Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.3 4.3bsd-beta 6/6/85; site topaz.RUTGERS.EDU Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!cmcl2!seismo!columbia!topaz!kanders 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. Lines: 33 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