[bookshare-discuss] Ideas Versus Characterization

  • From: "EVAN REESE" <mentat3@xxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: <bookshare-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Wed, 16 Sep 2009 10:28:14 -0400

I put this in my Drafts folder, intending to finish it later, and nearly forgot 
about it.

I didn't like The Unreasoning Mask as much as some others at the club did. It 
wasn't terrible, but not really all that great either. I thought the writing 
was a bit clunky. More importantly, this is a story that could have used better 
characterization because, while Farmer had some interesting ideas, they were 
not developed enough to carry the story without good characterization. A story 
needs *something* in my view, good ideas, plot, setting, characters--to make it 
work, or a combination of those. So, as in the case of 
The Unreasoning Mask, if the plot is rather murky, the ideas are not well 
developed, and the writing does not really bring the settings alive very well, 
memorable characters would have balanced things out and made it a much better 
story. But, since the writing wasn't all that great, in my opinion, perhaps it 
might not have made a whole lot of difference if he had attempted to create 
more rounded characters.

Now Childhood's End had a story to tell--a big story. It was a story about the 
human race as a whole, and the tragedy of another race. (I will say no more in 
case you or others might want to read it someday. In my view, it did not need 
good characterization to make it a classic. The writing was much better for one 
thing, but Clarke focused on the main idea and brought it to full flowering 
skillfully. The theme of that book was human transcendence, which is a theme 
that is very close to my heart; so I admit that I am a bit biased on this 
matter. I'm not sure what the theme of The Unreasoning Mask was. The Stross 
stories also had a strong theme of transcendence--one that is much closer to 
likelihood in my view, so I was very interested in how he developed his vision 
of a possible human future. I thought the writing was pretty good in those as 
well. However, it was a bit technical. There is in fact a technical reference 
guide to the Accelerando stories that you can get on Wikipedia.  I don't know 
if that was a source of some of the problems for you, but it may have been.

     Just to show that I do like novels with good characterization, God Emperor 
of Dune by Frank Herbert is a prime example. The story is really a study of one 
character. The central idea, why the main character is still around at the time 
of the story, is one I have doubts about. But it doesn't matter to me very 
much. The novel is about the character, not about ideas. Of course, the nature 
of the character makes it one that the author could never fully succeed at 
portraying. But the ambition is phenomenal; and the fact that he succeeded as 
well as he did is quite a marvel. And he did it well enough, for me at least, 
that he created a fascinating and memorable character.

Evan


----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Kim Friedman 
  To: bookshare-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx 
  Sent: Monday, September 14, 2009 2:35 AM
  Subject: [bookshare-discuss] Re: Next Meeting of the Science Fiction Club, 
Thursday, October 8, 2009


  Hi, Evan, many thanks for the information. I started appreciating SF because 
of a radio show called "Hour 25" on a Pacifica station. There would be author 
interviews, readings of short stories, talk about films, and it covered mainly 
SF, but I heard about horror fiction, some fantasy fiction, and comic books. 
Some of the authors who were guests on the program were Marion Zimmer Bradley, 
David Gerrold, Octavia E. Butler, Frederick Pohl, Anne McCaffrey, Diane Duane, 
etc. I got to liking SF more, so I got The Caves of Steel by Asimov. The only 
comment I can make about what you said is that tastes vary. What authors might 
suit me may not be interesting to you. I have The Unreasoning Mask and will 
read it. Regards, Kim.



------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  From: EVAN REESE [mailto:mentat3@xxxxxxxxxxx] 
  Sent: Sunday, September 13, 2009 5:48 AM
  To: bookshare-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  Subject: [bookshare-discuss] Re: Next Meeting of the Science Fiction Club, 
Thursday, October 8, 2009


  Yes, you can go to
  www.accessibleworld.org
  and there is a link to the Book Nook on the home page.

