Sam Moskowitz - Doorway Into Time

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Contents
Introduction Sam Moskowitz
Doorway Into Time C. L. Moore
A Logic Named Joe Murray Leinster
With Folded Hands Jack Williamson
The Command L. Sprague de Camp
Liar! Isaac Asimov
Before Eden Arthur C. Clarke
A Manor Book
First printing November, 1966
Second printing ::October, 1973
Manor Books Inc. 329 Fifth Avenue
New York, New York 10016
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 65-18008
Copyright, ©, 1965, by Sam Moskowitz.
All rights reserved.
Published by arrangement with The World Publishing Company. Printed in the
U.S.A.
To
WALLACE EXMAN
Who saw the possibilities
Grateful acknowledgement is given to the following for permission to use the
copyrighted material ap-pearing in this anthology: Isaac Asimov—"Liar!" by Isaac
Asimov, from Astounding Science-Fiction, May, 1941. Copyright, 1941, by Street
6z Smith Publications, Inc. Reprinted by permission of the author. L. Sprague de
Camp—"The Command" by L. Sprague de Camp, from Astounding
Science-Fiction, October, 1938. Copyright, 1938, by Street & Smith Publications,
Inc. Will F. Jenkins—"A Logic Named Joe" by Murray Leinster, from Astounding
Science-Fiction, March, 1946. Copyright, 1946, by Street Si Smith Publications, Inc.
Scott Meredith Literary Agency, Inc.—"Before Eden" by Arthur C. Clarke, from
Amazing Stories, June, 1961. Copyright, 1961, by Ziff-Davis Publishing Company.
Reprinted by per. mission of the author and the author's agents, Scott Meredith
Literary Agency, Inc.; "With Folded Hands" by Jack Williamson, from Astounding
Science-Fiction, July, .1947. Copyright, 1947, by Street Sc Smith Publications, Inc.
Reprinted by per. mission of the author and the author's agents, Scott Meredith
Literary Agency, Inc. Robert P. Mills—"Doorway Into Time" by C. L. Moore, from
Famous Fantastic Mysteries, September, 1943. Copyright, 1943, by All Fiction
Field, Inc. Reprinted by per-mission of the copyright owners.
INTRODUCTION
MODERN science fiction, among the insiders in the field, is a phrase that refers to
a readily identifiable change in the format of the science fiction story, which was
begun in 1938 and was readily apparent by the middle of 1939. The revolutionary
was John W. Campbell, who not only for-cibly moved this branch of fiction in the
direction in which he wanted it to go but under the name of Don A. Stuart had
previously written prototypes of the kind of stories he had in mind.
Campbell's "Modern" (When "modern" is used in quotes at certain places in the
text it is not intended to denigrate, but to recognize that "modem" science fiction is
more than a quarter of a century old.) science fiction laid special em-phasis on
certain things:
The way stories were written. He demanded a much higher degree of
sophistication in the average story he pub-lished than had generally been true of
science fiction. This applied not only to the stylistic proficiency but also to the
manner in which ideas were introduced. Indirection became a characteristic of the
literary method of modern science fiction. It has been said, with some justice, that
what science fiction called "good writing" merely followed the main-stream vogue of
the thirties and that even today, 26 years later, "modern" science fiction reads more
like the SATUR-DAY EVENING POST and COSMOPOLITAN of the depression
era that avant garde fiction.
Greater emphasis on the psychological. How would the people of tomorrow's
world be affected by the inevitable technological and social changes? What would
their everyday behavior be like under such radically changed circumstances? What
situations would provide drama in the innumerable fabricated futures to come?
The importance of philosophy on cultural action. Every civilization lives according
to a certain firm or diffuse philosophy. Evaluation was to be given not only to the
future phi-losophies of man, but to the bizarre and infinite hypothetical philosophies
of alien creatures.
