tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3538502828554372917.post7205227689630860116..comments2024-03-28T07:57:49.338+00:00Comments on Poul Anderson Appreciation: Living AuthorsKetlanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08588156788583883454noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3538502828554372917.post-86278066429570641592018-03-31T07:19:38.122+01:002018-03-31T07:19:38.122+01:00Kaor, Paul and Mr. Stirling!
Paul: I've said ...Kaor, Paul and Mr. Stirling!<br /><br />Paul: I've said more than once that Jules Verne is one of the two fathers of modern science fiction (the other being, of course, H.G. Wells). All SF fans with some pretension to knowledge of the field should be familiar with Verne's 20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA or FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON. One problem I read of being that there has been few really satisfactory translations of Verne's books from French into English.<br /><br />I don't think all commercial SF deserves only contempt. Well done, well written science fiction can be well worth reading and thinking about. I do agree SF has been too often judged by its worst examples.<br /><br />Going down your list of eight points:<br /><br />(i), I agree.<br /><br />(ii), I've read a couple of Olaf Stapledon's works and I can't truly say they "grabbed" me. Well worth reading, but I have my doubts he will be counted among the four or five giants of science fiction. Stapledon seems to be very much an acquired taste.<br /><br />(iii), I agree. Better not to comment on a writer if you have not read any of his works.<br /><br />(iv), C.S. Lewis belongs more with Bradbury than Lovecraft. Lewis was not a writer of horror, after all!<br /><br />(v), Speaking from memory, 1984 said the purpose of power was a boot stamping forever on one's face! Grimly dystopian!<br /><br />(vi), Anderson's THE MAN WHO COUNTS was directly inspired by Hal Clement's works.<br /><br />(vii), I agree.<br /><br />(viii), I disagree with people who think like that. Anderson was not a believer in "transhumanism." He was extremely skeptical of dreams about mankind somehow transforming themselves into perfect, idealized, god like beings. And this naturally showed up in his works.<br /><br />Mr. Stirling: alas, Jack Williamson is yet another of those writers, like H. Beam Piper, I know too shamefully little about. Maybe you could write up the gist of your Williamson lecture into an essay and pub. it in a magazine? <br /><br />SeanSean M. Brookshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13973738112230622557noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3538502828554372917.post-35978371287857229602018-03-30T19:52:01.918+01:002018-03-30T19:52:01.918+01:00I'm going to speak at the Williamson Lecture i...I'm going to speak at the Williamson Lecture in Portales, NM next week -- it's in honor of Jack Williamson, author of DARKER THAN YOU THINK and many other SF works.<br /><br />He came to New Mexico in a covered wagon over a century ago, sold his first SF story to Hugo Gernsback in the 1920's, and THE HUMANOIDS and many others, and published his last SF novel in 2005.<br /><br />In other words, his career spanned nearly the entirety of modern SF, up until the early 21st century.<br /><br />It's a young field, but getting older a day at a time...S.M. Stirlinghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18091131550027851275noreply@blogger.com