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#1
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Dueling authors.... well, ideas anyway.
This is a very minor brag, with several questions attached.
I purchased a box lot for $5 USD that included a copy of _The Forever War_, Joe Haldeman, 1974 St. Martin's Press. Multiple closed tears in the d/j, esp. at top and bottom of the spine. D/J is rubbed along the spine, bottom and at the folds . The book has 3 bumped corners, 2 dents to board tops, the expected foxing and dust coloring but is very tight, not tipped or leaning (much). It appears to have been read, but carefully and doesn't smell of smoke or mildew. I _AM_ keeping it. Anyway, the questions start. Without digging out my Analog and Locus copies to verify this, ISTR there being some back-and-forth commentary about this being written as a sort of anti-Starship Trooper, Viet Nam protest book. Has this happened in fiction before, and/or is it common where an author seems to take aim at another? Obviously in Academia, dissenting ideas get published regularly, but what about fiction? Thanks, Dave |
#2
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Dueling authors.... well, ideas anyway.
Dave wrote:
Obviously in Academia, dissenting ideas get published regularly, but what about fiction? Jean Rhys's Wide Sargasso Sea is a response to Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre, and Golding's The Lord of the Flies is a response to Stevenson's Treasure Island. Those are just a couple of examples that immediately come to mind. There are certainly others, but I can't think of them offhand. This kind of response to another text is sometimes called "talking back", especially in the feminist and postcolonial contexts (i.e., when voices that had hitherto been suppressed find expression). John http://rarebooksinjapan.org |
#3
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Dueling authors.... well, ideas anyway.
On Tue, 27 Jun 2006 08:37:27 +0900, "John R. Yamamoto-Wilson"
wrote: Dave wrote: Obviously in Academia, dissenting ideas get published regularly, but what about fiction? Jean Rhys's Wide Sargasso Sea is a response to Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre, and Golding's The Lord of the Flies is a response to Stevenson's Treasure Island. Those are just a couple of examples that immediately come to mind. There are certainly others, but I can't think of them offhand. This kind of response to another text is sometimes called "talking back", especially in the feminist and postcolonial contexts (i.e., when voices that had hitherto been suppressed find expression). John http://rarebooksinjapan.org John, I should have recalled Lord of the Flies from Lit classes, but it has been a while. The amount of info that is available from RCB continues to amaze me on a daily basis. I only wish there was less: "You're one." "No, YOU'RE one." "Oh YEAH? Well, so's your mother!" And that there were fewer entries in my kill file. Thanks, Dave |
#4
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Dueling authors.... well, ideas anyway.
Dave wrote:
This is a very minor brag, with several questions attached. I purchased a box lot for $5 USD that included a copy of _The Forever War_, Joe Haldeman, 1974 St. Martin's Press. Multiple closed tears in the d/j, esp. at top and bottom of the spine. D/J is rubbed along the spine, bottom and at the folds . The book has 3 bumped corners, 2 dents to board tops, the expected foxing and dust coloring but is very tight, not tipped or leaning (much). It appears to have been read, but carefully and doesn't smell of smoke or mildew. I _AM_ keeping it. Anyway, the questions start. Without digging out my Analog and Locus copies to verify this, ISTR there being some back-and-forth commentary about this being written as a sort of anti-Starship Trooper, Viet Nam protest book. Has this happened in fiction before, and/or is it common where an author seems to take aim at another? Obviously in Academia, dissenting ideas get published regularly, but what about fiction? Thanks, Dave I remember there being some letter of protest over the Vietnam war signed by a bunch of sci-fi authors, and then one in favor of the war signed by other authors. I recall Harlan Ellison being opposed to the war, while Jack Vance was one of those supporting it. Does anyone else remember this? |
#5
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Dueling authors.... well, ideas anyway.
I was an undergraduate at the Univ of Iowa in '74-75 while Haldeman was
working on his MFA in the Writer's Workshop there. An instructor (who seemed to have a friendly personal relationship with him) brought him into our class to discuss his work and the just-published Forever War in particular, and while I don't recall the specifics I did get the very strong impression that there was a definite left-wing and anti-war component in his world-view at the time. I do recall that the instructor herself was very definitely of that ilk! Chris |
#6
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Dueling authors.... well, ideas anyway.
