Eighty-five authors have signed a letter of protest complaining about the BBC’s treatment of genre fiction during last month’s World Book Night, which was covered by the TV station
The signatories to this letter – which was handed to the Mark Thompson, Director General of the BBC – includes many fantasy, science fiction and horror authors ranging from Iain Banks to Michael Moorcock.
The BBC programming which has raised their complaint was the state-sponsored television channel’s coverage of fiction during World Book Night, with programmes including The Books We Really Read: a Culture Show Special and New Novelists: 12 of the Best which went out on BBC2 on the 5th March 2011.
“The sneering tone that was levelled towards commercial fiction during The Books We Really Read was deeply counterproductive to the night’s aims of actually encouraging people to read novels. The weight that was given to the single sub-genre of literary fiction in the remaining programmes was unbalanced and unrepresentative of all but a small fraction of the country’s reading tastes. And closest to my own heart, the failure to feature a single work from the three genres of horror, fantasy, and science fiction was a disgrace. The official World Book Night list included Philip Pullman’s fantasy novel, Northern Lights. It is a shame the BBC could not.
“There have been weeks when one in three books sold in the UK were Harry Potter novels, or more recently, Twilight novels. The sweeping under the carpet of the very genres of the imagination which engage and fire readers’ minds shows a lot more about the BBC production team’s taste in fiction than it does about what the general public is actually reading. If the BBC really wishes to support reading in this country, then they should produce a literary version of The Film Programme, or commission a modern updating of the Bookworm show that had Griff Rhys Jones as its lead presenter in the ’90s. A series with a mainstream slot. Then perhaps the BBC can do what it said on the tin the first time around: cover the books we really read,” comments fantasy author Stephen Hunt, who organised the protest.
The list of writers supporting the petition are:
- Kevin J Anderson
- Neal Asher
- Iain M Banks
- Greg Bear
- Jacey Bedford
- Gregory Benford
- Michael Bishop
- S J Bolton
- David Brin
- Michael S. Brotherton
- John Brown
- Ramsey Campbell
- Gail Carriger
- Mark Charan Newton
- Michael Cobley
- Diane Duane
- Kevin Duffy
- Steven Erikson
- Geraldine Evans
- Russell B. Farr
- Matt Forbeck
- Gregory Frost
- Gary Gibson
- Linda Gillard
- Felix Gilman
- Debi Gliori
- Alison Goodman
- Joe Haldeman
- Elizabeth Hand
- Steve Haynes
- John Helfers
- John Hemry
- Jack Hessey
- Liz Holliday
- Matthew Hughes
- Stephen Hunt
- Jasper Kent
- Kay Kenyon
- M. D. Lachlan
- Jay Lake
- David Langford
- Bob Lock
- James Lovegrove
- Jonathan Maberry
- David Mack
- Juliet Marillier
- Ian McDonald
- Juliet E McKenna
- Karen Miller
- L. E. Modesitt, Jr.
- Elizabeth Moon
- Michael Moorcock
- Theresa M. Moore
- Yvonne Navarro
- Stan Nicholls
- Larry Niven
- Jonathan Oliver
- Phil Palmer
- Steve Parker
- Tamora Pierce
- Jonathan Pinnock
- Phyllis Irene Radford (writing as P.R. Frost/C.F. Bentley)
- Robert V.S. Redick
- Kit Reed
- Mike Resnick
- Adam Roberts
- Steven Savile
- Robert J. Sawyer
- Ann Scarborough
- Michael Shea
- Lucius Shepard
- Michael Marshall Smith
- S.M. Stirling
- Charlie Stross
- Stephen Sullivan
- Michael Swanwick
- Harry Turtledove
- Robert E. Vardeman
- Tim Waggoner
- Ian Watson
- Simon West-Bulford
- Sean Williams
- Walter Jon Williams
- Geoff Willmetts
- Jane Yolen
I didn’t catch this TV show (too busy reading to watch much TV at the moment) but if anyone out there did, let us know what you thought by leaving a comment below.
We have the same problem in Canada as it appears exists in Britain. If the CBC says its wonderful that’s what we all must accept. No matter that the work contains limited entertainment value/oblique and incomprehensable verse/and creates a fantasty that has nothing to do with our actual society, if the CBC says its wonderful than that is what will be promoted.
Do these institutions not understand why the publishers that follow their lead all go broke or can not survive without funding from the same group that funds them?
Dave
http://www.dmmcgowan.blogspot.com
I gave up on this weeks before the event took place – I didn’t watch this programme because the build-up to the event turned me completely off the whole thing. However, I did watch the Culture Show programme where they chose the books – we were given a heads-up some weeks before – ‘watch the Culture Show to find out how I could apply and be able to give away 50 of my favourite books’, brilliant! Hmmm, well no, not really – what they meant was that a panel of worthies would choose a selection of books and make a list – then you could apply to be sent 50 copies of one of these books and then give copies away to anyone who wanted them. This would then encourage people to go out and find something else to read and/or buy books. No it wouldn’t. why couldn’t the panellists recommend something they’d read recently and enjoyed?
Libraries are going through a very rough time at the moment, keep with me, they have to provide thousands of books and are still losing customers, what would happen if they only had 50 books for you to choose from? I choose a book in a library by reading the blurb, by liking the cover, by looking for another by the same author, etc. etc NOT by consulting a panel of people. Books are very personal, VERY personal. What makes you choose a certain book? That very thing will turn someone else away from reading it, that’s a choice you can and should make. By making a limited list you do not encourage people to go out looking for more books. By making such a limited list you are telling people whose favourite book isn’t on your list that their choice of something to read isn’t right, isn’t literary enough, isn’t ‘suitable’ – how patronising. When I watched the panel I felt so disappointed – unfortunately I can’t remember anyone who was on it but I think they were authors, literary figures, extremely educated people, the usual suspects – and I felt so sad for them, it was all so erudute and boring. I’d be astonished if anyone was encouraged to read by these deliberations.
I like to read special parts of books again, moments that I found moving, funny, etc. sadly, no-one spoke of anything like this, no one offered any moment from a book they had engaged with – there was no joy.
Pat
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I think I can understand the hurt, the disappointment that the coverage of an event heavily promoted by the fantasy genre did not feature a single author from the fantasy genre. It stings, it makes people angry, it makes people want to write petitions and demand equality.
Lets look at this from the BBC point of view, they are just trying to market and sell a TV show in a way that they think will get them the most viewers. It does not seem to me to be an agenda against the fantasy genre, it is selling a product based on the perception that most people in the UK are reading mainstream fiction rather than fantasy. Besides that, the BBC has been one of the staunchest supporters of the fantasy genre in the UK and without them we would not have great fantasy television such as Doctor Who, Torchwood, Merlin, Being Human, etc.
So as a fantasy community what do we do? Do we all sign a petition demanding recognition, or do we try to understand why the perception exists that more people are reading mainstream fiction? I’m not sure what this petition is trying to achieve but it may do more harm than good. Sure people are angry but lets respond by promoting our works rather than deriding the very station that has given and continues to give us a great deal of support.