Sense of Wonder Stories 2, July 2008 (5 months late) is edited and published by Rich Coad, 2132 Berkeley Drive, Santa Rosa, CA 95401. e-mail: [email protected]

Wondertorial...... page 3 Editorial natterings by Rich Coad

The Good Soldier: George Turner as Combative Critic...... page 6 Bruce Gillespie on the well known author and critic

A Dream of Flight...... page 13 Cover artist Bruce Townley on steam driven planes

Heresy, Maybe?...... page 16 FAAn Award winner Peter Weston battles James Blish

J.G.Ballard A Journey of Inference...... page 18 Graham Charnock reminds us how good Mundane SF could be

The Readers Write...... page 22 To get SF fans talking SF simply mention Heinlein

Great Science Fiction Editors...... back cover Horace Gold: Galaxy Master

2 WONDERTORIAL

SF seems to be a literature that thrives upon manifes- Hard to argue with that. Science fiction rooted in sci- toes, written and unwritten, loudly proclaimed for all ence fact - sounds like Campbell’s prescription for As- to inveigh upon, or stealthily applied by editors at large tounding. And the future is here on Earth for most of to shift the field into a new direction. us seems less than controversial He goes on to say

Geoff Ryman, a writer of immense talent and ambi- tion as anyone who has read Was will tell you, has fol- “I wrote a jokey Mundane Mani- lowed the loud proclamation route with his provoca- festo. It said let’s play this serious tive call for more mundane SF. It’s difficult to think of game. Let’s agree: no FTL, no FTL a name more calculated to drive the average SF fan communications, no time travel, into a state of copralaliac Tourette’s twitches than no aliens in the flesh, no immortal- “Mundane SF”. For years we have used mundane as a term to dismiss anything outside of the SF realm. ity, no telepathy, no parallel uni- Mainstream novels, even those with far more imgina- verse, no magic wands. Let’s see if tion than 99% of SF, are dismissed for being “mun- something new comes out of it.” dane”. People who possess the fatal flaw of not being fanatical SF readers are simply “mundanes”. Yet here is one of the field’s own better writers embracing the I like the final sentence. But let’s look at some of the term and even splicing it to the beloved SF. Will this other tropes which should be dropped by SF authors be like adding some spider DNA to Peter Parker’s sys- who aspire to more than comic-book-style adventures tem and result in a brand new super-powered literar- in their writing. ture? Or is more Frankensteinian, forced into a sham- bling mockery of life via the galvanic response to such No FTL Travel so no Consider Phlebas a loaded term? • • No FTL communication so no The Left Hand Of Darkness In the first place we must ask, what the hell is meant No time travel so no “All You Zombies” by Mundane SF anyways? Geoff Ryman used his • No aliens in the flesh so no Mission of Gravity Guest of Honor speech at Boreal in Montreal to out- • No immortality so no Chasm City line his view of what he means. • No telepathy so no Time for the Stars (http://mundane-sf.blogspot.com/2007/09/take-third • -star-on-left-and-on-til.html) Not that his view is nec- • No parallel universe so no What Mad Universe essarily the correct view, or even the prevailing one, • No magic wands so no Harry Potter but as founder of the movement his view should cer- tainly be given some consideration. Simply put, then, It’s easy to see that any number of favorite stories and Ryman says novels would have to be jettisoned if these rules were to be written in stone but even Ryman is not suggest- ing that. His main goal, and it is something for which “Being a Mundane boils down to I have some sympathy, is that final sentence. avoiding old tropes and sticking more closely to what science calls The tired old tropes of SF have become tired not be- facts. We believe that for most of cause they are intrinsically unbelievable but because us, the future is here on Earth.” they are overused, especially in movies and TV, as just a piece of magic used to move the plot from one loca- tion to another or to have it not matter that a prota- ganist has died because their personality backup will be transferred to a pre-prepared clone and they live again.

3 So since I have some sympathy with the points that So we can safely say what Mundane SF is not but what Ryman makes, in particular that there is a threshold is it? Fortunately we have the June 2008 issue of Inter- beyond which the willing suspension of disbelief be- zone, the Mundane-SF Special guest edited by Ryman comes unwilling and either the author drags you along and with stories written specifically with mundane anyhow or you throw the book across the room in dis- ideas in mind. gust. This threshold probably differs for each reader and it appears that Mundane SF attempts to require Ryman lays it on the line in his editorial: little in the way of suspension from the reader. My own threshold is generally reached when in stead of What’s Mundanity? It’s an effort establishing at least a pseudo scientific basis for the to make SF the best it can be. events the author leaps into mysticism. ... If a story says it’s about the future, Two books that had me very nearly performing the toss the tome out the window (instead they went to it should make an effort in good the sell to the used bookstore box) are Dan Simmons’ faith to show a future. That won’t Olympos and Peter Hamilton’s Pandora’s Star. Olympos is be our world with one small the sequel to Ilium which had a fine set of events an change. characters that I could swallow without a whit of complaint:

• machine intelligences from the asteroid belt racing Certainly nothing to disagree with there. towards Mars • time traveling archaeology professors brought to Mars to observe the Trojan war • an Earth depopulated due to most of humanity’s choice to become transcendent • an Earth with allosaurs that eat characters who come back due to convenient personality backups and clones • Greek gods manipulating the participants of the Trojan war and, incidentally, pissing off the profes- sor

Bulleted out like that, at least half of those look quite stupid but I was quite caught up in Simmos’ narrative. So why, then, does he ruin the sequel by having a deus- ex-machina literally created in the jungles of South America where mystical technology awakens innate powers that allow the protagonist to pretty much save the world from all threats indefinitely and by himself? Ryman is right. It becomes boring.

A similar feeling hit me when in Pandora’s Star one pro- tagonist forsook faster than light spaceships to deter- mine what the threat from the-planet-wide controller of hive-mind aliens from a formerly Dyson-sphere enclosed star system and instead uses a mystical ability So how are the actual stories that have been selected to to walk the paths between worlds. There’s pseudo- represent this new force in SF? science and then there’s preposterousness... First off is “How To Make Paper Airplanes” by Lavie But returning to the Mundane SF manifesto. It’s clear Tidhar is a short portrait of a quartet of bored scien- that none of these novels would even begin to achieve tists in Vanuatu who have been parked there to be out a proper mundanity. Even the parts I liked use amaz- of the way. Not much happens and the revelation that ing super-science that has little hope of ever becoming the narrator will be dying is done in pidgin - perhaps actual technology. the main claim to fame of this story is its use of 4 pidgin. Maybe I’m thick but I don’t really see the SF other slice of life set in a future in which total immer- element of this story at all. Isn’t Vanuatu one of the sion in the net makes direct human interactions com- islands most endangered by rising sea levels due to plicated. global warming? You’d never know that from this story. Judging from the special mundane-sf issue of Inter- zone, it appears that mundanity is indeed its main Chelesea Quinn Yarbros story, “Endra - From Mem- trope. Aside from Angell’s somewhat atypical video- ory” seems a bit more affected by global warming. game shoot-em-up, we have half-a-dozen tales in Possibly that is why the sailing is considered a way of which little happens and less is changed. It makes it life or perhaps the story is simply influenced by Clark difficult to keep a sympathetic frame of mind for this Ashton Smith with its exotic locales and odd names. new movement much as I would like to. In the end, Nothing here strikes me as especially making SF the though, it all seems not too different from what Mi- best it can be; just more or less journeyman fantasy chael Moorcock set out to do with New Wave SF that is readable but not memorable. some 40 years ago. From that we got an awful lot of pretentious rubbish and some very good writers. Let’s “The Invisibles” by Elisabeth Vonarburg and “The hope Mundane SF at least produces some of the latter Hour Is Getting Late” by Billie Aul are perhaps more because it is sure to produce plenty of the former. true to the spirit of mundanity than the previous pair. Both stories are set in near-future dystopias but the dystopic is not dwelled upon - it’s there as background informing what the characters do. Billie Aul’s charac- ters are artist and critic in a virtual reality reimagining One of the best practitioners of mundane SF, from of Woodstock on its 75th anniversary. Instant feed- well before the concept was even thought of, killed back from the hordes of on-line participants helps himself while I was preparing this editorial. Thomas guide the show and even the lives of the principals. M. Disch wrote superbly about characters caught in Meanwhile the casually dismissed poor of the realm worlds not of their own making. Often the characters are beginning to force their way into the protected fan- did not survive. Apparently Disch himself was unable tasies (and walled enclaves) of the well-to-do. Elisa- to survive a world in which illness can lead to penury beth Vonarburg, who is apparently quite well known to and gentrification can lead to eviction. With two new readers of SF in French, places her story in a world of books (Voyage of the Proteus and The Word of God) re- domed cities where implants tell the technology who cently published and a third (The Wall of America) you are and where you should go. But two lonely trav- there seemed to be reason to hope that Disch was en- elers get diverted to a part of the city that, as far as tering a new period of SF creativity and that more they have ever known, cannot exist. The story lacks would be on the way. Sadly that will not be but there much in the way of drama or resolution but the back- is a great body of work left behind. ground in which it resides is very well imagined. If you’re not familiar with him I’d recommend a look R.R. Angell uses some very standard tropes and the at 102 H-Bombs or Getting Into Death or The Man Who current wave of anti-immigrant feeling washing over Had No Idea to get an introduction to Disch’s dark, but the US in “Remote Control”. It’s the old combine comic, view of the universe and if any of those stories video games and a news story and lets have a game appeal then try The Genocides and 334 and The Business- where we really shoot Mexicans coming across the man to get the flavor of early, middle, and late Disch. border. I’d rather watch Deathrace 2000 which is much funnier about making a game from real-life mayhem.

“Into The Night” by Anil Menon is simply a slice of Finally, I just want to say thanks to Bruce and Bruce life about an aging Indian father moving to his daugh- and Graham and Peter for being so patient as self- ter’s house in the South Pacific. It’s filled with an old imposed deadline after self-imposed deadline went by. man’s sadness that things aren’t as they once were Next issue will definitely contain material by Graham which, frankly, is just rather dull. There are plenty of Charnock and Roy Kettle and hopefully will be a bit people in their 80s who still find the new fascinating closer to the planned publication date of November. and don’t dwell overmuch in the past.

