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From: kanders@lll-tis-a
Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers
Subject: "Anti-Art" snobbery"
Message-ID: <3362@topaz.RUTGERS.EDU>
Date: Tue, 20-Aug-85 18:18:44 EDT
Article-I.D.: topaz.3362
Posted: Tue Aug 20 18:18:44 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 23-Aug-85 20:03:57 EDT
Sender: daemon@topaz.RUTGERS.EDU
Organization: Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, N.J.
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From: kanders@lll-tis-a (Kevin Anderson)


Hooray for Davis Tucker finally taking to task those  people  who
practice  "Anti-art" snobbery -- those who snort with derision at
something which requires you to turn on a 5 Watt bulb  over  your
head  and  use a few brain cells.  Perhaps this category includes
those people flaming at "awful" DHALGREN ("Gawd, this stuff makes
me  *think*  --  yukk, give me Edgar Rice Burroughs anyday!").  I
have never read DHALGREN, but it's on my list of Must Read  books
(and it's moved up a couple of notches because of this controver-
sy).  I will say, though, that I have never  heard  it  described
with anything less than respectful awe.  It won the Nebula Award,
which is given by the Science Fiction Writers of America  to  the
work  which  the  *writers*  feel is the best piece of literature
published in the past year (and it won the  Nebula  back  in  the
days  when  the  award did mean something).  I think that anybody
who says that DHALGREN is a poorly  written,  plotless  piece  of
trash  should  maybe ask themselves if there is even the remotest
chance they might be MISSING something?

I am relatively new to the net, but I'm rather disturbed  by  the
inordinate  amount  of time spent discussing "mindless adventure"
books and films -- Piers Anthony, Joel Rosenberg's  Guardians  of
the  Flame,  the  deep  questions  behind "Back to the Future" --
sure, it's nice to read books for fun once in  a  while,  but  SF
*is*  the "Literature of Ideas" and you don't often find dazzling
ideas in gosh*wow! space opera.  I can enjoy  watching  a  fluffy
adventure  movie,  too,  but I enjoy a fascinating challenge much
more.  Too many ray  guns,  rocketships,  and  bug-eyed  monsters
makes me afraid my brain will atrophy!

                                -- Kevin J. Anderson