![]() ![]() Linebarger from us (and, as he and I both believe, took him to his eternal existence in Heaven), we do not know what the final sequence of the series, "The Robot, The Rat, and the Copt" would have been like. And, due to the unfortunate circumstances that took Dr. In my opinion, the Casher sequence is not a mere addendum to the main series, as so many have seemed to treat it, but it is a climax to the series. ![]() One sees the first budding in "Scanners Live In Vain." As the stories progress, and as Smith progressively spiritualizes them, the blossom opens, the fragrance begins to waft, and the nectar is made available to those whose palettes can receive and fully taste it. No matter how many times I read it, Cordwainer Smith's work is always in the process of blossoming. ![]() So I am glad to see Cordwainer Smith's science fiction negatively criticized, because that means that he belongs to the appreciative and respectful elite, those who prefer Mallarme's faun to Dumas' Count of Monte Cristo. ![]() Similar people criticized the works of the Roman poet, Vergil, as he published them they berated and mocked the poems of Stephane Mallarme and, until recently (that is, within my lifetime, say during the early seventies), they treated the poetry of Wallace Stevens with the most grudging and least respectful criticism. I, for one, am very glad to see a bit of negative review of the great man's science fiction. ![]()
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