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Writers Who Will Stand the Test of Time?
Embedded Geek asks: "Every year, the online version of Locus (a trade magazine of Science Fiction & Fantasy) asks the question: "Name the 5 deceased 20th century SF & fantasy writers you think will still be read 50 years from now." The results favored some of the bigger names (Heinlein, Asimov, Tolkein) as well as a few lesser known figures (Simak, Bester). I would like to ask a broader question: What authors (in any genre, fiction or nonfiction) alive today will still be read (hard copy or online) in 2051?" If I had to answer off of the top of my head, I know William Gibson, Charles Sheffield, and Orson Scott Card would be in my list, but that's not all of them. A few authors who I thought would be classics have since vanished (whatever did happen to Daniel Keys Moran, anyways?) aand of course there are a few iffy ones which I could be convinced on (C.J. Cherryh, anyone). What authors do you feel will stand the test of time? Yeah, these are sci-fi authors, but that's about what I read these days.
Before you all say it...yeah, yeah, he's not *real* fantasy, whatever.
But the Discworld books are actually quite sharp, and ideas based: Small Gods and Jingo, for example.
And, more importantly, they are very very funny. The sort of books you keep to read to your children one day, in the hope they'll want to read on their own. I guess like Douglas Adams did for me when I was 11.
Roger Zelazny. Probably the best modern mythic author next to Tolkien and the only such author to try and talk about magic and technology as if they were the same thing and under the control of similar mythical forces.
Also H.P. Lovecraft. I predict people will recognize him for the genius he was sooner or later, although he was dismissed as a pulp author by most of the literati in this century.
Yes, not his *real* name, but I forget it right now. I've been enjoying his Wheel of Time series more than LotR, and - like most fantasy - the appeal is timeless.
Last post!
I also find it interesting that, of all the names listed in the body of this article, I had only heard of Heinlein, Asimov, and Tolkien...
As we approach the Technological Singularity described so awesomely by that awesome science fiction writer Vernor Vinge, it dawns on us that not only we humans but also our emerging fellow cyborgs will be the readership of classic authors from the current time.
Since by definition we can not see beyond the Singularity, we may only list here a few dark horse candidates who will appeal to the AI Minds of the expanded readership by virtue of having written about artificial intelligence:
Orson Scott Card -- Speaker for the Dead (1986)
Joseph H. Delaney, and Stiegler -- Valentina: A Soul in Sapphire
David Gerrold -- When H.A.R.L.I.E. Was One
Robert Heinlein -- The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress
Frank Herbert -- Destination: Void (1966)
James Patrick Hogan -- The Two Faces of Tomorrow (1979)
Victor W. Milan -- The Cybernetic Samurai (1985)
Rudy Rucker -- Wetware (1988)
Thomas Ryan -- The Adolescence of P1
Astro Teller -- Exegesis
Thomas T. Thomas -- ME: A Novel of Self-Discovery (1991)
Guy Gavriel Kay might make the list though. He is actually a decent writer, and has mastered the little things most pulp fiction writers miss - characterization, plot, beautiful descriptive language,broad vocabulary, etc. Books like Tigana, A Song for Arbonne, and The Lions of Al-Rassan have permanent residency on my bookshelf. Kay immerses the reader into his works.
dschl
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On the other hand, historical accounts will survive, I'm sure of that. So, for example, The Making of the Atomic Bomb by Richard Rhodes will still be read, much like William Shirer's The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich is still a must-read. The Atomic Bomb is a fantastic book, a towering and comprehensive work - I recommend it most strongly.
Then, for example, there are biographies: I doubt that James Gleick's Chaos will still be read - there will be other, better expositions of the Feigenbaum Constant - but his biography of Feynman, Genius, will still be read by anyone interested in the mystique of Feynman. (And trust me, with nanotech's rise, his mystique will only grow!)
And of course, I agree with everyone who nominated Dr. Seuss. That, and Alice, and Tolkien, will survive and still be relevant. Harry Potter - it's too early to say, though they are great fun to read...
Anyway, that's my $0.02.
"I will take the Ring," he said, "though I do not know the way."
Each these writers have written about future in a way that technology improvements by 2051 won't affect the stories they tell.
Vernor Vinge's Queng Ho & Bobble universes are far removed from the day to day tehcnology issues and focus on the role of the individual in changing society in crisis.
Dan Simmons' Hyperion series is a masterful look at religion, technology, and the hubris of humanity.
Larry Niven's Known Universe is perhaps one of the most detailed and consistent future histories created in the last 50 years.
