Digest urth.v028.n080

Alice Turner · 07 Nov 1999, 09:55 · from urth-v0028.mbox · original

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From: "Alice Turner" <akt at attglobal.net>
Subject: (urth) Re: Digest urth.v028.n080
Date: Sun, 7 Nov 1999 09:55:48
Message-ID: <urth-v0028-0413 at digest.urth.net>
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Nick Gevers said:

> 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.

> 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



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