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From: west@sdcsla.UUCP (Larry West)
Newsgroups: net.books
Subject: Re: Frank Herbert
Message-ID: <975@sdcsla.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 12-Sep-85 03:00:14 EDT
Article-I.D.: sdcsla.975
Posted: Thu Sep 12 03:00:14 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 18-Sep-85 03:33:47 EDT
References: <497@linus.UUCP> <1839@mnetor.UUCP> <527@linus.UUCP> <273@cisden.UUCP> <692@tpvax.fluke.UUCP>
Reply-To: west@sdcsla.UUCP (Larry West)
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Organization: UC San Diego: Institute for Cognitive Science
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In article <692@tpvax.fluke.UUCP> inc@fluke.UUCP (Gary Benson) writes:
>> While we're on the subject, I lost all respect for Frank Herbert after he
>> told us that the movie they made of _Dune_ was faithful to the book.
>> 					Tommy Phillips
>
>It strikes me that to disagree with the person who *wrote* the thing is like
>saying, "Well, obviously the author isn't aware of the nuances that occur in
>his novel". I ask you, who is a better judge than the author? You?

Actually, it is often the case that an author is not the best judge
of her or his own work.    Most will admit this (except maybe when it
gets down to specifics, of course;-), as Isaac Asimov did in an
"editorial" in his SF Mag this year.

If you reflect for a while on the processes of writing and publishing,
and the phenomena of popularity and "literary value", I think you'll
agree that a writer -- while possessed of many keen and valuable
insights into her/his writing -- is not the ultimate judge of a
book's value to humanity.   [[Now, did I couch that carefully
enough?   Sofa, so good.]]
-- 

Larry West				(USA+619-)452-6771
Institute for Cognitive Science		non-business hours: 452-2256
UC San Diego (mailcode C-015)
La Jolla, CA  92093  U.S.A.

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