At the Forefront of Madness

Being a fairly prolific short story writer, I’ve noticed something rather strange happening in the last couple of years: I’m at the forefront of a lot of so-called “movements” in genre fiction. What does it all mean? Why me? And how do I opt out? I first noticed this phenomenon when my story, “How to Make Paper Airplanes” appeared in the Mundane SF issue of Interzone. Mundane SF! Has there ever been a manifesto destined to annoy more SF fans? And somehow, my story opened the issue – did it mean I was from then on Mundane? Would they, in fifty years time, hold a House Committee on Un-Science Fictional Activities and someone would snitch them my name and I would have to go to Washington to explain why I was sighed up to the Communist Party Mundane SF? And now there’s Shine, Jetse de Vries’ anthology of Optimistic SF. I have a story in there too. Does it mean I believe in a shiny science fictional future where we’ll all live in Gaia mind-melds and convert faeces into nuclear power with our minds? Am I morally right in joining the movement? What will I do in fifty years’ time, when the Earth is a wasteland and the Dutch aliens have taken over the world? And then there’s Interfictions II, an anthology from the dark cabal with the unlikely name of The Interstitial Arts Foundation. Don’t mess with the IAF! They have agents who come knocking on your door at night, and if you incur their wrath you’ll never be seen or heard from again... What’s it all about? What the hell is interstitial? Is it infectious? Is there a cure? What am I doing here?? Science fiction has always been overly attracted to manifestos. Let’s make our own group within this group! We’re not the Judean People’s Front, we’re the People’s Front of Judea! So what shall I do next? What’s the next big thing? Post-post-singularity? Retro-Cyberpunk? Mega-interstitiality? I don’t know, but I like to get paid, and so I might just join the next revolution – and the next – and the next... or end up first against the wall when the real revolution comes. But I always felt kind of sad I missed out on cyberpunk. And the New Wave was kinda cool, and the drugs were better then. And what about New Weird? I mean, seriously – what about New Weird? I’m going to put on my mirrorshades – spend some time in Inner Space – go space opera, or New Space Opera, or so-new-it’s-not-even-here-yet space opera – go Mundane – go optimistic – go zombie infestation – go cosy apocalypse – go where no one has gone before – maybe go a little mad... So what do you think? What’s the Next Big Thing? Suggestions will win chocolate – or might just earn you a visit from the IAF...Lavie Tidhar is the author of linked-story collection HebrewPunk (2007), novellas An Occupation of Angels (2005), Cloud Permutations (2009) and Gorel & The Pot-Bellied God (2010) and, with Nir Yaniv, of The Tel Aviv Dossier (2009). He’s lived on three continents and one island-nation, and currently lives in South East Asia. His first novel, The Bookman, will be published by HarperCollins’ new Angry Robot imprint in 2010, and will be followed by two more.