From: yarvin@highlite.uucp (Curtis Yarvin)
Subject: Re: "Buffalo" is SF? /Hugo nominated/ SF?!
Organization: Gotham Communications Research
Date: Thu, 30 Jul 1992 08:37:12 GMT

In article <l7asp9INNc1@exodus.Eng.Sun.COM> kcr@rushforth.Eng.Sun.COM (Kevin Rushforth) writes:
>dstein@rhea.math.ucla.edu (David Stein) writes:
>>
>>      Number of them.  First, it gave me an insight into it's characters, 
>>      including Kessel the author.  Second, it brought an era 
>>      (the Depression) closer to my understanding when it was viewed 
>>      from the past (Wells), the present (Kessel's farther), and the 
>>      future (Kessel himself).  Third, it was a pretty well told story, 
>>      which used actual people (Wells, Kessels, even Ellington) in 
>>      imaginary situations meaningfully and with restraint.
>
>I found "Buffalo" to be self-indulgent and boring.  About half way
>through the story I could hardly wait for it to end.

I was hunting the perfect epithet for this story, but no more; "self-
indulgent" fits it to a T.  At first I decided, as is my wont, that
the problem was the prattling social commentary.  Indeed, between
that and the encyclopedia reprints, there's hardly room left for any
human interaction; and when you boil out the easy sterotypes of
Kessel Sr's work crew, the well-strung-but-pointless tree-pruning
lesson, the jazz criticism in terms so woefully cliched that even
the jazz critics have been wise to them for the last twenty years...
well, there's plenty of steam in the air but not much pasta in the
pot.

Later, though, I decided the tale had a lot of potential in it.  It's
a pity; if Kessel had pulled it out better, we might have a well-
written modern story winning the Hugo, instead of Landis' retro-
fifties abortion (this cynic's bet.)  

The problem with "Buffalo," as I see it, is the narration; Kessel
has three voices going, adn two of them don't work at all.  

Kessel's father simply isn't a Hugo-worthy character; he may be
real, but he's so flat and stereotypical that before I started
reading I had huge yellow-and-purple snapshots of him burned into my
retina, from too much Campbelliana at a tender age.  Kessel explores
him more than usual, but there's only so much to explore under a
cardboard skin.

Kessel himself - the self-indulgent part here, and what really
ruined this story for me - keeps butting in.  I'm not one of these
fanatic hick antipostmodernists who seethes inwardly whenever the
author butts in, but it's got to be done right and Kessel just ain't
capable of the job.  When the narrative voice is coming from the
author, it should be clearly marked and flagged.  Otherwise, it
tends to drown out the characters - in this case, Wells.  It's hard
to tell when it's Wells moaning about capitalist excesses and so
forth, or Kessel. Since the only thing Wells does is moan about
capitalist excesses, this loses the only glimpse we get of his
actual character - and makes the story a dead loss by every criterion
I can think of.

What's painful about this is that "Buffalo"'s form and design have
so much damned potential.  If Kessel had truly explored Wells as a
tragic character, instead of narrating him into the ground - if
he'd introduced Wells to Kessel Sr. in a more complex interaction
than an embarrassed ricochet at a nightclub - if he'd taken the
opportunity to twist, dissect, and dismantle the abominable
stereotype he installed as his father - I think "Buffalo" would
have been one of the best short stories I've ever read, even
if it weren't really sf.  

Instead, it's shit.  Depressing.

>A pity, because it was well-written -- it just didn't interest me in
>the least.

Yah.  With all the venom in the world you can't deny that Kessel is
a technically talented writer.  The problem, I guess, is that he has
too few competitors, in the miniscule lit-merit crowd; so he can get
away with peddling arrant garbage and no one will mind, because they
don't want to throw a Real Writer out with the bathwater.  Big fish
in small ponds get fat and lazy.

>>      I think the story was the best of the seven nominated, though
>>      "Dog's Life" and "One Perfect Morning, With Jackals" were well
>>      written too.       
>
>Different strokes, I guess.  I felt that "Buffalo" was the worst of the
>seven nominated stories with "Dog's Life" being next worst (although it
>was, at least, enjoyable).  I did like "One Perfect Morning, With
>Jackals", although I felt that Connie Willis's "In the Late Cretaceous"
>was slightly better.

My vote goes to Willis as well.  The only stories I thought
award-worthy this year were the comedies (not including "Dog's Life,"
which should have a category of its own, because not even "Buffalo"
deserves a day in the same cage); "Cretaceous" wasn't exactly sf, 
but it was at least worth the read - which is more than I can say for
its opponents.

c
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