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From: SOMMERS@RUTGERS.ARPA
Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers
Subject: Classics
Message-ID: <12407@sri-arpa.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 11-Oct-83 17:56:07 EDT
Article-I.D.: sri-arpa.12407
Posted: Tue Oct 11 17:56:07 1983
Date-Received: Fri, 14-Oct-83 03:19:09 EDT
Lines: 35


	I did not mean to say that Moby Dick and War and Peace are not
of lasting literary merit (although I have reservations about War and
Peace, a book I hated).  Moby Dick is and always will be a major work,
it changed the way people perceived the world around them and
continues to influence and educate readers and writers.

	What I disagree with is the almost sole use of these two
nineteenth century books as examples of literary merit.  This is the
same philosophy that has put Victorian pot-boilers on "Great
Bookshelves".  It has led to two general beliefs
	
	1) that a book must be long and dense to be good 
	2) that a book that is long and dense is good.

	Using this value system, we can easily find an sf classic -
Star-Maker by Olaf Stapledon.

	Classics should be classified as "books people continue to
enjoy", books of great literary merit are almost self-defining.  If I
was going to look for classical sf of great literary merit, I would
probably wish to compare the books and STORIES to such works as 

Medea
Candide
Metamorphosis
Bartelby The Scrivener
For Whom The Bell Tolls
Frankenstein
John Brown's Body

Flame off

liz//
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