The exploration of the possibility of strange powers in various members of the
human race. Most directly involved were humans who were a physical or mental
mutation, but comprehensively telepathy, levitation, teleportation, telekin-esis were
embraced as well as the entire gamut of what have become known as Fortean
phenomena—the catalogue of inexplicable happenings which Charles Fort believed
diso-beyed the "laws" of science.
A broadening of the policies of science fiction to include not only social protest
of politics, business, war and Western civilization's mores (to which it had always
been recep-tive) but protest and criticism of religion, which had been, like sex,
carefully sidestepped. Modern science fiction later extended its scope to cover sex,
but not through Campbell, who did not care to run stories on that subject in the
pages of his magazine.
This did not rule out the exploration of future technology, particularly atomic
power, but such themes proved to be in the distinct minority. Science fiction became
less interested in illuminating the road of science than in circling like a trapped moth
around the hypnotic lure of literary pretension.
All these elements had been present in science fiction pre-viously, but their
appearance was haphazard. Campbell knew what goals he had in mind and the
circumstances made it possible for him to get authors to conform to his desires.
Though there were many markets opening up for science fiction writers in 1939,
as new titles multiplied, the country was still very much in a state of financial
depression and an editor could command many willing typewriters. ASTOUND-ING
SCIENCE FICTION was the leading magazine in sales and prestige when Campbell
took over. It consistently paid top rates (which was one cent a word and slightly up).
While other science fiction magazines also listed one cent a word as their rate in
WRITER'S DIGEST, it often was less for the longer lengths, particularly novels, and
payment was not always on acceptance.
Campbell tirelessly fed writers ideas, not only for plots, but for unique
approaches to a theme. He demanded and got elaborate rewrites. He also
represented the largest monthly market for wordage, purchasing between
ASTOUND-ING SCIENCE-FICTION and a fantasy-oriented companion magazine,
UNKNOWN, nearly 200,000 words. Pleasing Campbell was good business.
Campbell also had the good fortune to assume editorship at the very onset of a
new wave of popularity for science fiction. The profitable sales of a magazine titled
MARVEL. SCIENCE STORIES, whose first issue, dated August, 1938, I it
appeared on the newsstands May 9, 1938) caused the pulp companies, who by and
large were convinced that science fiction was not properly commercial, to take
special notice. When AMAZING STORIES, the field's first magazine, beginning
publication with its issue dated April, 1926, was sold to Ziff-Davis (June, 1938
issue), and quickly be-gan to climb in circulation, the rush got underway.
All these factors made it possible for one man to shape the nature of the stories
the science fiction writers would produce and thereby command the direction of the
field. He gathered round him in only two years, a cadre of crack talent that a quarter
of a century later would still be dominating the world of science fiction.
His loudest gun, however, was still the old-time favorite Edward E. Smith, Ph. D.,
who had created a sensation with The Skylark of Space in 1928, a story which
moved science fiction out of the confines of the solar system, and whose Grey
Lensman for ASTOUNDING SCIENCE-FICTION in 1939 presented a thrilling
picture of an entire galaxy patrolled by a very special type of police.
The adaptable Jack Williamson, who had initially gained popularity imitating A.
Merritt, proved he also belonged in the forefront of changing science fiction, but
other than these veterans, the early phase of the science fiction revolution was
predominantly the work of new recruits.
Campbell had been hired as editor of ASTOUNDING STO-RIES by F. Orlin
Tremaine in 1937. Tremaine had taken control of the virtually defunct title in late
1933 and, in a brilliant drive, had made it the indisputable field leader by 1935.
However, through 1936 and 1937 the average quality of the material not only
declined, but frequently verged on dullness, though three authors discovered in 1937
and 1938—Eric Frank Russell, L. Sprague de Camp and Lester del Rey—were to
play an important part in the revival of science fiction. In 1939 Campbell discovered
A. E. van Vogt, Robert A. Heinlein and Theodore Sturgeon, and took Isaac Asimov
under his wing. These were to prove the real sluggers in his literary batting lineup.
