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Message: <blockquote data-quote="FraserRonald" data-source="post: 1476176" data-attributes="member: 7892">In discussing a science fiction literature course I took at university, I started to get really off topic, so I thought I would start a new thread. The original thread can be found <a href="http://www.enworld.org/forums/showthread.php?t=83291&page=9&pp=25" target="_blank">here</a>. But, this seemed more suited to this forum. Anyone with similar experiences, please join in. Actually, I was quite surprised by that, especially since the Prof clearly stated he had chosen 'genre-altering' works of fiction. I forgot to mention (though my memory has been jogged) Canticle for Liebowitz (sp?)--which I actually never read due to time constraints--and the Sheep Look Up, which surprised me as in interviews, John Brunner always came off--to me--as such a jerk and I was very ready to dislike the book, but instead liked it immensely. Just proved to me once again, not to confuse the creator's private life with the creation (though I still can't listen to Wagner anymore). It's sad when that happens. It seems to me, as a reader and a writer, that an author's values and beliefs will usually transmit, unconsciously, to the page. It's when there is an agenda that is the problem. I find Frankenstein very heavy-handed, and so I don't really enjoy reading it. By contrast, the Island of Doctor Moreau hides the message in a gripping yarn. There are different levels at which it can be read, and H.G. Wells was smart enough not to bash the reader over the head with it. He trusted that those interested would find the message. Those not interested would get it anyway, without really knowing! I find Joseph Conrad is the master at writing good books that can be read simply for excitement/adventure but that have amazing depth to them.I also took a course in critical reading--or something like that--with the same Prof. It was just as bad. I learned much more from Dr. Eric McCormack, a published author, who started out his 1st year British Literature course with something to the tune of:"Everything after writing a book is bull$#1t. Reviewing is bull$#1t. Criticism is bull$#1t. And that's what I want out of you: bull$#1t. But good bull$#1t."</blockquote>

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