Samuel R. Delany on "Sophomoric" Texts

[readingthedark]

"... as every teacher knows, there are a lot of highly seductive texts-what one might called "sophomoric” texts-that can be greatly enjoyable and seem extremely fresh and new to not particularly widely educated readers. The problem is that they tend not to lead readers on to other works, especially once they become broadly popular. Rather, they stop and catch readers and make them think, often, that they have now encountered the best there is, so the readers just stall out and never progress. *The Lord of the Rings*, *A Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy*, even *Harry Potter* often function in this way. On another level, the works of Charles Bukowski can easily strike young male readers like this."

Samuel R. Delany, interview with Erin Cusack on comics

From Conversations with Samuel R. Delany, edited by Carl Freedman, p. 164

[Quote was posted in a Delany discussion list]