Re: TW's who write fiction

[Bruce Byfield <bbyfield -at- axionet -dot- com>]

"Parker, Kami {16-1~Indianapolis}" wrote:

> I'll concede that being a Hoosier
> makes me somewhat biased but our native son, Kurt Vonnegut, was also a
> technical writer for GE and interestingly enough a salesman for a Saab
> dealership in his pre-Kilgore Trout lives.  Arguably, he does have some
> sci-fi tendencies but I wouldn't necessarily classify him in that genre.
> 

Vonnegut himself has done his best to distance himself from his
origins. I can't blame him, since by doing so he got paid much
better (it might be a different matter today, when SF routinely
gets on the best seller lists). But I often wonder how he
explains all those stories in science fiction magazines and
anthologies from the Fifties that have his name on them. For that
matter, I often wonder how he explains that most of his novels
are variations on well-used science fiction themes. Writers of
his generation seem to have stopped being science fiction writers
once they achieved a measure of success.

(Sorry - an outbreak of academic mania in my brain. I was going
to go on to draw a comparison betwee Vonnegut's classification
and the pre-occupation that some tech writers have with job
titles, but I think I should lie down instead).


-- 
Bruce Byfield, Outlaw Communications
Contributing Editor, Maximum Linux
bbyfield -at- axionet -dot- com | Tel: 604.421.7189

"And we are right, I think you'll say,
To argue in this kind of way;
And I am right,
And you are right,
And all is right - too-looral-lay!"
- Gilbert and Sullivan, "The Mikado"