Date: Tue, 26 Mar 2002 18:55:38 -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> Michael Walsh wrote: > > > candymadigan at mindspring.com 03/26/02 10:52AM >>> > >>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. > > > >>I kind of feel the same way > >>about Arthur C. Clarke. Love the short fiction, but > >>while I didn't actively dislike Rama or Childhood's > >>End, I don't consider them masterpeices that I would > >>encourage eveyone I know to read. Of course, I also > >>feel that way about lots of nonSF authors too. > >>Virginia Woolf comes to mind. I know she's supposed > >>to be brilliant, but while I enjoyed her nonfiction > >>essays A Room with A View and Three Guineas, I've > >>never liked her fiction, but I've ended up reading a > >>fair amount of it because everytime I mention not > >>liking one of her great masterpeices, someone always > >>says "try this one. it's much better." > > > >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. > > Then run like hell from Lucius Shepard. > > The ending of The Scalehunter's Beautiful Daughter: > "From that day forward she lived happily ever after. Except for thedying = > at the end. And the pain in between." > > Don't know if he's ever written a story with a "happy ending". > > Also, China Mieville: > "The idea of consolatory fantasy makes me want to puke. It's not that you = > can't have comfort, or even a happy ending of sorts, but to me the idea = > that the purpose of a book should be to console = > intrinsically means the purpose is therefore not to challenge or to = > subvert or to question; it is absolutely status quo oriented - - = > completely, rigidly, aesthetically - - and I hate that idea." (http://ww= >w.locusmag.com/2002/Issue03/Mieville.html) > > He is a very political kind of person. > > Luckily there are lots of books ourt there . . . > > mjw Hmm. Good art should challenge the reader/viewer/whatever. "Art" that just reinforces the prejudices of the audience is the cheapest kind of art. Network TV is the prime example. That said, I cringe whenever I see something like the above quote, because it almost invariably is an excuse for just another damn gross-out. More like Marxist "art", whose purpose is to "illustrate the decadence of the bourgeoisie". Or even more like singing "greasy grimy gopher guts" to your little sister. Look. I'm quite familiar with twentieth century history, including the parts they don't teach in school. I'm also familiar with the fourteenth century and the Hundred Years' War, which was, if anything, worse. I know how bad things can get. I don't need my face shoved in it in the name of "art". That's no more a "challenge" than yesterday's crossword. Been there already. I don't need "no-win scenarios". There are too damn many of those out there; read the papers (especially the foreign press; the US press is 'way too nicey- nice.) Give me some characters who aren't total losers. Give me a world that hasn't been permanently wrecked. Give me some *hope*. I have no objections to High Tragedy, but this is a genre that SF seems to be particularly bad at. Attempts at tragedy seem to end up either as gross-outs or tearjerkers. -- Steve Smith sgs at aginc.net Agincourt Computing http://www.aginc.net "Truth is stranger than fiction because fiction has to make sense."