Posted by Steven on 22/10/2011, 16:42:01, in reply to "Re: The Tunnel and other tunnels"
76.186.51.185
--Previous Message--
: It is difficult to sustain the theme for too
: long without turning it into some over-the-top
: silliness.
I'll have to come to the defense of the science fiction novel on this one. I don't think science fiction is any less suitable a genre for long fiction than any other. In my opinion it's not any weakness of its novels that makes SF short stories so popular.
My theory (which I developed this afternoon while watching my granddaughter's soccer team get slaughtered 9-0 by the mighty "Purple Panthers") is this: Science fiction is primarily a literature of ideas, and it is relatively easy to present a single idea in a short format. Horror is also a genre based on ideas and thrives in the short story. Mystery, fantasy, historical fiction and romance depend more on plot or character, which take longer to develop. Not that science fiction and horror can't have well-developed plots and characters too, but, unlike the other genres, they don't have to.
Message Thread
« Back to index