# Clute *The Urth list — 1 messages, 1 voices, 05 Nov 1999* > Exported from an unofficial mirror of a public mailing list. Copyright > in each message remains with the person who wrote it. > Email addresses are obscured as `user at host`, the form the original > archive published. This file was rebuilt from parsed fields rather than > retained headers, so it is faithful in content but not byte-exact. --- ### Nicholas Gevers *05 Nov 1999, 23:19* I think that criticisms of John Clute's style ignore the fact that he is (unlike most critics) an original prose stylist. His innovative, if sometimes contorted, writing has vastly enriched SF criticism, not only because of his cogent insights, but because he has unlocked a critical vocabulary equal to the complete expression of those insights. He has his clumsy and inattentive moments, but I'd rather have him review OBW than leave the task to pedestrian hacks like the authors of certain other published reviews cited on amazon. ===== ---