Re: The Sparrow

Gene <gene@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:

> Kurt Busiek <kurt@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in 
> news:2008051320400977923-kurt@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> 
> > Where's the arrogance?  Is it now arrogant to say "I don't 
> think I read 
> > that, but if I did, I don't remember it"?
> 
> 
> The *little* arrogance? Here's a book which won the Hugo, and 
> which people keep comparing to hers, but she can't be bothered 
> to check it out, and suggests that possibly it's just not very 
> memorable.
> 
> Not a major deal, but just a touch of it, I think.

Speaking of being touched...You've got a major case of fan snobbery
there.

Someone asks an author "Did this forty-year-old novel influence you?"
and she says, "No, actually I've never heard of it." And then it's *her*
responsibility to go read that old book because some beanie-wearer
thinks there's a connection?

People ask authors if {Thing X} influenced their work *all the time*.
And many of those people are not terribly stable. Authors learn to say
"no" politely and move on with their lives.

The world does not revolve around either SF or its readers. The vast
majority of well-read people in this world have never even *heard* of _A
Case of Conscience_.

-- 
Andrew Wheeler