Date: Tue, 10 Jan 2006 08:36:24 -0500
To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net>
From: Candy Madigan <candymadigan at mindspring.com>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: 5 Best Sf
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net>

Speaking of woodworking... Mike, do you have a floor stand drill press and
would you let John and me use it?

At 10:20 PM 1/9/2006, you wrote:
>At 1/9/2006 08:29 PM, Samuel Lubell wrote:
>
> >A case can be made that Bradbury has transcended science fiction and
> >has become literature.
>
>Don't you mean "decayed into literature"?  I wouldn't put what is commonly
>known as "literature" above good SF...ever.
>
>In woodworking circles there are folks who make chairs that you can sit on,
>and folks who make chairs that you can sit on that look good.  Then there
>are the folks who have taken it into the realm of "art", and they tend to
>build things that represent the true chairness of the chair, or which
>embody that which is essential to all furniture boiled down to essentials,
>or some other hogwash.  I call it hogwash, because in doing what they have
>done they have forgotten the most important thing about a chair: that you
>be able to sit on it.  Some of the abominations they've come up with, which
>have won awards in shows, don't allow that, whether in comfort or
>not.  Some would collapse if anyone was foolish enough to try it, and some
>don't even have a place to try it.  Most of these take great skill to
>produce, as the techniques needed aren't easy, but that same skill could be
>better used to produce something useful if you ask me.
>
>It's the same with most "literature" that I've encountered.  It may take
>great skill to produce, and those who like that sort of thing may go on
>about it for hours, and sneer at other writing that is only good for
>entertaining, educating, or other useful purposes, but IMO its forgotten
>what a story is supposed to be for...unlike those forms the literary snobs
>sneer at.  All it is useful for is letting literary snobs feel superior as
>far as I can see.
>
>-- Mike B.

Candy
(301)345-6635