In the December, 1981 issue of F & SF, George R. R. Martin has an eight-page reply to Disch's review / diatribe. His point seems to be that there really is no Labor Day Group and that the people who Disch says are in the group do not, in fact, "make it their coscious goal to win an award" rather than to write good stories.
Then in what I would like to think is a joke, Martin goes on to say:
I think there is already a post Labor Day grouping visible, writers more commercial than we ever were, younger and new and different, more like [John] Campbell's stable than the Futurians since - unlike the Labor Day Group - they are tightly grouped around a single new magazine, in this case Asimov's. This newer bunch worries me a lot, perhaps the way the Labor Day writers worry Disch. I think they are too shallow, too facile, too careless of art.
Or, in other words, Disch is wrong about us, but as to the people who come after us...
3 comments:
Poor Disch--his end was tragic. He deserved much better.
Deb, I agree. I can't believe the author of THE BRAVE LITTLE TOASTER ended up broke and alone.
In the December, 1981 issue of F & SF, George R. R. Martin has an eight-page reply to Disch's review / diatribe. His point seems to be that there really is no Labor Day Group and that the people who Disch says are in the group do not, in fact, "make it their coscious goal to win an award" rather than to write good stories.
Then in what I would like to think is a joke, Martin goes on to say:
I think there is already a post Labor Day grouping visible, writers more commercial than we ever were, younger and new and different, more like [John] Campbell's stable than the Futurians since - unlike the Labor Day Group - they are tightly grouped around a single new magazine, in this case Asimov's. This newer bunch worries me a lot, perhaps the way the Labor Day writers worry Disch. I think they are too shallow, too facile, too careless of art.
Or, in other words, Disch is wrong about us, but as to the people who come after us...
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