SF in general

[LARSSON at vax1.mankato.msus.edu]

Joe writes:
"But when I got to college as an english major and began reading the
"classic" great books and then would try another SF work, it began to
seem to me that for the most part, SF writers really couldn't write
themselves out of the proverbial wet paper bag.  And so my enthusiasm for
the genre waned incredibly.
 
I'm curious as to whether anyone else out there feels this way."
 
Well, I still like SF, though I don't read near as much of it as I used to--but
I was still reading it well into English majoring.  Maybe the reason is that I
was spoiled--I started in for real with a Vintage (aha!) paperback edited by
Judith Merrill, who was trying to bring "literary" qualities to SF and vice-
versa.  I never did like SF novels too much, but I loved (and still do) the
infinite ways in which SF could extrapolate while singing in the short story
format.  Try the early stuff of Carol Emshwiller, Theodor Sturgeon, J.G.
Ballard, etc., all of whom were represented in that book.
 
Don Larsson, Mankato State  U (MN)