Nick Gevers said:
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Various points raised by Kevin Maroney and alga:
1) On Clute: it's true that Clute's contortions of
style can hinder accessibility of his mass-audience
reviews for that audience; but I think this misses the
point of why SF WEEKLY, Dorling Kindersley, and others
similarly commercial have employed Clute to produce
material for them. It's because of his style, which,
for whatever reasons, has won him a wider popularity.
Maybe his critical poetry strikes chords in unexpected
places; but he is very widely read, and not because he
dumbs down his prose.
Yes, Nick, but you missed my point, and that of others. It is when Clute dumbs down his prose that he is readable and useful. What we are all objecting to is the absurd high-falutin'ness of his prose in this review, the clog of academe.
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3) David Hartwell's role in persuading GW to produce
UOTNS: as he is Wolfe's long-time editor, couldn't we
see Hartwell as a sort of Hierogrammate, patiently
recording the rescripts of the Increate? And sometimes
prompting them?
Well, I like that!
-alga