Sue Perkins, host of "The Books We Really Read," and novelist Stephen Hunt.
© BBC
The BBC, one of the co-sponsors along with various UK publishers' and readers' groups, used the occasion to air a block of specials built around the idea of books and reading, including the BBC2 programs "The Books We Really Read: a Culture Show Special," hosted by Sue Perkins, and "New Novelists: 12 of the Best," a panel discussion led by English professor John Mullan.
The problem: unlike the World Book Night event itself, the BBC's specials excluded any mention at all of great works of science fiction, fantasy, or horror. To some, the whole tone of the coverage came across as elitist, looking down on commercial fiction as well as non-"literary" categories of fiction.
The snub did not go unnoticed. Stephen Hunt, the British author best known for the Jackalian series that starts with The Court of the Air (2007) and for his popular newsletter, SF Crowsnest, immediately fired off an email to his subscribers titled "How Annoyed am I?" In it, he called the BBC coverage "a truly stunning exercise in literary elitism and snobbery from a scheme that was ironically meant to be all about encouraging people to read and reversing the decline of the book in society."
For Hunt, this was one of the most splendid manifestations yet of what he sees the marginal status of speculative fiction in cultural reporting. "As the hour went by," he later remarked, describing his experience watching the "Books We Really Read" special, "strangely absent from this detailed parade of what people actually like to read was a certain genre, you know... the unclean one, speculative fiction, as in fantasy/horror/science fiction."
Positive comments on his web site, Facebook, and Twitter induced him to take action: he has declared war on the idea that the only good book is a "literary" one, and his war starts with calling the BBC to account for its behavior on March 5.
In the intervening month, Hunt has marshaled a petition signed by a broad array of 85 successful authors protesting the BBC organizers' "shabby treatment" of genre fiction. Among them are such famous names as Greg Bear, David Brin, Harry Turtledove, L.E. Modesitt Jr., Iain Banks, Michael Moorcock, Robert J. Sawyer, and Larry Niven. (The full list, as provided by Hunt, is below.)
"The sneering tone that was levelled towards commercial fiction during The Books We Really Read was deeply counterproductive to the night's aims of actually encouraging people to read novels," Hunt fumed. "The weight that was given to the single sub-genre of literary fiction in the remaining programmes was unbalanced and unrepresentative of all but a small fraction of the country's reading tastes. And closest to my own heart, the failure to feature a single work from the three genres of horror, fantasy, and science fiction was a disgrace."
Hunt is forwarding the petition to Mark Thompson, the BBC director-general, and the furor was written up in the Daily Telegraph. In its coverage of Hunt's protest The Bookseller attempted to elicit a comment from the BBC and could not do so.
The signers of the petition, so far, are: Kevin J Anderson, Neal Asher, Iain M Banks, Greg Bear, Jacey Bedford, Gregory Benford, Michael Bishop, S J Bolton, David Brin, Michael S. Brotherton, John Brown, Ramsey Campbell, Gail Carriger, Mark Charan Newton, Michael Cobley, Diane Duane, Kevin Duffy, Steven Lundin (Steve Erikson), Geraldine Evans, Russell B. Farr, Matt Forbeck, Gregory Frost, Gary Gibson, Linda Gillard, Felix Gilman, Debi Gliori, Alison Goodman, Joe Haldeman, Elizabeth Hand, Steve Haynes, John Helfers, John Hemry, Jack Hessey, Liz Holliday, Matthew Hughes, Stephen Hunt, Jasper Kent, Kay Kenyon, M. D. Lachlan, Jay Lake, David Langford, Bob Lock, James Lovegrove, Jonathan Maberry, David Mack, Juliet Marillier, Ian McDonald, Juliet E McKenna, Karen Miller, L. E. Modesitt, Jr., Elizabeth Moon, Michael Moorcock, Theresa M. Moore, Yvonne Navarro, Stan Nicholls, Larry Niven, Jonathan Oliver, Phil Palmer, Steve Parker, Tamora Pierce, Jonathan Pinnock, Phyllis Irene Radford (P.R. Frost/C.F. Bentley), Robert V.S. Redick, Kit Reed, Mike Resnick, Adam Roberts, Steven Savile, Robert J. Sawyer, Ann Scarborough, Michael Shea, Lucius Shepard, Michael Marshall Smith, S.M. Stirling, Charlie Stross, Stephen Sullivan, Michael Swanwick, Harry Turtledove, Robert E. Vardeman, Tim Waggoner, Ian Watson, Simon West-Bulford, Sean Williams, Walter Jon Williams, Geoff Willmetts, and Jane Yolen.
