March 10, 1989
To The Editor(s), PROMETHEUS
Dear Editor(s):

I was pleased to see Sam Konkin coming out in favor of including The Dispossessed in the Prometheus Hall of Fame, and hope he helps us put it there this year. Sam is right, by the way, when he accuses me of “openness and tolerance.” But where the hell did I say that ‘libertarianism is not necessary to win a libertarian literary award’? I never said that!

Right on, Taras Wolansky. Down with mental shutters!

I can have no objection to Brad Linaweaver disagreeing with me about a book, as he does in his review of L. Neil Smith’s Brightsuit MacBear—but I rather resent that he does it in parenthesis and refers to me impersonally as “an individual” rather than using my name and citing my review. For the record, my negative review of MacBear appeared in Otherrealms no. 22, Fall 1988, and I’ll be glad to send a photocopy to anyone who sends me an SASE.

Guilty I am, Brad, of writing “the same review” every time since Smith is writing carbon copies of carbon copies—but give me my due. I do give a fair account of the plots and characters. It’s only style and content I’m bitching about. And Guilty you are, Brad, of wasting precious space in Prometheus with a review that’s twice as long as it should have been—your opinion that Smith is the new Heinlein rated a single paragraph, not most of a page.

Perhaps Brad is reacting to my review of his novel Moon of Ice which appeared in Thrust no. 30, Summer 1988, and included a fervent wish that the LFS not give Moon the Prometheus Award because of what I perceive as flaws in the story structure. Ideologically Moon has much to recommend it and even as a casual read it’s not bad—but to me the Prometheus is only for books that combine ideas and story in a superior way, which I feel Moon doesn’t. This is not to pick a fight with Brad—I expect his next book will be much better and no doubt he’ll be a Prometheus winner on down the line. More power to him, but in all honesty, I can’t support Moon of Ice for the award.

Finally, Jim Stumm’s comments on The Dispossessed raise some good points, but even if he’s right that people don’t work that way now, what’s to say that they won’t behave differently in the far future that Le Guin depicts? That’s the value of the utopian fiction we’re dealing with.

Hey guys—don’t take negative review so negatively. As the press agents say, the only bad publicity is an obituary. Yuk, yuk.

    In Peace, Neal Wilgus