John Varley's Eight Worlds series and Titan/Wizard/Demon trilogy will stand the test of time as examinations of the effects of endless plentiful society on the individual.
While I love Neal Stephenson, William Sterling, and Bruce Gibson, they work is so focused on near future (part of it's appeal!) that they will suffer as technology passes them by.
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While not at the grandmaster level of Asimov, Heinlen or Herbert, he will probably reach that level. I would like to see more books by him, but only at their contined level of excellence.
Stephenson is obviously destined for greatness. His current works already guarentee his place among the SF pantheon. He is also infinitely more readable than others in the cyberpunk genre.
When I want your opinion I will beat it out of you.
Very definitely one of the best! The FIRST author to win the Hugo and Nebula in the same year.
;-)
I see criticism of his style, but I think you could make the some of the same criticism of Asimov and Heinlein. Only because they were foundational to the genera, along with others (Lewis, Dick, Orwell, Zelazny, Sturgeon, Pohl, Ellison), and more modern writers largely follow in their footsteps.
For my money, Niven has some of the very best and most memorable characterizations in the business, and some of the best stories (by-passing dogs like Integral Trees).
Some modern authors focus more on tech or gore or action. But for REAL stories and REAL characters that can provike thought, I'll take Niven.
Then again, maybe in just means I'm getting old and out-of-touch
Iain Banks Culture stories are fantastic!
I'd recommend Consider Phlebas to someone starting out.
Use of Weapons, Excession, and Player of Games are excellant as well.
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Mary Doria Russell.
Okay, she's only written two books (you have read The Sparrow, haven't you?), but if she keeps it up, she'll be regarded eventually as one of the true greats of the genre.
Lois McMaster Bujold. ...
Go on. I dare you, dismiss it as space opera. Okay, it is space opera, but all her books are great, widely read, Hugo- and Nebula-award-winning,
Other have mentioned:
Clive Barker
He deserves to be remembered, if only for writing that rara avis: consistently intelligent, well-written horror.
Terry Pratchett
When I worked in an SF bookshop (that's a science fiction bookshop. In Dublin), Pratchett was consistently our best-sellign author. People with no interest in SF or fantasy would wander in for the latest, and even when spouses/SOs were wandering around, eyes glazed, they'd inevitably find themselves browsing the Pratchetts. I don't think anyone apart from Transworld realises exactly how popular he is.
Neal Stephenson
I'm going to commit heresy here. I think Stephenson is great, but not one of the greats. His books are all eminently readable, but most have been surpassed in their respective sub-genres (Read The Bohr Maker by Linda Nagata?). Crytonomicon is an exception, and not just cos it's the first novel I've read with embedded perl.
Aside: I suspect if someone ran the Cryptonomicon manuscript through Acme::Buffy, it'd still be better than all Buffy novels combined.
1. Greg Egan
2. Gene Wolfe
3. Bruce Sterling
4. Greg Bear
5. William Gibson
6. Vernor Vinge
7. Dan Simmons
8. Octavia Butler
9. Neal Stephenson
10.Howard Waldrop
Honorable mention: Stephen Baxter, Pat Cadigan, Ian McDonald, Rober Reed, Brian Stableford, Walter Jon Williams. Note: This list really only deals with writers who acheived prominance in the last 20 years or so. There's really little point in listing living legends like Fred Pohl, Arthur C. Clarke, or Harlan Ellison, who pretty much everyone agrees will still be remembered then. (For one thing, they've all won Hugos, and Hugo-winners tend to be reprinted.)
I've stuck to science fiction writers, so Stephen King, Clive Barker, Neil Gaiman, Sean Stewart and Joe R. Lansdale are all missing from this list, though I expect some of their work to still be read 50 years from now as well.
Another interesting question is which even newer writers do you expect to see make the cut. Some of my predictions: Patrick O'Leary, Mary Doria Russell, Linda Nagata, Ted Chiang.
Remember, science fiction is a genre with a good institutional memory. It's quite possible that one or two works from all the above will still be read, they way that people like Eric Frank Russell, C. M. Kornbluth and Frederic Brown have all had large reprint collections of their short fiction published in the last five years.
Lawrence Person (lawrencepersonh@gmailh.com (remove all "h"s to mail)
http://www.lawrenceperson.com/
I noticed a strange thing at my local used book store - Right after Douglas Adams died his books were moved from the 'Science Fiction/Fantasy' section to the 'literature' section.
..wierd.