Finally we get to “Talk Is Cheap” by the agent prova- cateur behind all this, Geoff Ryman. And it’s yet an- 5 THE GOOD SOLDIER: George Turner as Combative Critic by Bruce Gillespie

One of my favourite memories of George Turner is he chose to attack one of SF’s then sacred cows, that of the public figure I saw in action at Aussiecon Alfred Bester’s The Demolished Man. This was a I, 1975, the first World Convention held in Australia. deliberate attempt to annoy SF readers. After Don Tuck was the official Australian Fan Guest of subjecting The Demolished Man to an acid bath of Honour, but he was unable to attend. John analysis, he writes: Bangsund, as Toastmaster, became effectively the The Demolished Man... won a Hugo. One can only Australian Fan Guest of Honour, since he was the surmise that either the year was a poor one for Australian SF personality most overseas visitors novels, or that the judges were hypnotised by the wanted to meet. They also wanted to meet, though snowstorm of style and movement. The book is with some trepidation, George Turner. Throughout a triumph of style over content and Aussiecon he put on his classic George Turner turn. inconsistency. It was, unfortunately, the kind of His penetrating, canonical voice could be heard on book which encourages serious critics to regard panels. He gave speeches. He took part in a debate. SF as irresponsible and unimportant, and its He contrived to lord it over visiting writers and fans readers as sadly lacking in discernment. alike, showing equal condescension and attention to everybody. We locals knew this haughtiness as just More deadly is the thought that readers liked an act, but the overseas visitors seemed to survive it it so well, and that editors exist to give the quite well. From today’s perspective, the remarkable readers what they demand. If this is a sample of aspect of Turner’s triumph at Aussiecon is that he what they demand, then SF will be, for the had not published a word of science fiction at that majority, never more than a titillation of the time. His reputation within the SF field rested emotions. While readers demand, writers must entirely on the huge body of SF criticism and supply, all but the few who say ‘to hell with the reviews he had published since 1967. Even if he had readers’ and strike out in the direction of quality never written an SF novel or short story, his at all costs... reputation as a major figure within SF would have I have nothing against escapism — it is a been assured. necessary activity — but the manner of the Was there anything inevitable about the respect, escape is important. If the magazines are to be even veneration, accorded George Turner the critic? taken as the measure of the average SF readers’ No. From the beginning of his critical career, Turner escape, then the flight is only into daydream and adopted a pugnacious attitude to the readers and fantasy. He has not discovered that the thinking writers of science fiction, and to the whole body of reader escapes into wider realms than science science fiction itself. fiction ever dreamed of.2 Not only was George Turner unafraid of negative In later years, George Turner recalled that his first reaction to his criticism; he welcomed it. I want to fanzine writings ‘quickly brought me cheers, catcalls, hazard a guess at possible origins of this willingness fanfares, furies, staunch supporters and others who to get into a fight, show how it gave strength and would have had me turning over a slow fire’3. To flavour to his work, and even offer some judge from the letter columns of Australian Science speculations as to why readers and writers alike Fiction Review, First Series, the magazine in which all welcomed the Turner approach. George’s early articles appeared, this is simply not true. Or perhaps John Bangsund, the editor of ASFR, withheld from publication some letters that George Turner put himself on the SF map with his he showed privately to George Turner. 1 first article. In that article, ‘The Double Standard’ , Note Turner’s language in describing the reaction

6 he remembers having caused: ‘cheers... catcalls... Turner recognised that many people involved in fanfares... furies... staunch supporters’. Such words SF would appreciate a higher standard of discussion coalesce into an image I have always had of George throughout the SF world, and by God, he is going to Turner: a cocky little carnival boxer, ready to take on show them how to do it. He had no doubt that he any opponent. Come on, fight me! fight me! is the knew the right way to write reviews and criticism, message he gives. In an article published in 1970, we and it was simply a matter of finding the most even find this interesting paragraph: succinct way of passing on this wisdom: Sf has too many pretensions, and has reached Write down what you think — and then try to the stage when even the authors are taking justify what you have written. And then write themselves seriously. Harlan Ellison on the down what you really think. The written word subject of his ‘art’ must surely be the joke of the stares back at you, unaffected by your emotional year. There isn’t a real artist in the business, and involvement; your only recourse is to erase it and only a handful of good technicians... Anybody begin again... by all means write about science want a fight?4 fiction. In the dear dead days of Amazing and Gernsback, fans changed SF by writing about its The truth is that ASFR readers liked George 7 Turner’s articles immediately, and he was so weaknesses and possibilities. encouraged that he quickly wrote three or four more. Note that the ‘dear dead days of Amazing and The longest of them, ‘On Writing About Science Gernsback’ were in the late 1920s, when George was Fiction’5, put George Turner on the world SF map. at school. Recently The New York Review of Science To some extent, this happened because the world Fiction published a letter George wrote to Amazing SF map was much smaller then than it is now. There Stories in 1932 when he was fifteen. In that letter he was only one academic journal in the world, the said: fledgling Extrapolation, and there was no Foundation, I expect to be crushed under with criticism... Science-Fiction Studies or any equivalent journal. Apart Somebody will pick holes in my ideas. I must from the reviews that appeared in the professional apologize if they are too scientifically incorrect, fiction magazines, such as Analog and Galaxy, the but at the age of 15 one does have an opinion only reviews or critical articles appeared in the on how rotten some stories are, and I think I can serious fanzines, which were read by, at most, two or do better than some of these...8 three hundred people throughout the world. In 1966 George’s style was formed so remarkably early in Australian Science Fiction Review had exploded in the his life that one can only guess at its origins. Judith middle of this small map, mainly because of the Buckrich’s George Turner: A Life shows that critical and reviewing skills of John Foyster and Lee throughout George’s life his mother’s voice remained Harding and the sparkling, urbane humour of John in his head, a voice that demanded constant rebuttal, Bangsund. ‘The Double Standard’ had appeared in even long after she had died.9 That probably No. 10, ASFR’s First Anniversary double issue. Soon accounts for the tone of trigger-happy anger that we George was regarded as the prophet of Australian find in his novels, but hardly accounts for his SF criticism, unfortunately tending to overshadow teacher’s voice. My guess, based on In the Heart or in other contenders, especially John Foyster. During the the Head, Turner’s own literary memoir, is that the late sixties and early seventies, overseas readers must teacher’s voice echoes that of Dr A. E. Floyd, who have had a very odd image of Australia as a land was his teacher at the St Paul’s Cathedral Choir overflowing with kangaroos and SF critics. School.10 In ‘On Writing About Science Fiction’, which If George was setting to rights the editor of appeared at the end of 1968, just as the first series of Amazing Stories in 1932, he was setting to rights the ASFR was finishing, George Turner aimed to set to whole field in 1968. In ‘On Writing About Science rights the whole world of science fiction reviewing Fiction’, he divides the whole field of non-fiction and criticism. Note, as always, the combative voice: writing into three categories: the review, the review The tone of many letters in fanzines suggests article, and criticism. He sets down the seven that fans resent criticism — that they prefer their ingredients of the good review: likes and dislikes inviolate and regard A. The prime purpose of a review is to present a disagreement as an intrusion on their right to 6 description of the work under notice... B. A undisturbed enjoyment. review should be based on what the book

7 attempts and how it succeeds or fails... C. He made some of his most interesting admissions in Whether you personally like or dislike the work is an autobiographical article he wrote in the early not of prime importance... D. Nevertheless, your 1980s for Foundation.15 personal reaction will appear, though it must not There he writes about the furor he set off in his be used to set the tone of the article, which article ‘The Double Standard’. In few other articles should be judicial and balanced... E. Be careful does he so clearly state what he was trying to do with quotation... F. Don’t go nit picking... G. when he began writing for ASFR: Don’t attempt criticism in the space of a With malice aforethought I chose a target and let review...11 fly with a standard-bearer of an article which damned me for ever as a poisoner of wells. I And they are just the rules for the ordinary book took Bester’s The Demolished Man to pieces, not to review, which he describes as ‘small and denigrate Bester, for TDM remains one of the inconsequential, but still useful’12. most accomplished thrillers yet produced in SF, Turner’s second category, the ‘theme article’, is but to light a fire under the starry-eyed who were what most people would call the ‘critical essay’. striving to make a major artwork of it by praising it for virtues it simply does not possess... Criticism, however, according to George Turner, is a You don’t light fires with impunity but the mighty activity, rather beyond the powers of most vehemence of the fan reaction, for and against, people who call themselves SF critics: shook me to the point where I wondered if I The critic is the anatomist and microscopist of had stirred up more than I could readily handle. I literature. He [it is always a ‘he’ in George hadn’t learned that fandom operates only at the Turner’s essays] searches and prods down to the top of its voice... last word of text, the final idiosyncrasy of idiom, I felt — and still feel — that SF had a and even spelling, to wrest out the secrets of foolishly false image of itself, a pose of meaning and construction... It is not likely that self-importance which would flicker out at the high-powered criticism could be of much value snap of a reality switch. Damon Knight and to SF. The genre has not yet produced more than James Blish had tried, with little result, to take half a dozen works worth so much expenditure the mickey out of pretension by establishing of effort. Even Wells, in toto, is not considered standards of technical criticism but it had been left of much critical importance.13 to Kingsley Amis’s New Maps of Hell to seek a That is still not quite Turner’s knockout punch, grip on themes, philosophies and trends. although the claim must have come as something of Whether or not one agreed with his conclusions, a shock to readers in 1968. Turner goes on to he had opened a fine can of worms — and the dismiss the work of the well-known SF critics of the great defensive battle was immediately on... 1960s: A few rules of warfare were to be observed: Such articles as Brian Aldiss’ ‘Judgment at Only firmly established targets should be Jonbar’ (SF Horizons, Spring 1964) may in some assailed... The aim must not be mere destruction quarters be classified as criticism... To the but to point out where undue praise had been uncritical it may appear profound and scholarly, given or proper praise withheld; the ultimate but it is fact a pretty slick theme article, target must be critical standards rather than entertainingly written but superficial in individuals. (If the occasional individual must approach... Knight and Blish have published bleed, let it be one whose blood was little loss to collections of their reviews and essays, but in the genre.)... neither case have I found it possible to extract a It all amounted to an attack on the critical philosophy.14 deficiencies of a genre lulled into self-admiration So much for Aldiss, Knight and Blish! Everybody by writers who whined about ghettoisation while knocked out at one blow. What more can there be to themselves providing the reasons for its say? continuance — the sanctification of the second rate.16 Note Turner’s interesting use of language: ‘great II defensive battle’, ‘rules of warfare’, ‘targets’ that ‘should be assailed’; occasional individuals who How, then, did George Turner see himself as a critic? ‘bleed’, and again that word ‘attack’. SF criticism is a

