In More Issues...
On p. 89, Blish, as Atheling, writes:
"Blish has borrowed to good effect a trick of Lester del Rey, who never describes a faster-than-light space drive - or a similar standard prop - without working out, for each new story, a new rationale for it, thus making the gimmick his own rather than (as is usually the case with lesser writers) a magical device for avoiding thought."
In the story referred to, Blish presents a rationale for psi powers that differs both from the rationale in his own previous novel on the subject and also from any proposed by his editor, Campbell. But Poul Anderson practiced this same "trick" specifically with FTL drives and said so somewhere. Where?
On p. 132, Blish tells us that Anderson thought that his (Anderson's) contribution to Harlan Ellison's Dangerous Visions was not "dangerous." Is there anyone out there who has read this story and is able to comment?
That concludes the "Blish on Anderson" sequence of posts.
7 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
Not quite sure what you or Blish meant about FTL drives and Anderson. I recollect reading in one of the latter's essays that not all scientists totally dismiss the possibility of a FTL drive. And I recall Persis d'Io's discussion with Lord Hauksberg in ENSIGN FLANDRY about the Technic hyperdrive.
I absolutely disagree with Blish's dismissive comment about Anderson's contribution to Harlan Ellison's DANGEROUS VISIONS, "Eutopia." As anyone who has read that story should realize, Anderson could have been falsely accused of favoring or supporting sexual abuse of children. THAT could not have been dangerous to Anderson????
Sean
Correction. I wrote too hastily, Blish said Anderson thought "Eutopia" was not "dangerous." But I disagree with Blish, because this is what Anderson wrote in the "Afterword" to "Eutopia" in Ellison's DANGEROUS VISIONS (Doubleday, 1967): "Readers ought to know that writers are not responsible for the opinions and behavior of their characters. But many people don't. In consequence, I, for instance, have been called a fascist to my face. Doubtless the present story will get me accused of worse. And I only wanted to spin a yarn!" That certainly indicates "Eutopia" could have caused some "risk" to the author.
Sean
Sean,
I meant that Anderson wrote somewhere that he made a point of inventing a new rationale for FTL for each new story or series.
Paul.
Sean,
"Eutopia" is both a typical Anderson story and an appropriate contribution to DANGEROUS VISIONS.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
Re Andersonian FTL drives, that clarifies what you meant.
The very name of the story, "Eutopia," has many applicable meanings! It literally means "good place." But as the story advanced to its conclusion, I think Anderson meant us to infer that the alternate universe where Alexander the Great did not die young, but consolidated and made long lasting his empire, more and more came to have questionable aspects. While at first we are led to think the opposite. I think the real "good place" was the less technologically advanced world the Greek character was exploring (somewhat disdainfully).
Sean
Sean,
I think that that point is made in the story.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
It was! Less technologically advanced, maybe, but more "alive" in some real ways which had been lost in the Greek universe.
Sean
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