• SpiceDealer@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    7 days ago

    Without Dan Simmons and Hyperion, sci-fi literature would’ve been still been regarded as disposable paperbacks. Simmons did away with the trappings of early pulp sci-fi that held a shadow over the genre for many decades. Instead, Hyperion and Fall of Hyperion took the shape of the Western Canon and could be discussed as serious literature. Without spoiling too much, I remember reading the story of Sol Weintraub and his daughter and almost being brought to tears; something that no other book, regardless of genre, has done.

    Rest well, scribe. Asimov, Heinland, Clarke, Herbert and, of course, Keats. You’ll be in good company

    • Sergio@piefed.social
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      7 days ago

      Without Dan Simmons and Hyperion, sci-fi literature would’ve been still been regarded as disposable paperbacks. Simmons did away with the trappings of early pulp sci-fi that held a shadow over the genre for many decades. Instead, Hyperion and Fall of Hyperion took the shape of the Western Canon and could be discussed as serious literature.

      Hyperion was pretty good, but the 70s New Wave of science fiction had already done that: Ursula K. Le Guin, J. G. Ballard, Samuel Delany, etc. They deserve their credit.

      • tigeruppercut@lemmy.zip
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        6 days ago

        Hadn’t Bradbury already been doing a lot of that like 2 decades before? I guess it mentions him as a predecessor in that article, but if the movement is distinguished by “an emphasis on the psychological and social sciences as opposed to the physical sciences”, that sounds like Bradbury to a T.