8 battle; George Turner is the soldier fighting the good [A] conception too familiar in popular literature, fight. and blatant in science fiction, is of the soldier as I won’t talk too much about George Turner’s either a do-or-die hero of the ‘somehow he fiction, covered at other times during this found the added strength’ school or a convention by Judy Buckrich and Janeen Webb. brainwashed robot programmed for slaughter on However, I point out only that two of his novels, A the command, ‘Kill!’ It was worth writing Young Man of Talent and Yesterday’s Men, are directly Yesterday’s Men... as an attempt, however minor, to based on George’s experiences during World War II present him as he is — the boy next door doing during the New Guinea campaign, and another, his best to stay human under conditions the Genetic Soldier, has, as the name implies, a soldier as rational mind rejects. It is worth remembering the main character. At least four other novels have that war and soldiers are the creation of the police officers as central characters. Obviously people who recoil from both. So what is George Turner found it very congenial to write aggression really about? It was worth a novel. about such characters: armed and authoritarian, but Such novels are, I suppose, part of my concerned for the benevolent regulation of society critical protest against science fiction’s too long rather than armed attack on exterior forces. unchallenged view of itself and its conventions Although his army service during World War II — to borrow a phrase, a continuation of was a central experience in George Turner’s life, he criticism by other means.20 makes little direct reference to it in interviews and That last phrase is revealing, echoing Clausewitz’s his non-fiction writing. In the Foundation essay from famous claim that ‘war is... a continuation of policy which I’ve been quoting, he dismisses World War II carried out by other means’. Therefore, to make the in one short paragraph: association that seems to have occurred to George [They were] a messy, noisy, occasionally terrifying Turner, criticism is war by other means, and hence but mostly dull six years. Sufficient to the evil the critic is a soldier defending the first rate in thereof that I was an infantryman, which is to literature. But, as Turner’s has already said, the say, a beast of burden... we even carried working soldier is not primarily a figure of 25-pounders, in suitably stripped-down portions, aggression but instead ‘the boy next door’ who ‘does up and over and down the winding, glutinous, his best to stay human under conditions the rational near-vertical Big Dipper purgatories called mind rejects’. ‘native tracks’. We lived, one day at a time.17 Judith Buckrich’s biography of Turner, launched III at this convention, expands on this view somewhat. She speaks of his extraordinary isolation from the George Turner, then, had a view of soldiering that, other men of the 2/5 Battalion, but also of his he believed, was very different from that usually growing confidence in his own ability to control his depicted in science fiction. From time to time his own life and give leadership. By the time he reached view of soldiers and warfare led him into some New Guinea, he had become a sergeant. Despite the ferocious arguments in print. rain and the mud and the fighting, New Guinea as a In 1973 George published what was otherwise a place gave him great pleasure. He finished the war fair review of New Dimensions I, the first of the back in Australia while being trained for further original fiction anthology series that Robert leadership responsibilities.18 Silverberg edited for some years.21 Discussion of What emerges from Buckrich’s account and from most of the stories was overshadowed, however, by Turner’s own In the Heart or in the Head is the story of Turner’s ferocious reaction to an early Gardner the conduct of a very defensive war, not a series of Dozois story, ‘A Special Kind of Morning’. In offensives. As the troops trudged up and over the George’s view, Gardner Dozois had written about a Kokoda Trail, retaking New Guinea from the soldier’s experience without having any such Japanese, the main danger came from enemy snipers experience of his own. Worse, what was obviously who had been left behind. George’s own best friend an anti-war story had, in George’s eyes, become an in the Army was killed by an Australian sentry who anti-soldier story: mistook him in the dark for a Japanese soldier.19 Dozois hasn’t smelt much blood, or he would In his Foundation article, Turner tells of the origins know that except in most unusual concentrations of his novel Yesterday’s Men: the smell isn’t very noticeable; in the open it is scarcely noticeable at all; indoors it is liable to

9 masking by any other moderate smell. Only his own expertise in war is somewhat limited... I when it begins to decay does the smell of blood cannot be certain during which war he gained his become overpowering — overpoweringly rotten. experience, be it Crimean or Boer or the War of I know. I’ve been there — in a war, in an Jenkin’s Ear; yet surely it was not so different abattoir, in hospitals.22 from mine. Surely it involves a number of men Woe betide any writer who, according to George, all of whom held varying opinions as to what writes of something without, again according to happened and why and how it felt to be there... George’s experience, having been there. That Mr Turner attempts to invalidate my A much more ferocious example of the same perceptions by doing nothing more than banging response occurred at the November 1988/January the gavel of his Experience smacks of a 1989 edition of Australian Science Fiction Review, curmudgeonly refusal to admit that there may be Second Series. John Foyster, who had revived ASFR other truths, yea, even other realities apart from in 1986, wrote a major article, ‘War and Science those with which he is familiar. Those portions Fiction: Two Counter-examples’, that focused on of Life During Wartime that aspire to Lucius Shepard’s SF novel Life During Wartime and verisimilitude have been well received by a good Brian Aldiss’s semi-autobiographical novel Forgotten many authors who participated in the Vietnam Life. During this article Foyster praises Life During conflict, and by other veterans as well, and I have Wartime as one of the best SF novels for many complete faith that I have managed to years.23 communicate to a relatively large number of ASFR, Second Series, No. 19, June 1989, featured people what war is like from my viewpoint.26 a letter of comment by George Turner that was long Here we find the sort of comments that over the enough to be presented as an article. Yvonne years many authors must have felt like writing to Rousseau, another member of the ASFR Collective, George Turner the critic, but few did. Yet in pointing had recommended Shepard’s Life During Wartime to to the nub of the problem, George’s self-perception Turner at about the time that Foyster’s article as a former soldier, Lucius Shepard unwittingly appeared. Turner took great exception to both the penetrated to the central problem in the work of novel and Foyster’s praise for it: George Turner the combative critic. I could not see that Shepard was writing about Take two definitions of science fiction that war at all, sensitively or otherwise; he was George Turner wrote. In the first he defines science writing, it seemed to me, about the human ego fiction as ‘the fiction of altered conditions treated as naked, stripped down to its basic murderous reality rather than fantasy, by extension of known selfishness. What knowledge he showed of war fact instead of simple postulation of arbitrary and soldiers would leave a wide margin if written change’27. on the back of a postage stamp.24 In the second definition, written for Overland’s Turner related various mistakes he believed non-SF audience, George writes: Shepard had made. These ‘mistakes’ were based on My stand is that science fiction is not basically a George’s own experience during World War II. Even product of fantasy but is opposed to the purely at the time, I felt that George was leaving himself imaginative method of fantasy. I see it as a open to a wounding counter-attack when making logically derived presentation of activities and their statements such as this: consequences taking place under conditions which, while The fact is that in any group of soldiers you will scientifically admissible, present life and the universe not find as many varieties of speech as you would as we know them but as under changed circumstances they expect in an army where rich, poor, educated and could be. ignorant exist together in a ten-man section. And ‘Scientifically admissible’ are the words which their four-letter usage is no greater than that of eliminate fantasy, the sword and sorcery epic... the average man in the street... Having worked together with the cheaper and sillier forms of and fraternized with American infantry, I find space opera and bizarre adventure romance. My the model hard to take.25 definition leaves us with those novels and stories You can probably guess for yourself the major in which genuine thinking about physical, thrust of the reply that ASFR received from Lucius sociological and psychological issues is the Shepard. It was published in No. 21, Spring 1989: backbone of the work. One needn’t demand I am left with the impression that Mr Turner has polymathic genius in the author, only a an unwarranted degree of self esteem and that commitment to logical extrapolation and

10 common sense.28 for your objections?’ But it’s doubtful that he would Until I recently read most of George Turner’s have conceded the point. criticism and reviews, I had always had the impression that George had written so much over IV such a long period of time that he had never quite pinned down what he was arguing for. But those George Turner became a combative critic not merely paragraphs are as clear a statement of George’s from an itch to annoy what was then a very beliefs as you will find anywhere. complacent and ignorant backwater of literature, but George opposed the writing and reading of also to defend his own idea of reality. He believed, as fantasy. In opposing this genre, he often used the I cannot, that science fiction is fundamentally a word ‘arbitrary’. He believed that writers were not realistic literature about the future, in the same way free to make things up as they went along, though as historical fiction is a realistic literature about the many fantasy writers say that this is precisely the past. The method of writing the two genres is freedom they seek in writing their books. To Turner, basically the same: extrapolation from the present. In the SF novelist should be a student of human life novels such as The Sea and Summer, Turner followed and history and the many branches of science, and his own principles very successfully. But he would should think logically about them, extrapolating not concede that his principles might fail to cover those findings into the future. Not only should the the many varieties of worthwhile SF. writer be devoted to ‘logical extrapolation’ but also I’ve spent over thirty years wrestling with the to ‘common sense’. George Turner viewpoint on science fiction. One of At this point the reader of Turner’s criticism his methods of making you examine your becomes wary. My parents always said they judged assumptions was to pick on your favourite author. the worth of anything by ‘common sense’, which is Little wonder that ‘One whom I told was going to why they regarded science fiction as nothing but a review [Roger Zelazny’s Lord of Light] murmured, lot of nonsense. Politicians talk a lot about ‘common “Be kind to it”, as though the poor thing had been sense’ when relieving you of your money and delivered over to the tigers.’31 In ASFR, First Series, making laws to inconvenience you. What does John Foyster wrote extensively and favourably about George Turner mean by common sense? And what Cordwainer Smith, J. G. Ballard and Samuel Delany, does logic have to do with human behaviour? so at various times Turner tore into Smith and In most Turner essays attacking well-known SF Ballard. He poured scorn on everything of Delany’s books or authors, the essence of the argument is that he reviewed. I began publishing fanzines partly based on what he considers to be reality. In the case because of my fanatical interest in the works of of The Demolished Man, Turner shows how he Philip K. Dick, so George wasted no opportunity to believes a telepathic society would work, then shows show the faults in the works of Philip K. Dick. to his and presumably to our satisfaction why Indeed, his essay about Flow My Tears, the Policeman Bester’s could never work. In a much later essay Said is a brilliant exposure of Dick’s stylistic about Frederik Pohl’s books and stories, he weaknesses32. But to Turner Dick’s work failed not demolishes works such as Gateway, The Day of the because of its line-by-line weaknesses but mainly Pussyfoot and ‘The Midas Plague’ by comparing the because Philip Dick did not have the same view of way Pohl’s extrapolated societies are said to work reality that George had. Worse, Dick questioned the with the way George Turner believes they would whole idea of reality itself. For many of us, it is actually work.29 Dick’s scepticism about the foundations of existence When I first met Lee Harding, he said something that makes his work endlessly fascinating. about George Turner that sums up his whole Why then did many of us welcome George viewpoint. Lee said: ‘You notice George never says Turner as a prophet of SF criticism in the late sixties “I think” before making a statement. He just tells and early seventies? you the way it is.’30 Turner never used the phrase ‘I First, because he did have a firm viewpoint, which believe’ before making a statement of belief. If we he stuck to. Other critics of the time, even the return to Turner’s argument with Lucius Shepard, much-valued Foyster, Blish and Knight, seemed like one can foresee Shepard’s reply even while reading snipers compared to Turner’s armoured division. I George’s letter. ‘But George,’ one wants to have said was more aware of their brilliant articles about to him, ‘what if the Vietnam War was totally particulars than their particular viewpoints about different from World War II? Wouldn’t that account generalities.

