Word: fictional
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...novel at the gut and not offend the head. The reason seems to be that even in the age of the Uncertainty Principle and culture fracture, Warren has not lost his sense of life as a sustained drama. The classical Western values that have linked his fiction, poetry and criticism for nearly 50 years are largely responsible. He writes novels with beginnings, middles and ends. People are born, come of age, love, suffer loss, infirmity and death in much the same way people always have...
...Antibuilding does not exist, and all the paper-shuffling only serves to deny any whispers that perhaps the Building has no purpose. The real enemy is the non-Building. The ultimate heresy is to suggest the truth--that all the orders and plans and reports only create a fiction of purpose, that the officials and underlinks and secretaries and clerks only do their jobs to keep the circulation of the huge, isolated technocracy flowing...
...WRITES science fiction, a genre that has long been considered serious reading only for physics wonks, drug fiends, and junior birdmen. Lem writes a parody of modern life that is serious reading for anyone who is concerned that there be a place for humanity amidst the machinations of the modern world. No need for concern? Visit the offices of any large corporation. Visit the Boston offices of the federal Department of Health, Education and Welfare. There are the reports on reports on reports. There are the file cabinets stuffed with manila folders being wheeled aimlessly from room to room. There...
Lancelot's plan is clearly crazed. Percy's questioning is something else. Simply by asking whether flaccid tolerance is not as brutalizing as rigid in tolerance, he raises the kind of issue that good fiction can most thoroughly show in the round. Despite its occasional reediness of tone and a bitterness that seems more peevish than profound, Lancelot makes an entertaining run at high seriousness. It is easy to read and hard to forget. Paul Gray
This year's replacement for last year's biggest spring gut, Humanities 103, "The Great Age of Athens," appears to be Hum 9b. Students cited minimal requirements and a reading list that includes science fiction and old ballads as reasons for the course's popularity. And Hum 9b also has the reputation of being an all-around good course...