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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Cthulhu's Librarian" data-source="post: 2648687" data-attributes="member: 11064">Gary Gygax's opinion has little to no influence on the SF field, outside the marginal subgroup that call themselves gamers, and even then it's a small section that take that list seriously. Most of what is on his list was and would be considered classic when he came up with it, not the other way around. After working in SF publishing, reading Locus every month for going on 11 years now, and reading lots of critical works, there are tons of different reasons authors and/or books are considered "classic". Gygax's list is actually quite tame, it really doesn't get into some of the esoteric classic works that genre critics would point you too. Outside of gamers, who give a rat's ass about what he has to say? He's just some guy on the edges of the field, giving his opinion, not a well respected critic like John Clute, David Hartwell, or Gardiner Dozouis. (that's not MY opinion of him, but that's how I see the field looking at him, if they do at all)Why does Moorcock rate as Classic? Probably because he was one of the first New Wave of SF writers,a nd he was very outspoken, opinionated, and wrote some things that "real" litereary critics liked. Why is Tanith Lee not classic? I didn't know she wasn't. While I personally don't really like her stuff, I'd certainly consider her to be just as "classic" as Ursula LeGuin or Andre Norton, at least as far as the SF field goes. Get out of SF, and she doesn't even rate a blip on the radar. Why is Vance important? Well, it's certainly not for his Dying Earth novels. Sure, they are more respected now (probably because of the magic system influence on rpgs), but they were when he wrote them as well. But it's his SF that he is really known for. He's been writing for, oh, 60 years now, and incredibly prolific? Tons of his stuff is so long out of print you can't find it anywhere.  When will Preatchett be considered classic? To me, he already is, but I'm biased. I was the assistant editor for at least 6 of his books. He'll probably be considered classic when: 1. He dies, 2. He stops putting out 3-4+ books a year, or 3. He stops hitting the British Bestsellers list with every book. He's TOO prolific and successful to be considered a serious, classic writer by the critics. In the UK, he's the equivilent of Stephen King, and being that successful doesn't win you any critical love. He also writes comic fantasy works, too genres that are considered to be in the gutter to start. Put them together, and you've got a long hole to dig out of. I know some people who read Pratchett but wouldn't dream of saying they read fantasy. To them, he is satire, along the lines of Kurt Vonnegut.</blockquote>

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