SciFi in General

[Cal McInvale]

>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 feel the same way. I was raised reading science fiction -- some pretty
shitty stuff, looking back on it. when i encountered Hemingway, Fitzgerald
& other great American writers, I began to get a little disenchanted with
the quality of SF in general. College pretty much killed whatever desire I
had for reading the stuff. Now I only pick up an SF book if it is highly
recommended by someone whose opinion I respect (like Harlan Ellison) AND it
managed to win an award or two (like Hugo or Nebula).

FYI, in STORMING THE REALITY STUDIO: A CASEBOOK OF CYBERPUNK AND POSTMODERN
FICTION (edited by Larry McCaffery), Brian McHale has an excellent essay
titled "POSTcyberMODERNpunkISM." It deals with the relationship between SF
and postmods such as Pynchon & Burroughs. A must-read for any
current/former SF fan who's also a Pychoniac.



Cal McInvale       e-mail:  godot at wolfe.net
WWW: http://www.wolfe.com/~godot/index.html
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What is most appealing about young folks, after all, is the changes, not
the still photographs of finished character but the movie, the soul in
flux.  -- Thomas Pynchon