11 Second, even from his conservative viewpoint, 10. George Turner, In the Heart or in the Head: An Essay in Turner tore into such a wide range of long-revered Time Travel, 1984, Melbourne: Norstrilia Press, pp. 46-50. authors and tore down so many long-held beliefs 11. George Turner, ‘On Writing About Science Fiction’, within the SF community that he could not help op. cit., pp. 6-9. being allied with people who had more radical 12. Ibid., p. 3. viewpoints than his. For instance, he would berate 13. Ibid., pp. 14-15. 14. Ibid., p. 16. what he called ‘New Wavery’, then praise as the only 15. Turner, ‘The Profession of Science Fiction 27’, op. interesting writers of the period some of the people cit. who were most associated with the New Wave, such 16. Ibid., pp. 54-5. as Aldiss, Disch and Le Guin. 17. Ibid., p. 50. Turner’s method of criticism was entirely 18. Buckrich, George Turner: A Life, op. cit., pp. 54-65. different from mine. Believing that content was style, 19. Turner, In the Heart or in the Head, op. cit., p. 86. and style was content, I wrote mainly about the ways 20. Turner, ‘The Profession of Science Fiction 27’, op. in which various authors actually pasted those words cit., p. 58. onto the page. I was interested in how well each 21. George Turner, ‘Letters to the Editor’, SF author wrote each sentence and paragraph, rather Commentary, No. 39, November 1973, pp. 10-18. than any correspondence between their reality and 22. Ibid., p. 12. mine. The odd thing is that no matter how 23. John Foyster, ‘War and Science Fiction: Two Counter-examples’, Australian Science Fiction Review, Second differently we worked, often Turner and I came to Series, No. 17/18, November 1988/January 1989, pp. the same conclusions about the same books. If 27-30. George Turner was the good soldier of SF criticism, 24. George Turner, ‘Sci-Fi and Psi-Fi: How Point of I and people like me tried to be the aesthetes of the View Influences Reviewing’, Australian Science Fiction field. Despite the differences between our Review, Second Series, No. 20, June 1989, pp. 15-17. viewpoints, we cheered as he blew up the barriers of 25. Ibid., p. 15. complacency, bombed the outposts of rotten 26. Lucius Shepard, letter in Australian Science Fiction writing, and declared war on the second-rate. That Review, Second Series, No. 21, Spring 1989, p. 27. George Turner undertook this enterprise as a 27. Turner, ‘The Profession of Science Fiction 27’, op. by-product of well-hidden motives and inner cit., p. 56. compulsions, explored in Judith Buckrich’s George 28. George Turner, ‘Some Unreceived Wisdom’, Overland, Turner: A Life, hardly concerned us. We miss George No. 87, May 1983, p. 16. 29. George Turner, ‘Frederik Pohl as a Creator of Future Turner the good soldier critic; the field of SF Societies’, in Michael J. Tolley and Kirpal Singh (eds), The criticism seems very bland without him. Stellar Gauge: Essays on Science Fiction Writers, Melbourne: Norstrilia Press, 1980, pp. 109-34. Notes 30. Lee Harding to author, 1968. 31. George Turner, review of Lord of Light, Australian 1. Australian Science Fiction Review, First Series, No. 10, Science Fiction Review, First Series, No. 18, December 1968, June 1967, pp. 10-17. p. 34. 2. Ibid., pp. 16-17. 32. George Turner, ‘Philip K. Dick in 1975: Flow My 3. George Turner, ‘The Profession of Science Fiction Tears, The Policeman Said’, in Bruce Gillespie (ed.), Philip K. 27: Not Taking It All Too Seriously’, Foundation, No. 24, Dick: Electric Shepherd, Melbourne: Norstrilia Press, 1975, February 1982, p. 53. pp. 94-100. 4. George Turner, ‘Golden Age — Paper Age: Where Most of the above references will also be found in Bruce Did All the Classics Go?’, SF Commentary, No. 11, May Gillespie (ed.), The Unrelenting Gaze: The Best Non-Fiction of 1970, p. 15. George Turner, Thirtieth Anniversary Edition of SF 5. George Turner, ‘On Writing About Science Fiction’, Commentary, December 1999. Australian Science Fiction Review, First Series, No. 18, December 1968, pp. 3-17. Copyright 1999, Bruce Gillespie. 6. Ibid., p. 3. 7. Ibid., p. 4. 8. George Turner, letter, Amazing Stories, July 1932, pp. 381-3, quoted in New York Review of Science Fiction, Vol. 10, No. 4, December 1997, p. 19. 9. Judith Raphael Buckrich, George Turner: A Life, 1999, Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, pp. 68-9.

12 A Dream of Flight Bruce Townley

It is an appealing picture. In it a twin prop monoplane many years I had the idea in the back of my head that soars across a pastel-hued sky whose only other in- a full sized version of the thing had truly flown. Ignor- habitant is a gentle cumulus cloud. This graceful craft ing, of course, the multi-decades long gap between has a high wing as well as a tricycle-style landing gear, this supposed flight and the doings of the Wright at first glance all seemingly up to date and contempo- brothers at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. Typically, a rary. Below, depending on where the image was to be print of the Aerial Steam Carriage is presented in air- distributed, one can see the towers of London, the craft history books with very little explanatory text. geometric perfection of an Egyptian pyramid or a ge- Since the image has the look and feel of craft that ac- neric Chinese or Indian scene. A jaunty Union Jack tually flew (and in some ways resembles planes from a flaps from a pole on top of the craft onto which wing century later) this, admittedly misguided, impression bracing wires are also attached. isn’t as strange as it might at first sound. The Ariel looks like a flying machine, not a sketchily mechanized If one looks a little closer some odd things start to nag bird-like wing-flapping thing which is what most de- the eye. Why are there twin murky streams of what signs of the period tended toward. could be coal smoke trailing from the craft? Where are the control surfaces on the thing? Why are the people The Aerial Transit Company was incorporated in Eng- on the ground staring up at this aerial apparition land, in 1843. This was to gather funds to finance the dressed in such an old fashioned way? Why does the construction of the Ariel. Not only were the partners passenger compartment look like, well, a carriage – lacking an airplane at the time but airports and support something that should be behind a horse? staff too. To ballyhoo this project a number of prints were run off with the Ariel flying over the various ex- This vision appears in an advertisement for the Hen- otic locales that it was proposed that the craft would son Aerial Steam Carriage (also known as, rather ele- transport goods, passengers and mail to. These prints gantly, “Ariel”). The craft was patented in 1842. For were commissioned by the Company’s publicist, Fre-

13 derick Marriott. Support was also sought in Parlia- gasoline engine that ran the original Wright Flyer in ment. Engineer and inventor William Henson’s plans 1903 was rated at about a dozen horsepower. Of for the Ariel were certainly impressive and all- course, that plane was an experimental model and only encompassing enough. He described it as a: “Locomo- carried the pilot so such a small power plant was well tive Apparatus for Air, Land, and Water”. Henson ap- suited to the task that the Wright brothers had set for parently acquired the moniker “Mad-man” for his pro it. and proto-aviation exploits. Toolmaker John Stringfel- low, who had been working in a lace mill, making bob- Henson and Stringfellow never got off the ground in bins and such, was taken on to construct the full scale any real sense. In time Henson grew discouraged and Ariel as well as various smaller working models. moved on to other things. In 1847 he patented a mod- ern “T” shaped form of safety razor. In 1849 Henson Before Henson set up the Aerial Transit Company and his wife, Sarah, moved to the United States. He plans for controlled flight with heavier-than-air vehi- was never again to be involved with aeronautics. cles had been percolating away. Sir George Cayley, a man whose work Henson was familiar with, designed In 1844 Edgar Allan Poe caused to have published a and built a model of a rather modern looking glider in prank newspaper article (now known as “The Balloon- 1804. It was getting to be airplane time. Hoax”). Presented as the factual recounting of an ac- tual trans-Atlantic proto-dirigible voyage, there’s a pas- In April of 1841 Henson patented an improved light- senger on the imaginary spoof craft named “Henson”. weight steam engine. The Ariel was also intended to be Possibly, this is the only time that Henson took flight. steam-driven and have a wing-span of 150 feet. For comparison the Boeing 747-100 jumbo jet has a wing- Stringfellow persisted with his experiments even after span of 195 feet. The Ariel was also supposed to the dissolution of the Aerial Transit Company. In 1848 weigh 3000 lbs and it was hoped that the craft would he constructed a model with a ten foot wing span have a top speed of 50 mph, with a range of some which, including the spirit-burning engine, weighed 1000 miles. Henson liked to think big, obviously. The only eight pounds. The wings were curved in such a craft was projected to carry 10 or 12 passengers. In way to increase lift, just like with a modern airfoil. comparison, one of the first airliners in the US, the 4- Stringfellow got the use of an unoccupied long room AT Ford Trimotor, carried only some 8 passengers in in a nearby lace factory. After a few faltering attempts 1929. he got up a good head of steam in the minute engine and the thing flew for about 40 yards, only being Attempts were made between to fly a small scale stopped by a canvas wall. Feeling he had proved his model, equipped with a toy-like steam engine that point about getting a steam powered craft to fly he too Henson had constructed. Apparently at one point the seemed to lose interest in aviation. “… finding nothing device made a hop that left it briefly airborne and free but a pecuniary loss and little honour, this experi- of the guide wire it had been tethered to for the tests. menter rested for a long time, satisfied with what he A larger model, one with a 20 foot wingspan, had had effected” is how Stringfellow’s son described it. more disappointing test results. In the 1930s, in Emeryville, California, the Doble The main problem with the Ariel was that it was un- brothers, Warren and Abner, set up a research derpowered even though Stringfellow described the workshop/factory to work on advanced, light-weight engine as the “best part”. The rest of it he termed steam-powered engines for trucks, automobiles, rail- “too delicate, too fragile, too beautiful for this rough cars, stationary engines and, yes, even airplanes. While world”. The silk covering on the models had a ten- they enjoyed some success experimentally they were dency to drink up dew and then droop at an alarming never able to go into regular marketable production rate. The engine that was supposed to go into the pro- with any of these devices. totype only had an output of 50 horsepower. The 14 After a while another set of brothers, William J. and army in the sub-continent). Possibly such an early ad- George Besler, took over the Emeryville facility from vantage in aeronautics might have hastened the first the Dobles. On April 20 of 1933 a Travel Air biplane World War. On a more positive note, it might have also flown by William took off and successfully flew from prevented both of them all together. the San Francisco Bay Airdrome. Its engine was a steam-driven one devised by the Beslers. It was a suc- Well, that’s for the science fiction writers to sort out. cessful flight and took place in front of members of the US National Aeronautic Association. The vision of almost a century before was now accomplished.