In the late '60s, Galaxy magazine published (on several occasions) 2
full-page ads from SF writers who supported the war and those who opposed it. I haven't looked at my copies in eons, but, as I recall Heinlein and many others supported the war, and Ellison and many others opposed it. Check your Galaxys from 1968-69. "Some Guy" wrote in message news:8x_ng.6858$6w.1382@fed1read11... Dave wrote: This is a very minor brag, with several questions attached. I purchased a box lot for $5 USD that included a copy of _The Forever War_, Joe Haldeman, 1974 St. Martin's Press. Multiple closed tears in the d/j, esp. at top and bottom of the spine. D/J is rubbed along the spine, bottom and at the folds . The book has 3 bumped corners, 2 dents to board tops, the expected foxing and dust coloring but is very tight, not tipped or leaning (much). It appears to have been read, but carefully and doesn't smell of smoke or mildew. I _AM_ keeping it. Anyway, the questions start. Without digging out my Analog and Locus copies to verify this, ISTR there being some back-and-forth commentary about this being written as a sort of anti-Starship Trooper, Viet Nam protest book. Has this happened in fiction before, and/or is it common where an author seems to take aim at another? Obviously in Academia, dissenting ideas get published regularly, but what about fiction? Thanks, Dave I remember there being some letter of protest over the Vietnam war signed by a bunch of sci-fi authors, and then one in favor of the war signed by other authors. I recall Harlan Ellison being opposed to the war, while Jack Vance was one of those supporting it. Does anyone else remember this? |
#7
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Dueling authors.... well, ideas anyway.
Has this happened in fiction before, and/or is it common where an
author seems to take aim at another? Obviously in Academia, dissenting ideas get published regularly, but what about fiction? In music, there's neil young's "Southern Man," which begat Luynard Skynard's "Sweet Home Alabama," which begat Warren Zevon's "All Night Long". In books, Jerry Pournelle's anthology series There Will Be War! begat lewis Shiner's When The Music's Over. Nancy Kress said that Beggars in Spain was written in response to both Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged and Ursula K. Le Guin's The Dispossessed. And of coiurse, one could consider George Orwell's 1984, Arthur Koestler's Darkness At Noon, and Aleskandr Solzhenitsyn's One Day In the Life of Ivan Denisovich as responses to Karl Marx's Communist Manifesto and Vladimir Lenin's What Is To Be Done... Lawrence Person Lame Excuse Books Stock available online at www.tomfolio.com (searched by www.bookfinder.com), or at: http://home.austin.rr.com/lperson/lame.html |
#9
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Dueling authors.... well, ideas anyway.
wrote: wrote: Has this happened in fiction before, and/or is it common where an author seems to take aim at another? Obviously in Academia, dissenting ideas get published regularly, but what about fiction? I seem to remember an allegation that Norman Spinrad's "The Iron Dream" (that ingenious alternative history that had Hitler going to New York and becoming a science fiction writer rather than embarking on a "political career; sort of like, "If Hitler had been a fiction writer, what would he have 'written?") was satirically aimed at the Gor series by John Norman. Whether or not the fact that "Norman" is part of each writer's name had anything to do with the matter, I cannot say... [Memo from the upstairs office.] I know people are not supposed to raise questions about their just-posted theories, at the risk of being accused of merely chewing their cud while acting as if they are doing some serious thinking, but after I made the earlier post on this thread I did some checking and found that John Norman had only published three of his Gor books before Spinrad published "The Iron Dream" so now I am wondering if Norman ("John", I mean) would have even been prominent enough in Norman's "Spinrad's," I mean) thoughts to merit Spinrad aiming an entire book at him. Maybe those who maintain that Spinrad was mocking a trend he felt he saw in science fiction are on the right track... [Memo from the upstairs office.] Lawrence Person Lame Excuse Books Stock available online at www.tomfolio.com (searched by www.bookfinder.com), or at: http://home.austin.rr.com/lperson/lame.html |
#10
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Dueling authors.... well, ideas anyway.
On 26 Jun 2006 17:16:52 -0700, wrote:
... Warren Zevon's "All Night Long"... .. Quite a talent lost. "Dolan, the Headless Thompson Gunner" and the rest. In books, Jerry Pournelle's anthology series There Will Be War! begat lewis Shiner's When The Music's Over. Nancy Kress said that Beggars in Spain was written in response to both Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged and Ursula K. Le Guin's The Dispossessed. And of coiurse, one could consider George Orwell's 1984, Arthur Koestler's Darkness At Noon, and Aleskandr Solzhenitsyn's One Day In the Life of Ivan Denisovich as responses to Karl Marx's Communist Manifesto and Vladimir Lenin's What Is To Be Done... Tsk, I should have remembered 1984 at least from Lit class, but it was always scheduled in the morning .... Lawrence Person Lame Excuse Books Stock available online at www.tomfolio.com (searched by www.bookfinder.com), or at: http://home.austin.rr.com/lperson/lame.html Thanks again, Dave |
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