speculativejapan

Strange Horizons, a weekly speculatie fiction magazine, has posted a review of Speculative Japan by Niall Harrison. You all will enjoy this review.

 http://www.strangehorizons.com/reviews/2008/08/speculative_jap-comments.shtml

This is the gist of the first half of the New Wave/Speculative Fiction Panel Discussion which was held in Room 417 of Pacifico Yokohama on August 31st in 2007.

Mamoru Masuda: Thank you very much for coming to this Panel. First of all, I’d like to introduce Ms. Grania Davis who witnessed the birth and growth of New Wave. Ms. Davis, you made Milford Group with Damon Knight, Kate Wilhelm, and Judith Merril in 60s. And you were introduced to Japanese science fiction in 70s by Judith Merril, who welcomed you as a co-editor for a projected anthology of Japanese Science Fiction. And recently, you became a co-editor of an anthology “Speculative Japan” and you are making efforts to introduce JSF to the world. What makes you keep doing such a wonderful activities?

Grania Davis: I first encountered the term “New Wave” in London in the mid 1960s. At that time the famous writer and editor, Judith Merril was living and working in London, and I went to visit her. She introduced me to her friends there, including Michael Moorcock, Thomas Disch, and John Sladek, who later became famous as New Wave writers, but the concept of a New Wave movement was just beginning.
Later I came to Japan, again in the footsteps of Judith Merril, and I met Yamano-san, who was leading the New Wave group and publishing a New Wave magazine in Japan. I was excited to see New Wave rising in Japan.
What characterizes New Wave to me, is the way it sweeps like a big-wave tsunami, and changes the whole landscape. And waves don’t stop, so what we called New Wave in the 60s and 70s is now old wave, and has been replaced by movements like Cyberpunk, which become the New Wave of today.
As to the writing itself, mainstream SF is primarily action-driven. What we call New Wave tends to be more idea-and-mood-driven, which I think characterizes Japanese SF. So I’m eager to read more Japanese New Wave SF in translation.