STREET DOGS

Sturgeon’s revelation states that 90% of everything is crap. The adage was coined by American science fiction author and critic in defence of science fiction, Theodore Sturgeon.

The first written reference to the adage is in the September 1957 issue of Venture: “And on that hangs Sturgeon’s revelation. It came to him that [science fiction] is indeed 90% crud, but that also

— eureka! — 90% of everything is crud. All things — cars, books, cheeses, hairstyles, people and pins are, to the expert and discerning eye, crud, except for the acceptable tithe which we each happen to like.”

In the March 1958 issue of Venture Sturgeon again wrote: “I repeat Sturgeon’s revelation, which was wrung out of me after 20 years of wearying defence of science fiction against attacks of people who used the worst examples of the field for ammunition and whose conclusion was that 90% of SF is crud. Using the same standards that categorise 90% of science fiction as trash, crud or crap, it can be argued that 90% of film, literature, consumer goods and so on are crap. In other words, the claim (or fact) that 90% of science fiction is crap is ultimately uninformative, because science fiction conforms to the same trends of quality as all other art forms.”

In 2013, philosopher Daniel Dennett championed Sturgeon’s law as one of his seven tools for critical thinking. “That is true, whether you are talking about physics, chemistry, evolutionary psychology, sociology, medicine — you name it — rock music, country western. Ninety percent of everything is crap.” But then went on to say: “A good moral to draw from this is that when you want to criticise a field, a genre, a discipline ... don’t waste your time hooting at the crap! Go after the good stuff, or leave it alone.”

Think you hate banjo music? Maybe you haven’t discovered the good 10% yet. /Michel Pireu (pireum@streetdogs.co.za)