Three Dollar Quill

I've been reading a bunch, and trying to decide what I think. It's mostly been the Lensman books. They're historically significant (they influenced a lot of major space opera series), and are very good at being page-turner melodramas, and I really want to get a handle on some of the writing techniques on display, but there are some amazing blind spots in some of the attempts at being enlightened.

I don't want to be seen as trying to dunk on E. E. Smith, but he's fifties-ing hard in his writing, and I don't think the direction it's going at the end feels like an effective course correction; I'm not at all sure it was supposed to be. To be honest, although I've seen plenty of cheesy science fiction movies from the era, I'm not eager to go one way or the other on "standards of the time". Like, some of this stuff seems like it should be so obvious.

Anyway, I'll ponder that for a bit while I get to bed, because it's late again.

Good night.