A Literary Newton: a Suggestion for a Critical Appraisal of Fritz Leiber
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Volume 17 Number 1 Article 9 Fall 10-15-1990 A Literary Newton: A Suggestion for a Critical Appraisal of Fritz Leiber Bruce Byfield Follow this and additional works at: https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore Part of the Children's and Young Adult Literature Commons Recommended Citation Byfield, Bruce (1990) A" Literary Newton: A Suggestion for a Critical Appraisal of Fritz Leiber," Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature: Vol. 17 : No. 1 , Article 9. Available at: https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore/vol17/iss1/9 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Mythopoeic Society at SWOSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature by an authorized editor of SWOSU Digital Commons. An ADA compliant document is available upon request. For more information, please contact [email protected]. To join the Mythopoeic Society go to: http://www.mythsoc.org/join.htm Mythcon 51: A VIRTUAL “HALFLING” MYTHCON July 31 - August 1, 2021 (Saturday and Sunday) http://www.mythsoc.org/mythcon/mythcon-51.htm Mythcon 52: The Mythic, the Fantastic, and the Alien Albuquerque, New Mexico; July 29 - August 1, 2022 http://www.mythsoc.org/mythcon/mythcon-52.htm Abstract Deplores the dearth of serious critical attention to the writings of Leiber and speculates about the reasons for this. Gives an overview of his career that suggests avenues for future critical analysis. Additional Keywords Leiber, Fritz—Biography; Leiber, Fritz—Criticism and interpretation This article is available in Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature: https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore/vol17/iss1/9 Page 48 Aurumn 1990 CDyTHLORe 63 A LteeiMRy Neojirom A. Suggestion For a CRitical AppRoisal of F r1c% L c16cr B rucc By Field Introduction his work should be discounted, yet, even so, he has earned such a high position that definitive criticism of his work is There are stable perching places aplenty in the modern world, extending into the foreseeable future, too, for overdue.2 scientists, engineers, widely skilled mechanics, adver The problem is that his accomplishments are difficult tisers, salesmen, and entrepreneurs. At the opposite ex to handle critically. Dividing the history of science fiction treme, there are fewer and fewer places for poets, lovers into the Golden Age, whose standards were set by John W. and women. Campbell, Jr., the editor of A stounding and Unknown-, the — Fritz Leiber, "Utopia for Poets and Witches" (194). early literary age of the 1950s, fostered by Anthony Boucher at Fantasy and Science Fiction and Horace L. Gold X lthough Fritz Reuter Leiber is no longer "critically, at Galaxy; the Sixties' New Wave and the present publish rvvirtually ignored," as Judith Merril complained in ing boom, Norman Spinrad writes in an afterward to 1969 (46), study of his fiction is still in its early stages. Destiny Times Three that "although perhaps never general Thoughtful criticism of Leiber usually focuses on a single ly considered the single most important science fiction work, while surveys of his career tend to dilute insight writer in any of these periods, Leiber has been regarded as with admiration and plot summary.1 Almost always, one of the most significant writers in all of them" (150-51). categories not found there are imposed on his work. Some His style has evolved throughout each period, often ahead critical problems have been pointed to, and Justin Leiber, of everyone else's. He is credited, among other things, with his son, has suggested approaches, but otherwise his transforming the supernatural tale from a reworking of the career has been neither assessed nor made accessible to Gothic into a reflection of cultural anxieties (Hartwell 629), readers unfamiliar with hisfiction. In these respects, study and, in his 1958 novel The Big Time, with anticipating the of Leiber lags far behind that of Ursula K. Le Guin, or, tone and stylistic experiments of the New Wave (Aldiss lately, of Philip K. Dick. The state of Leiber criticism seems 311). Writing in every subdivision of fantasy, Leiber has inconsistent with his reputation. For over half of his five experimented continually with lengths, moods and styles. decade career, Leiber has been a major figure in modem As late as 1979, Malcolm J. Edwards could characterize American fantasy. Harlan Ellison, writing in "A Few Too him in The Science Fiction Encyclopedia as "the only sf and Few Words" that "I have no hesitation in ranking him with fantasy writer of his generation still developing and Poe and Kafka and Borges," speaks for many fantasists producing his best work" (349), and Leiber's latest collec with an interest in style when he insists that "none of us tion, The Knight and