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Comments
This attitude is academic snobbery. I haven’t seen the special myself, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the romance genre was overlooked as well. Rather ironic, when a poll done within the last few years named J.K. Rowling and Terry Pratchett the top-selling authors in the UK at that time. Also ironic when you consider Doctor Who and Torchwood are the highest rated shows on BBC America.
Adrienne said exactly what I was thinking! How foolish to write an article telling people what others are reading, but, yet, not having a clue.
This is exactly the same attitude that was displayed throughout my time studying writing at university. Acccording to my lecturers, the only true writing is literary – everything else is a genre at which one must sneer from afar.
This attitude is not just prevalent at the BBC it is widespread across the whole of the media including newspapers. It is propagated by a very tiny elite who seem to be totally out of touch with what people really read and have an access to the media that is totally out of proportion to their real importance.
Lets face it when was the last time somebody on the final Bookers prize list sold as many copies of a book as some of the top authors in the so called sub-genres.
There is nothing wrong with literary fiction, but it’s generally not a good place to start reading. Wouldn’t science fiction, fantasy and horror be a better way to get people interested in reading.
This snobbery is so widespread that in order to pass 7th grade I had to write an essay about how much fantasy sucked. I turned the tables and wrote a tribute to fantasy/sf that also critisized these snotty douche bags. I turned the tables on them in a full 360 .Not only did they no longer have that test, but now you must pass a test modled around my essay. We all have the power to imagine and explore the future and the great wonders of our inner minds. All of us. Complain ASAP!!
Fascinating… I am not really surprised to hear about the disconnect between the academic notion of good literature or what people are reading and what is actually being read by real people in the real world. I used to sneer at those who read bodice rippers and what I called trashy romance until my mom pointed out that at least people are reading. Reading is good for the brain and soul.
As a lifelong reader I find this very interesting. Some of the first books I ever read that instilled in me a love of reading and stories and books were in these genres. I loved the Narnia books by C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien’s Hobbit and Lord of the Rings, Frank L. Baum’s Wizard of Oz books – read them all, George MacDonald, Madeline L’Engel, Mary Stewart and the endless books of fairy Tales that I demanded my parents read to me. These are just a few examples of books and authors who fuelled my imagination and love of reading when I was young. I have two children now and have introduced them to these same books and others that have come out since. One of the best and most enjoyed projects’ in my daughter’s 5th grade literature class was to rewrite or modernize and Fairy tale. One of the great things about this genre of books is that people of all ages can read and enjoy books written for younger audiences. Look at what happened with the Harry Potter books. Children and parents and siblings all reading and enjoying the same books and talking about them, isn’t this what the aim of getting books back out there is? I am not surprised at the disconnect between the BBC literary ideas and the real world but they are really missing out on a huge area of books that can really get books back into the hands of the people.
I am just a reader since a three year old in an army children’s school. My very best literary education came in the Merchant Navy where, during long voyages, the only way I could obtain reading was to devour the tiny library on each ship from end to end then fill that out with the words of the great navigators embedded in the Admiralty Pilot Books of the world. I have since learned that there are readers and then book critics who often seem only to have learnt the cover off by heart. Readers only want to read, book critics only wish to impress someone with their erudition and command of hot air.