In The Issue...
On pp. 123-130, Blish writes that:
Poul Anderson, as Guest of Honor at the 1959 World SF Con, called for a unitary approach to sf in which all aspects of life would play equal roles;
Anderson's The Man Who Counts exemplifies this approach;
Ace Books "...contemptuously re-entitled..." (p. 123) the novel War Of The Wing-Men;
Anderson's prescription is good for science fiction because it is good for fiction;
novels have to be about something.
Blish's Examples Of Novels That Succeed Because They Are About Something
George Orwell's 1984, about power;
Kurt Vonnegut's Player Piano, about the Second Industrial Revolution;
Franz Werfel's Star Of The Unborn, about immortality;
Bernard Wolfe's Limbo, about conflict and suffering.
Blish also commends a few other novels without stating what they were about. Having praised The Man Who Counts, he could have added it to his list, thus:
Poul Anderson's The Man Who Counts, about Nicholas van Rijn, the man who counts!
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
I agree with what Blish and then you said, a good novel should be ABOUT something. And that certainly was the case with Anderson's THE MAN WHO COUNTS.
I don't know if Ace Books was being "contemptuous" when it insisted on re-titling THE MAN WHO COUNTS with the absurd WAR OF THE WING-MEN for the first printing. More likely, some editor was being clueless and ham-fisted about the book.
Sean
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