What kind of elitism does it take to deny that this is a masterpiece?

What kind of elitism does it take to deny that this is a masterpiece?

The kind where you have read great literature.

A masterpiece? Really? I can't name a single SF book that could be called a "masterpiece," and I really like the genre.

There's no elitism necessary. It's a fun novel, but really, nothing more.
Book of the New Sun, Solaris, A Scanner Darkly, Napoleon of Notting Hill, 20000 Leagues Under the Sea.

Dune
Androids dream of electric sheep
Cat in the hat

I tried reading this a long time ago. Are they really traveling around in a spaceship made of wood or did I read that wrong?

Uh....I think it barely passes for an average, coherent book much less a masterpiece.

Some of the stories are really good, the other 4 or so suck complete shit.

It's like a ship made out of a living tree or some shit.... I don't really know, they don't explain anything that well in the book.

also hate the ending which is pretty much literally, "Stay tuned for the next book space cadets, where I'll actually explain what the fuck is going on!!!"

and you kind of know, deep down, that they don't explain shit, so you didn't bother reading the next one.

I'm willing to call it a masterpiece, better than most books that are put out.

Hey lit is it too much of a stretch to call Frankenstein science-fiction?
...and what would lit generally consider the first work science-fiction?

*first work of

>It's like a ship made out of a living tree or some shit
In one the latter books there's a dyson ring made of wood
>and you kind of know, deep down, that they don't explain shit, so you didn't bother reading the next one.
Actually one of the gripes many fans of the original book have with the sequels is that they explain way too much. Basically everything gets eventually explained, so there's no mystery left

The Fall of Hyperion was bretty gud. The first book was tryhard edgy drivel, and Endymion was terrible fanfic-tier garbage.

I've read all of them, and some are excellent, but no, if a "masterpiece" is a top 100 great literary work, none of those would come close to the list--and I doubt the authors would disagree.

Sci-fi can't be a masterpiece, period.

It's pretty hard to count only the top 100 as masterpieces. There's no limit to being one. And if there was a list I'd put Wolfe on the list in an instant.

Tries to hammer the Chaucer and Keats allusions and references way too fucking hard.

>Friar's Tale
>Scholar's Tale
POWER GAP
>Consul's Tale
>Colonel's Tale
POWER GAP
>Brawne Lamia
POWER GAP
>Martin Silenus

>being this pleb
>thinks he's smart

i pity you user

But Silenus has the best story, Veeky Forums of all places should appreciate it. If anything, Scholar's emotionally manipulative story was the low point
>ah bloo bloo my daughter is dying ;(

Dune, Book of the New Sun, Childhood's End, Stranger in a Strange Land, Starmaker, A slew of Jules Verne's books, A slew of short stories all beg to differ.

Thats retarded, type out any "100 greatestest books evar" list and I guarantee you'll find something from Herbert, Heinlein, Orwell, Asimov, Welles, or Clarke there.
And since when is literature a competition? Why can't there be a million masterpiece novels?

>And since when is literature a competition? Why can't there be a million masterpiece novels?
calm down, John Green

And what would you qualify as a "masterpiece."

>heavy-handedly name-dropping Keats every five seconds makes your work literary

Every single reference was also explained to the reader like the characters were regurgitating passages out of a Wikipedia article: "Hey! This is a reconstruction of that place where Keats went to for 2 years in 18-whatever before dying." Kill yourselves if you think this is good writing.

Weintraub's story is more about his attempts to understand the Binding of Isaac than it is his daughter.

>>ah bloo bloo my daughter is dying ;(


you don't have children. and you never will have children. ideally you shouldn't even be allowed to have pets.

Frankenstein is like proto-science-fiction

>Stranger in a Strange Land
Hear, hear

Junior in highschool me thought this book was the shit, I'm interested to see if it holds up on a second reading.

Interesting coincidence, I picked it up from a bookstore while visiting family outside of Peoria, Illinois, where the author grew up.

I believe Frankenstein is believed to have revolutionized the genre of Science Fiction, being one of the First novels to have gone big.