What is the value of speculative fiction ? At its best, what role does it play in the world ?
Karin Lowachee : It’s the literature of ideas. It’s a metaphoric literature, one that has the potential to speak truth on more than one level. It’s a literature that has the most leeway to experiment in every way, ideally. The oldest stories of humanity read like speculative fiction. There’s something abiding in it and at its best I think it can appeal to everyone if everyone had open minds. You have to have an open mind to want to read a literature of ideas. You have to want to be challenged, and speculative fiction writers should challenge their readers whether they like it or not. I don’t approach my writing as an opportunity to appeal to the lowest common denominator ; I aim for the highest because that pushes me, and hopefully it will push my readers a little too. Which isn’t to say there isn’t a place for “light reading,” but literature shouldn’t all be light reading or we’re in trouble as an art form.
Une interview de l'auteur de Warchild à lire ici (en anglais) :
http://booklifenow.com/2010/09/to-make- ... -lowachee/
Source : ActuSF