I'm wondering what their thought process was on this one? 'Science Fiction/Fantasy' is not 'serious' enough? He's dead now, so his writing is classic literature?
air and light and time and space
Unfortunately relatively few scifi authors will stand the test of time. Not because there is anything wrong with scifi but because "nothing is so dated as yesterdays vision of tommorow." Too many scifi authors are just glorying in a clever "vision of tommorow" (or of the mythic 'past' in the case of fantasy) and are not using that vision as a medium to tell a great story or display any insight into larger truths. They will be entertaining and popular for a day and then quickly fade. I have read many of the authors mentioned in other comments and many were very entertaining but few of them will be read 50 years from now.
I have loved scifi since I was a kid, but I often stand before rack upon rack of scifi novels at the local bookstore despairing of finding anything truly worth the time it takes to read. More and more I have turned to the classics section to find novels that have already proven themselves over time. For obvious reasons there seems to be a higher "signal to noise ratio" in that corner of the bookstore, the writing is better, the stories are less shallow and if many of the themes are sometimes familiar it is because of all the cheap knockoffs I've read before, often from the scifi aisle. I'm sure that there are a few, maybe even a lot of books in the scifi section that would satisfy but finding them is frustrating among so much dreck.
If you havent read any of PKD before, try
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep
His most famous novel which inspired Blade Runner. A chilling futuristic story that demonstrates his creative genius.
Ubik
A great story of corporate intrigue where time moves backwards. Intensely psychological with unpredictable plot twists.
The Man In the High Castle
Dick's masterpiece which won the Hugo Award in 1963. A mind-bending novel which takes place in an America occupied by Axis forces. These are some of his strongest characters.
see http://www.philipkdick.com/main.htm
How many authors have an award named after them???
I'll start off with the following:
Zadie Smith : White Teeth. I predict this will be required reading in high school by the year 2020. If you haven't checked it out yet, I strongly urge you to do so.
Haruki Murakami : Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World . Really, just about any of his novels would suffice. This particular one is a blowing mixture of magic realism and science fiction.
Gabriel García Márquez : 100 Years of Solitude. He practically invented magic realism. Other than Tolkien, he's probably the most influential writer of the past fifty years.
Kazuo Ishiguro : The remains of the day. His writing is so precise, so exquisite, so flawless, I don't believe there has been an English-language novelist to compare. I actually prefer his The Unconsoled, but I don't think it has the same aura of classicism.
Stanislaw Lem : Memoirs found in a bathtub. I think this will stand the test of time as his most "excellent" book, even though gems like The Cyberiad and The Futurological Congress are undoubtedly greater crowd-pleasers.
There are two kinds of people: 1) those who start arrays with one and 1) those who start them with zero.
Although SF now seems like a narrow genre, time tends to wipe out such notions. Jules Verne comes to mind. His books are read by all sorts of people, not just the lame star trek crowd. The best work of any genre will eventually become part of the classic litterature.
Asimov's books on robots will always be relevant. The authors who use SF to illuminate the human character will be relevant. Orwell will be relevant. All the Star Wars/Star Trek offspring will sonn be forgotten. Most of the dragon and knight sort of fantasy will soon be gone. Too much of the SF/Fantasy litterature is like Barabara Cartland for people who don't care for bodice rippers. Just replace bodice for space suit, and horse-cart with space ship.
Another factor I would include in this, is how much read the author is today.
An old favorite of mine is Dickens. He was wildly popular in his time, but not considered very fine litterature. However, his penny novels have stood the test of time much better than his contemporary's, who wrote flat, boring pieces about the dilemmas of the upper classes. So when trying to pick out the classics of the future, one might want to look for similarities with Dickens.
Agatha Christie is another one. There are better mystery writers out there, but her name might be the only one remembered 300 years from now.
If I have to pick the Dickens of this century, it'll be Stephen King. His short stories are excellent. He writes pure fiction, and is not afraid to break some laws of nature. He is extremely productive, and a best-seller. Teh best-seller part is what surprises me a bit, since I usually try to stay away from the unwashed masses reading habits. I guess sometimes the unwashed masses are right. Or maybe they buy the books for the flashy ingredients, not realizing what gems they are. Some of his books dig deep into the human character. He does not try to please the literature critics and besser-wissers. He just wites and writes. Some of his books have a strange ending, but that was also the case for Dickens.
-- Another senseless waste of fine bytes.
Every highly moderated post so far has been some sci-fi or fantasy author. Yes, some of these authors probably will be read in fifty years, but not nearly as much as the "great" writers of the 20th century. A good corollary is music. Sure, people will still be listening to Black Sabbath and King Crimson in fifty years, but not nearly as many as will be listening to The Beatles and Bob Dylan. Why? Because that's the way music criticism has been running for the last thirty years, and it is showing no signs of changing directions. In order to understand why authors are still read fifty years after, you have to look at the critical direction. This shapes what is talked about, which shapes what is read, which shapes what is known in the future.
