Robert Heinlein and Zane Grey

[chris_gerrib]

A while back, Toni Weisskopf of Baen Books released an essay. The gist of the essay was "back in the good old days, we all worshiped at the alter of Robert Heinlein and all was well. Now that we don't, problems will follow."

As it happens, I like Robert Heinlein's stories, and I think he was a good writer. But, folks, he's dead. Been that way for a while, and I for one think it's a good thing we don't all worship at his altar.

See, back in the day, Zane Grey wrote westerns. They were damn good westerns - got made into movies and such. Everybody who read westerns said "if it ain't a Zane Grey western, I ain't buying."

But Zane Grey's dead. Been that way for a while. And when was the last time you walked into a bookstore and saw a section of westerns? Bueller? Anybody? I won't ask when you bought a western.

My point is obvious - westerns got tied to a dead guy, and they died out. If science fiction allows itself to be tied to a dead guy, so will we.

Comments

[daveon.livejournal.com]

John Scalzi mentioned that his daughter bounced off some Heinlein he suggested to her, thinking about it. I'm not really surprised. Even when I was reading it in the 80s it was feeling pretty clunky in places, the 60s were a decade I didn't remember and the 70s were the passed. It does feel somewhat tied to the social mores of the time he wrote in, which isn't actually a bad thing, but you do need to accept that it's not going to hold the interest of a generation who've grown up with the internet, common, but dull, space travel and a bunch of stuff that still felt shiny and new to me 30 years ago.

[beamjockey.livejournal.com]

And when was the last time you walked into a bookstore and saw a section of westerns? Bueller? Anybody?

2009. We'd been talking online about the possible decline of science fiction, and that got me curious about Westerns.

The next time I walked through the book section at a big-box Meijer's Thrifty Acres, I noticed that they had a pretty fair selection of Westerns, some by dead authors, some not. And I took a cellphone photo.
(https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/eKsQzWVwd4qvwrwfICBnstMTjNZETYmyPJy0liipFm0?feat=embedwebsite)

Even Zane Grey was represented.

Westerns on TV and in the movies are dead, no question, but people (not me) who like to read Western fiction can get some. The Western Writers of America (http://westernwriters.org/) have conventions and awards and such.

[chris-gerrib.livejournal.com]

You've seen a lot more western novels than I have.

Okay, so westerns aren't dead. But they're rare enough you took a picture of a western section, and I'll be the Western Writers Association is pretty small.

(And I realize you're not disagreeing with me.)

[mzmadmike.livejournal.com]

If Westerns are in Meijer, they're popular. It's a grocery, not a bookstore.

Toni, BTW, said pretty much what you said--that RAH isn't current, many haven't heard of him, and they don't need to.

What she decried was using him as an epithet.

This is especially egregious on Scalzi's part, since he crowed about how wonderful it was to have his Starship Troopers fanfic compared to RAH, and...that helped it sell.