If Michael Chabon didn’t want an audience, he wouldn’t bother to go through the tedium of finding an agent, dealing with copyediting deadlines, etc., and so on, and would simply keep his manuscripts on his computer.

“Ultimately, Chabon writes because he must. Atwood writes to get something.”

Mindreading assertions tend to be problematic.

Alec, thanks for the link. I’m going to add it to the Classic SF Channel’s fan stuff or educational sections.

Something I didn’t write about in the piece was this:

I think that the ultimate difference between Chabon and Atwood – at least the personas allowed to speak/write in public – is this: Chabon is doing his thing and comfortable with it. He writes what he wants to and – lucky him! – lots of people happen to like it, genre, literary or whatever it may be.

Atwood is insecure. She may write what she wants to, but she is uncomfortable with it. She herself does not really know ‘what she writes’.

Unlike Chabon, Atwood wants an audience. Marketing and categorization is important to her, not for academic reasons, but because she is afraid of reading the tea leaves incorrectly.

Ultimately, Chabon writes because he must. Atwood writes to get something.

When I posted up the video interview of Atwood, I also emailed her American publicist to see if she could answer a couple short questions on the distinction between sf and spec fic. I am not sure I would have been as blunt as you but I was aiming for the same thing. I was pretty much told I was not important enough to be asking her any questions, but feel free to give it a go if you want.