I finished reading
The Void Captain's Tale by Norman Spinrad last evening. It's one of those books that somewhat intimidates me as an aspiring author, because it's so far removed from what I myself am capable of writing. Not necessarily
better, mind you, just...different. But amazing.
If you haven't read the novel, and you're a fan at all of speculative fiction (and you don't mind words like "yoni" and "tantric"), you really should check it out. Yes, the story is heavy on exposition and soul-searching inner dialogue. Sure, it's really a short story expanded to short novel length by glacially slow pacing through much of the plot. And of course, there are some glaring holes in the logic of the world Spinrad created. But the prose, for me, is spectacular.
Spinrad's writing is so densely packed that it takes an investment of time to get through it, and, more importantly, to understand it. In places, the prose borders on poetry—but it's a sort of Einsteinian poetry that held me riveted. Nothing but five-dollar words here, glued together with bits and pieces of German and Spanish (comprehensible even if you don't speak either language), coating ideas which can be quite perspective-enhancing. There's no way I could write like this.
Of course, were I to write like this, there's no way I could sell it, either.
Now, this was not Spinrad's first novel. Still, I think
he might be hard-pressed to sell it today (and it was a Nebula Award nominee). I've
wrung my hands before about how my major writing influences might not be as publishable today as they were when I first read them twenty or thirty years ago—Asimov, Zelazny, Adams,
und so weiter. In such a short time (in literary sprach), the expectations of the general readership have changed. The challenge for me is to include the best of what made them great in my writing, while making my writing my own—and making it relevant for my [imagined, potential] readers.
No, there's no way I could write a book like Spinrad's. But I trust my prose will prove unique in its own way, and I write on...