dm@BBN-VAX.ARPA (09/13/85)
From: dm@BBN-VAX.ARPA Hmm, wading through the last couple of week's worth of SF-Lovers, I come across Steve Brust claiming that, to be a great book, something must also be a good read. I guess I'd have to agree with this, in a perverse sort of way. An analogy which comes to mind is Rubik's Cube versus Tic-tac-toe: a very hard, but ultimately very satisfying, puzzle vs. a trivial and boring game. Which would you rather spend your time with? I think the Cube is satisfying and fun precisely because it is hard, and Tic-tac-toe is boring precisely because it is trivial. Ulysses is a GREAT read! There's a giggle on just about every page of Ulysses. Every chapter is written in a Brand New Way Of Writing (one chapter even goes so far as to recapitulate the history of English literature: from Beowulf through Cicero to Chaucer to Joyce's contemporaries, when I figured out what he was up to in that chapter I laughed out loud). Dhalgren was a great read, too. Like eating a robust, healthy meal. Now a book I found REALLY HARD (and ultimately failed) to get through was the one of EE ``Doc'' Smith's Lensman books. Like eating soggy Captain Crunch. After a while you get nauseous.