Sunday 25 September 2016

Crossovers II

I am rereading Stieg Larsson's crime novels and would not want the integrity of such a novel to be compromised by, e.g., the sudden appearance of an alien spaceship. Nevertheless, while reading such a novel, we know that it is set on Earth which is just one of many planets. We just do not need to be reminded of the fact. For how Poul Anderson places a contemporary detective novel in its cosmic context, see here and here.

Our cosmic context is not just interplanetary. Cosmic rays, neutrinos, gravity waves and dark energy go right through us so maybe time travelers do as well? It is good to alternate between contemporary fiction and science fiction while remembering that these genres express different aspects of what Poul Anderson calls All One Universe.

1 comment:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

Truth to say, I'm not much interested in "contemporary" or "mainstream" fiction. What I've seen of such things strikes me as dreary, drab, depressing, repellent, etc. Unless a really good writer like Tom Wolfe or Christopher Buckley is satirizing our times (see the former's A MAN IN FULL and the latter's LITTLE GREEN MEN for examples).

Sean