G L Wilson
03-16-2012, 06:05 PM
I'm reading Paper Cities: An Anthology of Urban Fantasy. It tries for the postmodern, it doesn't work. Past every story, I wonder, not exactly, aloud: "Is Urban Fantasy always so confounding?" Urban Fantasy seems full of promise as a genre and seems poorly served. Is it just me or am I missing something?
I was wondering - has anyone given up on H. P. Lovecraft because he is so blatantly racist in his writings? Should I give him another go and ignore the racism? He seems utterly repulsive. This may be the true horror of Lovecraft - himself.
I stopped reading midway through a book of Jorge Luis Borges's complete short stories, not long ago. I was disappointed. He seemed quite interesting in coming to him. I blamed myself as a reader, am I right to blame myself or should I blame him as a writer? Borges bordered on a vacuum, he didn't really suck one into his world.
From Stoker to Verne to Dickens, the Victorian characters of Victorian writers sh** me to tears. Smelling of dampness, is the whole of 19th Century fiction that that I'm against? Maybe, maybe not; it may be that I'm just homophobic.
Mark Twain's Huck Finn irritated me intensely. I would've shot the Tom Sawyer character in the head, not in the leg like he was, if I could've. In general, I love Twain but he is as innocent an act as Oscar Wilde is knowing. In general, I love Oscar Wilde but only one unfinished story of Wilde's about a merchant and his wife and her squire held me fixed in thought afterwards. True lust for slaughter seemed like perfect theatre to me. Perhaps, though, I mistake drama for comedy and comedy for drama. However, if it's not melodrama, who gives a damn? for then I'm likely to vomit.
Is Don DeLillo's other work as good as Point Omega? In short, I've already adopted a piece of him. Shortness of style suits me, I think.
I am not above using vulgarisms. I'll simply not spell vulgarly in formal English. The Queen's English seems strictly necessary in spelling to this reader, while American English seems crude and unnecessary in proper form. Am I right in this? Does it matter?
I was wondering - has anyone given up on H. P. Lovecraft because he is so blatantly racist in his writings? Should I give him another go and ignore the racism? He seems utterly repulsive. This may be the true horror of Lovecraft - himself.
I stopped reading midway through a book of Jorge Luis Borges's complete short stories, not long ago. I was disappointed. He seemed quite interesting in coming to him. I blamed myself as a reader, am I right to blame myself or should I blame him as a writer? Borges bordered on a vacuum, he didn't really suck one into his world.
From Stoker to Verne to Dickens, the Victorian characters of Victorian writers sh** me to tears. Smelling of dampness, is the whole of 19th Century fiction that that I'm against? Maybe, maybe not; it may be that I'm just homophobic.
Mark Twain's Huck Finn irritated me intensely. I would've shot the Tom Sawyer character in the head, not in the leg like he was, if I could've. In general, I love Twain but he is as innocent an act as Oscar Wilde is knowing. In general, I love Oscar Wilde but only one unfinished story of Wilde's about a merchant and his wife and her squire held me fixed in thought afterwards. True lust for slaughter seemed like perfect theatre to me. Perhaps, though, I mistake drama for comedy and comedy for drama. However, if it's not melodrama, who gives a damn? for then I'm likely to vomit.
Is Don DeLillo's other work as good as Point Omega? In short, I've already adopted a piece of him. Shortness of style suits me, I think.
I am not above using vulgarisms. I'll simply not spell vulgarly in formal English. The Queen's English seems strictly necessary in spelling to this reader, while American English seems crude and unnecessary in proper form. Am I right in this? Does it matter?