Henson and Stringfellow dreamed of an empire of the air smack dab in the middle of Britain’s own Imperial Century. It’s interesting to cogitate upon what might have happened if they had been able to make a go of the Aerial Transit Company. Perhaps a working airline and cargo transport service at such an early date would have been able to prop up the then faltering East India Company (which, in the 1700s, had its own private

15 HERESY, MAYBE? An article for Sense of Wonder Stories Peter Weston

I’ve recently been following an erratic trail through This is where the heresy comes in. Could we be right various bits of criticism – what you might call a 'criti- and – unthinkably! – James Blish be wrong? When he cal path' – in which I ended up with some new insights was alive I wouldn't have dared to disagree with Blish about a book that I had once valued very highly in- (in fact, I can think of few people anywhere in the SF deed. It all started when I picked-up on one of Earl field who ever dared to disagree with Blish!) but now Kemp’s throwaway comments about 'falling out with I'm beginning to wonder; was he taken in by some- Heinlein', after which he directed me to Alexei Pan- thing which might have seemed very complex and shin's fascinating web-site. Once there, I read his ac- multi-layered, but actually wasn't? Could James Blish, count of how he wrote HEINLEIN IN DIMEN- the formidable literary critic, have been taken for a SION, followed the links to Earl's own piece, then to ride? 'Crazy Monkeys' and other essays. If you're the slight- est bit interested in Heinlein this is required reading – Several people answered my question. Malcolm Ed- what a terrible man he seems to have been! But along wards said that he had re-read ROGUE MOON in the way Panshin mentioned that Heinlein had been 1998 as part of his homework for the ‘SF Master- upset by James Blish's essay 'First Person Singular,' works’ series. “It was never a particular favourite of which was reprinted as a chapter in MORE ISSUES mine,” said Malcolm, “but enough people recom- AT HAND. So I dug that one out for another look; mended it that I thought it was worth another look. and I'd forgotten how completely Blish trashed THE What I found was a genuinely interesting idea marred DOOR INTO SUMMER (one of his pithy comments by cartoon characterization. I think Blish says some- is that "an exaggerated regard for animals is a common thing about the characters representing different psy- trait in people who are unusually callous towards hu- chological types, but the trouble is that they are all man beings"). Then, after reading that, I couldn't help caricatures. The Strugatskys take the same basic no- but notice that the very next chapter was about tion in ROADSIDE PICNIC and come up with a far ROGUE MOON. better book.”

Now, Blish originally wrote this in 1961 at which time But the real insight came from Ted White, who said, he was clearly deeply taken by Budrys' novel. He “When ROGUE MOON came out everyone show- makes the familiar point that all the characters in the ered it with accolades. It seemed to excite some of book are mad, then goes on to call it a 'masterpiece', those with the most academic or literary approach to and 'not only a bequest but a monument'. He says that SF, which included Blish. Budrys once said – and I 'a full-scale analysis of ROGUE MOON might turn later so quoted him, to his extreme annoyance – that in out to be nearly as extended as Stuart Gilbert's study ROGUE MOON he tried to substitute emotional of ULYSSES, so I am not going to attempt it here.' clashes for physical (action) clashes at each point in the And he praises what he calls a 'marvellously complex' plot which called for some sort of conflict or clash. piece of yarn-spinning. To me this translated into scenes in which people were emotionally going off at each other for little or no rea- Well, when I first read this when MIAH appeared in son, but for Blish I think this passed for something far 1971 I’m sure I agreed with every word – ROGUE more profound. I saw it as a failed experiment from MOON was right up there among my all-time favour- the most interesting writer in SF (at that time).” ites, where it has remained until very recently. But on a more recent re-reading just a few months back I was Suddenly, thanks to Ted, a penny dropped in my head, very disappointed. And someone else – I think it was some thirty-five years after the event, and I remem- Greg Pickersgill – had the same experience, saying that bered something that good old Fred Pohl had said in he wondered why the characters made so much fuss his speech at the 1972 Chester convention (transcribed about everything. in Speculation 31 as ‘The most controversial speech at

16 Chessmancon’):- Taking this a bit further, the style of ROGUE MOON is actually quite consistent with Budrys’ entire oeuvre “I had occasion to chide A. J. Budrys once, when he as a novelist; aren't all of his books mostly concerned turned in a smart, what he considered to be a with emotional and intellectual clashes, with physical marvellous half of a novel, in which nothing hap- action generally taking place offstage? Certainly WHO pened for two hundred pages except that people talked falls into that class, as does FALLING TORCH and to each other. I said, “A.J., I don't mind your having SOME WILL NOT DIE, culminating in the entirely people settle all the great problems of humanity in antiseptic MICHAELMAS. your stories, but can't they do it while they're dodging fire-lizards on Venus?” At the time the last title came out Budrys was writing a regular column about writing for Locus, in which he Now, I realise that Fred must have been talking about stressed the need for such things as action, description, ROGUE MOON. Since at the time he was editor of and on-stage events, and I thought it was rather odd Galaxy, does that mean the novel was originally sub- that he should have simultaneously produced MICH- mitted to Fred, who rejected it, after which it went on AELMAS, which conspicuously lacked all OF those to appear in F&SF? (Although strangely, keeping ingredients. Now, I wonder if this wasn’t a different Pohl’s title – which Budrys always claimed to dislike – sort of joke, one that Budrys was playing on himself in preference to his original ‘The Killing Machine’). and on his readers, to show it was possible to break all Here’s another interesting point; on returning from his the rules he'd laid down for everyone else. self-imposed exile (to the men’s magazines) in 1965, And final point; if I’m correct, THE IRON THORN the first novel Budrys wrote (for Fred) was THE is a deliberate maverick among Budrys’ novels. Be- IRON THORN, where in the opening pages the lead cause of Fred Pohl’s strictures it is strong on action character ponders on the great issues of humanity and rich in descriptive language, beginning with those while dodging Amsirs on Mars. Was this a sort of wonderful first lines: ‘The floor of the world was rip- clever joke on Pohl, with A.J. deliberately pulling Fred’s pled like the bottom of an ocean. The setting Sun leg by giving him almost exactly what he had previ- inked each ripple with violet shadow. Striped and dap- ously asked for? pled, the low dunes lay piled one beyond the other like stiff people in blankets filling the world to its So I’m back with my original heretical question; did edges…’). Perhaps not surprisingly, I think the (under- James Blish, (but not, apparently, Ted White or Fred rated) THE IRON THORN was Budry’s best. Pohl) get it wrong about ROGUE MOON? Although he was far from being alone in his praise – let’s not forget that the novel very nearly won a Hugo for 1959, being beaten only by STARSHIP TROOPERS. Maybe Blish started off on the right lines when he ob- served that all the characters in the book were 'psy- chotics', but perhaps he should have taken a more ro- bust attitude and asked why Budrys would have as- sembled such a dysfunctional cast. Did the author ac- tually intend them to be madmen? Or rather, in his stated intent of depicting extreme emotional conflicts rather than physical action, did he over-egg the pud- ding to the point where they came across as being crazy? So here’s a double heresy; far from being any sort of ‘masterpiece’ does this actually represent a massive failure on the part of Budrys?

The 'complexities' Blish talks about would presumably involve trying to understand the deep forces that were driving the characters – although so far as I can see there weren't any, apart from Barker, clearly a suicidal maniac who could have saved everyone a lot of trou- Revised 26 February 2008 ble by jumping off the nearest bridge! (An early version of this piece originally appeared on the wegenheim e-mail list)

17 J.G.Ballard A journey by inference

Graham Charnock

I opened my big mouth and in an attempt to ingra- tens. Obviously Ballard was not earning much of a tiate myself with Rich offered to write an article living from his writing alone during this period, about J.G. Ballard for his fanzine. Now, you should but progressing from the privilege of his early life know, I have serious misgivings about my ability to he had married into a fairly well to do family. Un- speak on Ballard in any eloquent or academic fortunately Ballard’s wife Mary died young in Spain sense you can mention. from pneumonia in 1964 and urban myth is that Ballard drove her dead body back to England in Scholar me am not, but I'm relying on existential the front seat of his car. Like you would. Some experience here in that I read a lot of early Ballard might deduce from this measure of detached cold- back when it was early, mostly around the time of heartedness, but I think a realistic pragmatism transition when Ted Carnell’s New Worlds moved might be a kinder inference.1 over to being Mike’s franchise. I read all his first novels, some produced during the Carnell era and Let’s take a break and have a some in the Moorcock era. There was not much cup of coffee. And consider difference between them in my view, which leads in an atmosphere of quiet me to the conclusion that Ballard had settled fairly contemplation what that early on a narrative style independent of who was might do to you. Okay, publishing him. I think the interesting thing it to now... breathe out and re- try and pin down where this style originated and lax... and slurp. how it developed, at least in terms of the novels. Which I will attempt to come on to later. (Slurp)

