Re: Phonemes

Brian M. Scott wrote:
>
> On Fri, 17 Jun 2005 22:33:07 GMT, "Peter T. Daniels"
> <grammatim@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in
> <news:42B34FA3.1E47@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> in sci.lang:
>
> > David Wright Sr. wrote:
>
> [...]
>
> >> My original basis for asking this was due to a story by
> >> my favorite author[1]
>
> > He was my introduction to sf; I read all the kids' books because they
> > were in the Fort Washington branch of NYPL. Then I found Asimov and
> > hardly ever looked back.
>
> Ye gods. Asimov's non-fiction is excellent, but most of his
> fiction is pretty drab; Heinlein was a far better writer of
> fiction.

Asimov is unrereadable (he was a lousy writer), but every story is
jammed full of a brilliant idea worked out brilliantly.

Turns out Heinlein is extremely superficial, and his
rightwingnutcasehood, first clearly expressed in Starship Troopers,
perfused the earlier stories -- I went back to "The Roads Must Roll"
after a discussion of slidewalks at nyc.transit, and (in the stories in
that collection) his utopian futures were basically fascistic. (And
then, of course, he discovered sex.)

Oh, and in "By His Bootstraps," which I've seen called "the ultimate
time travel story," he never does deal with the paradox that the note
handed from future-man to present-man (who then hands it back to himself
some years later) was never actually written. Asimov never let that
happen.

> > Everything from Stranger in a Strange Land and
> > Moon Is a Harsh Mistress is sheer madness,
>
> I trust that you mean 'everything *after* SiaSL and TMIaHM,

no, from then on (and back to Starship Troopers)

> since the latter is arguably his best book. I still
> wouldn't agree, as I generally like even the self-indulgent
> late novels, but you'd at least have plenty of company.

It's especially peculiar that he was considered so "liberal" because you
didn't learn until p. 250 of ST that the hero was dark-skinned. What up
wit dat?

> [...]
>
> > (BTW those bottom-notes are very annoying.)
>
> They're pretty standard in at least one of the groups that I
> read, occasionally extending to footnoted feetnotes; I don't
> mind 'em at all.

They're fine if messages are a screen or two long. But when you have to
scroll and scroll back, again and again, they do discourage one from
reading a message.
--
Peter T. Daniels grammatim@xxxxxxx
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Phonemes
    ... > This is meaningless without qualification (and obviously ... he didn't ponder the implications of his notions the way Asimov ... >> collection) his utopian futures were basically fascistic. ... Boy," or the robot stories, even "Bicentennial Man" (someone made a ...
    (sci.lang)
  • Re: Phonemes
    ... I prefer Heinlein's best stories to Asimov's best, ... I couldn't even finish Stranger in a Strange Land, ... > "The Nine Billion Names of God" is Clarke, ... rather, Asimov sometimes managed to get rather ...
    (sci.lang)