Subject: Re: [FanFic] The Nature of Writing, C&C, etc...
From: Harold Ancell
Date: 4/18/1996, 9:52 PM
To: fanfic@fanfic.com

   Excerpts from mail.fanfic: 18-Apr-96 Re: [FanFic] The Nature of .. by
   "Mr. the Rutsch"@ucdavis 

   >     Then again, no characterization and no plot would be hard to pull off 
   > together... 

An interesting example of this is the SF author Arthur C. Clarke's
works; his characterizations are generally non-existant, his plots are
generally weak; his successes tend to stem from ideas (this is SF),
and most especially settings.

_The City and the Stars_ is my favorite of his, and is pretty good
example of the above; The protagonist Alvin (?) doesn't make much of
an impression; it's only near the end of the book that you realize the
plot doesn't particuarly exist, but the images Clarke drew of the
unaging Diaspar in the sea of sand that covered the earth, that flat
black bowl and it's inhabitant, the robot, ship, etc., the Black Sun....

(Not to mention why the men on Earth had ended up with their
particular existances.)

I think he's an exception that proves the rule.

					- Harold