"There may be something to the suggestion about the pace of technological change intimidating writers, though - it's been awfully hard to keep ahead of real developments"
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Schmidt’s line has the weary snap of someone who’s spent a career trying to turn tomorrow into prose, only to watch tomorrow show up early. The key move is his mildness: “There may be something to the suggestion...” sounds like a polite concession, but it’s really an admission of structural defeat. He’s not complaining that writers lack imagination; he’s saying the ground is moving under the imagination’s feet.
The intent is twofold. First, he pushes back against the romantic idea that writers are prophetic engines, naturally “ahead” of their time. Second, he reframes the problem as tempo, not talent: when innovation accelerates, fiction’s traditional advantage (speculative distance) collapses. The phrase “keep ahead” is telling; it treats technology like a competitor in a footrace, and the writer like someone forced into sprinting when their craft is built for long-form endurance.
The subtext is an anxiety about relevance and authority. Science fiction, especially, trades on credibility: it wants to feel plausible, not just imaginative. If real-world developments outrun the genre’s extrapolations, the writer risks looking quaint, or worse, merely decorative. Schmidt’s “awfully hard” carries a conversational shrug that masks a sharper critique: our cultural machinery rewards rapid deployment, not reflective interpretation. Writers can still capture human stakes, but the old prestige of “predicting” the future becomes a trap when the future updates faster than a manuscript can clear edits.
The intent is twofold. First, he pushes back against the romantic idea that writers are prophetic engines, naturally “ahead” of their time. Second, he reframes the problem as tempo, not talent: when innovation accelerates, fiction’s traditional advantage (speculative distance) collapses. The phrase “keep ahead” is telling; it treats technology like a competitor in a footrace, and the writer like someone forced into sprinting when their craft is built for long-form endurance.
The subtext is an anxiety about relevance and authority. Science fiction, especially, trades on credibility: it wants to feel plausible, not just imaginative. If real-world developments outrun the genre’s extrapolations, the writer risks looking quaint, or worse, merely decorative. Schmidt’s “awfully hard” carries a conversational shrug that masks a sharper critique: our cultural machinery rewards rapid deployment, not reflective interpretation. Writers can still capture human stakes, but the old prestige of “predicting” the future becomes a trap when the future updates faster than a manuscript can clear edits.
Quote Details
| Topic | Technology |
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