SF?

[Craig Clark]

Andrew Dinn sez:
> "It certainly contains some fine fictional science. But I shudder at
> the thought of seeing it on the shelf next to L Ron Hubbard (or worse
> still `Grimnor, Demon Slayer, meets the Elven Kings of Banalite')."
> [in re: ADA]

Don Larsson replies
>    Would you prefer it be next to Tom Clancy, Stephen King, or Danielle Steele?
> That's a surprisingly narrow notion of SF, Andrew!
>    But there are plenty on this list to defend the genre.
>    For one, I'll mention Samuel R. Delany, one of the finest living wordsmiths
> around.

Not to mention Gene Wolfe, a writer of enormous skill, subtlety and 
intelligence. I'm deeply suspicious of the fact that no-one has ever 
seen Wolfe and Pynchon in the same room... Wolfe trained as an 
engineer (as did Pynchon at first), but he is as far removed from one 
of those scienctists-turned-hack-authors who (dis)graced the early 
days of the SF pulps as one can get. IMHO a better writer than Dick, 
le Guin or Delany, and that's saying a helluva lot. I've said this on 
the list before, but Pynchon enthusiasts could do worse than to read 
Wolfe's _The Book of the New Sun_. It's a four-volume anti-epic, 
comprising _The Shadow of the Torturer_, _The Claw of the Conciliator_, 
_The Sword of the Lictor_ and _The Citadel of the Autarch_. Don't be 
put off by any superficial resemblances to yet another multi-volume 
fantasy/SF epic. It's utterly, utterly unique.

Craig Clark

"Living inside the system is like driving across
 the countryside in a bus driven by a maniac bent
 on suicide."
   - Thomas Pynchon, "Gravity's Rainbow"