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From: peter@baylor.UUCP (Peter da Silva)
Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers
Subject: Re: "Anti-Art" snobbery"
Message-ID: <515@baylor.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 23-Aug-85 07:13:43 EDT
Article-I.D.: baylor.515
Posted: Fri Aug 23 07:13:43 1985
Date-Received: Tue, 27-Aug-85 00:57:59 EDT
References: <3362@topaz.RUTGERS.EDU>
Organization: The Power Elite, Houston, TX
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> From: kanders@lll-tis-a (Kevin Anderson)
> 
> 
> Hooray for Davis Tucker finally taking to task those  people  who
> practice  "Anti-art" snobbery -- those who snort with derision at

Etc., etc....

Science fiction is, as you say, the literature of ideas. Unlike other
forms of literature the background has prominence over the characters.
Thus it is that very bad works of literature are very good SF. The
occasional exceptional author can produce a book that's both good SF
and "art". It's my opinion, totally unsubstantiated by statistical
analysis of course, that the % of good literature in SF is probably
about the same as in other forms of fiction... it's just that,  since
SF has other, orthogonal, standards to meet that may take precedence
over the quality of the writing (look at Robert Heinlein, even his good
stuff),  certain books get raved about by the SF community that the
mainstream wouldn't even consider reading. This gets up the critics
nose, since he doesn't realise that there might be other criteria for
judging a work, so he posts abominable reviews such as the one referenced
above.

No, folks, we're not anti-art. We just have other things to look for
than superb characterisation and brilliant prose. If the book has these
as well, great. But it doesn't stand or fall on them.
-- 
	Peter (Made in Australia) da Silva
		UUCP: ...!shell!neuro1!{hyd-ptd,baylor,datafac}!peter
		MCI: PDASILVA; CIS: 70216,1076