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    Aurealis #114
    Aurealis #114
    Aurealis #114
    Ebook131 pages1 hour

    Aurealis #114

    By Dirk Strasser (Editor)

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    About this ebook

    In this issue Dirk Strasser looks at the recent Genre Effect study which exposes a self-fulfilling bias among literary readers against science fiction. Sarah Napier’s story, ‘Fail’, is an uncompromising near future examination of how we might deal with virtual infidelity in the face of ever-evolving technologies. In ‘A Figure in the Haze’, Rebecca Boyle explores the horror of ordinary people being lured into corruption and how they rationalise their actions, while James Rowland’s ‘The Glassblower's Peace’ conjures some unusual magic in Renaissance Venice. In our non-fiction Gillian Polack walks the Australian Gothic trail, Lachlan Walter explores psychological science fiction and our fascination with inner space, and the usual reviews of recently-released speculative fiction books round off this issue.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherChimaera Publications
    Release dateSep 4, 2018
    ISBN9781922031716
    Aurealis #114
    Author

    Dirk Strasser (Editor)

    Dirk Strasser has written over 30 books for major publishers in Australia and has been editing magazines and anthologies since 1990. He won a Ditmar for Best Professional Achievement and has been short-listed for the Aurealis and Ditmar Awards a number of times. His fantasy novels – including Zenith and Equinox – were originally published by Pan Macmillan in Australia and Heyne Verlag in Germany. His children’s horror/fantasy novel, Graffiti, was published by Scholastic. His short fiction has been translated into a number of languages, and his most recent publications are “The Jesus Particle” in Cosmos magazine, “Stories of the Sand” in Realms of Fantasy and “The Vigilant” in Fantasy magazine. He founded the Aurealis Awards and has co-published Aurealis magazine for over 20 years.

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      Book preview

      Aurealis #114 - Dirk Strasser (Editor)

      AUREALIS #114

      Edited by Dirk Strasser

      Published by Chimaera Publications at Smashwords

      Copyright of this compilation Chimaera Publications 2018

      Copyright on each story remains with the contributor

      EPUB version ISBN 978-1-922031-71-6

      ISSN 2200-307X (electronic)

      CHIMAERA PUBLICATIONS

      Smashwords Edition License Notes

      This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of the authors, editors and artists.

      Hard copy back issues of Aurealis can be obtained from the Aurealis website: www.aurealis.com.au

      Contents

      From the Cloud—Dirk Strasser

      Fail—Sarah Napier

      A Figure in the Haze—Rebecca Boyle

      The Glassblower’s Peace—James Rowland

      The Gothic Trail – The Guardian’s Place in Australian Gothic Tradition —Gillian Polack

      Psychological Science Fiction and Our Fascination with Inner Space —Lachlan Walter

      Reviews

      Next Issue

      Credits

      From the Cloud

      Dirks Strasser

      A number of years ago, when Aurealis was a print-only magazine, we regularly applied for grants from various bodies such as the Australia Council and Arts Victoria. We were competing for funding with well-established literary magazines such as Meanjin, Overland and Quadrant. The funding always went directly to increasing author payment levels, so we felt it was worth the effort. It was always a difficult and time-consuming process to fulfil all the requirements of an application. We were successful on five occasions, but we also had a long string of unsuccessful applications. The biggest sticking point was always the requirement to demonstrate ‘literary merit.’ Surely only a reading of the stories can demonstrate that.

      But that’s where a magazine of fantasy and science fiction is at a distinct disadvantage.

      At the end of 2017 the results of a research project called The Genre Effect study were published in the journal Scientific Study of Literature. It was undertaken by Professors Chris Gavaler and Dan Johnson from Washington and Lee University.

      Around 150 participants were given a text of 1000 words to read. Half were given a ‘literary’ version of the text and the other a ‘science fiction’ version. The texts were identical except in the literary version, the main character enters a diner while in the science fiction version, he enters a galley in a space station inhabited by aliens and androids as well as humans. The only differences between the two were setting-related. For example, the literary version used the word ‘door’ and the science fiction version used the word ‘airlock.’

      After the reading, the participants were asked to comment on the literary merit of the story they had read. They were asked how much effort they spent trying to work out what the characters were feeling, and how much they agreed with statements such as ‘I felt like I could put myself in the shoes of the character in the story.’

      The study exposed a self-fulfilling bias among literary readers against science fiction, demonstrating that science fiction is currently still unfairly viewed in academia.

