“Would we be so enamored with dystopian fiction if we lived in a culture where violent death was a major concern? It wouldn't be escapism.” IfsCultureFictionMajorsConcernViolentDystopianEscapismDystopian FictionEnamoredViolent Death Author:Maggie Stiefvater
“For those whose ganglia were formed pre-TV, the mimetic deployment of pop-culture icons seems at best an annoying tic and at worst a dangerous vapidity that compromises fiction's seriousness by dating it out of the Platonic Always, where it ought to reside.” SeemsCultureFictionWorstDangerousTvsOughtDatingPopsCompromiseAnnoyingSeriousnessPop CultureIconsDeploymentPlatonicTics Author:Jonathan Lethem
“I have long admired the visceral storytelling and moral complexity of John Vaillant’s brilliant non-fiction about humankind’s tragically ambivalent relationship with the natural world. Now he brings his abundant literary gifts to a debut novel set in a very real borderland in which human beings are themselves treated like animals. The Jaguar’s Children is a beautifully rendered lament for an imperiled culture and the brave lives that would preserve it. You should read it.” WorldShouldHumansChildrenLongRealCultureNaturalHuman BeingsAnimalFictionMoralNovelBraveBrilliantTreatedStorytellingPreservesComplexityHumankindNatural WorldNon FictionLamentVisceralDebutAmbivalentJaguars Author:John Burnham Schwartz
“In a lot of Western science fiction, you need some form of conflict, whether it's aliens or robots. I think in Western culture, being more suspicious of science, and hubris, you'll see a lot of fear of creating something that goes out of control.” ThinkingNeedsFormCultureFictionConflictCreatingScience FictionWesternAliensRobotsSuspiciousHubrisWestern CultureCreating Something Author:Cynthia Breazeal
“You asked if I thought my fiction had changed anything in the culture and the answer is no. Sure, there's been some scandal, but people are scandalized all the time; it's a way of life for them. It doesn't mean a thing. If you ask if I want my fiction to change anything in the culture, the answer is still no. What I want is to possess my readers while they are reading my book if I can, to possess them in ways that other writers don't. Then let them return, just as they were, to a world where everybody else is working to change, persuade, tempt, and control them.” PeopleIfsWorldWayWantMeanStillsI CanBookCultureReadingAsksAnswersFictionChangedReturnReaderScandal Book:Conversations with Philip Roth Source: Conversations with Philip Roth
“My current novel, Pallas, is all about that culture war - in fact it's been called the Uncle Tom's Cabin of the Sagebrush Rebellion - and yet what I hear all too often from libertarians is that they don't read fiction.” WarFactsCultureFictionNovelCurrentsLibertarianRebellionTomsUnclesCabinsUncle Tom Author:L. Neil Smith
“The oft-heard comment that Leonardo [da Vinci]'s genius managed to transcend the culture of his time is amply justified. But his was not a science-fiction voyage into the future as much as a plunge into the past.” PastCultureFictionHeardGeniusScience FictionCommentJustifiedVoyagesPlungeLeonardo Author:Lucio Russo
“We live in a culture that has a real hard time distinguishing fiction from reality. Even when they're told something is fiction.” RealHardRealityCultureFictionHard Times Author:Nic Pizzolatto
“I am a born novelist, which does not happen all that often. There are people who try to write for a certain time, then they become Ministers of Culture under de Gaulle, and they begin living their own fictions.” PeopleWritingTryingDoeHappensCertainCultureBornFictionMinistersNovelists Author:Gore Vidal
“A lot of comic conventions go way beyond comic books and include other parts of pop culture, like celebrities and science fiction and movies and books. So I go to them either as a celebrity, or as a fan, because I'm a big sci-fi geek.” WayBookBigsCultureFictionFansScience FictionPopsComicSci FiConventionsComic BookGeekPop Culture Author:Jane Wiedlin
“The culture is still there, and people are still doing it. I imagine some people are doing it very well indeed. As for me, it definitely was my native literary culture. Science fiction was where I'm from, but on the way to now, I went through a lot of other territory, and I wasn't really that culturally conventional an SF writer when I started.” PeopleWayWellsStillsCultureFictionImagineScience FictionNativeTerritoryConventional Author:William Gibson
“In a way, being a Mormon prepares you to deal with science fiction, because we live simultaneously in two very different cultures. The result is that we all know what it's like to be strangers in a strange land. It's not just a coincidence that there are so many effective Mormon science fiction writers. We don't regard being an alien as an alien experience. But it also means that we're not surprised when people don't understand what we're saying or what we think.” PeopleThinkingKnowsWayMeanTwoDifferentScienceReligionCultureSpaceResultsDealsFictionTechnologyLandStrangeRegardScience FictionStrangerIdeologyAliensCoincidenceFiction WritersDifferent CulturesStranger In A Strange Land Author:Orson Scott Card