2006-04-16
From here.
This is a Jack Vance EzBoard I very occasionally drop on by to. This was my reply to David B Williams.You can call it a "bad choice" of words, if you like (and you have), but it's a fitting description as far as I'm concerned.
You say you don't understand it:
This is the kind of passing enthusiasm I don't understand. For me, strong interests are permanent.
Well, if you don't understand it, I could logically argue that it's pointless discussing this any further.
But being a master of verbiage that I am, I'll make an attempt.
Twenty-five years on so on, things have changed. Vance's writing no longer has the impact it had. Why? I don't know. It just doesn't.
His last few books have been sub-standard, IMHO, epsecially Night Lamp, and one can't help but to be disappointed, and get all nostalgiac for the heady days of Eyes of the Overworld and City of the Chasch.
Another thing is Vance's recent "non-output". He's written two books in what? 15 years? One could argue that the stagnation of fandom is directly proportional to the newness of things to discuss.
Yes, he's an elderly man, we all know that, and it remains to be seen if he'll produce anything new. Please, I'm hardly laying the blame for this "slackening off" in fandom on Vance's doorstep.
The reality of it all is that, for many, the stones have been all turned over.
That's how it seems to me.
Lastly, I'm responsible for a lot of Wikipedia's entries on Vance and his material (as Peter1968) and I occasionally contribute to that.
If anyone here hasn't contributed to it, please make an account and do so. There's a lot of silliness that gets added and having knowlegeable input can only be a good thing.
End of nincompoop entry