Posted by Derek Benson on October 03, 1996 at 11:00:09:
In Reply to: Vance, Vapid ,and Education posted by Benjamin Ecthelion Aillec Tomas Seldon on October 01, 1996 at 00:36:56:
Benjamin, Possibly a more likely explanation for disinterest in Vance among female teachers or women in general is that there are more male readers of science fiction than female readers. I have actually yet to meet a woman (I am 41 years old) who has told me she reads science fiction. My feeling is that many men read sci-fi to fulfill a desire for fantasizing. Many women instead read romance novels. The chances of finding a sci-fi reader among the female staff of any given high school are correspondingly low. As concerns the use of sci-fi in high school education, when I went to school sci-fi was not even considered literature. One may have been able to get away with Jules Verne or H.G. Wells as the works of these authors have become a part of American culture. Vance is certainly not considered by society to be on the same level as the two previous authors; it's too much to expect that everyone who reads will understand as we do how exceptional Vance is, even compared to all authors in the history of literature.