John Scalzi had words for a nitwit in LA who derided Heinlein in Scalzi's name. Complete comments along with a boisterous discussion thread (which happens any time Heinlein's name is invoked) is here:
http://scalzi.com/whatever/?p=191
For the record, I am not a fan of those who judge a piece's worth by its "literary" pedigree. In fact, the best way to get me to ignore someone's opinion is for them to start yapping about the "literary" merit of a story. I immediately peg those people as posturing poseurs worthy of scorn, derision, and rotten tomatos if any are to hand.
Spare me.
Literature cannot exist soley on the pretentious airs of the mutual back-patting society that is the self-annointed "literatsi". True literature is best judged by that which survives the test of time and speaks across the generations to the breadth of human understanding, not within the theses and papers of the closeted bearers of academic letters or other presumptive cultural gatekeepers. Ergo, judging something as having "literary" merit because of its fancy structure or avante-guarde approach as it comes out of the publisher's gates with the ink barely dry is laughable.
If a piece of fiction does not compel a reader to keep turning a page to "see what happens", then it is useless. Thus, a writer who cannot create compelling stories to go with their oh-so-crafted "literary" words does not deserve to be read and generally isn't. Crafting a well-told tale comes first. Great art can only be built upon solid craftsmanship and that's as true of woodworking as it is for oil painting as it is for prose.
Other than publishing and distribution's continued and drawn out commission of seppeku through the bean-counter driven extermination of the mid-list, nothing has done more to destroy the breadth and consumption of speculative-fiction prose than those who inflict "literary" posturing upon words that tell no tale anyone outside of the "enlightened" literatsi want to hear.
By my definition of "literature" Heinlein succeeded. His works have survived and spoken across generations, although I think the ones that will be remembered more 50 years from now are not his more pretentious later works like "Stranger in a Strange Land", but rather his earlier enjoyable reads like "Starship Troopers".
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2 comments:
My comment on critics is thus:
In 1999, over 1000 professional and scholarly analyses of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet were published.
Name one.
Troopers was actually only a year before Stranger, and he'd started Stranger in 52.
It served its purpose. I like them all in different ways.
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