There’s no denying Carnell saw something in Bal- This will perforce be a short lard and gave him his early breaks, but I think article because I am lazy Moorcock was probably more forgiving of any and because I am dealing attempts to be experimental than Carnell, and with subject matter that I with Moorcock Ballard soon eschewed the stan- haven’t actually read for possibly forty years, so I dard short story format, producing a series of am relying not so much on memory of text, of fractured multiple snapshot type stories which plot and characters so much as memory of feeling. owed much to Burroughs and Bryan Gysin’s cut- And because I am not being paid. This will not ups. The writings of Burroughs and Gysin often preclude me ripping off other writers’ various exi- devolved into a kind of unintelligible concrete po- gences on this theme. (In fact I didn’t – GC, Ed.) etry, but Ballard processed this idea of random- ness through a dogged narrative structure; for all There is Colin Greenland’s first book, for instance, his experimentalism during this period he proved which was a work of criticism based on his PhD himself still incapable of not telling a story. thesis entitled The Entropy Exhibition : Michael Moor- cock and the UK 'New Wave'. Influenced by Moor- Such being the climate of the time he also moved cock, Brian Aldiss and J.G. Ballard, the main sub- outside of the New World axis to frequent the jects of his thesis, represents a far more worthy if ‘small’ agitprop magazines such as Ambit and a little dry attempt at scholarship on this subject others. which had circulation figures in the low 18 that I could ever attempt or would care to dupli- Ballard: "I have—I won't say happy—not unpleas- cate. ant memories of the camp. [...] I remember a lot of the casual brutality and beatings-up that went My main idea, in this piece, is to pursue the no- on—but at the same we children were playing a tion that there was a distinctive tradition of pas- hundred and one games all the time!" toral British disaster sf, originating with HG Wells, carried on through John Wyndham and In the early phases of Empire of The Film Spiel- John Lymington, which Ballard tapped into, espe- berg even has Jim wearing a school cap. cially with regard to his so-called ‘disaster’ novels, The Wind From Nowhere, The Drowned World, But of course it may be that anyone even ap- The Drought, and the Crystal World. It also even proximating to a public school upbringing, subsequently caught up Christ Priest in its wake whether home and abroad, must perforce have a with his first novel ‘Fugue for a Darkening Island’. degree of antisocial psychopathic tendencies built into them. My feeling is that any psychological Here are some dates: damage, which might have influenced and in- The Wind From Nowhere (1962) formed his work, must have been inflicted on Bal- The Drowned World (1962) lard after he returned to England, rather than be- The Drought (1964) fore, where the post war society he found himself The Crystal World (1966) suddenly confronting must have seemed far cruel- ler and desolate and psychically pointless than And here are some more: anything he had experienced in Shanghai. What Ballard was born in 1930 else could explain why anyone should choose to in Shanghai to a fairly live, as an adult, in such a dead zone as Shepper- high-flying executive ton other than the simple truth that he was a dis- family. Shanghai at the associated personality from an early age. time was one of the last bastions of British Em- It goes without saying, to my mind, that Ballard is pire Colonialism, and so psychologically suspect and warped, and this is in a sense Ballard was a endorsed by pointing to one of his early New paying guest at one of Worlds short stories, for instance, where the pro- Colonialism’s last dead taganist ‘tortures’ an adulterer by slowly poisoning dog parties and witness him and subjecting him to an equally tortuously to all the decadence such slowed down and drawn out recording of one of a thing must inevitably his own adulterous kisses. Ballard is certainly ca- have involved. pable of ’ imagining‘ extreme and original acts of torture with a thoroughness a professional psy- During the Japanese occupation Ballard and his choanalyst might find disturbing if a patient pre- family, and interestingly his sister, who is seldom sented in such a way. A more prolix critic may mentioned, were separated and interned. It's easy suggest that, while we cannot imagine it happen- for facile commentators to suggest that Ballard ing in Shanghai, this particular story paints a tem- experienced horrors of such extremity under this plate for further ideas of torture in detention right regime that they coloured his later work, and di- up to Guantamo Bay, but I suspect that might be rected its concentration on cruelty and sociopathic over-egging that particular omelette. That story, alienation. But that is as I say, easy, too easy. his like many of Ballard’s early attempts, is more a own testimony seems to imply it was all just a bit one-idea squib influenced more by the formula of laugh really for someone who was after all sim- parameters of Poe rather than anything else. ply a rather privileged schoolboy living as Gra- hame Greene described, ‘under the bright light of So there’s Ballard, a bright and chipper and intelli- immortality’ where nothing can be really threaten- gent little snot-nosed tyke, just as typified in the ing. film Spielberg made of ‘Empire’, with all the con- fidence that comes of being brought up by intelli-

19 gent and comfortably well off parents and cer- much the same, on a bicycle or not, in his head, if tainly parents who had imported their British Pub- not in fact. Between Ballard landing in the UK in lic School values with them enough for them to 1946 and me entering the secondary education ensconce him in a public school when they finally some 11 years later, rationing had disappeared but returned to England. not much of the cultural landscape had changed. There was not even a full generation between us, But we are getting ahead of ourselves. after all.

Most writers I know learn to write at an early age, and always long before they are published. So So: Wells and Shaw. Shaw where did Ballard, the putative writer, get his in- & Wells. Wells had single- fluences from in that environment? Ballard was handedly laid down the born in 1930, when HG Wells and Bernard Shaw template for the typical were still alive and very much current and influen- English disaster novel in tial in the public consciousness, and moreover books like War of the throwing ideas of utopias and dystopias about Worlds, The War in the Air, willy nilly. Although all his formative childhood and even Things to Come. was spent in Singapore, as chronicled in Empire of (Coincidentally at the same the Sun, it is not inconceivable in this foreign out- time he had written post enclave nevertheless dictated to by very Brit- pseudo-pastoral ‘cozy’ ish ideas of education, he was probably exposed middle-class novels like to examples of both Wellsian and Shavian dysto- Kipps and Tono Bungay). pias, along of course with American comix and Wells used the word ‘war’ a pulp magazines. lot and not to no purpose. It reflected a national predictive paranoia about Of course it was down to another Welles, namely the tensions in European politics which would Orson, in 1938 to precipitate H.G.’s ideas of eventually lead to alien invasion into the American Psyche. So it ‘s two decimating wars. not surprising that when the pre and post-war pulps came along, that was a singular idea that Shaw had produced a lengthy predictive series of gripped them and us. And possibly him. plays in Back to Methusala. And even that most redoubtable mainstream explorer of middle and Ballard and his family moved back to England upper class mores and morals, E.M. Forster had from Singapore in 1946, the year that I was born. taken time out to explore the subject with his That doesn’t make us contemporaries but gives us speculative ‘The Machine Stops’. All these dysto- both access to the idea of a post war landscape I pias Ballard would almost certainly have been fa- can probably find connections with. So possibly miliar with. And of course after Wells and Shaw, without talking to him I can only transcribe my domestic ‘mainstream’ contemporary writers like own experiences as a white middle class person John Wyndham (between 1951 and 1960) and brought up in West London, in Alperton and not John Lymington (whose first novels appeared be- having moved far from it for the rest of my life. I tween 1959 and 1962) also tried their hand with subscribed to YoungMarvelman comic and fell these themes rendering them of course in a far under its thrall. The first book I read when I went more harmless adventure based pattern, which to my own middle-class grammar school in my probably owed as much to John Buchan as H.G. own middle-class uniform plus middle-class cap, Wells. was First Men in the Moon, and I went on to ig- nore further offerings of Thomas Hardy, and So where do the big four novels sit in the English went off on my bicycle to scour the second hand pastoral disaster tradition started by Wells and shops of North London for true classical pulp fic- Shaw and descended and transcended through tion in mostly post war pulp editions. My assump- John Lymington and John Wyndham? tion, my inference, is that Ballard must have done 20 The common psychological themes beyond the sentially just soap opera, although it may be very narrative ones, are a sense of being subsumed in a sophisticated, incorporate interesting ideas, and threatening every-changing transmogrified setting. occasionally be well-written. The invaders here are not Martians or any other brand of aliens, but natural processes wearing Well, I’m tired now and have said I think all I want down individuals, leaving them even their morals to say. Although, oh no, I think I’ve said too and ethics solely expedient to the demands of much, I haven’t said enough… survival. The control of an unspoken colonialism in all these novels breaks down, like colonialism did Editor’s Notes on Shanghai, leaving the protagonists helpless and 1. Ballard’s recent autobiography Miracles of Life dazed. They twitch and thoroughly debunks this tale. His wife was, in prowl like tigers in cages, fact, buried in France. But it’s too good a story to and become less than hu- omit entirely. man, metamorphosing into mere cyphers. Discussion Topic (space provide below): J G Ballard The most significant actors Visionary Author or Pretentious Literateur in these novels are profes- sional doctors or psycholo- gists, obviously alter egos of Ballard himself, but ren- dered traumatized and im- potent by events worked upon them by external influences. Now they cannot employ the skills of their training but can only observe, and not diag- nose, andfinally and implicitly only masturbate over the ruins.

The Crystal World took a slightly different tack in that it presented a disaster scenario with no real ‘natural’ or explicable cause. Of course it was the ultimate projection of Ballard’s themes and obses- sions, a crystallization indeed, and thus also possi- bly the most enjoyable. That which is real, changes in strange ways, is transformed and subsumed be- yond all control. Spielberg exactly translates this core feeling in his film of ‘Empire ‘by represent- ing the arena where all the possessions of the in- terned had been assembled and timelessly en- shrined, the possessions indeed of colonizers put finally beyond their reach in a timeless museum, the gifts of empire which could never be re- deemed.

