mac@ICSC.UCI.EDU@caip.RUTGERS.EDU (02/20/86)
From: Macintosh Laboratory <mac@ICSC.UCI.EDU> The Feb. 19 edition of the the LA Times had an article about a bunch of local SF writers (Benford, Brin, Harrison, etc.) who got together after the Uranus fly-by and started a heated discussion about an article in the October edition of Harper's magazine. The essay was called "The Temple of Boredom" (subtitled "Science Fiction, no future") by Luc Sante. The article gets down on SF as a genre for its "hubris", "woozy universalism", and "contrivance", and goes on and on about SF as "the domain of hobbyists and hacks". Since I'm not in the "literary establishment" (:-), I missed this article, but I'm curious as to why there was no mention of it on sf-lovers (maybe I just missed it). I couldn't think of anything that could set off the division of flame-throwers on the net as much as a blatant frontal attack as this. Anyway, I'm going to go look up the article and would like to hear what other people think of it. -- Greg Finnegan mac@icsc.uci.edu The article mentions the so-called "eastern literary establishment" and its neglect of SF as less-than-literature. I think maybe I'll send a little note to the LA Times editors asking why they are in that class -- the Book Review only reviews an SF novel about every 5 weeks. Oh well...