While an occasional work by these men appeared else. where, Campbell generally
got first look at everything and to all practical purposes had exclusive use of their
talents. This scarcely disturbed the competition who had the' bulk of previous
favorites to draw upon. If Campbell wanted to hold his fledglings to his bosom that
was his affair. Other direc-tions in science fiction were proving at least as profitable
for them without all the effort Campbell was expending.
Leading contemporary science fiction magazines included AMAZING STORIES,
now under the editorship of Raymond A. Palmer, hewing to a policy of elementary
science fiction, simply told, with virtually no attempt at sophistication or a high order
of originality. There was a market for such a magazine and it pushed ahead of
ASTOUNDING SCIENCE FICTION in circulation.
When taunted by this fact, as a counter to the wisdom of his editorial stance,
Campbell, instead of becoming dis-turbed, asserted that he was highly pleased. His
claim was that ASTOUNDING SCIENCE FICTION was tailored for a more mature
audience. It no longer published the elementary type of science fiction that could
attract the youngsters. It was therefore essential that such magazines as AMAZING
STORIES existed and prospered, he contended, because they would graduate
readers to ASTOUNDING SCIENCE FICTION.
Just as medical specialists needed general practitioners to refer patients to them,
ASTOUNDING SCIENCE FICTION needed publications featuring elementary
stories with wide appeal to recruit new readership.
If Campbell's theory was correct, the science fiction field was ideally set up for
him, because while AMAZING printed the most basic science fiction, Standard
Publications, with THRILLING WONDER STORIES, STARTLING STORIES
and CAPTAIN FUTURE, provided a stepladder effect by appealing to the
teenagers. Their mainstays were the big names of the thirties: Eando Binder, Manly
Wade Wellman, John Russell Fearn, Frank Belknap Long, Jack Williamson and
Edmond Hamilton. STARTLING STORIES ran a complete novel each issue as well
as a hall-of-fame reprint, and on an action level was an excellent value for fifteen
cents. CAPTAIN FUTURE was a character magazine, doing for science fiction
what THE SHADOW did for the detective story, and was pegged for average ages
of 14 and below.
There was also a sense of nostalgia and a collecting instinct among science fiction
readers that had not been generally catered to until Munsey issued a magazine of
reprints titled Famous FANTASTIC MYSTERIES, devoted at fait to famous
fantasies from the old ARGOSY, ALL-STORY and CAVALIER. Big name authors
of an era preceding the first science fiction magazine in 1926 paraded across the
contents pages of its issues: A. Merritt, George Allan England, Austin Hall, Charles
B. Stilson, Victor Rousseau, Homer Eon Flint and Ray Cummings. Their style and
their plots were in the Edgar Rice Burroughs tradition of the scien-tific romance.
They represented pure escape, with adventures on other worlds, in lost valleys and
unknown dimensions with rich and colorful thrills and a strange but lovely princess
frequently the reward of heroic exertions. This magazine also found a solid audience.
As titles proliferated within the science fiction field, spe-cialization became further
evident. One of the most in-teresting such magazines was PLANET STORIES, a
quarterly experiment of the Fiction House pulp chain, made up en-tirely of
interplanetary stories. The quality was very uneven, but the magazine began to take
a direction completely dif-ferent than the others. It wanted action, but it also wanted
the romance and wonder of the spaceways. It began to develop a type of science
that had the feel of the old ARGOSY-ALL-STORY scientific romances featured by
FA-MOUS FANTASTIC MYSTERIES, but was written in a faster style and with
more scientific window dressing. Its editor, Malcolm Reiss, also proved receptive to
the off-trail science fiction and frequently printed stories that were not only unique,
but of exceptional literary quality.
