tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7469912676468223470.post8493060422225532378..comments2023-06-01T04:14:46.107-07:00Comments on Fix-Ups: A Nettlesome Term That Has Long Outlived Its WelcomeMichael Swanwickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18389836784776252022noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7469912676468223470.post-7763413551190926542008-04-08T14:45:00.000-07:002008-04-08T14:45:00.000-07:00How much of this, do you suppose, is actual semant...How much of this, do you suppose, is actual semantic drift, and how much simply lack of research on the part of reviewers? It's not really that surprising, I should think, that a reviewer would assume that a novel, published subsequent to five linked stories that add up to a fair portion of the novel, is a fix-up. That they're wrong, I don't dispute, but the knowledge that the novel came before the stories was, at least until the publication of this essay, not necessarily easy information to come by. My point being, that there is a difference between people intentionally using a term to mean something different than its earlier meaning(s), and people intending a term in its original meaning but being wrong. My sense about the references to <I>The Dragons of Babel</I>, at least, is that it's the latter.Jeff Prucherhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15061790664708806858noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7469912676468223470.post-78966651177719537442007-09-29T07:52:00.000-07:002007-09-29T07:52:00.000-07:00Actually, More Than Human doesn't qualify as a fix...Actually, <I>More Than Human</I> doesn't qualify as a fix-up, either. It was expanded from just the one novella, "Baby Is Three", with the two other novellas written specifically for book publication. I'm pretty sure the other two parts never appeared separately as stories, though I don't know who not.<BR/><BR/>I always thought the biggest hurdle <I>The Man Who Melted</I> had to overcome was its awful cover, which I think actively repelled both traditional readers (it didn't look like science fiction) and more adventurous readers (it was ugly and awkward).Scrapshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17482867072396893124noreply@blogger.com