I\u2019m following up on two previous posts \u2013 Great Books and Originality \u2013 because the two often flow together, and I thought I\u2019d point out a few examples from the world of Scifi.<\/p>\n
I recently read through the two volume set from the Library of America, \u201cAmerican Science Fiction.\u201d\u00a0 The editors picked out nine \u201cclassic\u201d novels from 1953 through 1958, some of which illustrate the points I\u2019ve been trying to make.\u00a0 I might also point out that in my younger days I was deeply embroiled in reading everything Edgar Rice Burroughs wrote along with the works of Asimov, Clarke, etc. (all great reads) but probably would not have gotten through some of these \u201cclassics\u201d \u2013 oh, the fickleness of youth!<\/p>\n
Anyway, let me start with the novel that most struck me \u2013 \u201cThe Space Merchants\u201d by Frederik Pohl and C.M.Kornbluth.\u00a0 The main character is an advertising executive (no, this is not \u201cMad Men\u201d in space suits) who is in charge of a campaign to lure settlers to Venus, a rather dreary, not to mention dangerous, place (remember, this was written in 1953).\u00a0 The story does have its intrigue, and action, but what struck me the most about it is the authors\u2019 vision of a future world dominated by advertising firms and corporations.\u00a0 There are no Senators from states, they all represent the major firms (e.g., the Senator from GM).\u00a0 Subliminal advertising is standard procedure (there is no regulation of anything) as is the use of secret chemicals in various food products to addict consumers to the use of those products.\u00a0 This is all wallpaper \u2013 the set the story plays out on \u2013 and the story itself is, as I\u2019ve said, a somewhat typical adventure, but written in the 1950s it was a projection of a world that could happen.\u00a0\u00a0 Because of the emphasis on adventure, and, of course, a happy ending for the main character, (both necessary to sell scifi in the 50s) it\u2019s not up there with Huxley\u2019s \u201cBrave New World\u201d or Orwell\u2019s \u201c1984\u201d, but considering we now have politicians and the Supreme Court running around proclaiming corporations \u201cpeople\u201d it does come in as prescient.\u00a0 Original? Hell, yes!\u00a0 Did they start out to write a \u201cgreat book\u201d \u2013 doubtful.\u00a0 Did they? Maybe.<\/p>\n
I also found \u201cThe Long Tomorrow\u201d by Leigh Brackett (1955) very interesting.\u00a0 In a post nuclear war America civilization has reverted to a small village, Mennonite-like lifestyle and religious belief.\u00a0 Cities and technology are banned \u2013 looked upon as tools of the devil that led the world to destruction.\u00a0 A story about rebellious youth (main character) and his search for what he thinks will be a better world, the story carries you along.\u00a0 But again, what I found most interesting was the unique world Brackett created.\u00a0 The anti-science ethos of this place struck me as a model (exaggerated greatly of course) of the recent anti-science currents in the US.\u00a0 When ideology or religion trumps science I think we all need to look out.\u00a0 Overall, as a writer I really appreciated the way Brackett took her interest in Mennonite culture and used it to come up with a well thought out and very unique book.<\/p>\n
The pattern in both of these books is the same \u2013 look at our modern culture, pick out one aspect that fascinates you (or maybe just looks ripe for satire) and play the \u201cWhat if\u201d game.\u00a0 In both cases the \u201cWhat if\u201d creates the set your actors will play on. It\u2019s then up to you to write the script.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I\u2019m following up on two previous posts \u2013 Great Books and Originality \u2013 because the two often flow together, and I thought I\u2019d point out a few examples from the world of Scifi. I recently read through the two volume set from the Library of America, \u201cAmerican Science Fiction.\u201d\u00a0 The editors picked out nine \u201cclassic\u201d…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":259,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,4],"tags":[27,7,6,26],"class_list":{"0":"entry","1":"post","2":"publish","3":"author-photophoosk100","4":"post-270","6":"format-standard","7":"category-jotting-and-stray-thoughts","8":"category-musings","9":"post_tag-book-reviews","10":"post_tag-getting-published","11":"post_tag-writing","12":"post_tag-writing-a-novel"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomwolosz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomwolosz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomwolosz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomwolosz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/259"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomwolosz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=270"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tomwolosz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":271,"href":"https:\/\/tomwolosz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270\/revisions\/271"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomwolosz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomwolosz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomwolosz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}