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From: perelgut@utcsrgv.UUCP (Stephen Perelgut)
Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers
Subject: Re: Dune Sequels
Message-ID: <4929@utcsrgv.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 17-Jul-84 09:29:33 EDT
Article-I.D.: utcsrgv.4929
Posted: Tue Jul 17 09:29:33 1984
Date-Received: Tue, 17-Jul-84 12:16:04 EDT
References: <1099@psuvax1.UUCP>
Organization: CSRI, University of Toronto
Lines: 27

>-=> psuvax1!williams

>      I'm getting weary of hearing people call the Dune sequels "garbage".

I think that we may be in for a long fight about the value of Herbert's
writing.  I have TRIED to read anything Herbert wrote other than DUNE.
My only recourse is to say that he is the worst writer that I have 
attempted to read.  And that includes a lot of garbage.  His characters
are fractal-dimensional, his plots are trivial and meaningless, and his
stories are loaded with pseudo-meaningful concepts.  Anyone can talk
about the beginnings and ends of the world, or hunger, or the evils of
neverending technocracy, or god, or other important issues.  Few can
truly deal with them.  Herbert is not one of the few.

>    .....Herbert creates a universe with fewer strokes than
>    most authors use to create a world.  .....

As far as I am concerned, the above is the most damning thing I could
say about Herbert except I would phrase it:
    "Herbert spends only a few strokes creating a universe when
     most authors lavish great care to create a world or an even
     smaller locale."
-- 
Stephen Perelgut   
	    Computer Systems Research Institute    University of Toronto
	    Usenet:	{linus, ihnp4, allegra, decvax, floyd}!utcsrgv!perelgut
	    CSNET:	perelgut@Toronto