Bad prose is by definition unengaging prose. Unless, of course, you have a vicarious shame fetish and enjoy to be embarrassed on other people’s account. I see that a lot in the IF crowd. I suppose it’s comforting to know that no matter how mediocre one’s own writing is, there’s always someone like Victor around.
Artful in the sense of being artificial, certainly not in the sense of being skillful.
You admit that Victor’s prose is inelegant, and yet you find it engaging. You concede that his symbols are incoherent, and yet you find them charming. I’m beginning to suspect that you like this game so much because it allows you to feel superior.
Victor not being in the same league as Nabokov is a minor issue. After all, very few writers are. A far bigger issue is the appalling lack of literary culture among the IF crowd. Before you write a game about rebellious robots, it’s a good idea to have read your Clarke and Asimov. Before you write anything about adults having sexual relationships with children/adolescents, it’s a good idea to have read Nabokov, Hardy and Petronius. I can see you people scratching your plebeian heads and going: “Who the fuck is Petronius? Who the hell is Hardy?” That’s a BIG part of the problem. You ALWAYS write within a tradition. When you don’t know the tradition you’re writing in, you end up writing The Baron.
As to the notion that Victor is outside the pale of criticism because he writes in his second language, how about the Paralympics of IF? We’ll have one venue where only the natives compete and another one for the cripples.
You’re still hurting from that sic?