And I am name checking you, John.

Thanks very much.  I included Cat’s Palimpsest as a visual here because she has been criticized for using “poetic” language in that book, as if being poetic is bad for fiction.  I think that a number of her works are good examples of the difficult and poetic writing that would enrich fantastika.

I knew Reginald also, briefly.  His partner Robert Philen was in my grad cohort at Cornell and we were good friends.  He was cantankerous, creative, and very incisive.  His passing was very sad.

I was recently combing through a couple of reviews and book previews, specifically for Patricia A. McKillip and Cat Valente’s new novel, and was dismayed that many readers were claiming that their stylish prose was “purple.”  My understanding of purple is that the prose is overwritten.  Now, it seems that any text that luxuriates in language is considered “purple.” Add to that the “transparent” text movement has resulted in books where it seems like authors are frustrated screenwriters.

At little off topic, but I knew the late Mr. Shepherd, and he would get a kick out of his theoretical work being applied to discussions of SF and F literature.  He was quite the fan.

Bob: I think that the matter of the poetic is slippery, as it should be.  I think that sometimes the poet tries to inculcate familiarty, but other times strives to create a singular point-of-view or milieu that between their vision and that of the reader.  I’m trying to figure out if I am “looking up at” poetry, but I wonder if that perception is due to my usage of a poet’s ideas to support what I’m discussing.

Hal: Thanks very much.  I think that the idea of what is “difficult” shifts, and the examples you give of how this comes out in film/TV show that.  There is also the question of structural complexity (which may not violate expectations) versus difficulty (for example, perhaps, Memento, where you have to do some work to make the pieces fit together).  I think movie viewers have been trained, essentially, to accept more, and that if we could shake off those elitist presumptions, perhaps get mor readers to see how a difficult work can be enjoyable.  I’m not sure how possible that is, but it appeals to me greatly.