So there you more of less have it. Whether all this makes Ballard a good writer, I don’t know, but it certainly makes him an interesting one, and one worth referring back to in the current age of sf publishing which seems dominated by what is es- 21 Robert Lichtman Your note in “Wonderto- amateur journalism affiliations. Currently I’m Oakland, CA rial” that The Last Mimsy reading W. Paul Cook: The Wandering Life of a Yan- did an injustice to Henry kee Printer by Sean Donnelly and enjoying it greatly. Kuttner’s “Mimsy Were Cook is a little bit like an ayjay version of Redd The Borogoves” explains in concise capsule form Boggs, noted not only for good writing but for why in recent years I’ve pretty much crossed off excellent production values and a wide-ranging so-called SF movies from my ongoing short list of array of topics and formats. But he also knew and what might be worth seeing on a big screen. I was an early publisher of Lovecraft, and thus the don’t know if it was the case with this movie, but connection. in all too many of my last attempts to enjoy a “sci- fi flick” the CGI appears to have gobbled up a It’s telling that Thomas Edison invented not only disproportionate part of the overall budget leaving an electric pen but also the mimeograph, since an- not enough to pay a decent set of screenwriters to other thing he’s not particularly noted for except make a Good Story. in certain precincts was that he was also am ama- teur journalist who published at least a couple of Elsewhere in your column, I agree that Howard journals back in the 19th century. For more on Waldrop is one of our genre’s treasures, and am so this, check out… glad that Bruce Townley at some forgotten time in the past made sufficiently encouraging noises http://www.thefossils.org/horvat/aj/pioneers.htm about Howard Who?, his first short story collection, that I went on-line, found and bought a copy— Like Mark Plummer, as a young SF reader I also and then eventually read it. So a big yes to “The “made no distinction between the adult and juve- Ugly Chicken” and someday I’ll get the collection nile books—I suspect I wasn’t aware of it.” When with “Night of the Cooters.” In the meantime I it comes to Heinlein’s early stuff, there really is no recently got a copy of his novel, Them Bones, and difference except for who he could get to publish it’s working its way up my pile of unread books. it and the absence of sexy stuff (which so far as I can recall didn’t come up at all until Stranger, The descriptions of Martians as “essentially very though I’m far from a Heinlein expert). And like large humans” in Randy Byers’s article led me to a John Purcell, it’s been ages since I read any of flash realization that long, long ago when my tol- Heinlein’s books and I suspect it’ll stay that way. I erance for long expository lumps in SF was much think I read Citizen of the Galaxy, but I’d have to greater, I actually did read Serviss’s Edison’s Con- attempt rereading it to know for sure and I don’t quest of Mars. It might have been around the same have a copy in my rather random and ragtag as- time I managed to stomach Ralph 124C41+. And sortment of RAH paperbacks (for the most part I think I’d better stop there. No, wait, I did— “inherited” from Paul Wiliams when he moved never managed to get into Stapledon at all, al- from Glen Ellen to the San Diego area back in the though I tried many times but always bogged early ‘90s). down early.

Bruce’s article on HPL’s fiction is too far afield for me since, as I imply but don’t directly say in my article I haven’t bothered to take the time to see if I can get into it. Instead, I nip around the fringes and focus on Grandfather’s non-fiction and his 22 John Purcell For what it's worth, ing literary figure, that's for sure. My personal fa- College Station, TX Rich, this loc is the vorite fiction of his was his Dunsanian period, 200th letter of com- which produced probably his best extended fan- ment I have written in tasy work, The Dreamquest of Unknown Kadath. That calendar year 2007. Such a milestone feat, and one I liked. Still, his unearthly horror tales left me you're the recipient. I hope you are suitably im- cold. Which reminds me: how exactly is "Cthulhu" pressed. (Now ask me if I am.) This is, of course, pronounced? I have heard two versions: "Kuh- tempered by the knowledge that roughly half of THOOL-ooh" (which sounds ominous) and these locs were written to Garcia-produced zines, "Kuh-TIH-huh-luh" (which sounds silly). My so that still leaves about a hundred, which is still a guess is the first one is correct, but once and for substantial figure. Now are you impressed? I didn't all I want this resolved in my head. think so... Loved Randy Byers' discourse on pre- With that introductory paragraph out of the way, Gernsbackian stfnal tales. I have begun reacquiring onward to some pithy commentary about SoWS copies of some of these old tales. They are defi- #1. First off, I am glad you're producing it. Echo- nitely fun to read in a historical sense, and they still ing the sentiments of other writers in your loccol, are quite entertaining if you read them while con- I agree that there is a need for a good sercon fan- stantly invoking the sacred name of Coleridge and zine, and your zine should fill that niche easily. In a forget everything you have ever learned about bit I'll get on to the articles, but it is a bit interest- Earth's geology and what space probes have ing to note that there aren't many American fanzi- taught us about Mars, Venus, the Moon, and else- nes that seriously discuss science fiction. I can where in our solar system. I also thought that was think only of Matthew Appleton's Some Fantastic as a nice touch that Randy mentions how Edison was being devoted to this only, while Challenger, Knarley Tuckerized. Now we know who really started that Knews, Peregrine Nations, and a few others here and practice. there may have the occasional article, but mostly book reviews. Reviews are helpful, especially in Which segues neatly into Bill Burns' fascinating light of how many books are being published look into the fannish endeavours of Thomas Edi- every year. There is no way any one person can son. Here is a man who has long been an example keep up with the sheer volume of publications of American ingenuity and persistence. In fact, I anymore. believe Edison still makes that annual listing of "Who's your favorite American of all time?" sur- But back to SoWS #1. The articles you ran in this vey. An incredibly brilliant man not only in terms issue are more of the kind of thing I like to read of scientific smarts, but also in terms of business in zines. Lovecraft has never really appealed to me smarts. Edison must have been the inspiration for as a writer - gotta be in a certain mood or frame of fictional characters like Flash Gordon and Tom mind to read his stories or poems - but I can cer- Swift; you know, the hero of the story who could tainly appreciate his contributions to the literature sit down at the controls of some hitherto un- of supernatural fiction. In fact, I once had the known spacecraft, flying/diving craft, or whatever Dover edition of his lengthy essay, Supernatural Fic- type of machine and figure out how to use it in no tion in Literature (did I get that title right? It's been a time flat, and just in time to save the universe while since I owned a copy of that book), which I while still getting the girl. My hero! Definitely an read, and I find Lovecraft's life so fascinating. American icon. What a study of contrasts! A recluse who loved to travel, he was a man who could discourse for pages with correspondents like Derleth, Smith and others in his circle of friends and colleagues, yet Eric Mayer What a fine cover by write lots of fiction and poetry, too. He was even Somewhere, USA Dan Steffan. This is frequently described as an outgoing kind of per- what a science fiction son, not at all as odd or introverted as many have fanzine is supposed to depicted him. Lovecraft was definitely an interest- look like! Oddly 23 enough, although I have read very little science The discussion of Heinlein in the Locs pretty fiction during the past three decades I still retain much accords with my own views. I cant remem- an affinity for the ideas and trappings, at least ber reading his juveniles, but I know I read Starship those related to the sort I grew up on. I guess Troopers, Man Who Sold The World, Puppet Masters those hundreds of sf books I read ingrained in me and Stranger In A Strange Land, and I don't think I a certain sense of wonder. could re read them now. But I would enter a slight defence in his behalf re the sex he writes. There I was interested in your editorial where you men- can be little doubt that his tastes veered toward tion some recent sf written by what I suppose unfeasibly young ladies, but distasteful though that could be called literary, as opposed to sf, authors. seems to most of us, he was and is by no means One of the reasons I fell out with the genre was on his own. And is the display of this predilection the movement to make sf more acceptable as lit- any worse than, say, Mary Gentle's androgynous erature. It seemed to me that that mostly this in- transvestite hero/heroines? Did you ever read any volved aping fashionable literary styles while of those rip roaring Space Operas by David Fein- abandoning the substance -- the ideas -- that were tuch? Great stories but queerer than the proverbial sf's strength. nine bob note , with some spanking and caning thrown in! Would it be inappropriate of me to I've never been sure why novels about ideas suggest that we, as readers, have to take the rough should be considered necessarily inferior to ones with the smooth? that focus on character. You mention, for exam- ple, that sf writers aren't usually good at conveying emotional depth and while I don't know if that is Jim Linwood Many thanks for the copy of true or not, even if it is, surely rationality is as London, UK SoWs #1 which seemed to human a characteristic as emotion? Really, it have arrived at the exact comes down to what the literary/academic estab- same time in letterboxes throughout the fannish lishment defines as belonging to the literary genre. world – do you have Mr Tesla’s “special” machine Which is actually not a comment on your editorial by any chance? so much as just a thought sparked off by it. Maybe we need some sort sf/literature of combination. The sercon element of SoWs is wonderfully read- Tom Swift Jr and His Electric Hydroplane at the Heart of able and entertaining – something I’d like to see in Darkness. "The horror, the horror," Tom said dis- the BSFA’s frequently dull and impenetrable publi- gustedly. cations. Don’t be surprised if you are nominated for the editorship of VECTOR whilst you are over here for the Eastercon. John Nielsen-Hall I don't know when I last Wiltshire, UK read an avowedly SF ori- I enjoyed Bruce and Robert’s pieces on Lovecraft. entated fanzine with as I first encountered HPL when I was around 10 in much interest. my father's old copy of the ASTOUNDING fea- turing At The Mountains Of Madness and naturally Ref your Wondertorial, I am heartily sick of the assumed he was a SF writer. The local Boots snobbish attitude of the literary mainstream which bookshop had stocked the Gollancz edition of the insists on denying Science Fiction exists outside a collection The Haunter Of The Dark since its publi- narrowly defined genre. This narrow strip gets cation in 1951. Nobody bought it and I snapped it thinner every time some literary giant writes a up in a sale in 1956 for 1/-. What was unusual novel that manifestly is SF- but they or their pub- about it was that the title and author appeared in lishers insist on denying that it is, or can be. small print on the typical Gollancz yellow cover Jeanette Winterson has written a novel that appar- below the words in large bold red letters: WHO IS ently has lesbian robots in it - but its not SF. Al- LOVECRAFT? legedly. Like Robert, I didn’t seek out more of Lovecraft’s fiction once I realised he was a supernatural writer 24 rather than a pure SF author – and I considered I was surprised, Mog Decarnin somewhat shocked Kalamazoo, MI even, at the number of commenters who had not read all of Heinlein's juveniles, especially at some of the titles that went unmen- tioned entirely, like my youthful faves The Star Beast and Have Space Suit, Will Travel. I got Stranger in a Strange Land for my 14th birthday -- my par- ents, needless to say, had no idea what was in it when they bought it; neither did I, as it had only recently been published and I guess was his first "adult" novel, not counting The Puppet Masters which, though about grown-ups, was still pretty adventure-y, and Methuselah's Children which I hadn't yet read. Say what you will about Hein- lein's sexual politics, in *those* days -- pre- M.R. James far superior. He did surface to some Beatles, remember -- his espousal of free-love extent when Marion and I visited Providence in ethics and communal living must have opened a 1995 and I did a superficial search for any HLP lot of other eyes besides mine; his influence on memorabilia. I gave up and we went on a whale such aspects of the hippie era was openly ac- hunt spotting humpbacks – or were they Shog- knowledged at the time. But in my heart I loved goths? his least problematic books the best, ones where no one died (character death was another shocker Ever hear of the HP Lovecraft Historical Soci- a lot of fans may first have encountered through ety? They do an interesting range of HPL related his juveniles -- watch out for stobor!) or has sex. items including a Call of Cthulhu DVD in the style Heinleins were indeed the books through which I of a 20’s silent horror film: first learned you could find stuff you might like by looking for books by the same author. Why this had Even more exotic is a range of underwear sport- never occurred to me before age 11 I don't know, ing the Elder Sign - a protective sigil against the but another young proto-fan named Rodney dark forces of the Mythos. Green taught me this in our school library in Fair- fax, VA. Thank you Rodney, wherever you are! I'd read Red Planet a year or two before, rediscov- ered it on a shelf, and Rodney casually said that, yeah, Heinlein's books were usually good. Light dawned, and a lifetime of reading by author, rather than, say, by series title (the Oz books, the Tom Corbett, Space Cadet books), or the blurb and appearance of the cover, had begun. Admit- tedly, it's been decades since I reread them, and I'd have to Google many titles to be sure which plot was which, but the memories are very posi- tive. Suspicion lurks that he may also have influ- enced my writing style, though probably not enough. :-)

