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/lit/ - Literature

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20559460 No.20559460 [Reply] [Original]

>read 60s "pulp sci fi"
>expect corny cliche spaceman with a blaster shooting green men, winning babes, and mouthing wooden dialogue like is always parodied in modern media
>is actually incredibly well written, introspective, clever, imaginative, with characters with meaningful personalities, principles, and internal conflicts
>also a lot of fun
What else have they been hiding from me?

>> No.20559627
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20559627

Good scifi is good.
Problem is there's alot of meh

Highly recommend the time machine by H G Wells. It's not long and it's old but it is still excellent

>> No.20559668
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20559668

The High Crusade by Poul Anderson is a fun romp with a good sense of humor.

>> No.20559689
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20559689

Earth Abides by George Stewart and Make Room! Make Room! (also by Harry Harrison).

>> No.20560631

>>20559460
James Bond
Dashiell Hammett

>> No.20560726

>>20559668
Three hearts and three lions is also very good.

>> No.20560872

>>20560631
>Dashiell Hammett
He's shit though.

>> No.20560903
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20560903

>>20560872
You take that back.

>> No.20560950
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20560950

>expect pulp
>get one of the greatest postmodern works of all time

>> No.20561791

>>20559460
Robert E. Howard's Conan, Kull, and Solomon Kane stories. They are some of the most intense adventure tales ever written, and there is a cosmic horror component in them that no adaptation could get right.

>> No.20561806

>>20560950
I recently read about 50% of it. He does some really cool stuff, but then it got a little too repetitive.

>> No.20562005
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20562005

>>20559460
I don't believe you, this looks like schlock

>> No.20562168

>>20562005
demoness titties

>> No.20563169

>>20562005
Titles and covers can be misleading.

>> No.20563198

1947 but Greener than You Think is a very amusing little book about modified grass running amok - great characters.

I recommend it.

>> No.20563206

Why does it seem like EVERYTHING was more intelligent back in the day? Even the genre stuff, like sci-fi or mystery or westerns, had what seems like an extra level of quality that's missing today.

>> No.20563556
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20563556

>>20563206

>> No.20563574

>>20563206

If I'm optimistic: Time's filter and the fact that we had not moved entirely to an attention economy yet. Time's filter is obvious; stuff that does not connect with people fades, quality endures. The lack of an attention economy means there was more space for thought and introspection; people weren't trying to be an always on carnival show to monetize themselves.

If pessimistic: The horizon of mass imagination has narrowed from "we will colonize space and move onto the stars" to "the planet will be a net zero carbon state run diverse tolerant genderqueer daycare filled with no sharp edges or hard surfaces" and educational standards have been almost horrifically degraded. We no longer dream and we don't teach ourselves how to think. Why wouldn't there be a general degradation of art?

Also: Cordwainer Smith. He's what happens when a US Army psychological warfare expert fluent in multiple languages proto-furry university professor decides to write science fiction, having apparently been given a hasty description of the genre written on a 3x5 index card and decided to work the rest out for himself.

>> No.20563576

>>20559460
Academia in literature devalues what it deems to not be socially challenging, and overvalues what it deems to challenge social norms. Just by virtue of the arrogance of the writer, they deem things more important than other things.

Honestly, some of the best writing is genre fiction.

>> No.20564013

>>20563206
genre is driven by fandom and fandom makes things retarded. rabid fans of X just want to imitate X and have no experiences beyond consumption of X so all they can do is make inferior copies of X. these old genre writers were often well-read beyond their genre, had all sorts of interests etc but then you get multiple generations of copies of copies of copies. at this point genre writers are not even imitating previous genre writers, they are imitating video games that were imitating genre writers that were imitating genre writers. they're degenerating because of cultural incest.

>> No.20564327

>>20563206
people live in fiction today which makes it very shallow. people who have never grown up want a simulated world of tropes where they can repeat the same things endlessly. tropes can have depth or evolution, that's how it usually worked, but today it doesn't happen much and when it does it's really hamfisted and regressive (just a meme). shallow aspects of storytelling are also held up as all important. plot lines, worldbuilding, and 'liking a character' are the worst examples.

>> No.20564668

>>20563206
Everyone was white and their brains hadn't been melted by TV and internet

>> No.20564677

>>20563206
i disagree, youre just beign a bitch about it
simply put, stupidity is more evident and observable nowadays, thanks to the internet and mass media. theres no proof that people were overall smarter back in the day

>> No.20564799

>>20563206
Gatekeepers are good.

>> No.20564986

>>20563574
>Cordwainer Smith
Love this guy, second only to Lafferty for underread/rated SF authors.