Well, that about wraps it up for Poughkeepsie

[mme_hardy]

I am rereading The Worm Ouroboros and savoring it. I had forgotten the long mountain-climbing section entirely; I fear teen me must have skipped it.

In any case, Ursula Le Guin once wrote an essay, "From Elfland to Poughkeepsie", essentially arguing that all fantasy protagonists should speak in an elevated, heroic style. She was particularly mean to a very recognizable Katherine Kurtz, with some side shots at Roger Zelazny. She quotes and praises Eddison as an example of what should be done.

At one point she quotes from Zelazny, "I could have told you that at Carcosa", and lays down the law that great heroes don't say "I told you so".

"Well," said Juss, "thy counsel hath been right once and saved us, for nine times that it hath been wrong, and my counsel saved thee from an evil end. If ill behap us, it shall be set down that it had from thy peevish will original."

Comments

[mme_hardy]

It's just such a deeply unkind thing to have written and published.

[cofax7]

I always felt bad about it, because I imprinted hard on the Deryni novels when I was a tween. Back when there wasn't all that much SFF to read anyway, esp. not cod-medieval fantasy with fabulous Catholic rituals.

Everyone gets to be wrong occasionally.

[mme_hardy]

Poison in the christening salt! And I agree about being wrong occasionally.

[pameladean]

I felt at the time, though it seemed very unlike LeGuin (to the extent that I knew anything about her) to do this, that Katherine Kurtz was being used as a stalking horse for Zelazny, who could certainly have taken the rebuke far better.

P.

[mme_hardy]

He responded? Do tell!!

[pameladean]

No, not that I know of; sorry to be unclear. It was just a feeling I had, something about her description of the general prose phenomenon.

P.

[sara]

I'm finding this hilarious because I feel like Zelazny and LeGuin, of all the genre writers I read in my misspent youth, have held up the best.

I mean he could have put an actual woman somewhere in one of his novels and that would have been a big improvement, and My Complicated Relationship With the Kroebers and Their Works could be a book all by itself, but I still get a lot out of both of them.

[mme_hardy]

he could have put an actual woman somewhere in one of his novels
(giggles)

What, the dead sister with whom he may have had an incestuous thing doesn't count?

[pameladean]

I imprinted hard on them as a slightly older teenager, too! I knew the prose wasn't All That, but they really did grab me and not let go. Also, Kurtz got better as she went along.

Everyone certainly gets to be wrong occasionally, which includes both Ursula LeGuin and Katherine Kurtz.

P.