The only new magazines that to any degree followed Campbell's policy were two
edited by Frederik Pohl for Popular Publications titled ASTONISHING STORIES
and SUPER SCIENCE STORIES. ASTONISHING STORIES had the distinction
of being the first science fiction magazine to sell for as little as ten cents. SUPER
SCIENCE STORIES published short novels com-plete, and competed with
STARTLING STORIES. The only prob-lem here was that Pohl could pay only a
half-cent a word. He got the other magazines' rejects, and of these he found
Campbell's authors most acceptable. Practically from the first issues, Isaac Asimov,
Robert A. Heinlein, L. Sprague de Camp, Clifford D. Simak, as well as lesser lights
from Campbell's coterie, appeared in his publication.
When the editorship of Pohl's publications was assumed by Alden H. Norton in
the summer of 1941 the policy was continued with the addition of scientific fantasies
similar to those found in PLANET STORIES. It was openmindedness to stories of
this type that led Norton to discover Ray Bradbury, buy-ing his first story
Pendulum written in collaboration with Henry Hasse for the Nov., 1941 SUPER
SCIENCE STORIES. In common with PLANET STORIES and the Standard
Magazines group, he shared the swashbuckling literary talents of Leigh Brackett and
the Merritt-like fantastes of Henry Kuttner.
Many other titles came and went, but the foregoing comprised the most influential
and represented the types of science fiction most popular at the time the United
States entered World War II. The effect of the draft and special in-dustrial
assignments of the specially qualified affected Campbell severely. His mainstays
were predominantly of draft age, and certain of them such as Heinlein, de Camp,
Asimov, had occupational specialties which war industry needed.
The other magazines had a far higher percentage of older and draft-exempt
authors, who continued to write, and all, throughout the war years, had publishing
frequency and wordage requirements far less demanding than ASTOUNDING
SCIENCE-FICTION. One new outstanding author, Fritz Leiber, was added to the
roster by Campbell during the war years and Clifford D. Simak came into his own
during this period, contributing the stories that made up his justifiably famous book,
City. Murray Leinster, a veritable patriarch among writers, also helped fill the war
gap nobly. Henry Kuttner, under the pen name of Lewis Padgett, was recruited to
write for Campbell a series of remarkable stories in the vein of John Collier, while his
wife, C. L. Moore, cloaked in the alias of Lawrence O'Donnell, was hailed as an
extraordinary discovery by the gullible readership. Jack Williamson for a brief time
played the role of the promising young writer, Will Stewart, writing heavy-science
stories about anti-matter until the lure of adventure found him enlisting in the armed
services and getting more than he bargained for in the Pacific air war.
Just as the Jews for centuries sustained themselves with the slogan "Tomorrow in
Israel," John W. Campbell sus-tained his readers with a blinding vision of what they
might expect when "the boys come marching home."
The appearance of the first post-war major science fic-tion anthology, The Best of
Science Fiction, edited by Groff Conklin in 1946 proved a triumph for John W.
Campbell. The book became a best seller in the true meaning of the term and the
bulk of the wordage in the volume was modern science fiction from Campbell's
magazine. In a preface written by Campbell, the basic differences between "modem"
and pre-vious forms of science fiction were spelled out.
First, the writing method:
In older science fiction—H. G. Wells and nearly all stories written before
1935—the author took time out to bring the reader up to date as to what had
happened before his story opened. The best modern writers of science fiction have
worked out some truly remarkable techniques for presenting a great deal of
background and associated material without intruding into the flow of the story. That
is no small feat, when a complete new world must be established at the same time a
story is being presented.
Secondly, the content:
But the modern science-fiction writer doesn't merely say, "In about ten years we
will have atomic weapons." He goes further; his primary interest is in what these
weapons will do to political, economic and cultural structures of human society.
A few months after the issuance of The Best of Science Fiction, an even more
impressive monument to Campbell's brand of science fiction collected as Adventure
in Time and Space and sub-titled "An Anthology of Modern Science-Fic-tion
Stories," edited by Raymond J. Healy and J. Francis McComas, rocketed to equally
impressive sales figures. Of the 35 stories in the book, all but three were from
Campbell's magazines, and of the 32 from his magazine, only four had not been
purchased under his editorship and one of these was his own novelette
Forgetfulness!
