At some point during the Festival du livre de Science Fiction (Science Fiction Book Festival) in 1977, Yves Braux conducted a televised interview with SF master Philip K. Dick.
I’m sure that others have found this on Youtube before, but it just recently came to our attention here at Amazing Stories.
Captioned in French, the interview delves into very interesting territory when Phil addresses the differences in the reception and acceptance of science fiction between France and the United States, and where he discusses the “rigid” standards imposed on SF writers in the US.
“The positions that writers such as myself hold in America, are…those positions are very lowly. Science Fiction is something that is considered to be for adolescents, or just high school kids, and for disturbed people in general to read in America. And the publishers will buy a novel, which must meet rigid moral standards. The standards which librarians have, which has to do with sex and violence and so forth. So we are limited in our writing to books which have no sex…no violence…and no deep ideas.(Starts at about 35 seconds in. Emphasis added)
“Then I discovered that in Europe. especially in France, science fiction was taken seriously, and the science fiction writer was not regarded as something on the level of a janitor, and my delight was enormous.” (At about 3:15 in.)
Whew and wow!
Has all that much changed here in the States since 1977?
You can watch the entire video below.
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