This is a terrific overview of the epic-style novel. I was blown away by Ministry for the Future's mode of storytelling, esp the info dumps. It reminded me of Victorian novels where you could get away with that kind of detail and digression. It also made me think (rather bitterly) that only a male writer could be spout off like that without the stern editor striking most of it away. This is by far a more generous interpretation.
Probably helps for KSR to be an established author, pushing this stuff that hard does make for something fairly strange.
A softer version of these techniques would be something like "Cloud Cuckoo Land" by Anthony Doerr. He does the Three Time Periods thing + a tiny bit of collage by adding in excerpts of a made up Greek text. That's much much more tame than Ministry for the Future. But it's the same impulse.
Interesting you bring up the Victorians. They might be going into that detail for a different reason, maybe... I'm still not sure yet (Realism/naturalism. Something I might cover in future, maybe).
This is a terrific overview of the epic-style novel. I was blown away by Ministry for the Future's mode of storytelling, esp the info dumps. It reminded me of Victorian novels where you could get away with that kind of detail and digression. It also made me think (rather bitterly) that only a male writer could be spout off like that without the stern editor striking most of it away. This is by far a more generous interpretation.
Probably helps for KSR to be an established author, pushing this stuff that hard does make for something fairly strange.
A softer version of these techniques would be something like "Cloud Cuckoo Land" by Anthony Doerr. He does the Three Time Periods thing + a tiny bit of collage by adding in excerpts of a made up Greek text. That's much much more tame than Ministry for the Future. But it's the same impulse.
Interesting you bring up the Victorians. They might be going into that detail for a different reason, maybe... I'm still not sure yet (Realism/naturalism. Something I might cover in future, maybe).