Sunday, October 9, 2016

283.366 - 2016 project and novels

every day in 2016, write a sentence or a paragraph or a poem that appreciates

novels

wait!  first let me admit I don't appreciate novels like a critic would, or like an English professor might.  I appreciate novels like an avid fan does, I think; maybe like a slightly perverted, but picky, avid fan does.  you see, I like science fiction and fantasy novels, and I'm sure that real aficionados don't count them.  you know, a novel is a novel, a hyphenated novel is not.  I do like some of the classics, I don't think I can claim to like them all.  I like, for instance, _Jude the Obscure_ by Thomas Hardy, even though an hour of Thomas Hardy's poems leaves me brushing cobwebs off my skin.  I probably like any Robert Graves novel, and I often turn to Robert Graves poems for inspiration.  when I was a kid, I loved Robert Louis Stevenson novels, but I think I don't now.  (how can I say that?  not like _Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde_?)  I like Orwell, I like Poul Anderson.  I like some of the strange novels of the late twentieth century, you know, the ones that seem loosely connected to reality as an engineer knows it.  I appreciate the work that goes into them - or think I do.  I've written three or four myself.  the first didn't sell, and the second earned a heap of scorn from a lady who'd done a lot of writing herself.  oh dear!  nevertheless, I've enjoyed reading novels since then, so I can honestly say, yes, I appreciate novels.

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