Wolfe's politics; BOOK and URTH

Michael Straight · 18 Jun 1998, 17:00 · from urth-v0014.mbox · original

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From: Michael Straight <straight at email.unc.edu>
Subject: Re: (urth) Wolfe's politics; BOOK and URTH
Date: Thu, 18 Jun 1998 17:00:47
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On Thu, 18 Jun 1998, adam louis stephanides wrote:

> Wolfe attacking PC doesn't surprise me at all, given his frequent populist
> and anti-academic remarks.
>=20
> (Which rouse a certain irritation in me, I confess.  Despite
> his sneers at academic critics, it's Wolfe, even more than James Joyce who
> coined the phrase, who requires "an ideal reader suffering from an ideal
> insomnia," as this list demonstrates.)

The difference being that Wolfe seems to have great affection for popular,
less demanding science-fiction and its readers, both of which get sneers
from academic critics.  He's just sneering at the sneerers.=20

(Which sounds a bit like the critique of "PC" folks that they're
intolerant of the intolerant...)=20

Anyway, I don't think it's elitist to write very demanding fiction if you
don't pretend that people who enjoy it are better than people who don't.

-Rostrum

*More Wolfe info & archive of this list at http://www.urth.net/urth/

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