Are they talking about good sci fi, or bad? I figured "cheap" meant they were shooting crap fish in a barrel.
How did your brain even learn human speech? I'm just so curious.
Wash ,'Objects In Space'
We're Literary 2: To Read Makes Our Speaking English Good
There's more to life than watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer! No. Really, there is! Honestly! Here's a place for Buffistas to come and discuss what it is they're reading, their favorite authors and poets. "Geez. Crack a book sometime."
§ ita § - Mar 08, 2004 1:43:33 pm PST #1124 of 10002
Well not canonically, no, but this is transformative fiction.
P.M. Marc - Mar 08, 2004 1:48:26 pm PST #1125 of 10002
So come, my friends, be not afraid/We are so lightly here/It is in love that we are made; In love we disappear
The review opens with
Andrew Sean Greer's second novel has a high-concept premise that seems perfect for one of those $3 mass-market sci-fi/fantasy paperbacks.
Are they talking about good sci fi, or bad? I figured "cheap" meant they were shooting crap fish in a barrel.
So, I'm getting the distinct impression that he's dismissing the genre.
deborah grabien - Mar 08, 2004 1:51:08 pm PST #1126 of 10002
It really doesn't matter. It's just an opinion. Don't worry about it. Not worth the hassle.
Lordy, what a jerk.
Who lets these people review stuff they're obviously primed to loathe without seeing, anyway?
(yes, I have a bugbear)
P.M. Marc - Mar 08, 2004 1:54:01 pm PST #1127 of 10002
So come, my friends, be not afraid/We are so lightly here/It is in love that we are made; In love we disappear
Who lets these people review stuff they're obviously primed to loathe without seeing, anyway?
Oh, he loved the book. Adored it.
However, he adored it by slamming a whole genre, by saying "this concept sounds like something out of those nasty little books the pimply boys read, but it's deep and wonderful, and high literature."
Which makes my eyes roll. A lot.
§ ita § - Mar 08, 2004 1:55:31 pm PST #1128 of 10002
Well not canonically, no, but this is transformative fiction.
those $3 mass-market sci-fi/fantasy paperbacks
But that still sounds like a subsection of the genre, possibly more generous than Sturgeon's law (I don't know the last time I bought a $3 mass-market sci-fi/fantasy paperback, myself).
amych - Mar 08, 2004 1:55:45 pm PST #1129 of 10002
Now let us crush something soft and watch it fountain blood. That is a girlish thing to want to do, yes?
However, he adored it by slamming a whole genre
Oh, goody. Cheap and baseless strawman attacks -- a classic way of avoiding having to actually think about the book.
Consuela - Mar 08, 2004 1:56:45 pm PST #1130 of 10002
We are Buffistas. This isn't our first apocalypse. -- Pix
I swear, I've seen this so often on Salon lately, I think it's a conscious editorial strategy. Post something with a bunch of gratuitous comments guaranteed to piss people off, and watch your hit count go up.
They get lots of enraged letters and the literary bloggers (like Bookslut, fr'instance) put up links with snarky comments.
Everyone wins, except the folks who were slammed in the original review.
P.M. Marc - Mar 08, 2004 1:57:43 pm PST #1131 of 10002
So come, my friends, be not afraid/We are so lightly here/It is in love that we are made; In love we disappear
But that still sounds like a subsection of the genre, possibly more generous than Sturgeon's law (I don't know the last time I bought a $3 mass-market sci-fi/fantasy paperback, myself).
Eh, I suspect the fellow's never purchased one and is pulling the numbers from thin air.
Hell, even the discount get you hooked genre books (which, granted, I usually see in romance fiction) are more than that these days.
§ ita § - Mar 08, 2004 1:58:47 pm PST #1132 of 10002
Well not canonically, no, but this is transformative fiction.
I suspect the fellow's never purchased one and is pulling the numbers from thin air
Oh, quite probably. But from those excerpts it still seems like he's drawing a line between the good (or expensive) stuff and the bad. And then slamming the bad.
scrappy - Mar 08, 2004 2:00:35 pm PST #1133 of 10002
Nobody
See, I don't see the slam, IT's like saying "this book has a sex and violence plot which seems like it would make a good one of those Spanish novelas they sell on newstands." That's not a slam at comic books, it just says that this branch of comic books tends toward the big-busted babes in peril--which it does.