Talk:New Wave (science fiction)

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The content of New Wave rejected the core concerns of traditional science fiction ("outer space"), in favour of a focus on taboo breaking and a more people focused approach ("innerspace").

That's a bit glib. Certainly, a lot of the "New Wave" also took place in outer space; what sets it apart are both style and theme. This line implies that it's a matter of setting; I don't think "outer space" can be called the theme of most older SF.

Overall I don't think this article does a good job conveying what "New Wave" SF is. A quick google turned up this this article which does so quite nicely. --Starwed

This whole article needs a lot of work. Recommend a "clean-up" flag be put on. I don't consider myself knowledgeable enough on the subject to really tackle it, but I'll aim to at least clean up some of the grammar over the next few days.--216.43.17.100 20:25, 25 May 2006 (UTC)

The article makes the common error (at least as seen from one prominent POV, e.g. that of Samuel R. Delany) of retrospectively lumping in a whole lot of stuff that was not part of the New Wave at the time. At the least, we need to distinguish carefully between the "New Wave proper" (centered on New Worlds under the editorship of Moorcock, with Ballard and Aldiss as its most prominent exponents) and the "New Wave in an extended sense", which could include developments in sf publishing in the US and elsewhere (notably Ellison's Dangerous Visions anthologies). Even if we look at that "extended sense", it is pretty controversial to claim Le Guin as part of the New Wave. Metamagician3000 08:00, 13 August 2006 (UTC)

Contents 1 Grammar 2 Played out? 3 Ratings 4 New Wave in Comics

[edit] Grammar

The following paragraph is more than usually unintelligible, even for Wikipedia, with incomplete sentences and antecedentless references. I'm leaving it here until somebody figures out what it is supposed to mean and corrects it-- RandomCritic 13:52, 28 February 2006 (UTC) :

"Though not identified with the New Wave or any other literary movement, the American anthology series Orbit, edited by Damon Knight. The later New Wave-influenced writers Gardner Dozois and Jack Dann would get published here. Orbit serve as a latter-day showcase of experimental science fiction, to relatively little notice. New Worlds itself ended its days as a paperback anthology, rather than a magazine."

[edit] Played out?

I have removed the line below because it is simply patently ridiculous. Played out? Important only to academics? I guess thats why Ursula Leguin, Michael Moorcock, and Harlan Ellison have continued on to very successful science fiction careers and are extremely well known, because they were "played out". Regardless of what one thinks of the New Wave, and that it arguably DID peak in the mid 70's, its absurd to state that the genre was somehow unpopular, little thought of by general readers, and irrelevent to the larger scene.

, the year the war ended, it was played out. Most of its fruits proved to be more interesting to academics and literary theorists than actual readers

SiberioS 18:06, 30 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Ratings

I am rating this class B and importance = high. This article could be improved by adding more references or further reading and by footnoting specific items. - PKM 02:40, 6 February 2007 (UTC)

I think B is a bit generous; there is only one reference, no citations, and it's a pretty unbalanced treatment of the topic. I changed it to Start-class.--ragesoss 22:54, 12 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] New Wave in Comics

It occurs to me that there are clear elements of New Wave in science fiction comics of the 70s, especially the French comics published in Metal Hurlant such as Moebius' work (Arzach, The Airtight Garage--which used the character Jerry Cornelius created by Michael Moorcock--and somewhat later The Incal with Jodorowsky), but also less experimental titles such as Valerian and Laureline. Michael Moorcock's other character, Elric, appeared in issues of Conan starting in 1972. I don't feel that I know enough about it to add it to the article, but at least this comment will stand as a reminder. -Snarkibartfast (talk) 15:39, 26 May 2008 (UTC)