Originality: Feh, Who Needs It?

Published: Jan. 2, 2020, 5 p.m.

b'RS Benedict talks to Stephen Mazur, Assistant Editor of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, about originality. How important is it, really? Readers and editors say they crave original stories, but much of our pop culture these days is proudly derivative: sequels, remakes, reboots and adaptations of pre-existing source material. And the human race has been telling stories for millennia; chances are, someone else has already had a story idea just like yours. Should we even bother trying to tell original stories? Does originality matter?
\\nMazur also talks a little about the nuts and bolts of running the long-running sci-fi mag, why some writers are remembered while others vanish, and whether or not you should write that werewolf detective story.
\\nRecommended reading:
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\\n* The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction
\\n* Kali Wallace’s “Botanical Exercises for Curious Girls” (FSF March 2011)
\\n* Cassandra Khaw and Jonathan L. Howard, “Shooting Iron” (FSF Sept/Oct 2018)
\\n* GV Anderson, “I Am Not I” (FSF July/Aug 2017)
\\n* Interview with Wole Talabi on “The Harmonic Resonance of Ejiro Anaborhi”
\\n* Ursula Le Guin’s Earthsea series. (In general you should definitely be reading Ursula Le Guin!)
\\n* That time Caresse Crosby, the inventor of the brassiere, ghost-wrote smut for Henry Miller
\\n* Interview with Ken Liu on “Arc”
\\n* Go Forth and Multiply: Twelve Tales of Repopulation
\\n* Correction: While many of Philip K. Dick’s books came out as paperback originals, these titles were published first in hardback: Time Out of Joint, The Man in the High Castle, Now Wait for Last Year, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Ubik, The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch, A Scanner Darkly, The Divine Invasion, The Transmigration of Timothy Archer, and\\xa0Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said.
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\\nAbout Rite Gud: R.S. Benedict is an author, appearing in Fantasy and Science Fiction and Gardner Dozois’ The Very Best of the Best: 35 Years of The Year’s Best Science Fiction.\\xa0Matt Keeley, founder of Kittysneezes, is producing\\xa0Rite Gud for KS Media, LLC.\\xa0Rite Gud is a Kittysneezes production. If you have questions, comments and concerns, email ritegud – at – kittysneezzes – dot – com.\\xa0Rite Gud is also on Patreon, at patreon.com/ritegud. Patrons receive access to the official Kittysneezes Discord, exclusive episodes, critiques and more.
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\\nRite Gud is supported by readers like you. If you enjoy what you\\u2019ve read here, please consider supporting Rite Gud on Patreon, or\\xa0via the Kittysneezes Boutique.\\xa0
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