Thursday 7 May 2020

Quality And Quantity

Often quantity overcomes quality but Poul Anderson gives us both. We notice an improvement in quality of writing from his earliest to his later works and an undiminished originality even in his latest works.

Quantitative Comparison With Heinlein 

Heinlein's High Quality Earlier Works
one five-volume future history
twelve Scribner Juveniles
three statements of the circular causality paradox
several independent sf novels

Heinlein's Low Quality Later Works
a mere quantity of words and pages

Anderson
several future histories, including one of 17 volumes or 7 omnibus volumes
on time travel: one series, three novels, one collection
many other individual works and series

Quality, quantity and measure are another triad in Hegelian philosophy but you might be pleased to learn that I do not find this triad particularly applicable to sf. (The point of "measure" is that quantitative change beyond a "specific quantum" changes quality, thus that "measure" synthesizes quality and quantity.)

But I do find it meaningful to say that Poul Anderson gives us both quality and quantity. (Also, works of graphic fiction by Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman and Frank Miller are islands of quality in an ocean of quantity.)

1 comment:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

I agree Poul Anderson gave us high quality SF even in his later years, a phase I date from 1989. E.g., his four HARVEST OF STARS books, STARFARERS, GENESIS, and several other works. But, I would have enjoyed one or two Technic Civilization stories!

It's painful to contemplate the awful dreck Heinlein began writing with STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND. The sheer ghastliness of those later works compared with his pre-STRANGER stories is an appalling contrast. To wipe out that bast taste I have to remember far better books like DOUBLE STAR and SIXTH COLUMN.

And I would include S.M. Stirling in your list of high quality writers.

Ad astra! Sean