Dan Simmons on Larry Niven?

Over on Dan Simmons website, he has a new "Message from Dan" posted.

http://www.dansimmons.com/news/message.htm

It's a long discussion on SF vs. literature (focused on the friendship
between Robert Louis Stevenson and Henry James with a lot of H.G.
Wells tossed in). It's a rambling post to me, but he spends a portion
of it talking about meeting a "Hard" SF writer (one that he had read
in the past and enjoyed) at a convention in Texas and the writer's
response to Simmons' fiction (particulary Hyperion, of which the
writer said "...I think it's the stupidest book I've ever read.").

He then talks about rereading one of the writer's novels couple of
months ago. Based on the description, it must be Lucifer's Hammer
(and I assume the writer is Niven and not Pournelle), but clearly
Simmons' is no longer impressed with the book (if he ever was). He
says of the book...

"I realized that I was getting a huge dose of H.G. Wells's literary
philosophy as I read this big bestseller-wannabe "Hard SF" novel for
the masses. The thing was an instrument of shoveling Ideas and
purveying the author's Opinions - on the absolute importance of
Science, on the idiot treehuggers who thought that "aerosol cans were
screwing up the atmosphere," on anyone who would oppose, say, nuclear
reactors - but the disturbing part was that the novel was devoid of
any human beings worth caring about or listening to as they (and the
authorial voice) pontificated to each other."

Later, discussing Wells and particulary "Things to Come", he pulls the
Fascism card, and says..

"But most of all . . . so sadly very much most of all . . . it, and
the Astronomical Apocalypse novel I'd read a few weeks earlier, were
products of an opinion-and- engineering- über-alles way of thinking
that, in any deeper artistic or human sense, had a natural horror of
dignity, of finish, of honesty, and of perfection."


Lucifer's Hammer is written like a disaster novel, with the ideas
being much more important than the characters, but I think some of
those ideas are worth examination. It's been a long time since I've
read it, it's certainly not my favorite Niven/Pournelle, but
still....the book comes off as total trash in Simmons' description.

I like a lot of Simmons' fiction, but he does seem like he might be a
prickly person in the flesh (and in some of his writing).
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Dan Simmons on Larry Niven?
    ... writer said "...I think it's the stupidest book I've ever read."). ... Simmons' is no longer impressed with the book. ... philosophy as I read this big bestseller-wannabe "Hard SF" novel for ... It's been a loooong time since I read Lucifer's Hammer, ...
    (rec.arts.sf.written)
  • Re: Dan Simmons on Larry Niven?
    ... It's a long discussion on SF vs. literature (focused on the friendship ... it must be Lucifer's Hammer ... Simmons' is no longer impressed with the book. ... philosophy as I read this big bestseller-wannabe "Hard SF" novel for ...
    (rec.arts.sf.written)
  • Re: Dan Simmons on Larry Niven?
    ... philosophy as I read this big bestseller-wannabe "Hard SF" novel for ... any human beings worth caring about or listening to as they (and the ... being much more important than the characters, ... still....the book comes off as total trash in Simmons' description. ...
    (rec.arts.sf.written)
  • Re: Dan Simmons on Larry Niven?
    ... It's a long discussion on SF vs. literature (focused on the friendship ... writer said "...I think it's the stupidest book I've ever read."). ... (and I assume the writer is Niven and not Pournelle) ... I don't know any of those authors in person, but Simmons mentions said ...
    (rec.arts.sf.written)