Friday 27 January 2012

Currently Reading: The Languages of Pao

Those of you who follow my current reading blog may have noticed that a fair amount Jack Vance creeping in. This is because Gollancz's excellent SF Gateway site has allowed me to revisit, at a reasonable price, the books of my youth but also books that I never had a chance to read. I'm looking forward to some classic early work by Ian Watson and John Brunner but for now I am satiating myself on Jack Vance.

The Languages of Pao was written in 1958 so counts amongst his very earliest work and it will be interesting to see how much of the distinctive Vancian voice had developed by then.

1 comment:

Leslie said...

It's always neat to see what writers are reading, thanks!

And this made me think of your mention of the "Chavs" book --

http://volokh.com/2012/01/25/charles-murray-on-elite-ignorance-of-ordinary-americans/

"Charles Murray argues that a new elite class has emerged that is much more ignorant about the lives of ordinary Americans than were the elites of earlier generations.."

Our "redneck"/NASCAR fan demographic has surely seen a good deal of demonizing in the last few years; not portrayed as the butt of good-natured jokes as in the past, but of genuine malicious slander. It must be going around...