So I would say that in fifty years the most widely read authors of the 20th century will be:
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Ernest Hemingway
Vladimir Nabokov
T.S. Eliot
James Joyce
And probably a few others I've missed. This is the way modern criticism is shaping up, and, personally, I like it this way. Then again, a few of these could be dropped and a few added in the coming years. F. Scott Fitzgerald was not overly popular in his own time, and only became well respected when he was rediscovered in the late forties. Likewise, Shelley was practically worshipped as the greatest romantic poet for much of the 19th century, but his standing dropped dramatically with the "new criticism" of the early 20th century. This has already happened to a degree with Hemingway as he is now regarded as a bit sexist.
So yeah, some S/F is worthwhile and will be read in the future (I'd point to Dune and and LotR)...but the above authors will almost unquestionably be read.
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For those who are unfamiliar with Lem, I'd recommend starting with the Cyberiad, which is a collection of fables involving two robot builders. It's whimsical, witty, and accessible. My favorite, though, is the vastly different Solaris, which in some ways reminds me of Borges. For those unfamiliar with Borges, perhaps Labyrinths or Dreamtigers would be good starts. Borges' prose and poetry are dense, compact, and carefully wrought; fascinating as his themes are, it's his style that is most distinctive.
I don't have the spare brain cycles at the moment to talk much about either author, but you can find some decent Borges resources at Booklist.com. A google search should net some good Lem sites. Mainly, I just wanted to chime in my agreement with the parent post.
Not because he was especially profound - although he certainly was at times - but because his humor is universal despite the sf setting. I've bugged a lot of people who positively loath science fiction into reading the Hitchiker's series, and do you know what? They love it, all of them. This was the best of British and sf humor all combined by the brilliant mind of Douglas Adams, and I really can't imagine a time when people will stop saying to each other "Hey, this guy Doug Adams wrote some really funny stuff. Read it!"
I would also argue that this degree of absurdist, uniquely british humor in science fiction was really a new innovation of Douglas Adams, although I do know I'm on thin ice there.
As is obligatory in any post about Adams, I would like to close by saying that Douglas Adams most definatly was a man who always knew where his towel was, and his literature reflects that.
I'm the stranger...posting to
Sentimental clerk who's a DNA fan. Nothing wrong with that, mind you - I would have done the same thing - , but it has no deeper meaning.
I'm the stranger...posting to
:-) I don't know if anyone's going to be reading me in 50 years, and it's relatively low on the list of things I worry about, too.
I'm skeptical Gibson will be read in 50 years -- I suspect anyone writing computer-themed SF is going to seem awfully quaint by then. (Yeah, yeah, I know.)
Who will be read who's being published today? Larry McMurtry, if only because of Lonesome Dove. Terry Pratchett. John D. MacDonald isn't publishing today, technically, but people will still be reading him in 2051. Based on my children's response to Harry Potter (never mind the rest of the world's) J.K. Rowling will still be read in fifty years.
Finally, Ray Bradbury. New novel out at 80. He's my hero.
Other posters have already mentioned the important writers from the early half of the century. Let's not forget the more recent greats:
/.ers love will be remembered by the people who visit the 22nd century version of /., not by the masses. Of course, Tolkein will always be remembered.
Don Delillo (White Noise, Libra, Underworld)
Thomas Pynchon (Gravity's Rainbow, Crying of Lot 49)
William Gaddis (Recognitions, JR)
David Foster Wallace (Infinite Jest, his essays)
Haruki Murakami (already mentioned)
possibly Jonathan Franzen
Kurt Vonnegut (Cat's Cradle, Slaughterhouse-5, Mother Night )
John Barth
Philip Roth
In terms of sci-fi, I imagine selections from Heinlein, Asimov, Clarke, and Bradbury will be remembered. All those smaller audience books regular
The only true currency in this bankrupt world is what we share with someone else when we're uncool. -Crowe
"Jordan's Wheel of Time series, now up to 9 novels, has been, IMHO, more definitive of the modern fantasy genre than even Tolkien."
This is true, in the sense that it is overlong, not well designed, written repetitevly and childishly, and seems to have a financial motivation only. So yes, it is definitive of modern fantasy.
Tolkein is definitive of all fantasy, modern or not. Not only did his book define the fantasy genre (a genre heavily influenced by mythology and ancient cultures) it is a ripping good read as well.