Knave of Swords, shows that the working in the genre of the fantastic today are free of the description is still accurate. Published shortly before lessons taught by Leiber"(122). "Writer's writer" is how Leiber's seventy-ninth birthday, the collection shows many science fiction writers describe Leiber, and they Leiber evolving a new terseness and simplicity as his praise him even when they find fault. When Ursula K. Le failing eyesight forces him to write only a few lines per Guin, for instance, deplores shifts from archaic to collo page and to dictate revisions. quial dialogue in the comic scenes of the Fafhrd and Gray Mouser stories, one of her reasons is that the shift is un Leiber's refusal to stand still is the main reason for critical necessary, because Leiber "could maintain any tone with difficulties with him. Some science fiction writers, such as eloquence and grace" (81-82). Robert Heinlein, take pride in a commercial approach to writing. Their interest in style is limited mainly to clarity, and, By any standard, Leiber is prominent in science fiction. although their careers have been as long as Leiber's, they That his awards include six Hugos, voted on by members have not developed so much as indulged idiosyncrasies. of Worldcon, the annual World Science Fiction conven Others, like Avram Davidson, are noted for the nurture of a tion, suggests that he is a popular writer. That they include single style. Still others are identified with certain themes, four Nebulas, voted on members of the Science Fiction such as Ray Bradbury, who is known for his mythologizing Writers of America, suggests that he is a skilled one. of childhood and American traditions. In contrast to all these Whether it is true that Leiber has won more awards than types of writers, Leiber is identified with no single era, style, any other science fiction writer must be decided by some or subject. In general, he is more at home with horror than one with the patience to count, but the claim is plausible science fiction, more with short stories than novels, and more enough that it is often repeated. Because he is personally with moods and psychological studies than action, yet there admired in science fiction circles, some of the praise given are few traditions, lengths or styles that he has not used CDyTHLORe 63 Autumn 1990 Page 49 effectively. Leiber is not as easily classified as most science enjoyment. At worst, they will find his most distinctive fiction writers, and it is hard to see any continuity that stories oblique to the point of being boring. Leiber's rela allows his work to be discussed as a whole. tion with his fiction is a direct one, and it sometimes limits the number of qualified readers or critics. In "Fritz Leiber and Eyes," the best effort to define an approach so far, Justin Leiber takes this diversity for Justin Leiber is not the first to mention the personal granted. "Fritz simply likes to write a lot of different kinds quality of his father's work. It is one of the few truisms of of things," he explains, "and if half of them are ahead of Leiber criticism. In the first substantial article on Leiber, their time or behind their time or so far out in left field that Judith Merril observes that his fiction resembles his con the people who have the right background to read it can versation and his letters, concluding that "the man and his be counted on your fingers-well, tough" (12). For all its work are not separable" (45), and the insight has been flippancy, the comment singles out the underlying as repeated many times. Leiber himself, who uses his nonfic sumption in all of Fritz Leiber's work. Leiber serves notice tion to clarify his thoughts on subjects that obsess him, has many times that he expects alert readers to be aware, not written autobiographical fragments for almost thirty just of science fiction or of orthodox literature, but of both. years. His reviews for F an tastic became increasingly per His ironic choice of epigraphs for The Wanderer, for in sonal through the Seventies, and his "On Fantasy" column stance, is a melodramatic excerpt from E. E. "Doc" Smith's for Fantasy Review 4 and his "Moon, Stars and Stuff' space opera Second Stage Lensman, followed by lines from column for Locus in the last decade have mixed reviews William Blake's "Tyger." Admiring Robert Heinlein, yet with opinion and anecdote. Three times, he has written impatient with his conservatism, Leiber pays homage to autobiographies: anecdotally in "Fafhrd and Me" (slightly his juvenile fiction in "Our Saucer Vacation," while satiriz revised for the Gregg edition of Swords and Deviltry as ing his insistence that humans are "the most lawless "Introduction to Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser"), and more animal in the whole universe" (161) by having an alien seriously in "Not Much Disorder and Not So Early Sex" apply the phrase to his own species.