Quote:
Originally Posted by weateallthepies
Something doesn't become 'not science fiction' because it has literary merit.
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Indeed.. The same can be said about comics (which gets even shorter shrift than scifi and fantasy). Consider MAUS, for example, or Mouse Guard. Both (especially MAUS) are very strong, adult-level stories told using drawings of mice.
Also consider for that matter: Neil Gaiman, one of the best story tellers of the past couple decades, whether in panels or prose.
I am now at the point in my reading where the "classics" I'm acquiring are classics of scifi and fantasy. I've got my Shakespeare (several different editions, plus Asimov's), and so I'm getting caught up on my Lovecraft, Burroughs, and special editions of Asimov and Bradbury. It took me years to locate some HR Rider (why???).
They definitely show their age -- Burroughs especially, with the whole noble savage thing on Barsoom -- but they are at least as important to our cultural history as anything Twain wrote, and I'd argue will have had greater, longer-lasting impact. Certainly more people recognize and identifiy with Darth Vader or Mr Spock than have even heard of Nigger Jim, no matter how important his character was.
For that matter, I also started collecting children's lit -- Winnie the Pooh, for example, and re-discovering Roald Dahl. More adults should read books intended for children; they're missing out.
So for all this attitude of "no adult should ever be interested in these books" -- Moejoe completely missed the point of what it was he spent so much money studying. Sad waste of money, there.