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From: dm@BBN-VAX.ARPA
Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers
Subject: Art and good reads
Message-ID: <3638@topaz.RUTGERS.EDU>
Date: Thu, 12-Sep-85 20:20:11 EDT
Article-I.D.: topaz.3638
Posted: Thu Sep 12 20:20:11 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 15-Sep-85 05:18:07 EDT
Sender: daemon@topaz.RUTGERS.EDU
Organization: Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, N.J.
Lines: 26

From: dm@BBN-VAX.ARPA


Hmm, wading through the last couple of week's worth of SF-Lovers, I
come across Steve Brust claiming that, to be a great book, something
must also be a good read.  

I guess I'd have to agree with this, in a perverse sort of way.  

An analogy which comes to mind is Rubik's Cube versus Tic-tac-toe: a
very hard, but ultimately very satisfying, puzzle vs. a trivial and
boring game.  Which would you rather spend your time with?  I think
the Cube is satisfying and fun precisely because it is hard, and
Tic-tac-toe is boring precisely because it is trivial.

Ulysses is a GREAT read!  There's a giggle on just about every page of
Ulysses.  Every chapter is written in a Brand New Way Of Writing (one
chapter even goes so far as to recapitulate the history of English
literature: from Beowulf through Cicero to Chaucer to Joyce's
contemporaries, when I figured out what he was up to in that chapter I
laughed out loud).

Dhalgren was a great read, too.  Like eating a robust, healthy meal.
Now a book I found REALLY HARD (and ultimately failed) to get through
was the one of EE ``Doc'' Smith's Lensman books.  Like eating soggy
Captain Crunch.  After a while you get nauseous.


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