Subjective Taste

I hadn't read much sword and sorcery for a long time before starting this blog, except for a few old favorites now and again. No real reason why; I was a teenager 1975-1982, peak years during the last big S&S boom, and read everything I could lay hands on at that time. After that I got into other things.

But reading tastes change, and in the intervening decades my own reading (and writing) have changed a lot. So when I came back to pick up where I left off, I was interested in seeing how much if any of what I loved before could endure my now-jaded tastes.

I'm happy to report so far that none of my old favorites have fallen by the wayside. I opened this blog with a defense of Lin Carter, whom I've always loved, and it's true he was not on the same level with some other writers, but on the other hand he kept me in good books to read for years. What I was afraid of was that I would now find him unreadable (as I do with a lot of Edgar Rice Burroughs, sorry to say.) Happily such was not the case.

Still, it's not the same. I found myself annoyed by excessive exclamation marks in the Karl Edward Wagner story I was just reading. Kane! doesn't! need! excessive! punctuation! to! be! exciting! And when I re-reading the first few Elric stories a month or two ago, I was mildly surprised not to be more blown away by the prose, which had made quite an impression on me at age 15. I mean, it's *fine* -- Moorcock is a favorite -- but memory is a tricky beast, and I remembered it differently than it was.

And although I have recently purchased the new-ish 3-vol. Conan stories, as well as the Solomone Kane collection, Howard's stuff is in a stack by my chair, yet-unread. I'm kinda afraid to. What if he sucks? What if *I*, therefore, suck?

I'll have to get back to you on that.

My favorite stylist at the moment is James Enge of BLOOD OF AMBROSE and THIS CROOKED WAY, which I began over the weekend. Now that guy can turn a phrase!

"Just now it was early spring; patches of snow lay, like chewed crusts, beneath the hungry-looking trees. The leaves, crooked blue veins showing along the withered gray surfaces, were like the hands of dying men. They rustled irritably in the chill persistent breeze, as if impatient to meet and merge with the earth."

See what I mean?

I have been buying (used) these big thick 3-in-1 Warhammer fantasy anthologies. So far, I am not totally crushed, although they are kinda what I thought: the writers hearts are in it, but sometimes the writing is a little weak.

So how important is it for there to be "great writing" if you're just looking for an exciting/fun read? Do you need a literature degree to have a good time? (No, and you don't need an ideology to knock over a liquor store, to quote Hal Hartley in "Simple Men.")

If the writing gets in the way of the enjoyment, that's a problem. If not, not. I also enjoy pickled eggs and anchovies and other disgusting things. De gustibus non disputandem est.