Dragaera

Okay, new topic - Brust in person

Thu Sep 30 11:45:12 PDT 2004

David Silberstein wrote:

>On Thu, 30 Sep 2004, Ken Koester wrote:
>  
>
>>Not Chandler, Zelazny.  But that gets less and less strong as the
>>series unrolls.
>>    
>>
>
>Hm.  Is it not possible that Zelazny was influenced by Chandler as
>well (and Brust is influenced by both)?
>
>
>  
>
There are some problems with looking at that; see below.

>>The French killed off the notion of influence studies in literary
>>criticism decades ago,
>>    
>>
>
>How?  Why?
>
>  
>
Well, the short answer is that it's nearly impossible to show, and even 
if you do, it tends not
to tell you anything interesting about the text from a critical 
standpoint.  After a few generations of critics
bashed it around for a while, they decided the game wasn't worth the 
candle & turned to
other notions.  I haven't kept up with criticism since I left complit in 
grad school, but I haven't
seen anything to tell me that influence studies have made a comeback 
here in the US or abroad.

>>I would find Brust's opinion of Zelazny interesting, just for the
>>sake of assuaging curiosity. 
>>
>>    
>>
>
>You're new here, I nearly think (not a criticism, merely an
>observation).
>
> 
>  
>
More lazy than new--I remembered reading those snippets just as I 
re-read them.  Yes,
I t All Fits, I'd have to say (-;

Snarkhunter