: Slipstream. In: James Gunn, Matthew Candelaria (Eds.): Speculations on Speculation: Theories of Science Fiction. Scarecrow, Lanham 2005.
  12. ^ Larry McCaffery: Avant-Pop: Fiction for a Daydream Nation. University of Alabama Press, 1993, ISBN 978-0-932511-72-0 . An anthology with some authors associated with avant-pop is: Ronald Sukenick, Curtis White: In the Slipstream: An FC2 Reader. FC2, 1999, ISBN 1-57366-080-9 . The editors make no reference to the use of Slipstream in the SF area.
  13. ^ Delia Sherman, Theodora Goss: Interfictions: An Anthology of Interstitial Writing. Small Beer Press, 2007, ISBN 978-1-931520-24-9 .
  14. ↑ Interstitial Arts ( Memento from December 5, 2006 in the Internet Archive )
  15. ↑ Farah Mendlesohn: Rhetorics of Fantasy. Wesleyan University Press, 2008, ISBN 978-0-8195-6867-0 , chap. 4: The Liminal Fantasy .
  16. ^ Conjunctions: 39 - The New Wave Fabulists. Fall 2002. Edited by Bradford Morrow and Peter Straub , content and texts .
  17. ^ Lance Olsen: Ellipse of Uncertainty: An Introduction to Postmodern Fantasy. Greenwood Press, New York 1987, ISBN 0-313-25511-3 .
  18. ^ Peter Brigg: The Span of Mainstream and Science Fiction: A Critical Study of a New Literary Genre. McFarland, Jefferson, NC 2002, ISBN 0-7864-1304-2 , chap. 1: Introduction to Span Fiction .
  19. ^ Damien Broderick: Transrealist Fiction: Writing in the Slipstream of Science. Greenwood, Westport, Connecticut 2000, ISBN 0-313-31121-8 .
  20. ↑ Robert Scholes: Structural Fabulation: An Essay on Fiction of the Future. University of Notre Dame Press, Notre Dame, Indiana 1975, ISBN 0-268-00570-2 .
  21. ↑ John Clute: Fabulation. In: John Clute, Peter Nicholls: The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction. 3rd edition (online edition), version dated January 23, 2018.