I’m pretty busy this morning, working on the Odin Chronicles episode guide, then laying out the SHOWCASE schedule for the rest of this month, and then back to work on Stupefying Stories 27. With my time being this tight, it’s time to toss out another “bother bonding” assertion and see how people react.
How about this?
Serious Science Fiction fans
are people who would rather spend ten hours arguing
over whether Samuel R. Delany’s 1975 Dhalgren
is a work of sublime and utter brilliance
or a giant load of self-indulgent crap
than spend ten minutes reading
a new short story
by an author
they don’t
already
know.
What do you think? A bridge too far?
Over to you,
~brb
People are gonna do what they want, whether it feeds their self-aggrandized ego or pseudo-intellectual blinders. Rather than irk the irksome, consider positive manifestation, like ‘time is short, read short stories!’
ReplyDeleteTouché! I'm currently re-reading Almuric for the severalth time with an eye to deciding if it was actually written by Robert E. Howard. I'm in the skeptical camp, but there is new evidence--or at least, evidence I wasn't aware of until recently. And the vast majority of my reading is pre-1995.
ReplyDeleteHahaha! Amen!
ReplyDeleteI like this question. Not because I have any intention of answering it but because it seems to touch on most of the good and great things science fiction writers do. First and most obviously, it’s questioning something. It also taps into the human need to both create both definition and hierarchy. That it’s also a silly question that could never actually be answered but will be debated (possibly heatedly) is so remarkably human too. Someone should write a story about that question.
ReplyDeleteHold on a second...
ReplyDeleteThis question is coming from the guy who is still irritated with The Cold Equations and devoted a whole column to it?
Nevermind that you were just responding to my question and that I have a never ending rant about that story.