  I thought those Stross stories were great. But I'm not as much of a character 
person as most people, it would seem. Not that I don't like good characters, 
but I don't think a story has to have great characters for me to enjoy it. Some 
of the greatest SF classics are not about characters. Arthur C. Clarke's 
Childhood's End immediately springs to mind. That novel is widely considered a 
classic by many people, but I don't think very many would consider great 
characterization as one of its strong points. It's one of my favorite SF novels 
even so.

  Evan

    ----- Original Message ----- 
    From: Kim Friedman 
    To: bookshare-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx 
    Sent: Sunday, September 13, 2009 2:39 AM
    Subject: [bookshare-discuss] Re: Next Meeting of the Science Fiction Club, 
Thursday, October 8, 2009


    Hi, Evan, does the SF book club meet at accessibleworld.org? I can remember 
that address as it's short. With regard to Charles Stross, I've read his 
Manfred Max stories in Asimov's SF magazine, but I couldn't get into those 
stories nor could I identify with the characters or the culture. I don't think 
I'll read this one. Regards, Kim.



----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    From: EVAN REESE [mailto:mentat3@xxxxxxxxxxx] 
    Sent: Saturday, September 12, 2009 4:23 PM
    To: Bob Acosta; scifi@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx; bookshare-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx; 
bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
    Subject: [bookshare-discuss] Next Meeting of the Science Fiction Club, 
Thursday, October 8, 2009


    Hi Folks,

    The next meeting of the Science Fiction Club will take place on Thursday, 
October 8, 2009 in the 
    Book Nook at:
    http://conference321.com/masteradmin/room.asp?id=rs7867a2369e0e

    Time: 9 PM Eastern, 8 PM Central, 7 PM Mountain, 6 PM Pacific, and 01 hour 
UTC.

    For the next meeting, we are reading Glasshouse by Charles Stross. You can 
get it from both NLS--as digital download at:
    http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.nls/db.65900
    or on tape with number RC 65900
    and from Bookshare at:
    
http://www.bookshare.org/browse/book/38343/Glasshouse%20?returnPath=L3NlYXJjaD9rZXl3b3JkPWdsYXNzaG91c2Um
    with an Excellent rating.

    Here is the long synopsis from Bookshare:
    When Robin wakes up in a clinic with most of his memories missing, it 
doesn't take him long to discover that someone is trying to kill him. It's the 
twenty-seventh century, when interstellar travel is by teleport gate and 
conflicts are fought by network worms that censor refugees' personalities-- 
including Robin's earlier self.
    On the run from a ruthless pursuer and searching for a place to hide, he 
volunteers to participate in a unique experimental polity: the Glasshouse, a 
historical simulation of a pre-accelerated culture circa 1950-2040 where 
participants are assigned anonymized identities. But what looks like the 
perfect sanctuary turns into a trap, placing Robin at the mercy of the 
experimenters-- and at the mercy of his own unbalanced psyche...

    And here is a review from Publisher's Weekly taken from Amazon:
    The censorship wars"during which the Curious Yellow virus devastated the 
network of wormhole gates connecting humanity across the cosmos"are finally 
over at the start of Hugo-winner Stross's brilliant new novel, set in the same 
far-future universe as 2005's Accelerando. Robin is one of millions who have 
had a mind wipe, to forget wartime memories that are too painful"or too 
dangerously inconvenient for someone else. To evade the enemies who don't think 
his mind wipe was enough, Robin volunteers to live in the experimental 
Glasshouse, a former prison for deranged war criminals that will recreate 
Earth's "dark ages" (c. 1950"2040). Entering the community as a female, Robin 
is initially appalled by life as a suburban housewife, then he realizes the 
other participants are all either retired spies or soldiers. Worse yet, 
fragments of old memories return"extremely dangerous in the Glasshouse, where 
the experimenters'
    intentions are as murky as Robin's grasp of his own identity. With nods to 
Kafka, James Tiptree and others,
    Stross's wry SF thriller satisfies on all levels, with memorable characters 
and enough brain-twisting extrapolation for five novels.

    At the last meeting, we had a great discussion of City by Clifford D. 
Simak, with more people than we've had in a long time. Hope to see even more 
next month.

    Evan



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