|
Enkomputiligis Don HARLOW |
I wrote this little gem (?) as the introduction to a (so far unfinished beyond the first two or three chapters) novel that I projected in the late seventies. It really has very little to do with the novel, aside from the fact that the uncle of the two main protagonists, Tom and Jerry Nichols, was the author of a series of novels about a barbarian hero named Odgai. The foreword simply represented my attitude towards unthinking critics of science fiction and fantasy. (In those days, it was easier to criticize these genres without thinking than it may be today.)
"Uncouth barbarian!" screeched the first wizard. "Know you not that the purpose of literature is to cast light on the fallen state of mankind?"
"To uplift, to bring enlightenment to the masses!" cackled the second wizard.
"The ballads the gleemen sing of Bok Rozha, of his flying chariots, of the strange folk he meets in lands across the sea, those are nought but pulpish garbage," chortled the third wizard.
"And as for those tales of swordsmanship and ensorcelment so dear to you, my disgusting barbarian," hissed the fourth wizard, "there is no place for them in the real world."
Mouthing a foul Moldorian oath, Odgai whipped Skull-Cruncher from its scabbard and whirled it through the air. Then, wiping the blade on a toga whose owner had no further use for it, he spat at the four already mouldering corpses and growled: "That for your 'literature,' ye blasphemous dogs!"
Nichols, Augustus
Odgai and the Mages of Academe