Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!seismo!hao!hplabs!sri-unix!Bakin@HI-MULTICS From: Bakin@HI-MULTICS@sri-unix.UUCP Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers Subject: Merit Survey Results Message-ID: <11939@sri-arpa.UUCP> Date: Thu, 22-Sep-83 12:37:00 EDT Article-I.D.: sri-arpa.11939 Posted: Thu Sep 22 12:37:00 1983 Date-Received: Tue, 27-Sep-83 01:58:06 EDT Lines: 43 From: Jerry Bakin I'm not sure what most readers think, (or even if most readers think) but I do not feel the conclusion that "...Science Fiction and Fantasy writers, for the most part, are incapable of writing novels of lasting literary merit..." is valid. As a refutation from an author's point of view, I suggest reading Isaac Asimov's editorial in the latest "Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine", he definitely feels that science fiction writers are capable of writing stories of great literary merit, and lists evidence from the literary field to prove it. Personally I happen to feel the lack of response is apathy coupled with the enormous task set before anyone responding to the query. I have been reading science fiction since elementary school, at least twelve years. In that time I have read an enormous amount of science fiction, but there are few authors whom I have read all of. We're supposed to categorize the best of the authors? Sorry, the reason most people can list the "Best of Hawthorne", or the "Best of Kipling" or the Best of Anyone, is because someone said "Read this book, it is considered a classic", not because someone said, "Read all the author's books, and you tell me which the classics are." It is not necessarily true that it is hard to tell what a classic is, but standing in the paperback section, amidst many titles, from many different authors, you can't easily pick the classics from the crap. So the question of which books are classics is difficult to answer for at least two reasons: The research most people have put into the question has been spent over a prolonged period of time, with little note taking, and with various other details coming into the researcher's life to play havoc with his memories of "that was a good book", and few people have made exhaustive studies of an author's works. (I did, or tried to, but my limited allowance when I was trying, prevented this for all but about three or four authors -- and it wasn't an intended study, but just getting the most for my buck: "Boy that Niven guy sure writes well, maybe I'll buy his other books instead of looking at this guy's book.") Anyway I've flamed long enough, Jerry Bakin