Comments on: Phildickery

By: joeo

joeo — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 23:46:22 +0000

I was really surprised how badly written “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” was when I read it after the movie came out.

By: Alex Knapp

Alex Knapp — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 18:06:33 +0000

I don’t think any discussion of great prose stylists in sci-fi is complete without discussing Alfred Bester, who could not only turn a phrase, but had some awesome experimentations in the use of typography to create imagery. The party of telepaths in “The Demolished Man” is a great case in point.

Other great prose stylists in sci-fi:

Walter M. Miller, Jr.
Octavia Butler
M.J. Engh (just thinking about Arslan gives me chills sometimes)

By: Nick

Nick — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 16:33:22 +0000

I agree with your points on Dick, but I also think that this should have kept him from inclusion in Library of America. He may be a great sci-fi thinker, but he’s simply not one of America’s greatest writers. Nor is he, as you point out, even among the ranks of the best science fiction writers.

By: foolishmortal

foolishmortal — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 07:31:08 +0000

Re: Dick in particular, you certainly have a point, and Dick perhaps exemplifies your larger point about sci-fi in general in that his ideas were brilliant and his prose awful. However, you’re missing great SF authors who also happen to be be great novelists: Samuel Delaney, Gene Wolfe, and John Crowley. M. John Harrison might make it onto this list in time.

By: Larry M

Larry M — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 06:54:44 +0000

Well … without stepping specifically into the Dick debate, you have a point generally, but maybe not as strong as one as you think. Now while it’s probably true that most science fiction doesn’t stand up well to serious literary fiction, I think that the quality of the prose in most of the better modern science fiction is pretty high. I mean, it’s well written in the most basic sense. That was far less true of most of the classics – I mean, re-reading a lot of that stuff now is sort of cringe inducing, but I could make a pretty long list of current writers of science fiction and fantasy that are, at the very least, solid prose stylists. Just to name a few: Mieville, Stross, Powers, Banks, and Gibson.

Of course you are correct that this isn’t the only (or probably even the main) reason that Science fiction deserves to be taken seriously.

By: Jim Henley

Jim Henley — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 05:23:38 +0000

I don’t hate you for this post, but I do pity you.

By: Anthony C

Anthony C — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 04:46:55 +0000

Several years ago I read “Ubik” and I clearly recall coming away from it thinking it was a work of great brilliance – but weirdly enough I can’t actually remember what the hell happened in it.