On Wed, 25 Sep 1996, Marilyn S. Lary wrote:
[some deletions]
> The question of "bad" fantasy/science fiction/mysteries, etc. is
> useless. Reading is always to be preferred to not reading. That
> question was laid to rest a la Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys many
> years ago. The real hope is that readers will move on to something
> else; the quality does not have to be "up" but we can hope!
Pardon me, but this was part of Chas's point--namely that whether
fantasy is "good" or "bad" is beside the point, as long as it gets people
reading. In the example he cited, that of his wife, I hadn't realized
that there _were_ books in comparison to which Lackey and Anthony
constituted a step up <g>, but I'm willing to accept the assertion.
I wouldn't agree with Chas that _all_ fantasy is mindless, but
then I'm not sure that was his argument. Clearly there is a vast amount
of poorly-written and vapid fantasy on the shelves; the same can be said
of biography, SF, 'mainstream' fiction, etc. We can certainly disagree
over what constitutes this stuff, as opposed to the jewels we hold in
high regard (for Ms. Lary, that would be Robert Jordan; for me, Peake and
Tolkein). I don't think we'd differ as much, though, on whether reading
fantasy, *any* fantasy, is probably a Good Thing.
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