As to Kim and Citizen of the Galaxy -- there may have been a conscious awareness there, but really, the two books are nothing alike. Both focus on a

25 poor orphan and his series of mentors in a com- Now I have not read all his work, but was Mr. H. mi- plex society, but that's about it. Kim was never a sogynistic? I understand he had a loving wife, and I slave, certainly in his own opinion never needed have read strong female independent characters in rescuing (indeed, he repeatedly rescues others his books, but I do think that times and attitudes may throughout the book), his status as a "Sahib" is have been different when he was writing these books known from the start, but his roots are poor and wonder is that a valid reference forgotten, and whether chauvinism is confused with the actual working-class Irish; Thorby in Citizen is the fairy- hatred of women. Did he hate women? tale lost prince, scion of the super-rich. Kim I do not hear a similar outcry about authors of many abandons little as he moves through his world, al- classical works who ignore civil rights and gender ways renewing contact with his oldest friends (no- equality. Is there a list of authors who quietly got on tably excepting the opium-addicted woman who with segregation in the US without issue? raised him -- Heinlein and Kipling did have some striking attitudes toward women in common -- Military stories have been around for decades or cen- along with probably 99% of the men of their turies even, and it is obvious that Mr H. was pro mili- times -- but Heinlein acknowledges the presence tary, he did serve his country. I didn't feel compelled of females far more than Kipling ever did), to join the army after reading Starship Troopers. Al- whereas Thorby leaves each culture and its friend- though I wasn't looking to extract some deeper rea- ships behind as he moves on -- arguably necessary soning, I was enjoying a book. at galactic distances, but see, for example, Delany, Was he wrong to fear Communism, as defined by the Nova and others, for far more Kiplinesque social Soviet regime? I think you will find millions of East accretion (and literary style). Kim has a spiritual Europeans who share a hatred for communism. I vis- dimension (via the lama) utterly lacking in Citizen ited East Berlin before unification and it was far from of the Galaxy -- though popping up with a venge- idyllic, one doesn't need to be an academic to under- ance in Stranger -- and of course its focus is the stand that if you have to build walls and minefields to Great Game -- spying -- rather than the commer- keep your people in your country, then maybe some cial enterprises underlying such politics that fasci- thing is not that great about your society. nated Heinlein. Though Kim is one of those books I practically know by heart, I'd have to re- Of course, its the double standard, Gordon Brown is read Citizen to really compare/contrast; but my today lauding it in China, a country that has no de- lasting impression is that they're not very similar in mocracy and where the militarily subdues any opposi- intent or handling, whatever Heinlein may have tion to the government. Such standards. been mulling when he started writing his book. The equal wrong of right wing dictatorship is no bet- ter. The way democracies fight, should always be above reproach. That's what should make us better. Mog, you are probably the last person I would have picked as a closet Heinlein fan but your insightful Today Marvel comics plaster their comics in adverts analysis makes me want to re-read Citizen of the for the US Army. They have even had product place- Galaxy and try Kim for the first time. ment for the army in their panels. There is not too much clamouring.

There is no shortage of hard military SF. The explo- James Bacon For some reason I perceive as sion of alternative history has included an increase in Croydon, UK an SF fan that Mr. H gets a real alternative military stories. Yet they don't seem to fall bum rap. Now I am not a under the eye of criticism. learned person in regard to his biography or bibliography, but I At LA Con IV, David Brin and Jerry Pournelle spoke rate Starship Troopers, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress and to young people, at one point suggesting they con- The Green Hills of Earth as favourite SF reads. sider joining the army, as it was a good way to develop writing. Is it because they are alive that no one has is- My limited perception is that H's work is portrayed as sue with this? being misogynistic, militaristic and anti--communist by fans at times. 26 What modern Mil SF is being scrutinized for misog- pressive Saxon regime than 1923 or even 1798) yny, militarism and anti-arab attitudes. but I see too much ambiguity to feel comfortable with it. It’s not just the hurling of meteorites at de- Of course the real killer is illuminated by Anthony fenseless civilian populations (as Dave Langford Swofford in Jarhead, as he explains that Marines, war points out this is done with forewarning of time and hungry, love all war movies, even ones perceived by location but the implicit threat that the warnings will the public to be anti-war. They just whoop it up. Pla- cease exists (and didn’t IRA warnings tend to get toon is given as the example, a movie perceived as one of the most anti-war movies mangled or missed in the 70s and 80s?)) but the ever produced. They love it and it fuels their desire to summary justice of tossing one out an airlock. Most fight. revolutions seem to end up with something even more repressive taking the place of the overthrown I found that quite surprising and amusing, as it means government and it is often this type of revolutionary the whole phrase anti-war is only a perception belong- justice that is a harbinger of the oppression to come ing to some, and not all. It is not a genre I suppose. (OK so in South Africa the necklacing hasn’t led to an appalling government by terror but that seems to What about the other extreme. Has anyone looked at be the exception). the science fiction socialist visions? I am no expert, but these in vogue popular personalities surely should I think that there are other authors of militarist SF receive a similar study. I am far from an expert, but is that get railed against. In particular Brin, Niven, and extolling the virtues of a future socialist utopia naively Pournelle regularly get bashed on the internet for ignoring the catastrophes that have been the realisation of certain socialist ideologies. their involvement in SIGMA (which is basically a group dedicated to spinning wild tales of super- I consider myself a liberal. I love the welfare state, the powered terrorists to the DHS - fortunately there national health service and other institutions which seems to be little evidence that the Department of seek to redress the inequality of privilege that we find Homeland Security takes these paranoid visions very in our society. Is that a socialist outlook, or am I a seriously). Heinlein may get bashed a bit more but good capitalist or is it a balance? I fear what I may be his stature in the field, still 20 years after his death, labelled as, as it will no doubt be wrong, I would prefer is such that he has earned a bit more. Even with a you to know me better. mailing list such as my own, it still seems true that if you want to get a bunch of SF fans to talk about SF, Of course Utopias deserve a benevolent look and one just bring up Heinlein. should consider all works as being hopeful that the human spirit will overcome corruption and base de- Finally, was Heinlein misogynistic? I’m sure he would sires. not have thought of himself that way but his at- I thought if anything, as an Irishman that The Moon is a tempts to portray realistic women in his later novels Harsh Mistress, was quite clear about one thing, people are so laughably bad that it makes one wonder if he should stand up against corruption and rebel against really paid much attention to women, as opposed to badness, regardless. their traditional roles, at all. And I still find the re- peated motif of grown men falling in love with very But then is Mr. H an easy boogie man to wheel out, young girls whom they are able to marry later due when we want to castigate against someone, in a lazy to relativistic time-dilation or time-travel, to be a bit manner. Its much better to all agree he was a bad man, creepy. than to look at authors closer to home and of course, he cannot defend himself from the grave and it allows us room to ignore others, surely no where as bad as Mr. H. WAHF : Lloyd Penney, Mark Plummer, Jerry Kaufman, Randy Byers, JayKinney, Chris Garcia, Joseph Nicholas, Tim James, you raise many good and interesting points. Marion, Hannes Riffel who asked to be able to trans- The Moon is a Harsh Mistress may be a vision of late Randy’s article for an appendix to a German edi- moral clarity to you (although I think Heinlein was tion of Edison’s Conquest of Mars harkening back to an earlier overthrow of the op- 27 Great Science Fiction Editors Number 2 in a Series Horace L Gold

• Founder and editor of Galaxy Science Fiction from 1950 to 1961

• Born April 26, 1914 in Montreal, Quebec

• Died February 21, 1996 in Laguna Hills, CA

• Galaxy was particularly renowned for its satiric science fiction, particularly by authors like Robert Sheckley and Cyril Kornbluth (solo and in collaboration with Fred Pohl).

• It also published many of the classic Astound- ing authors including Robert A. Heinlein (The Puppet Masters) and Isaac Asimov (The • Gold was an agoraphobic who rarely left his Caves Of Steel) apartment in Manhattan. Despite this the magazine he edited was truly first rate and it • Striking covers by Ed Emshwiller featured helped substantially in broadening what was prominently in the early issues acceptable in science fiction beyond the inter- ests of John W. Campbell • Along with The Magazine of Fantasy & Sci- ence Fiction (first published in 1949), Galaxy • Galaxy remained true to the promise made on provided the first major competition to As- the back cover (see below) of its first issue in tounding for quality science fiction October of 1950.

• Authors, however, were not always pleased with Goldʼs often substantial editing of their work. YOU’LL NEVER SEE IT IN GALAXY Jets blasting, Bat Durston came screeching down Hoofs drumming, Bat Durston came galloping down through the atmosphere of Bbllzznaj, a tiny planet through the narrow pass at Eagle Gulch, a tiny gold seven billion light years from Sol. He cut out his colony 400 miles north of Tombstone. He spurred super-hyper-drive for the landing...and at that point, a hard for a low overhang of rim-rock...and at that point tall, lean spaceman stepped out of the tail assembly, a tall, lean wrangler stepped out from behind a high proton gun-blaster in a space-tanned hand. boulder, six-shooter in a sun-tanned hand.

"Get back from those controls, Bat Durston," the tall "Rear back and dismount, Bat Durston," the tall stranger lipped thinly. "You don't know it, but this is stranger lipped thinly. "You don't know it, but this is your last space trip." your last saddle-jaunt through these here parts."