Re: what fantasy or sci-fi wrters do you have trouble connecting with?
Posted by:
Sawfish (IP Logged)
Date: 26 April, 2021 07:20AM
This is very interesting.
Of course it's mainly subjective--there may be substantive technical reasons why a given writer is difficult to connect with, but mostly just a receptivity, or lack of, to a given style.
Too, theme can make it hard for someone to connect with a given writer. For me, a great example is Howard. What he seems to me to be doing is very similar to what Nietzsche was doing, which is to say they both recognize a very basic, and by today's standards, brutal, reality that's hardwired into the human animal. This is simply a recognition of the existence of the alpha male, and his place in the evolution of human social organization.
Howard goes on to glorify this, mythologize it, and Nietzsche--florid stylist that he is--come off as being an apologist, whereas to me, this phenomenon (male drive to power) is simply like being an omnivore--it just *is*, so what? It (male aggression, not being an omnivore...;^) ) may evolve away from having any reproductive value--in fact it sure looks like it's in the process--and will become something like the appendix.
So on this reason, alone, Howard is out, for me.
Let's see. Clarke (with a "e", thanks, Knygatin!) seems to me sterile. I think his attempts to actually offer futuristic situation as supported as an extension of currently understood scientific principles is quite good, but he just can't get me to *care*, one way or the other.
I don't know about Asimov; there is no *snap*. Sometimes the idea he explores is quite compelling: I really liked Nightfall as a kid. Just like Clarke's The Star, which is loaded up with irony.
Let's see... Le Guin feels to me like Dunsany, and Moorcock felt like Howard. We already know how I feel about Howard, and to me Dunsany is best when writing light humor, and from the little I could get out of the Le Guin I read, there's no humor there, so...
Frank Herbert, yeah! I tried and tried with his Dune series,and just could not connect, whatsoever, although I *really* liked David Lynch's film, even if *he* didn't.
Lieber always felt like a lightweight--his cheerful buddy-movie of a series about those two guys was mostly good for male adolescents, I think.
I could like some of Bradbury's stuff--Martian Chronicles, especially, but not a lot else. Too, Ballard's Vermilion Sands establishes a mood of profound modern decadence that is extremely effective, but beyond that, not much else to like, especially.
--Sawfish
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