tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3852401976091776228.post6394901707886352975..comments2024-03-28T16:39:46.847-04:00Comments on Tellers of Weird Tales: Threescore and Ten-Part TwoTerence E. Hanleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08268641371264950572noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3852401976091776228.post-47391700067074852542015-07-30T22:36:32.464-04:002015-07-30T22:36:32.464-04:00Correction: Margaret Sanger advocated for birth co...Correction: Margaret Sanger advocated for birth control but not necessarily for abortion. I regret the error.<br /><br />THTerence E. Hanleyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08268641371264950572noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3852401976091776228.post-61223179246860967212015-07-28T18:24:10.306-04:002015-07-28T18:24:10.306-04:00Dear Ross,
I have not read The World of Null-A. I...Dear Ross,<br /><br />I have not read The World of Null-A. In fact, I have read only two of A.E. van Vogt's books, Slan and The Voyage of the Space Beagle. That was a long time ago, but I remember thinking on the theme of the superior human being in Slan and the different ways that theme can be interpreted. I think science fiction fans can easily see themselves as Slans because they, the fans, possess abilities they deem superior to those of ordinary human beings. Call it a kind of arrogance mixed with a sense of humiliation or lack of self-esteem, a common trait among tyrants.<br /><br />I'll admit that the fact I haven't read The World of Null-A doesn't make me especially well qualified to comment on it, but I wasn't really commenting on the story. I was commenting on the cover art and what, to me, appears to be an atmosphere of decay. I did not say that the cover art was "intended to illustrate the 'decay' of the bright promise of the future," only that it combines the Gernsbackian sense of wonder with the hard science fiction of John W. Campbell, Jr., also an atmosphere of decay (merely my impression of the cover art, with its dark, dripping, overgrown, and apparently abandoned super-city) with a futuristic, utopian, or even dystopian vision. In fact your phrase--"an enlightened human community"--has a distinct utopian ring to it. (I will write more about the utopian vs. the dystopian later in this series.) Anyway, that's my clarification. Take it for what it's worth.<br /><br />I was also commenting on the author. The fact that van Vogt was a Democrat or a moderate liberal is not really relevant. Democrats and liberals can be just as authoritarian, tyrannical, or totalitarian in their beliefs as anyone. Eugenics, for example, grew out of the Progressive Era and included among its advocates H.G. Wells (a Fabian socialist), John Maynard Keynes (a liberal economist), and Margaret Sanger (a feminist and promoter of birth control, including abortion). Keynes and Sanger especially are liberal heroes today. My point is that van Vogt was, like Campbell, supposedly science-minded, yet he went in for a pseudoscience like Dianetics and associated with a fraud, a liar, a thug, and a tyrant in L. Ron Hubbard. I'm not sure that going along with Dianetics but not with Scientology saves him in any way from criticism, although to his credit, he left Dianetics long before his death in 2000.<br /><br />Thanks for writing, Ross. I welcome further comments.<br /><br />THTerence E. Hanleyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08268641371264950572noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3852401976091776228.post-26633868390362462612015-07-28T17:24:37.778-04:002015-07-28T17:24:37.778-04:00Dear Howard,
Once again, I'm glad you wrote a...Dear Howard,<br /><br />Once again, I'm glad you wrote and I'm glad to hear that there is still big, ambitious, visionary science fiction being written. Your message is the kind I've been waiting to receive.<br /><br />I have not read Seveneves, but I have read a synopsis and some comments on the book. It sounds like Seveneves would fall into the category of hard science fiction, the kind John W. Campbell, Jr., wrote, encouraged, and promoted in Astounding Science-Fiction and Analog. Is that an accurate assessment?<br /><br />THTerence E. Hanleyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08268641371264950572noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3852401976091776228.post-37218463231836084132015-07-28T15:31:05.665-04:002015-07-28T15:31:05.665-04:00That cover art was not intended to illustrate the ...That cover art was not intended to illustrate the "decay" of the bright promise of the future. It just illustrates a scene set on Venus, with its giant trees. The Venus of this novel is home to an enlightened human community of Null-A masters. Have you ever read this novel? <br /><br />Politically, van Vogt was a Democrat and identified himself as a moderate liberal. In many of his works, van Vogt displayed hostility to tyrants. Also, van Vogt did get on board with Dianetics, but he he did not become a Scientologist. He disliked the "mystical" bent of Scientology.Rosshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07359114718992723491noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3852401976091776228.post-24417868982788165232015-07-25T17:15:05.217-04:002015-07-25T17:15:05.217-04:00As a continuation of my previous comments: I can ...As a continuation of my previous comments: I can definitely report that SF is not dying or dead.<br /><br />I have just finished what is in my mind the very greatest work of SF that I have ever read, "Seveneves" by Neal Stephenson. This is a huge novel by a giant of a writer. It's a thoughtful exploration of how mankind might deal with an extinction event. And I found it to be really uplifting in spite of what happens in the story. I cannot recommend this book enough.Howardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02265121591041114100noreply@blogger.com