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My fiction reading has always been mostly SF/F. My mother hated that and would excoriate me for it, without giving a good sense of what I was missing. For my part I didn't have a clear idea of why my preferences went that way, other than being fascinated with cool worlds and magic, or something.
I'm currently re-reading Lolita with a friend, and am realizing a difference between the stuff I'm drawn to and the literary fiction I have read, guided in large part by gifts from my parents. And that difference is likable characters. Kind, possibly heroic, taking a non-sordid joy in life, people I might want to meet and walk with if they were real.
Lolita's Humbert could have been some kind and intellectually interesting person, tormented by his passion for 'nymphets', but instead he seems, so far, to be a shallow sociopath who doesn't really see any other humans as people.
Life Before Man: the three main characters aren't horrible people, but memory says the book is dominated by their dreary adulterous love triangle. At least two of them are paleontologists working in a museum, but I recall no sense of joy and fun leavening the book.
Iain M. Banks: one of the most 'literary' of modern SF writers, and I don't think he's written a human character I like. Maybe Zakalwe, he at least has drive and verve. The human members of the utopian Culture all struck me as hopelessly grumpy, or shallow; technically they're all very nice and moral people but that didn't save them. I keep saying 'human' because his AI characters are in fact charming and likable, altruistic and funny and having a purpose to their lives.
On the flip side, the one 'literary' author I regularly re-read is Jane Austen, with, hey presto! attractive and likeable main characters, especially Liz and Jane Bennett, or Anne Elliot, or Catherine and the Tilney kids from Northanger Abbey.
Favorite SF? Some are Bujold, Pratchett, Steerswoman, Hodgell, Liaden. Generally with kickass characters. Least favorite Pratchett? Nation, Dodger, Dark Side of the Sun -- weaker in attractive characters than Discworld or the Carpet People.
Not everyone is kind; I've liked most of Brust's books, and early Vlad, or Jack Agyar, aren't brimming with kindness and heroism. Vlad's snarky and amusing, more so than Humbert Humbert. And, well, I don't actually re-read Agyar tons...
As books/plots I consider the Liaden books kind of candy, but re-reading them is great, because the members of Clan Korval are mostly great people.
I'm currently re-reading Lolita with a friend, and am realizing a difference between the stuff I'm drawn to and the literary fiction I have read, guided in large part by gifts from my parents. And that difference is likable characters. Kind, possibly heroic, taking a non-sordid joy in life, people I might want to meet and walk with if they were real.
Lolita's Humbert could have been some kind and intellectually interesting person, tormented by his passion for 'nymphets', but instead he seems, so far, to be a shallow sociopath who doesn't really see any other humans as people.
Life Before Man: the three main characters aren't horrible people, but memory says the book is dominated by their dreary adulterous love triangle. At least two of them are paleontologists working in a museum, but I recall no sense of joy and fun leavening the book.
Iain M. Banks: one of the most 'literary' of modern SF writers, and I don't think he's written a human character I like. Maybe Zakalwe, he at least has drive and verve. The human members of the utopian Culture all struck me as hopelessly grumpy, or shallow; technically they're all very nice and moral people but that didn't save them. I keep saying 'human' because his AI characters are in fact charming and likable, altruistic and funny and having a purpose to their lives.
On the flip side, the one 'literary' author I regularly re-read is Jane Austen, with, hey presto! attractive and likeable main characters, especially Liz and Jane Bennett, or Anne Elliot, or Catherine and the Tilney kids from Northanger Abbey.
Favorite SF? Some are Bujold, Pratchett, Steerswoman, Hodgell, Liaden. Generally with kickass characters. Least favorite Pratchett? Nation, Dodger, Dark Side of the Sun -- weaker in attractive characters than Discworld or the Carpet People.
Not everyone is kind; I've liked most of Brust's books, and early Vlad, or Jack Agyar, aren't brimming with kindness and heroism. Vlad's snarky and amusing, more so than Humbert Humbert. And, well, I don't actually re-read Agyar tons...
As books/plots I consider the Liaden books kind of candy, but re-reading them is great, because the members of Clan Korval are mostly great people.
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Date: 2021-01-23 11:17 (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2021-01-23 20:41 (UTC)From: