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Genre authors attack "sneering" WBN coverage
18.04.11 | Graeme Neill
Authors including Iain M Banks and Michael Moorcock have written to the BBC's director general Mark Thompson, attacking the treatment of genre fiction in its recent World Book Night coverage.
In total 85 authors, across the science fiction, fantasy and horror genres, signed the letter to the BBC, which said the evening of programming ignored the three genres. The letter also claimed the tone of "The Books We Really Read" Culture Show special, which examined commercial fiction, was "sneering".
Fantasy author Stephen Hunt, who organised the protest, said: "The weight that was given to the single sub-genre of literary fiction in the remaining programmes was unbalanced and unrepresentative of all but a small fraction of the country’s reading tastes."
Hunt said given the success of the Harry Potter and Twilight series, the evening of programming should have devoted more time to the horror, fantasy and science fiction genres. He said: "The sweeping under the carpet of the very genres of the imagination which engage and fire readers’ minds shows a lot more about the BBC production team’s taste in fiction than it does about what the general public is actually reading."
The BBC was unavailable for comment.
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SNEERING IS GOOD . You must sneer if you an intellectual like what they are at the BBC .
If you want to know about sneering, try being a Romantic Novelist - or write for women. In the 'most sneered at' competition, we win!
Very true Katie but, trite thought it was, the culture show special devoted a lot of attentions to women's writing.
BBC pundits mistake gimp psychology for literature. SF isn't that. Their attitude just reveals the philosophical illiteracy and aesthetic parochialism of much of the English literary 'elite'. They have nothing to sneer about.
If anyone's interesting in reading Hunt's original blog post and the petition (and it is worth a read) here's the link: http://www.sfcrowsnest.com/articles/news/2011/One-Genre-to-bring-them-al...
I feel like sneering too. I sneer at the people who read books that they think they should read because its 'literature' and because people say you should have read it, even though they find reading it a chore. Reading shouldn't be a chore. That's why God invented Fantasy, Horror and Sf.
Go,go,go. When I was overseas my sci- fi fantasy novels helped keep me on the go.
Robert R. McCammon (Horror), Anne McCaffrey (Sci- fi fantasy), lots of others.
Imagination needs the fuel provided.
That is only one reason why WBN was a patronising, top-down event. Whereas the Save Our Libraries campaign is a from-the-down-up grassroots movement started by people who read what they enjoy, including SF, Horror, Crime, Romance - oh, and Man Booker winners and Dickens too.
The list of 85 signatories is largely a list of fantasy writers I've never heard of who, presumably, adding their name to the list in the vague hope of getting some publicity for their unbought series of epic novels. If they really cared, they'd not be so selfish and trumpet other genres much bigger than their own - like food & drink, kids picture books, travel, celebrity memoirs, and business. So here's to Nigella Express, the Lonely Planet Guide to New York City and Richard Branson's autobiography appearing on the World Book Night 2011 list.
Yeah, a bunch of nobodies like Michael Moorcock, Ian McDonald, Joe Haldeman, Ramsey Campbell, David Brin, Greg Bear, Larry Niven, Tamora Pierce, Lucius Shephard, Michael Marshall Smith, Charlie Stross, Michael Swanwick, Elizabeth Moon, and Jane Yolen. Oh, and Iain Banks, Greg Benford, Debi Gliori, James Lovegrove, Adam Roberts, Mike Resnick, SM Stirling, Harry Turtledove, Ian Watson and Walter Jon Williams.
Next you'll be championing Katie Price's autobiography . . . It probably sold more than the last three books you cited. But then again, its got the same literary merit as Nigella Express and Jamie Oliver's bestselling contribution to the cook book library.
Jason you make a fair point, but there needs to be a better balance on the universal. Sci-fi, horror and fantasy are huge money spinners, and really there should of been something in WBN to represent this. Of course more genres would of been better, but I can't see the general public going nutty over a copy of Branson, as well written as it may be. The masses in our shop atleast have shown sci-fi to be a hugely commercial property, and although I haven't myself heard of about half the list, it can't be argued the rest of the list, and the big sellign titles this year have been some very class acts. I see Larry Niven there for instance, and I think something like the Ringwolrd would of made a great addition to the whole WBN farce. It's very much seen at times the way the graphic novel/manga sections are looked at. How can something so "silly" in presentation be anything with an inch of deapth. WBN was meant to celebrate books, but as all comments here have pointed out, it's more a celebration of someones personal taste over the medium in general. So I say a hell yes to Mr Hunt and his motley crew of authors, and certainly a nod of approval to Mr Bloom to, for no celebration of a medium is complete without diversity. Maybe next year will be different, he said with almost mocking cynicism.
For a full list of authors protesting, crime and children's authors as well as fantasy, SF and horror, there's also a news story on this over at http://www.sfx.co.uk/2011/04/16/85-authors-protest-at-the-bbc%e2%80%99s-...
Just spotted the articles on this in the Guardian newspaper, as well as the Telegraph.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/booknews/8458277/BBC-attacked-b...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/apr/18/genre-authors-protest-bbc
True enough there are other genres "sneered" at but the Beeb missed that Cloud Atlas very much falls in the Sci-Fi camp too - if they had bothered to read it. Jason, the list of writers here brings quite a few genre bestsellers together - doesn't matter if you haven't heard of them, there are plenty who read this genre who do, and most are well respected. Personally I'm not arsed with the sneering at all - most "literary" pieces make bugger all money for their publishers anyway, and it's the likes of horror, crime, romance and sf-fantasy that keep publishers going. Without these writers they would be screwed...
quality not quantity, which is why your two posts are worth less than the responses given to it i guess...
just because you've never heard of those authors doesn't mean you can just dismiss them out of hand. Many people, even if their numbers total less than Ms Price's who for all her faults has got many people reading, have had the pleasure of reading these author's books and perhaps felt that they're reading tastes were left out of the first WBN celebrations. This only shows that some fine tuning is needed and a greater diversity of books should be included next year as it seems this wont be going away. personally, i find many classics a chore for they do not interest me, but i respect after working in the trade, people's reading tastes range from the intensely literary to the chick-lit genres and we have to cater for that.
Sneering only means you are incapable of appreciating other people's points of view. which you are, clearly...
Hi there
I work for the BBC we aim to give the broadest range of books coverage possible, for instance there will be a Culture Show on Science Fiction in May and a Book Review Show starting later in the year which will offer a further opportunity to discuss all manner books.
There is an attitude in the UK towards "genre" fiction, no doubt about it. I write historicals and shorts, and while historicals are a "genre", the literary crowd seem to have deemed it acceptable, and we don't have to play with the grubby children in the corner.
This attitude is not exclusive to the BBC, as evidenced by this thread. Sue Pollard is an idiot. The whole literary/genre divide is a load of rubbish, and I would suspect it has its roots in one of those very British class things that I have always puzzled me.
you have a mind-bogglingly narrow definition of reading and an astonishing inability to read other readers' minds.
you wanna get out more love.
Sue Pollard may or may not be an idiot, but the presenter in question was Sue Perkins, who is not an idiot. She came across as a bit of a snob, it's true, but then the tone of the show was all wrong, just like almost everything on TV about books. Everything has to be a "journey", so they seem to think that means that you have to have hire people to talk about books they don't actually like.
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