Marxism and science fiction

I am still puzzling my way through my response to Istvan Csicsery-Ronay Jr’s The Seven Beauties of Science Fiction. It is, I think, a necessary if somewhat belated corrective to the Marxist/Suvinian orthodoxy that is the common academic response to science fiction, in that he eases back on cognitive estrangement and is actually quite radical in his re-evaluation of the novum. But I’m still not sure that he goes far enough.

Language and Power

It is becoming clear that reading The Seven Beauties of Science Fiction by Istvan Csicsery-Ronay, Jr is going to take a long time. Not because it is a difficult book; he uses rather more academic jargon than I think he realises, but it is not off-putting or impenetrable. No, the problem is that after just about every paragraph I have to stop and think, and then work my way through the various extraneous ideas that he has set going in my mind.