Comments on critters.org/rel

[CrittersMinion]

[Reposted from old comment system, from Critter Captain on Thu, 24 Sep 2009 20:39:27 0000]

Ursula's works, I agree, would probably score high. So many of them are also "classic" that it would reinforce my point, that "enduring" SF has a higher amount of IP content.

But I can't score every book... however...! You all can. So, visit this link here to share your own scores: http://critters.org/rel/score.cgi?cmd=addform

[CrittersMinion]

[Reposted from old comment system, from Guest on Thu, 24 Sep 2009 18:12:16 0000]

Reading your article, I was rather surprised that you didn't mention Ursula Le Guin. She's an award-winning sf/f author, and, perhaps NOT coincidentally, pays a great deal of attention to IP relationships in her various semi-hard SF and magical settings. If anyone is unfamiliar with her, I would highly recommend any of her short story collections.

[CrittersMinion]

[Reposted from old comment system, from Dan on Thu, 24 Sep 2009 11:41:35 0000]

I agree with the conclusion, but I have a minor quibble with your method of scoring. As you went into scoring each sample, you knew which category the sample fell into, i.e. IP vs. classic SF vs. normal SF. That could have biased your subjective grading. I don't think it would have necessarily been enough to create the conclusion, but I think it could have magnified the conclusion. Given that the difference between classic and non-classic SF was 14 out of 100, a small exaggeration could mean a lot.

It strikes me it would have been more accurate (and admittedly a LOT more work) to have the samples graded by two or three other people and present the samples to them intermixed and without author/title information.

[CrittersMinion]

[Reposted from old comment system, from Jenny B on Thu, 24 Sep 2009 09:38:55 0000]

Toni Morrison's Beloved may be considered general fiction due to popularity and cultural significance, but it's secretly genre (horror and fantasy).

[CrittersMinion]

[Reposted from old comment system, from Devin on Thu, 24 Sep 2009 03:31:12 0000]

I was surprised at first that anyone needed to write an article about this; I'd always thought it was obvious that relationships and character interactions are main elements of a story. All of my favorite SF and F authors are heavy on character relationships.

I object to your fantasy book scoring. Firstly, you make your sweeping judgement of "fantasy" based on a mere seven books, while you used 42 sci-fi books as your sci-fi sample. That's a six-times-larger sample! I think you ought to do a *much* larger sample of fantasy books before you can presume to say anything about fantasy's reputation.

Certainly, the fantasy books I read have got to be pretty high on your scale. For example, one of my all-time favorites, "Magic's Pawn" by Mercedes Lackey, scores 67 (and that was with me deliberately scoring low wherever I could to minimize the fact that I'm biased). That's because it's a book about a gay boy entering his first romantic relationship, with his aunt helping him to keep it secret from his parents, and then some magical stuff causes tragedy to ensue. There is absolutely no action scene in the entire book that is not either caused by or a cause of somebody's interpersonal relationships. This book is an extreme example of the sort of fantasy I read, where interpersonal relationships do more than just add an extra dimension to characterization -- they're part of every characters' motivations and decisions, just as they are in real life.

[CrittersMinion]

[Reposted from old comment system, from Kara Puckett on Thu, 24 Sep 2009 01:11:05 0000]

This article made my day because my "completed" novel (and all that I currently have in the works) are as you say, "An Ip novel meshed with SF." My writing is focused heavily on relationships, but it is set in SF and F backgrounds. Just this week I was begining to think that perhaps this wasn't the best critique group for my style of writing, so it took a load off when I read your article. And in comment to others comments on whether IP is pertinent- I say, write what you like to. That's what it's all about right? Expressing yourself, using your imagination? If you dont like employing IP, then don't. But if you are writing for the sole purpose of making money, then you better listen to the statisics, because there are few (and far between) that defy odds.