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From: isiw@druri.UUCP (WattIS)
Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers
Subject: Re: Yes, *H*A*R*L*A*N* *E*L*L*I*S*O*N*
Message-ID: <989@druri.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 8-Nov-84 11:48:52 EST
Article-I.D.: druri.989
Posted: Thu Nov  8 11:48:52 1984
Date-Received: Sat, 10-Nov-84 07:10:03 EST
References: <4049@decwrl.UUCP> <>, <1840@nsc.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T Information Systems Laboratories, Denver
Lines: 37
Keywords: potshots


 Well, well, well, chuq... 

You should have your reader's license suspended for reading while indoctrinated
if you can even utter Ellison's name in the same *day* as Kafka, Dante, and
Cervantes! Just because he's written some good stuff (I do agree with you
there - he's come through a few times, but...) does not qualify him as an
artist, nor does it qualify his work as literature. Ask any English teacher.

BTW, even hacks don't like their work changed (just like hackers don't like
their code changed...) - even Alan Dean Foster barks a few times, I would
think. But just because Ellison has garnered a rep as being *the* enfant
terrible of the genre is no reason to assume that the words he defends are
any good. "The squeaky wheel gets the grease" - that's all it means.

Anthologies I have had experience with, as well as working on a large 
newspaper. Ellison has no excuse for 10 years of "writer's block" on
what could be at most 40 pages which don't require much creativity, just
background information and a little fanfare by way of introduction (i'm
not going to mention his penchant for self-indulgent forewords in the
previous DV-ADV... let's just say those forewords are so odious they
could gag a maggot on a meat wagon).

You're probably right about mainstream fiction and *its* hacks. I bow
to that one - mainly, I read magazines like "Easyrider", "Hustler",
"Gung-Ho!", "Reader's Digest", "Ebony", "Tiger Beat", "Mad", "Parade",
"People", "Us", and "National Enquirer". So I'm not so up-to-snuff.

And as far as Gene Wolfe goes, I agree with you double on that one.
He's so far above the rest of his peers... I just hope the quality
of his literature inspires others in the genre to get out of their
ruts and try to rise above their sometimes painfully obvious levels
of incompetence. It's about time.

Davis Tucker
AT&T Information Systems
Denver, CO