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From: boyajian@akov68.DEC (Jerry Boyajian)
Newsgroups: net.books
Subject: re: Crossover Authors
Message-ID: <3384@decwrl.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 16-Aug-84 12:02:15 EDT
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Posted: Thu Aug 16 12:02:15 1984
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From:	allegra!don           12-Aug-1984 12:00:53  

> It is unusual for a top-class author to write Sci Fi (or murder
> mysteries, westerns, romance novels, etc.).  I can think of a couple
> instances though.

Please define "top-class author". Do you perhaps mean "mainstream author"? If
so, does that mean that you think that mainstream authors *de facto* form a bet-
ter class of writers than genre authors? If so, why?

> C.S. Lewis wrote a strange trilogy of books "Out of the Silent Planet",
> "Perelandra", and "That Hideous Strength".  My impression is that these
> books are not popular among Science Fiction fans.  Lewis was an Oxford
> theologian, I believe.  He equated technology with satanism.

As with any author's works, some sf fans like 'em, some don't. If you think he
equated technology with satanism, you've misinterpreted him. And, of course, the
books aren't so much science fiction as they are religious allegory disguised as
sf. And leave us not forget that Lewis wrote the Narnia series of fantasies,
which are *very* popular amongst fans.

> H. G. Wells is a highly respected author and one of the most powerful
> political forces in England of this century.
> The plots of the books revolve around Wells' political and
> social theories (i.e. Fabian socialism).

I can't deny that Wells wrote a large number of mainstream novels and works of
history, but I think you exaggerate his acclaim. he is far more well known for
his sf than for anything else he's done.

> I should mention Tolkien.  Lord of the Rings is fantasy, and I am sure
> almost everyone has read it.  No one of his literary stature (an Oxford
> professor of philology) has since contributed to that genre.

Well, certainly no other Oxford professors have contributed to the genre, but I
would hardly consider that significant.

> Burroughs classifies some of his novels as Sci Fi.  In particular, "The
> Soft Machine", and "Nova Express", and "The Ticket that Exploded".

While Burroughs' novels contain the trappings of sf, they're more avant garde
indulgences than true sf. And he's only taken seriously by fans of avant garde
literature. As such, I'd hardly call him a "top-class" author.

As for other "crossover" authors, there is, in addition to the ones Prentiss
Riddle mentioned, Jorge Luis Borges, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Mikhail Bulgakov,
Isaac Bashevis Singer (would you believe that Singer's literary agent is Kirby
McCauley, who also is agent for Harlan Ellison, Stephen King, Peter Straub,
and many more genre authors?), Robert Nathan, Aldous Huxley, George Orwell, Mary
Wollstonecraft Shelley, Edward Bellamy, Ambrose Bierce, Italo Calvino, Pierre
Boulle, Robert Merle, Anthony Burgess, Joseph Conrad, Mark Twain, John Hersey,
Madeleine L'Engle,... need I go on? And those are just in the sf field. And I'm
not counting the "bestseller" authors such as Stephen King, Allan Drury, Clive
Cussler, Jacqueline Susan, Jean Auel, Alfred Coppel, et al.

--- jayembee (Jerry Boyajian, DEC, Maynard, MA)

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