(urth) If I already like ...

[DAVID STOCKHOFF]

It's often strange to see a favorite book through another reader's eyes. I find fantasy in every word and sentence of the book and can't imagine seeing it otherwise. 


Perhaps this is because I approach Wolfe and fantasy from a third perspective in addition to those mentioned: (1) ideology (Catholicism) and (2) sensibility (pre-postmodernism, as someone put it). A fourth approach might be science. But I consider style over all else; to me, style defines SF.


What writers like Charles de Lint do is called "urban fantasy" by some. I find the "fantasy" in these stories to be highly separable from the "urban" part, which invariably holds no interest for me because its style is flat.

What Crowley does shows how de Lint falls flat.



________________________________
 From: Jeff Wilson <jwilson at clueland.com>
To: The Urth Mailing List <urth at lists.urth.net> 
Sent: Wednesday, April 18, 2012 8:11 AM
Subject: Re: (urth) If I already like ...
 
On 4/18/2012 6:59 AM, David Stockhoff wrote:
> On 4/17/2012 10:42 PM, Jeff Wilson wrote:
>> On 4/17/2012 2:08 PM, Jerry Friedman wrote:
>>> I strongly second the recommendation for Crowley, and I'd start with
>>> /Little, Big, /although he's never written anything bad since /Beasts/.
>>
>> _Little, Big_ was a disappointment for me. Part of the novel is urban,
>> but the specks of actual fantasy come before and after.
>>
>
> Do you mean classic Victorian-style fantasy vs urban fantasy?


I was ready for either, but outside of a talking fish and bird, I came 
up empty. It has to be the least fantastic fantasy I've ever encountered.

Other than that, it was okay.


-- 
Jeff Wilson - jwilson at clueland.com
Computational Intelligence Laboratory - Texas A&M Texarkana
< http://www.tamut.edu/CIL >
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