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jwharris28
Posted 2015-05-04 6:47 AM (#10441 - in reply to #10440)
Subject: Re: The Definitive 1950s Reading Challenge		Quote Reply



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dustydigger - 2015-05-04 6:19 AM  Of course I had read many of the famous books previously to the challenge,but its been great fun reading some of the rather pulpy stuff. I would often be surprised at the way a story would develop,or what a character would say. The familiar tropes we come across today and take for granted in our reading are subtley slightly off kilter in these books of around 60 yrs old. I cant quite put my finger on what the differences are. Its not just old tech,having slide rules,the oldfashioned attitude to women etc. Its something about the storytelling style,and story developement I think. Will have to ponder on it a bit more.

I think these older books for the most part are poorly written compared to modern science fiction. I think fiction writing as a whole has evolved a lot in the last 60 years. Often these old novels have some neat ideas, but the storytelling is crap. Some books do stand out, and I think it's because they were much better written than their peers - stories like On the Beach, Alas, Babylon and The Day of the Triffids. To me, Heinlein stands head and shoulders above the other SF genre writers of the time.

 I'm now wondering if newer, better written science fiction isn't pushing out older science fiction because of writing and not newer ideas and science.


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