During a recent trip overseas I was able to attend two days of the London World SF Convention (Loncon3) where I found myself pondering what makes Australian SF different from other SF. This explored a little more in an article on the convention, but I wanted to touch upon here as a sort of follow up to some previous editorials that explained what we like in a story.

We are seeking to publish good quality stories. The fact that we are based in Australia (and are ‘The Australian Science Fiction and Fantasy Magazine’) means we have more stories from local writers. We have published stories from writers based elsewhere, but my discussions with a few readers and writers indicates that there is a distinct flavour to the stories we publish that is peculiarly Australian.

I spoke about this with one publisher at Loncon3, and he said that he felt that the ‘feel’ of Australian writing offers something different to the reader who is accustomed to an American/European worldview. He struggled to verbalise his thoughts about this, but said that much of the Australian writing he had come across struck him as fresh/dry/open. He thought a lot of it seemed to be set in deserts, or at least in arid landscapes and that this seemed to lend an alien air to the backdrops of stories, as far as northern-hemisphere readers were concerned. I pointed out that much Australian writing has urban settings and that he seemed to be employing a clichéd view of Australian culture. He agreed. As I mentioned he did have problems putting his observations into words but he was adamant that Australian writing is different. At one stage he even commented on the success of aboriginal dot painting and thought a similar argument could be made for the popularity of that style of painting.

I personally think there is an element of Australian writing that is perhaps unique to writers who have lived here and have managed to incorporate something of the Australian ‘feel’ into their work, but perhaps it does just go as far as that, that there is an Australian feel to Australian writing. You could argue that British writers seem to be concerned with style, and Americans with ideas if you want to broadly generalise writing from different countries.

It’s an interesting area and I can see myself pursuing it a little more. Feel free to add your own thoughts on the topic on the webpage.