And Jonathan: you suggest the binary comes from within the language of the Positives, but then the rest of your comment goes on to express confusion that there’s no clear target that the Positives are opposed to – surely that’s you looking very hard and failing to find this binary which you say is so obvious?

And for the sake of editorial propriety, I’d like to formally state that I am neither ‘for’ or ‘against’ this manifesto, or any other. My primary motives in covering it here have been to watch it develop – and these very comments seem to confirm that the content of the manifesto is irrelevant, because the reactions are always the same. I am but the stenographer here, if you will… though I will admit to a smidgen of goading when people (cough*io9*cough) clearly haven’t read what they’re attacking.

Gareth Powell says we need to “strike a balance between optimism and pessimism within the genre.” Why an Earth do we need to do that? Do we really believe that fiction should have quotas? what is wrong with each individual writer writing whatever they want?

In fact, one of my problems with this idea is that I’m genuinely having trouble working out which stories optimistic SF is supposed to be a reaction against. The concept floated was ‘dystopia’ but outside of 1984 and the British wave of Cosy Catastrophes, I can’t really think of any point at which there’s been a wave of dystopias. Admittedly, I don’t read as much short fiction as some others but going by the Year’s Best and the Hugo shortlist, there has been no sudden trend in dystopias.

Now the idea is one of passivity. Again, I am not sure which stories are being painted as bad here. 1984′s protagonist rails against the system and is ultimately absorbed by it. Similarly Watts’ Blindsight has a whole gallery of characters who struggle with the idea that actually, being sentient isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Even Lovecraft’s human characters try and do something but Lovecraft’s works are universally and relentlessly gloomy.

What bugs me about this is the absolute lack of concrete examples.

a) There’s no definition of better
b) There’s no particular type of story that is being reacted against.
c) There are no actual stories or authors that are being reacted against.

It was always clear who the Cyberpunks and New Wave mob were reacting against. Even Mundane SF directed its ire at particular tropes.

Optimistic Sf, by contrast, exists in bold, empty statements that look a lot like an insipid desire to have something to read that will make you happy or that will take your mind off things.

Where’s the meat?