Re: How do "classics" read for the first time stand up?


"chuck c." <cunnincx@xxxxxxx> wrote in message news:0cefe034-d600-4515-a887-af56e69fe5ae@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Hi sf fans,
An exchange on another thread concerning Alfred Bester raised an
issue for me. I first read "Demolished Man" at age 12 and for years it
was my favorite sf novel. I wonder how it would strike me if I read it
for the first time now, 50 years later? In other words, are the
"classics" still classic, in the sense, say, that PRIDE AND PREJUDICE
is classic?
For example, take the FOUNDATION series, much-beloved by the sf
community (not by me); has anyone with sf experience read it recently
for the first time? How about DUNE, or most of Heinlein's "Golden Age"
material? I can certainly attest that van Vogt (my favorite sf writer
in my early years) is not so readable now.

I originally read Foundation in the late seventies as a teen and even given the anachronistic technology it held up well. Though I have not read it in decades in the day I re-read it so many times so as to have parts indelibly etched in my memory.

Same thing for Dune but a little later. A few years back I looked up a passage to verify some point being debated and I found it seemed decidedly... well.... badly written. By that I mean I found the narration over-the-top melodramatic even for a melodrama. I don't know if my tastes changed with maturity or any work idealized in the formative years would seem so from the perspective of and old fogey forty something.

One thing that has changed is that even something if it is something I like I rarely [pretty much never] re-read books.




.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: How do "classics" read for the first time stand up?
    ... for the first time now, ... "classics" still classic, in the sense, say, that PRIDE AND PREJUDICE ...    For example, take the FOUNDATION series, much-beloved by the sf ... or most of Heinlein's "Golden Age" ...
    (rec.arts.sf.written)
  • Re: How do "classics" read for the first time stand up?
    ... An exchange on another thread concerning Alfred Bester raised an ... for the first time now, ... "classics" still classic, in the sense, say, that PRIDE AND PREJUDICE ... or most of Heinlein's "Golden Age" ...
    (rec.arts.sf.written)
  • Re: How do "classics" read for the first time stand up?
    ... An exchange on another thread concerning Alfred Bester raised an ... for the first time now, ... "classics" still classic, in the sense, say, that PRIDE AND PREJUDICE ... or most of Heinlein's "Golden Age" ...
    (rec.arts.sf.written)
  • Re: How do "classics" read for the first time stand up?
    ... An exchange on another thread concerning Alfred Bester raised an ... for the first time now, ... "classics" still classic, in the sense, say, that PRIDE AND PREJUDICE ... or most of Heinlein's "Golden Age" ...
    (rec.arts.sf.written)
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