fu@dspo.UUCP (09/17/85)
I had an English teacher who was felt that that no great English literature had been written since the time of Milton. She didn't mean that nothing worth reading had been written, just nothing exceptionally good. Her opinion of science fiction was extremely low. I asked her to read "Mortal Gods" which was a 3 page short story by Orson Scott Card, and her reaction was quite favorable. I think that for those who have poor opinions of the quality of SF, Card is a very good writer. -Castor Fu ihnp4!lanl!dspo!fu
brust@hyper.UUCP (Steven Brust) (09/23/85)
> I had an English teacher who was felt that that > no great English literature had been written since the > time of Milton. She didn't mean that nothing worth > reading had been written, just nothing exceptionally good. > Her opinion of science fiction was extremely low. > -Castor Fu > ihnp4!lanl!dspo!fu Interesting. I know someone who has taught English. She has an MA, with a Shakespear specialty. She also feels that no great literature has been written since, approxamatly, Milton. She feels the exceptions are mostly found in Science Fiction, Mysteries, and children's books. -- SKZB
judith@proper.UUCP (Judith Abrahms) (10/10/85)
In article <> brust@hyper.UUCP (Steven Brust) writes: >> I had an English teacher who was felt that that >> no great English literature had been written since the >> time of Milton. She didn't mean that nothing worth >> reading had been written, just nothing exceptionally good. >> Her opinion of science fiction was extremely low. >> -Castor Fu >> ihnp4!lanl!dspo!fu > >Interesting. I know someone who has taught English. She >has an MA, with a Shakespear specialty. She also feels >that no great literature has been written since, approxamatly, >Milton. She feels the exceptions are mostly found in Science Fiction, >Mysteries, and children's books. > > -- SKZB One of the most interesting remarks in the critical works of T.S. Eliot is that John Milton did greater harm to English poetry than any poet who ever lived. His tortured fake-Latin syntax was considered terrifically Classical by some influential people, and was emulated by poets who might have written great straightforward work in English, which (as many of you know) is a Germanic language with a lot of borrowings from Latin. This headlong rush into spurious linguistic elegance lasted for centuries, was deflected for a while by the strenuous efforts of Pound, Eliot, Joyce, and various other modernists, began once again to gather steam as these three (each with his own peculiar brand of difficult classicism, in fact) lost followers. Then classicism collapsed for good, for obvious reasons, when we lost Western civilization and general literacy. But I digress. Judith Abrahms {ucbvax,ihnp4}!dual!proper!judith
brust@hyper.UUCP (Steven Brust) (10/15/85)
> > One of the most interesting remarks in the critical works of T.S. Eliot is that > John Milton did greater harm to English poetry than any poet who ever lived. > His tortured fake-Latin syntax was considered terrifically Classical by some > influential people, and was emulated by poets who might have written great > straightforward work in English > > Judith Abrahms > {ucbvax,ihnp4}!dual!proper!judith I've heard that before. I can't really dispute it. I CAN say that I read Milton for pleasure, and this is true of few other poets. It is not, for example, true of Eliot. -- SKZB