jcp.jhu%UDel-Relay@sri-unix.UUCP (06/27/83)
From: J.C. Patilla <jcp.jhu@UDel-Relay> Apropos of this discussion of style versus content or plot, my husband, who is a write of non-fiction, has asked that I pose this question to digest readers: "How important is writing style - vocabulary, sentence structure, narrative structure, word choice - to you as a science fiction reader ?" If the the moderator indicates that this discussion would be better held outside the digest, then please reply to me directly at this net address - jcp.jhu@udel-relay. My personal feeling is that style is not the most important thing I usually look for. There are enough sf authors that I have read that can actually write in at least a half-assed readable fashion, that I don't go out of my way looking for true stylists. It is always gratifying to find someone who has something to say and can express him/herself very well, and if a book is written so badly that is hurts the brain to get through it, then I don't finish it. Unfortunately, sf seems to have gotten the reputation (out in the "real" world) of being very badly written. I look at the "regular" fiction being written these days and find that there are almost no new ideas or well-discussed ideas out there at all, but because the authors are "names", they get all sorts of money and attention whereas very few new science fiction offerings get any attention. (The Washington Post, by the way, is one big daily which does give some attention to sf reviews, and the reviewer even seems to know something.) j c patilla
smb@ulysses.UUCP (07/01/83)
My feeling is that style is important, but I agree -- it isn't the most critical element in SF. When I read SF, I look for concepts first. Innovative ideas can rescue an otherwise-bad book. At the same time, a certain minimum command of the mechanics of writing is essential, or I'm unlikely to be able to wade through the thing. Where I draw the line, though, is in the other direction: I don't like SF books where the author is solely concerned with his/her own ideas of "style", and totally ignores questions of plot, comprehensibility, etc. Much of the so-called "new wave" science fiction falls into this category, I'd say. (The same, of course, applies to main-stream fiction. I'm not fond of style uber alles; I insist that anything I read appeal to me in *some* other fashion. As a result, I tend to read much more non-fiction than non-SF fiction.) I do admire writers who do have a strong command of style, though. C.J Cherryh is an author who writes very well, but without sacrificing comprehensibility or plot. Nevertheless, the appeal of her novels is in the way she uses the language and her art to totally grab the reader's attention. --Steve Bellovin