      Here are some of the results from the study:

      ‘Converting the text’s world to science fiction dramatically reduced perceptions of literary quality, despite the fact participants were reading the same story in terms of plot and character relationships.’ The readers of the science fiction version generally scored lower in comprehension. They ‘reported exerting greater effort to understand the world of the story, but less effort to understand the minds of the characters.’

      The professors also reported that readers of the science fiction version of the story ‘appear to have expected an overall simpler story to comprehend, an expectation that overrode the actual qualities of the story itself… the science fiction setting triggered poorer overall reading and appears to predispose readers to a less effortful and comprehending mode of reading—or what we might term non-literary reading—regardless of the actual intrinsic difficulty of the text.’

      Professor Gavaler says, ‘those who are biased against SF, thinking of it as an inferior genre of fiction, they assume the story will be less worthwhile, one that doesn’t require or reward careful reading, and so they read less attentively… It’s a self-fulfilling bias—except we can now show objectively that the weakness is with the reader, not the story itself.’ He adds, ‘if you’re stupid enough to be biased against SF you will read SF stupidly.’ He is interested in exploring this Genre Effect further and discovering whether fantasy tropes such as a sorcerer’s wand would have similar effects on readers.

      These results are not a surprise to those of us who have been involved in science fiction publishing over the years and explains the issues we had when applying for grants in the past. As Professor Gavaler says, while it’s disappointing that these biases exist, at least now they’ve been exposed.

      All the best from the cloud.

      Dirk Strasser

      www.dirkstrasser.com

      Back to Contents

      Fail

      Sarah Napier

      Some days, you just shouldn’t come into work.

      The lift opens; Nate rushes out towards the glass doors. As he enters the office with its corporate grey and navy hues, nervous tension hits him like an icy wind. Powering across the grey carpet, he passes dozens of suited men and women hunched stiffly over open-plan desks, hammering clients over the phone, strained faces, permanent worry lines between their eyebrows.

      Double-glazed windows fail to block out the dull hum of London traffic that assaults the ear, a reminder of the chaos and battle on the streets nineteen stories below.

      ‘Alright Nate?’ says Gary, a scrawny, pale lad with a shaved head. ‘Got time for a quick natter?’

      ‘Not now,’ says Nate, without slowing down.

      He reaches the conference room and gently opens the door, slipping through the gap. A large, rectangular window beside a conference table overlooks an array of tinted high-rise office windows. The Thames can be glimpsed in the distance through light rain and London smog. Nate’s discretion is useless; several people, seated around the conference table, glance up as he enters.

      As usual Mr Burnham is at the head: expensive suit, protruding gut, grey, receding hair. As usual, when he spots Nate an expression crosses his face as if someone just farted.

      ‘You’re late.’

      ‘Roads were hell this morning,’ says Nate with his South London twang.

      ‘Aren’t they always with you?’

      Nate finds an empty chair.

      ‘Don’t bother sitting down,’ says Burnham.

      Nate slowly straightens up. He is the only person in the room standing. ‘Is something wrong Mr Burnham?’

      ‘I read your report. Now let me ask you something Nate.’ His plummy voice grates Nate’s nerves. ‘Are you lazy or do you think you’re better than all of us, so you don’t have to work as hard?’ Through the bags of loose skin Burnham’s eyes burn with disdain.

      Nate shoots a glance around the room; the staring faces are relentless. ‘I… thought I did a good job on the report.’

      ‘Perhaps you’ve been smoking too many reefers then, Nate?’

      A couple of people chuckle under their breath.

      Nate grinds his teeth. Because I’m Jamaican. He feels heat brewing inside his chest as his shoulders tense up. ‘Actually, I don’t smoke, Mr Burnham.’

      ‘Let me tell you Nate…’ Spittle is gathering at the corners of Burnham’s wrinkled mouth. ‘We don’t have time for stoned, no-hopers here.’

      Nate finds himself hurling onto the conference table, launching at Burnham. Burnham and his chair crash to the floor. Nate is on top of him, heat now pulsing violently at his temples. There are gasps and screams in the room. A roaring sound bellows out Nate’s mouth as he punches Burnham in the jaw, then his cheek. ‘You tosser!’

      Burnham groans and gasps for air as Nate’s fist makes another thud on his chubby face.

      Nate feels hands grab him from behind, but grunts and shoves them off,

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