State of the Project

[faustus]

For those who do not know, this is Solar Flares: A Cultural History of Science Fiction in the Seventies

Introduction: Pretty well done now.

1. The Dinosaur's Last Gasp: needs five hundred words on Sturgeon; Volume XIIII of the stories has arrived.
2. The New Wave: Ballard, Ellison and Harrison to be written; Ballard largely happens elsewhere, so a logical mess.
3. Beyond Apollo: c.400 words on Space: 1999 to do.
4. Big Dumb Objects: done
5. The Rise of Fantasy: done
6. Race: done, but needs some stuff on music.
7. Vietnam and the Counterculture: islands done, but not yet coalesced.
8. Post-Imperial Melancholy: done, only 200 words over.
9. Environmentalism: done, aside from the comet/meteor disasters adding
10. Feminism: pretty well done, but needs some pruning and stuff on Khatru and Joan! Vinge!
11. Homosexuality: a mess, and needs more written. 75% there.
12. Children's Fiction: still in progress and clearly a can of worms on the defining the genre front; 1200 words on animation, 1500 on books needed, which is not enough and compromises will need to made to avoid listomania. Have a pile of PDFs to read - must sort out the Kindle.
13. Chariots of the Gods: a couple of hundred words needed, and some rationalisation.
14. Architecture: done.
15. Blockbusters: done.
16. Metafiction and Postmodernism: done.

Epilogue: know what to write, but haven't -- clearer idea, and shorter than anticipated..


And meanwhile, in the next project (but ... two?) along department, I see that I have access to back issues of Futures, albeit only up to 2004. Still, the best part of forty years' worth of periodicals.