Date: Tue, 26 Mar 2002 11:54:07 -0500
From: Steve Smith <sgs at aginc.net>
To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: reading likes and dislikes
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net>

Candy Madigan wrote:
>
> At 06:37 AM 03/26/2002 -0800, you wrote:
> >I'm afraid I fall into Candy's camp where Bester is
> >concerned.  I've enjoyed some of his short fiction,
> >but The Stars My Destination really didn't do anything
> >for me.  I think perhaps my expectations were too
> >high, since everyone kept telling me what a
> >masterpiece it was. don't think I hated it quite as
> >much as Candy though.
>
> And actually, my dislike of TSMD grew gradually.  I actively disliked the
> book the first time I read it, but it didn't stand out in my memory enough
> for me to remember it the next time I read it, or the next time, or the
> next time...  I finally memorized the author and title so as *not* to read
> it again.  So I class it in the "never read" category and suspect that my
> hatred for it would be less if I hadn't accidentally read it over and over
> and over.

Warning -- TSMD is easily the best thing that Bester did.  In
particular, don't read "Golem<sup>100</sup>".  (Doncha just love authors
who insist on funny typography?)

> My tastes are rather plebian.  I also am easily upset by what I read, so
> when I read something I want a happy ending.  And the middle better hadn't
> be too scary or upsetting.

I can deal with High Tragedy.  What I can't deal with are disposable
characters.  Jack Chalker is especially bad with this.  Author
introduces Neat Character, character interacts with Protagonist,
character gets killed off.  Repeat as necessary.

Any kind of deliberate cruelty is also a real turnoff.

I suspect that the people who write this stuff (and possibly also the
people who like it) have such a cheerful, bunnies- and- rainbows
background that the dark stuff simply isn't real for them.  Same way
Lovecraft doesn't bother me -- it's just not real enough to me.

> I loved all of Lawrence Watt-Evans' Ethshar books, so I picked up Out of
> This World and In the Empire of Shadow.  Awful.  When he killed off the
> hero's wife and kid (he sent a six year old girl off to die as a slave for
> ghod's sake), I flipped to the back to see if he was going to pull some
> sort of happy ending out of his hat, and when he didn't, I put the book
> aside and had nightmares for weeks.  I'll probably have nightmares tonight
> just from remembering it.  So now, when I see a LWE book the first thing I
> do is check to see if it's an Ethshar book.  If it is, I'll buy it,
> otherwise...

Once Upon A Time, I read George Alec Effinger's "Zork Chronicles".  It's
a charming book; easily the best thing I've seen that started out as a
computer game.  Then I tried to read "When Gravity Fails".  After 200
pages (of a 250 page book), I said "Okay.  For 200 pages, you've been
trying to gross me out.  If I admit you've succeeded, can I please stop
reading?"  Reviews I've seen of this book call it "suspenseful"; I call
it gross.  No more Effinger for me.

> And we won't even get into the psychoanalyzing of the author that this invites.

That Way Lies Madness.

--
Steve Smith                                           sgs at aginc.net
Agincourt Computing                            http://www.aginc.net
"Truth is stranger than fiction because fiction has to make sense."