Comments on: I’m Not Getting Back In The Van Until You Say We’re Prog

By: Jason Hillenburg

Jason Hillenburg — Sun, 01 Jul 2012 21:57:32 +0000

Definition of EPITHET
1
a : a characterizing word or phrase accompanying or occurring in place of the name of a person or thing b : a disparaging or abusive word or phrase
c : the part of a taxonomic name identifying a subordinate unit within a genus

From Merriam-Webster.

By: Tim Hall

Tim Hall — Sun, 01 Jul 2012 20:49:02 +0000

T’wasn’t me!.

By: treefrogdemon

treefrogdemon — Sun, 01 Jul 2012 20:28:16 +0000

Um, ‘epithet’ just means ‘adjective’ you guys.

By: Tim Hall

Tim Hall — Thu, 28 Jun 2012 16:26:41 +0000

That attitude is slowly dying, though. Anyone nowadays who dismisses “prog” out of hand probably hasn’t heard much of the actual music, and is simply repeating second-hand received opinion.

By: Jason Hillenburg

Jason Hillenburg — Thu, 28 Jun 2012 16:09:31 +0000

Fantastic post, I couldn’t agree more. The self-appointed Rolling Stone, et al, critical elite turned the label into a epithet long, long ago and the lingering effects of that can be charted in a variety of ways, including the RRHOF’s continuing neglect of bands like Rush, Yes, Jethro Tull, Hawkwind, etc. This continuing neglect further strengthens any arguments that this critical elite and their house organ, RS, are much more interested in throwing an industry party rather than objectively recognizing substantive artistic achievement.

By: Tim Hall

Tim Hall — Sun, 10 Jun 2012 21:30:44 +0000

I’ve very deliberately avoided naming any names in this post.

Is Robert Fripp being such a luddite that King Crimson are CD-only? Not even available in audiophile geek formats like FLAC?

By: bethnoir

bethnoir — Sun, 10 Jun 2012 21:25:00 +0000

was there a particular band you were thinking of Tim, or do you not want to name and shame?
It’s beyond me really, I exist only on the fringes, I’ve only just discovered that I can’t download any King Crimson legally (I want to pay for it!), but I am familiar with the idea from being in the world of goth.

By: Serdar

Serdar — Sun, 10 Jun 2012 14:31:02 +0000

Thankfully, most of this kind of labeling re: SF, it seems, has become confined to the domain of the likes of pug-nosed columnists in The Daily Mail (or, on this side of the pond, the National Review).

That said, while there’s a lot less compulsive use of the word “SF” as an epithet, there’s still not a lot of close review of SF by “mainstream” literary critics. They only engage with it in retrospect, after it’s been safely absorbed and digested. To wit: Philip K. Dick, who couldn’t get two inches of column space when he was alive and now gets regular encomiums to his genius.

By: Tim Hall

Tim Hall — Sat, 09 Jun 2012 12:01:07 +0000

Indeed.

“Talking squids in space” is the exact equivalent of “ten minute bass solos and concept albums about Hobbits”, an inability to see beyond laughably inaccurate stereotypical clichÃ©s.

See also some “mainstream” literary critics who use “Science fiction” as an insult to mean “ludicrous or implausible plotting or characterisation”, which displays a complete ignorance of what science fiction is.

By: Serdar

Serdar — Sat, 09 Jun 2012 00:18:47 +0000

Why does this also remind me of writers nominally labeled as SF who go berserk if you call them same? Or writers of what could not be called anything but fantasy who go ballistic if you … eh, you get the idea.