Archive for the ‘Sharon Jarvis’ Category
Inside Outer Space (Essays)
Posted on: November 17, 2014
Inside Outer Space: Science Fiction Professionals Look at Their Craft, edited by Sharon Jarvis
published in 1985
where i got it: friend gave it to me
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My friends know I’m drawn towards the obscure, and they also know I really like the “behind the scenes” of everything. A friend found the perfect gift for me: an obscure book of essays by spec fic professionals, published in 1985. What value is there in a book of essays from 30 years ago? More than you’d think. Editor Sharon Jarvis curated a short list that included her friends and a few authors she’d been referred to. She assigned people to write on a topic such as humor, or war, or fandom, or small presses, told them approximately how many pages she wanted, and left them to it. The resulting essays from luminaries like C.J. Cherryh, Marion Zimmer Bradley, George Alec Effinger, Parke Godwin, Ron Goulart and others are more like having a casual conversation with someone, or listening in on an unscripted panel discussion, rather than reading a manicured essay. They are completely casual, with the authors being completely comfortable calling out people they disagree with (most notably, Harlan Ellison, who everyone wants to pick on).
I picked this book up completely on a lark, I needed something read while waiting for something else to happen. Something I could put down at any moment, something with short little bursts of information seemed perfect. Well, the first essay was addictive and hilarious, so I kept reading, long after the stuff that I was waiting for had happened. So why was a book of essays from 1985 so intriguing? Because it felt like a time capsule. And of course I was intrigued to see what had changed in 30 years, and what really hadn’t. Some conversations we are still having, and some we *should* still be having.
the Little Red Reviewer 
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