Bio- und Bibliografien

Biographie

Michael Lawson Bishop wurde am 12. November 1945 in Lincoln, Nebraska geboren. 1967 machte er an der University of Georgia seinen Bachelor und anschließend noch den Master in Englischer Literatur. Von 1968-72 unterrichtete er in Colorado Springs US-Soldaten im Fach Englisch. Danach lehrte er an der University of Georgia. Ab 1974 widmete sich Bishop ganz seiner literarischen Karriere.

1975-1981 - Exotik / Anthropologie / Xenologie

Bishops Bücher von seinem ersten Roman A Funeral for the Eyes of Fire (1975) bis Under Heaven's Bridge (1981) (einer Gemeinschaftsarbeit mit Ian Watson) erzählen meist Geschichten von fernen Planeten und beschäftigen sich stark mit Fragen der Anthropologie bzw. - wenn der Autor Außerirdische beschreibt - der Xenologie. Die einzige Ausnahme hiervon stellen die zwei Urban-Nucleus-Bücher A Little Knowledge (1977) sowie Catacomb Years (1979) dar, in denen Bishop die Geschichte der Kuppelstadt Atlanta im 21. Jahrhundert erzählt. Alle vier erwähnten Bücher sind im selben Universum angesiedelt.

Ab 1982: Star Wars vs. anspruchsvolle Literatur

"Thomas Disch once referred to some of the most common science-fiction conventions - tropes, not weekend gatherings - as Dumb Ideas. He was alluding to aliens and telepathy in particular, I think, but may have had a whole gamut of such notions in mind, ranging from time travel to the Nietzschean superman concept. (...) He contended that SF would never escape from its perpetual adolescence if it failed to set aside these allegedly awe-inspiring concepts in favor of an approach yoking credible characterisation, a mature consideration of the impact of technology, and deliberately literate writing (as opposed to the humdrum journalistic style or pyrotechnic whiz-bang fustian, the other two camps into which it usually seemed to fall)."

"What does this have to do with (...) my shift from writing about aliens in off-world settings to writing about paleoanthropological topics? That shift occurred - as I now realize - about the time that Hollywood's version of what constitutes science fiction took the ascendancy in our popular culture. Rightly or wrongly, I wanted to reclaim it, at least in some of its literary manifestations, as a legitimate medium in which to examine age-old human concerns. I don't think I succeeded either in writing exemplary "mature science fiction" or in enlarging the niche for that kind of SF, but I tried. Others who tried (and succeeded far better than I) include Brian Aldiss, Ballard, Disch, Le Guin, John Crowley, Gene Wolfe, Kate Wilhelm, Kim Stanley Robinson, Paul Park, and even Bruce Sterling, alpha cyberpunk, who might well puke to find himself listed among these crypto-humanists. Well, too bad."

Ab Anfang der achtziger Jahre hatten alle weiteren Romane die Erde zum Schauplatz . Bishop vermutet rückblickend, dass er sich gegen das infantile Image abgrenzen wollte, welches die SF durch den Siegeszug von Star Wars im Bewusstsein der Öffentlichkeit bekam. Sein Themenspektrum weitete sich dabei erheblich aus. Neben zwei Romanen mit dem Schwerpunkt Paläontologie - No Enemy But Time (1982) und Ancient of Days (1985) -, verfasste er die Horrorkomödie Who Made Stevie Crye? (1984), einen Parallelweltroman über Philip K. Dick (Philip K. Dick is Dead, Alas; 1987), einen Fantasyroman über Aids und das Leben nach dem Tode (Unicorn Mountain; 1988), eine Superhelden-Persifflage (Count Geiger's Blues; 1992) sowie ein Buch über Frankensteins Monster als Baseballspieler (Brittle Innings; 1994).

Seitdem hat Bishop keinen phantastischen Roman mehr geschrieben. Allerdings erschienen in den letzten Jahren noch mehrere Story-Sammlungen sowie 2006 ein Band mit Essays und Aufsätzen.

"I felt, and still feel, that "Brittle Innings" represented a sort of pinnacle for me as a novelist. I accomplished in it almost exactly what I had hoped to, and but for one myopic review - in the worst possible place, The New York Times - it met with an almost ecstatic critical reception. Twentieth Century Fox optioned the book a couple of years in a row and then bought it outright, enabling us to put both our children through college, but the film has not yet been made - a blessing in disguise, I'm sure - and the book did not sell especially well. The suspicion that I could not top what I had done in Brittle Innings, along with three or four years with no financial burdens to speak of, blunted my ambitions as a novelist, which had almost always taken a back seat to my love for the short story in any case."

"I lack real patience, at least for the long haul, and prefer instant to delayed gratification."

"In fact, I had a secret ambition - unachieved - to write Le Guin-style off-planet tales with the ironic sensibility of Disch. My first novel, A Funeral for the Eyes of Fire, attempted that feat, as did my third, Stolen Faces, and my fourth, Transfigurations."

Bibliographie (Auswahl):
[Auf fictionfantasy.de rezensierte Bücher sind mit Link unterlegt und fett gekennzeichnet.]