The only true currency in this bankrupt world is what we share with someone else when we're uncool. -Crowe
erm.
I used to think so. But on a complete whim, I picked up the belgariad a few weeks ago and reread it. It was not at all as rich and complex as I had recalled. The plot was plodding, the characters dull. (*)
I guess it is a superbly written fantasy series for young adults, but it is NOT adult fiction.
For that, I prefer the Magician trilogy (first three books only, after that it becomes a franchise) by Raymond Fiest. I mean, a hero called "Pug". What name is less heroic than Pug?
(*) I failed to find the second quintology, so it could be that the depth I recall the series having was mainly taken from those books.
If the couple of centuries before the 20th were anything to go by, the most successful writers (and by that I mean sales and critical acclaim, whatever the genre) are not necessarily the ones still read 50 or 100 years after their death. Take the 19th century - one of the biggest selling novels in the 19th was East Lynn by Mrs Henry Woods (great name), sold millions of copies, and is now hardly in print (it's still worth reading - combination murder mystery/love story). Or one of the most prolific novelists of the 19thC, Mary Elizabeth Braddon, wrote 80 novels, almost all bestsellers, including a couple of huge sellers - Lady Audley's Secret being one. You'd be hard-pressed to find it in a bookshop these days. Some bestsellers do hang around, like Charles Dickens, but his contemporary Wilkie Collins was just as popular in his day, and doesn't have nearly as high profile as Dickens still has - the Woman in White and The Moonstone notwithstanding (both excellent).
Going further back (stop me if you're bored), The Mysteries of Udolpho (Mrs Radcliffe) was HUGE at the turn of the 19th century - so much so that Jane Austen wrote a parody of it (Northanger Abby). The parody's still in print, the original is very hard to find (and having read it, you don't want to find it, believe me).
And it's not just literature where this happens. GE Moore was one of the leading philosophers of the early 20th century, a colleague of Russell and Wittgenstein - and now barely rates a mention. Yet you can have someone like Nietzsche who was ignored during his lifetime, and yet is today probably more influential and widely-read than ever in academic circles.
The obvious point is that we just don't know who will be big in 50 to 100 years time (tho its fun to speculate), although it's almost worth betting that it *won't* be someone we've all heard of today. Other times look for other things from their art, and we can't guess what they'll be. As it says in The Go-Between: "The past is another country, they do things differently there." So's the future.
That aside I can't see too many writers around today (living) who'll still be big (and I mean Dickens/Joyce/Proust big) in 50-100 years. Peter Carey, the Australian who's just won another big prize, might do it: you sci-fi fiends out there should try his novel Illywacker, it's crazy. JK Rowling's Harry Potter books probably will. Toni Morrison, maybe. So long as Martin Amis is forgotten as quickly as possible.
Gotta go, it's Clemens v Schilling... Clemens will probably still be pitching in 50 years time.
Yeh, If by 'writing' you mean 'copy and pasting other people's work to kuro5hin'
ReadThe ReflectionEngine, a cyberpunk style n
Obligatory Author: Frank Herbet (Specifically Dune). I know he's dead, but it was premature and relatively (15 years) recently. He certainly is a writer of this era.
First of all, my thoughts here are strictly confined to authors who write in English of some form. As for the longevity of current authors I think almost none will be around in 50 years, other than those within the circles of the literati (eg Nobel and Booker prize winners). The problem will be that the volume of content will continue unabated and the new prose (particularly in SF) will drown out that written today.
The problem with SF is that there is little to recommend it as literature, the plots are often excellent (for example I love greg bear and a grandchild of mine would surely enjoy his work as much as I did, but I don't think they will read him) and the ideas great but of this masse, it is only those who famously tie themselves to a point in time in the future that end up being read at that time, particulalry since their lack of literary "quality" means that they will notbe taught in schools. I think we have moved into a phase where the near future offers barren ground for the current author (perhaps current events will alter that) and so few will stand the test of time.
I agree with a previous poster who mentioned Steinbeck (although he too is dead) and I think that Irving Welsh will be read in fifty years because he speaks to/of the chemical generation whose lives will be "interesting" at that time.
One of the great problems is the lack of social comment in "populist" literature. It is difficult to find the Dickens of the late 20th C (in fiction) whose well crafted books critique the wrongs of the society of the day, through metaphor and satire. For it is those authors who are sought out to try and understand a society for ehich we do not have a direct experience. The other problem is that literature is no longer the most accessible vehicle for that form of comment any more. Television and even music is the metaphoric record of today.
"The first thing to do when you find yourself in a hole is stop digging."