tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6656468.post115204154158131148..comments2024-03-28T13:18:28.238+00:00Comments on Grumpy Old Bookman: Kelly Link: Stranger Things HappenMichael Allenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11338398159818400930noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6656468.post-73472966519060688922007-04-27T12:15:00.000+01:002007-04-27T12:15:00.000+01:00About Kelly Link's rubbish book Stranger Things......About Kelly Link's rubbish book Stranger Things... I couldn't agree more with you, Michael. I wrote a long review of this book on Manybooks.net warning people how bad this book really is, because I just couldn't fathom how it won awards. The whole thing must be a joke ... or, and this worries me a bit, there is a whole lot of ass-licking going on in the SF publishing industry. This is probably the truth behind how this collection of complete and utter rubbish came to be so praised. Awards mean nothing. This book of junk proves it. The sad thing is, when they slap awards on rubbish like this, it tars all those genuine award winners. Well, they probably had to give the book away because I doubt it would have sold. The general public (those few who still actually buy books) buy fictional stories not pompous self-indulgent crap like this.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6656468.post-1152234331570662862006-07-07T02:05:00.000+01:002006-07-07T02:05:00.000+01:00Interesting way of thinking, Armand.I tried to pic...Interesting way of thinking, Armand.<BR/>I tried to pick up your blog,but Blogger himself got in the way. I drew a blank.<BR/>My favourite non-sequitur is<BR/>"I like corn flakes.<BR/>Can you swim?"<BR/><BR/>I put this up on my own blog and immediately got an answer from a genius who said she not only liked corn flakes, but was an excellent swimmer.ivanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05662075375182633162noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6656468.post-1152210714833527822006-07-06T19:31:00.000+01:002006-07-06T19:31:00.000+01:00Yes, fiction- ArmandYes, fiction<BR/><BR/>- ArmandArmandhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04242931849146868755noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6656468.post-1152165057195100932006-07-06T06:50:00.000+01:002006-07-06T06:50:00.000+01:00Ah, Armand.Right outside le boit.You write fiction...Ah, Armand.<BR/>Right outside le boit.<BR/>You write fiction?ivanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05662075375182633162noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6656468.post-1152140728710890902006-07-06T00:05:00.000+01:002006-07-06T00:05:00.000+01:00totally off topic but I love the music over the Dr...totally off topic but I love the music over the Dr. Who credits. I get the same feeling that I used to get when I was a kid standing in line for a roller coaster,<BR/><BR/>ArmandArmandhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04242931849146868755noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6656468.post-1152126358192228282006-07-05T20:05:00.000+01:002006-07-05T20:05:00.000+01:00Try Link's second collection, Magic For Beginners....Try Link's second collection, Magic For Beginners. It would probably be more to your liking, considering what you criticized.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6656468.post-1152116224799499972006-07-05T17:17:00.000+01:002006-07-05T17:17:00.000+01:00Ah yes indeed, Tom Swift Jr. Got me through many ...Ah yes indeed, Tom Swift Jr. Got me through many nights under the blanket with a flashlight. <BR/><BR/>I've never understood how grades for "creativity" can be doled out, but I enjoy the picture of tap dancing bank robbers meeting up with the sexy aliens (blond, of course). <BR/><BR/>I guess the bottom line is that, in the intensity of competition today, people will throw anything and everything at you to convince you they are, um, legitimate. Back to your recent post on "Blurbs."Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6656468.post-1152104387875059442006-07-05T13:59:00.000+01:002006-07-05T13:59:00.000+01:00I think this trend has been going on with sf for 4...I think this trend has been going on with sf for 40 years now. I started in with Tom Swift Jr, then moved on to Andre Norton and Robert Heinlein...well...all the writers from the forties and fifties. Right up through college I gorged on the stuff. But then it seemed like too many sf folks wanted to be taken seriously and I was more interested in wild ideas than literary techniques. I soon learned that any story that won a Nebula was almost certainly something I wouldn't enjoy (and would probably be barely recognizable as sf) The genre lost its interest to me and I ended up reading, and writing (among other things) mysteries. As it happens I kind of liked a few things I read by Kelly Link. However, I guess there's still a lot of sf writers aspiring to be the Raymond Carver of Bug Eyed Monsters or somesuch.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6656468.post-1152098916296557742006-07-05T12:28:00.000+01:002006-07-05T12:28:00.000+01:00"Well, everybody does their own thing."I am no gra..."Well, everybody does their own thing."<BR/>I am no grammarian and you have discussed singulars and plurals all over your blogs, yet it somehow rankles.<BR/>An MFA flying up your nose?<BR/>Tap you with a pencil.<BR/><BR/>Fiction is a rare gift. I haven't quite "gotten" it yet; maybe never, as I approach threescore and ten.<BR/>But it's a gift a lot of people would kill for.<BR/>You got a killer instinct for MFA's Grumpy?<BR/>Some of them can actually DO it.ivanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05662075375182633162noreply@blogger.com