Which books/covers/authors in the post intrigue you? Which have you read? Disliked? Enjoyed?
1. The Alejandra Variations, Paul Cook (1984)
From the back cover: “FIRST VARIATION
Nuclear Strategist Nicholas Tejada sees the end of the world.
SECOND VARIATION
One thousand years later, Nicholas wakes up in an underground civilization that lives only for drugs, sex, and thrills.
THIRD VARIATION
Continue readingWhile perusing Eric Garber and Lyn Paleo’s indispensable resource Uranian Worlds: A Reader’s Guide to Alternative Sexuality in Science Fiction and Fantasy (1983, second ed. 1990), my eyes fell on stories by Lisa Tuttle and Grania Davis.1 I’ve never read the work of Lisa Tuttle and I know little to nothing about Grania Davis beyond “My Head’s in a Different Place, Now” (1972), which I tersely dismissed as “zany and forgettable.” I’m glad I decided to pair the stories. Both tackle the inability of 60s radicalism to create a lasting ideological movement. Both stories come with caveats.
Preliminary Note: In the future, I might cover problematic stories on this theme or others with a strong heterosexual bias. They too reveal how people thought about queer topics through the lens of science-fictional extrapolation at different points in history.
Let’s get to the stories!
4.25/5 (Very Good)
Lisa Tuttle’s “Stone Circle” first appeared in Amazing Stories, ed. Ted White (March 1976). You can read it online here. It was nominated for the 1977 Nebula Award for Best Short Story.
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3.75/5 (Good)
Pat Murphy’s first novel The Shadow Hunter (1982) is an achingly beautiful tale of displacement. In the distant past, a young Neanderthal boy embarks on a hunt to claim his name and to learn the nature of the world. In the near future, a mogul named Roy Morgan wants to create a Pleistocene oasis (The Project) ensconced in a valley in an increasingly urban world. Morgan employs two damaged souls, Amanda and Cynthia, to aim his machines–that reach backward and forward into time.
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What pre-1985 science fiction are you reading or planning to read this month? Here’s July’s installment of this column.
Last month I waxed rhapsodic about a powerful interaction with a professor in graduate school… this month I’ll show you a recent obsessive territory I’ve been reading and ruminating about: 1940s and 1950s (and a few from the 60s) social commentary on American affluence, technology, and media. It all started with my media landscapes of the future series–I could not write on the topic unless I read some Marshall McLuhan. And then I had to read about C. Wright Mills to write about Clifford D. Simak and organized labor. And then I needed to track down other popular authors of social commentary published in era. It should not be surprising so much 50s SF revolved around social commentary — it was in the air. You get the idea. This pile represents some of what I now own:
Continue readingI’ve finally completed my article for Journey Planet on depictions of organized labor in the 40s and 50s science fiction of Clifford D. Simak. I plan on adding to it over the next few months as I read more. After it appears for Journey, I’ll post it on my site in whatever version is current. The project lead me to read a vast range of Simak short fictions, a small slice of which I’ve reviewed on my site, including the first two stories revised for his iconic masterpiece City (1952). I’ll cover “Huddling Place” (1944) soon as well.
Enjoy!
4.25/5 (Very Good)
“City” first appeared in Astounding Science Fiction, ed. John Campbell, Jr. (May 1944). You can read it online here.
This is a good one! I read the 1952 novelized version of the City stories in my late teens. At the time, logically, I was fascinated by the sentient dogs and the slow apocalypse of humanity that unfolds across the generations. For whatever reason, the earliest stories without dogs, for example “City” (1944) and “Huddling Place” (1944), faded from the culminative aura the novel generated all these years later. This project compelled me to break my deep-seated compulsion to read what I haven’t read before.
Continue readingWhich books/covers/authors in the post intrigue you? Which have you read? Disliked? Enjoyed?
1. Away From the Here and Now, Clare Winger Harris (1947)
From the inside flap: “In this age of atomic bombs and radar to the moon, Mrs. Harris’ stories may prove closer to the “here and now” than the title would indicate. Mrs. Harris Proudly claims the distinction of being the first woman science-fiction writer in the country. Each of her stories is based upon a sound scientific fact, carried so plausibly to the nth degree that at no time does it overstain credulity. The stories possess the qualities of dealing with ideas of big importance to the human race, of presenting those ideas in a plausible form, and of appealing to emotions that exist deep within the heart of every human being whether he be scientific or not.
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4/5 (Good)
Pat Frank (1907-1964) began his writing career working for local papers in northeastern Florida before a stint in The Office of Wartime Information (OWI) during WWII. The popular success of Frank’s three nuclear war-themed novels, that culminated with Alas, Babylon (1959), led him to take on the role as a speechwriter for the 1960 Kennedy campaign and beyond.1 As Frank was a lifelong Democrat, Alas, Babylon contains a range of 50s political views that manifest anti-communism and align with the small minority within the party interested in Civil Rights. The novel advocates for vigorous anti-Communist ideology at home and abroad and, in case deterrence fails, survival is possible for those who embody American virtues.
The Narrative Vantage Point Amidst the Mushroom Clouds
Continue readingToday I’m joined again by Rachel S. Cordasco, the creator of the indispensable website and resource Speculative Fiction in Translation, for the fourth installment of our series exploring non-English language SF worlds. Last time we covered Hugo Correa’s intense parables of alienation and exploitation: “Alter Ego” (1967) and “Meccano” (1968). This time we’re tackling Kathinka Lannoy’s strange Dutch language story “Drugs’ll Do You” (1978, trans. 1981).
Please note that Rachel and I are interested in learning about a large range of authors and works vs. only tracking down the best. That means we’ll encounter some stinkers!
According to the sources I’ve been able to find, Kathinka Lannoy (1917-1996) grew up in Amsterdam and, due to childhood sicknesses, started writing from a young age.1 Lannoy studied music and elocution and worked as a piano teacher in addition to her writing. Her first published work appeared after 1940 in various newspapers and modelled on Norwegian regional novels that were popular at the time. In the late 1950s, Lannoy started writing horror and science fiction stories and joined the Dutch SF association SF Terra. After the King Kong Award for original Dutch SF stories under 10k words started in 1976, her stories often placed in the top ten.2 In addition to writing SF, she also translated SF — including a work by Damon Knight. From the possibly incomplete Internet Speculative Fiction Database listing, it appears that only two of her genre short stories appeared in an English translation.
“Drugs’ll Do You” appeared in Terra SF: The Year’s Best European SF, ed. Richard D. Nolane (1981). The story was translated by Joe F. Randolph. I cannot find an online copy. Please reach out if you want to read it and don’t want to track down the anthology.
Enjoy!
Rachel S. Cordasco’s Review
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What pre-1985 science fiction are you reading or planning to read this month?
Here’s June’s installment of this column.
I’m periodically plagued by the virulent Esoterica virus, the relentless desire to catalogue and write about the less known, and even better, the completely unknown. While attending a Medieval English literature graduate class, I remember a conversation I had with the professor, Robert D. Fulk, during office hours about the sheer quantity of scholarship on Beowulf (here’s his edition of the iconic text). I pointed out the panic I experience if I’m unable to read ALL the scholarship on a popular text.
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Science Fiction and Other Suspect Ruminations 