So he goes

[wombat_socho]

Frankly, I don't understand the sorrow over Kurt Vonnegut among the science fiction fans on my f-list. To call the man a second-rate writer is to be overly generous, imao, especially when you compare him to the major figures in the genre. He missed no opportunity to shit on science fiction and its fandom even as he stole concepts, filed off the serial numbers, and knocked out crappy imitations to the everlasting adulation of the mainstream press, which couldn't be bothered to read "that trashy sci-fi stuff".

It's possible people aren't old enough to remember this. For my part, I remember reading Vonnegut as a teenager (after already having read Asimov, Clarke, Ellison, Heinlein, Niven and Silverberg, to take just a few off the top) and thinking he was nothing special, maybe on a par with Ira Levin. Maybe. At least Chip in Levin's This Perfect Day was someone you could sympathize with, unlike the sad sacks, assholes and losers in Vonnegut's novels.

Comments

[wombat-socho.livejournal.com]

There's nothing wrong with that; de gustibus non disputandum, as the old Roman said when she kissed the cow. I just don't understand people who go around calling him a great writer. He wasn't. At his best he was Fred Saberhagen, somebody who could take an interesting idea and not bore the crap out of you with it. At his worst he was the man he lampooned in a couple of his novels, Kilgore Trout.