Focusing on a very very minor aspect of a review

[james_davis_nicoll]

First, let’s dismiss three of the stories – ‘Sustainable Development’, ‘Seeds’ and ‘Scheherazade Caught in Starlight’ – as being too short to be worthy of discussion.

Comments

[actsofminortreason.blogspot.com (from livejournal.com)]

Is buddy seriously suggesting that since only one of the stories in Shine is set in the States, that's a WEAKNESS? Gosh, it's about time someone stood up and argued the necessity to get more stories about Brave Americans doing Brave Things out there.

[al-zorra.livejournal.com]

"Perhaps the BRIC countries will one day really rise to the superpower status that has been predicted for them but at the moment, the US remains the dominant global power."

Isn't it the BRICs that are bailing out the Euro Zone banks? The U.S. can't? Maybe I am mistaken on this or speaking too soon?

Love, C.

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

Contributing to the bailout, I think. If I recall the sums involved - if only technology allowed me to easily search to confirm this! - it's more a declaration of increased influence than a sum large enough to be that useful.

Numbers

[mindstalk.livejournal.com]

Quoting myself:

Given the relative sizes of the economies it does seem like a total publicity stunt. Well, maybe some actual help for Portugal

Country GDP $trillion

Germany >3
France, Italy >2 each
Brazil: 1.6
Spain: 1.5
India: 1.4
Russia: 1.2

Netherlands: .792
Indonesia: .54
Greece: .33
South Africa: .285
Portugal: .234
Ireland: .227

China: >5

Apart from China, the BRICS "powers" are on the order of the smaller core nations or even the euro periphery.

Total BRICS GDP might be on the order of the eurozone, but most of that is China, plus including Indonesia for BRIICS. Of course, if we look at GDP per capita even Portugal and Greece are far wealthier than any BRIC.

Addendum: by population, IC have massive potential, followed distantly by Indonesia, and then BR. South Africa's not even in the running. But realizing that potential... India GDP/capita is $1000, or maybe $3000 PPP. And after 60+ years of independence and democracy, the literacy rate is still only 74%. Youth literacy 82%.

[burger-eater.livejournal.com]

How short *are* those stories?

[twoeleven.livejournal.com]

The only one the reviewer deigns to tell us the length of is "Scheherazade Caught in Starlight", which is "about 500 words".

I keep forgetting that quantity, not quality, is the true measure of a work of fiction.

[burger-eater.livejournal.com]

Huh. Should the same standard apply to blog posts? Because James wouldn't have any comments at all over the past year.

[matgb]

Apart from that he linked to his reviews of all three and while he doesn't word count does say why he found the short length unsatisfying in them?

There are some damn fine very short works. In Martin's opinion, these aren't amongst them. Not having read them I can't tell, but his description doesn't sell me on them.

[actsofminortreason.blogspot.com (from livejournal.com)]

Four pages, six and a half pages, and three pages respectively - so all less than 2,000 words definitely, I'd imagine, but I'm not going to count them up myself. Though "Scheherazade Caught in Starlight" was the only one that felt a bit off to me because of the length.

[zibblsnrt.livejournal.com]

I'm kind of curious about the "fundamental misunderstanding of literature" he's talking about too.

Then again, lines like that are usually the point where I stop paying attention to what someone's got to say.

[ninebelow.livejournal.com]

Not much of a mystery, it is set out in the introductory piece:

But there is a much bigger problem here, the idea that fiction should be “effective” and should attempt to solve problems. I disagree with this at a conceptual level; fiction is art, not engineering. I do think fiction should discuss, debate and criticise problems but, of course, this is exactly what it does do, regardless of whether it is pessimistic or optimistic. It is not the job of criticism to be constructive, unless that is what is being paid for (last time I checked, the SF community wasn’t a think tank).

[tekalynn.livejournal.com]

I assume that the reviewer is not a Forrest J. Ackerman fan?

[daev.livejournal.com]

I think you are misreading that sentence. They are not too short to be good stories. They are too short to be worth reviewing. There's not much one can say about them besides "good story, you should read it!"

[frogworth.livejournal.com]

Rather disingenuous quote-mining, James, given that he did review all three of them.
They're so short that those tiny (and sure, dismissive) reviews don't warrant further discussion in his summation blogpost. Fair enough.