inf-site/quotes/06de5337-b1e2-43db-8ae6-5fe8f908b3d1

author: M. John Harrison
content: "Every moment of a science fiction story must represent the triumph of writing\
  \ over worldbuilding.\r\n\r\nWorldbuilding is dull. Worldbuilding literalises the\
  \ urge to invent. Worldbuilding gives an unneccessary permission for acts of writing\
  \ (indeed, for acts of reading). Worldbuilding numbs the reader's ability to fulfil\
  \ their part of the bargain, because it believes that it has to do everything around\
  \ here if anything is going to get done.\r\n\r\nAbove all, worldbuilding is not\
  \ technically neccessary. It is the great clomping foot of nerdism. It is the attempt\
  \ to exhaustively survey a place that isn't there. A good writer would never try\
  \ to do that, even with a place that is there. It isn't possible, & if it was the\
  \ results wouldn't be readable: they would constitute not a book but the biggest\
  \ library ever built, a hallowed place of dedication & lifelong study. This gives\
  \ us a clue to the psychological type of the worldbuilder & the worldbuilder's victim,\
  \ & makes us very afraid."
id: 06de5337-b1e2-43db-8ae6-5fe8f908b3d1