open

Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Forums

You are logged in as a guest. ( logon | register )
Posting a reply to: Re: The Definitive 1950s Reading Challenge

Back
General Discussion -> Roll-Your-Own Reading Challenge
Guest name
Subject
Message

Emoticons
HTML: Yes
Anonymous: No
MBBS Code: Yes


 Disable HTML
Enable emoticons



You are replying to:
jwharris28
Posted 2015-03-03 4:23 PM (#9813 - in reply to #9810)
Subject: Re: The Definitive 1950s Reading Challenge		Quote Reply



Regular

Posts: 76
25
mj122955 - 2015-03-03 8:45 AM

Piano Player is filled with disconnected people, places, and events that don't seem to serve any purpose in furthering the plot. Paul buys Gottwald House, an old fashion farm, but loses interest after one day of farm work. The Shah of Bratpuhr character is so broad that his outsider's viewpoint is diminished. Doctor Lawson Shepherd, Paul's second-in-command, is a matinee villain, flat and one-dimensional. The plot detours into an encounter with the Cornell football coach, a checker playing machine named Checker Charley, and a black cellmate who is straight out of a minstrel show.

Player Piano is a jumbled mess.


I can't read old Vonnegut. I wonder why it's still in print? I guess fans of later Vonnegut want to read his older stuff. Evidently publishers in the 1950s were so hard up for content they'd publish almost anything.

Ultimately, I hope we all can distill a list of SF books from the 1950s that are still worth reading today. I can't believe Library of America included The Space Merchants in their Classic American Science Fiction Novels of the 1950s http://www.loa.org/sciencefiction/ . That's another story that really hasn't aged well. I guess it's very hard to separate reputation from readability.

(Delete all cookies set by this site)