When you play more sports you're going to need more stadiums: the Rainbow Age of Speculative Fiction
throwanotherbearinthecanoe.substack.com
Hey, folks, At worldcon, I was arguing (in the rhetorical barcon sense, not the having a fight sense) with a friend about the Rainbow Age of Science Fiction, which I still maintain is the best descriptor of the current moment in genre. We have the Golden Age, the Silver Age, the New Wave, the Cyberpunks, the Grimdark Era… but what’s happening currently (and has been for about ten years) is a flowering of technicolor diversity such as publishing has never seen. It’s glorious, if you ask me.
I think "Rainbow Age" is a pretty good sobriquet for our time. I was recently thinking "Starburst Age" might fit because of the sheer explosion of new things from heretofore diminished voices, and, as you point out, diverse influences, but I think yours is snappier. :)
WRT diverse influences, I was trying to explain to someone around my age that there's entire generations of SFF readers/watchers whose foundational experiences aren't Heinlein juveniles or Clarke or Asimov, but rather Harry Potter and Pokemon, and their head nearly exploded. I agree it's important to recognize that there are legions of people who are part of the community now who never participated in the fandom of old - even if some of us were of an age to have done so - and whose first loves are TNG and Xena, or Vampire: The Masquerade, or any of the dozens of other alternate paths of entry we now have.
I think SFF these days is like an enormous interwoven river delta, like the Louisiana bayous or the pre-reclamation lower Rhine, full of myriad channels, some of which interconnect in interesting and unexpected ways. There's still a few which, having split off from the mother river, resolutely plow on without touching their kindred, but less as time marches on.
I think "Rainbow Age" is a pretty good sobriquet for our time. I was recently thinking "Starburst Age" might fit because of the sheer explosion of new things from heretofore diminished voices, and, as you point out, diverse influences, but I think yours is snappier. :)
WRT diverse influences, I was trying to explain to someone around my age that there's entire generations of SFF readers/watchers whose foundational experiences aren't Heinlein juveniles or Clarke or Asimov, but rather Harry Potter and Pokemon, and their head nearly exploded. I agree it's important to recognize that there are legions of people who are part of the community now who never participated in the fandom of old - even if some of us were of an age to have done so - and whose first loves are TNG and Xena, or Vampire: The Masquerade, or any of the dozens of other alternate paths of entry we now have.
I think SFF these days is like an enormous interwoven river delta, like the Louisiana bayous or the pre-reclamation lower Rhine, full of myriad channels, some of which interconnect in interesting and unexpected ways. There's still a few which, having split off from the mother river, resolutely plow on without touching their kindred, but less as time marches on.
In any case, it's a great time to love SFF.