Feeley On Blish And Anderson

Between books on a shelf at home, we find a photocopied article on James Blish by Gregory Feeley. A hand written note beside the article's title indicates that this article was published in  Foundation: The Review of Science Fiction, no. 24, February 1982, forty two years ago. 

Once, Feeley refers to Poul Anderson and, on another occasion, could have done. Feeley writes that:

"Blish's works...certainly seem uncraftsmanlike when compared to the novels of Heinlein, Clifford Simak, or Poul Anderson, if it is their virtues as stories that is considered." (p. 61)

Heinlein etc wrote romans, i..e., linear, consecutive narratives that could be made into films, whereas Blish wrote "...imaginative works of a fundamentally different order..." (ibid.) We on this blog have discussed how Anderson's Technic History might be filmed. However, there were advanced plans to film Blish's Welcome To Mars and A Life For The Stars. See here.

Feeley writes that:

"...Blish was not a creator of future histories like Heinlein before him or Niven after him..." (ibid.)

From the point of view of this blog, Anderson should be mentioned explicitly between Heinlein and Niven, the Technic History far surpassing either the Future History or Known Space - in our opinion, of course.

Three times, Blish wrote a short work that grew outward:

"Sunken Universe" generated and was incorporated into The Seedling Stars;

a single Okie story generated and was incorporated into Cities In Flight;

"A Case of Conscience" generated and was incorporated into After Such Knowledge.

As we know, this was not how other future histories were written.