Such science fiction magazine publishers who were not im-pressed by the sales
reports were properly impressed by the reviews. Both anthologies received
widespread praise in the most respected newspapers and magazines. Previously,
ser-ious literary consideration of the products of the pulp science fiction magazines
had been disappointingly infrequent. This current attention was certainly heady wine.
Perhaps there was more to the Campbell brand of science fiction than it had been
given credit for, it was conjectured. All those sales and glory, too!
Slowly the masters of modern science fiction returned from the wars, but not
necessarily into Campbell's open embrace. Not too long after the appearance of the
two major science fiction anthologies, L. Sprague de Camp, Theodore Sturgeon and
Robert A. Heinlein showed up in AMAZING WONDER STORIES. Soon A. E. van
Vogt was in the enemy camp, as were a number of other writers who generally had
been considered Campbell exclusives such as L. Ron Hubbard, Cleve Cartmill,
George O. Smith and Raymond F. Jones.
More science fiction anthologies appeared, with heavy rep-resentations by
"modern" science fiction authors from ASTOUNDING SCIENCE-FICTION.
Specialty book companies were formed, issuing famous novels and short stories of
science fiction in hard cover. A disproportionate percentage of these also came from
Campbell's magazines, and when the books were reviewed, those with the "modern"
stories always seemed to get preferential treatment.
When the post-war paper shortage began to ease towards the end of 1948, the
long-delayed spate of new science fic-tion magazines arrived. The first was the
revival of SUPER SCIENCE STORIES under the editorship of Alden H. Norton,
dated January, 1949. It was obvious that the previous policy of using stories both of
Campbell's modern science fiction, and action adventure fantasy would be
continued.
The editor of another new periodical, THE MAGAZINE OF FANTASY AND
SCIENCE FICTION (Fall, 1949) was Anthony Boucher, well-known detective story
writer, critic and a former contributor to ASTOUNDING SCIENCE-FICTION. He
was completely sold on Campbell's bill-of-fare, most partic-ularly the emphasis on
skillful writing. All of Campbell's top-notchers who could cleverly turn a phrase
eventually turned up in the pages of his magazine.
The most costly raid came with the appearance of GALAXY SCIENCE
FICTION (October, 1950) edited by H. L. Gold, who had previously written and
edited science fiction. Up un-til now, Campbell had gotten first look at a substantial
part of the stories by his favorites that appeared elsewhere. However with his rates
matched by THRILLING WONDER STORIES and TAE MAGAZINE OF
FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION and topped by GALAXY SCIENCE
FICTION, that situa-tion ended. In its introductory issue GALAXY SCIENCE
FICTION carried Campbell's heavy guns, Clifford D. Simak, Theodore Sturgeon,
Fritz Leiber and Isaac Asimov.
Campbell raised his rates and creatively continued to de-velop new talent, but
whereas before he could exercise severe discipline in building them into top-notchers
by reason of his commanding economic and prestige position in the field, now he
found that after a single good story they would often begin showing up elsewhere.
GALAXY SCIENCE FICTION'S policy was but an extension of Campbell's, but
with greatest emphasis on the psychological aspects of science fiction, as introduced
by ASTOUNDING SCIENCE-FICTION in such masterpieces as Clifford D.
Simak's Huddling Place.
Outside of Campbell's sphere of influence, the action school of science fiction as
exemplified by PLANET STORIES and THRILLING WONDER STORIES had
published the emotion-packed space parables of the stylistic virtuoso Ray Bradbury.
Scores of his best stories were bought and published at but a penny a word, and
new anthologies rarely appeared without a Bradbury story, solidifying transient pulp
popularity into rec-ognition and prestige. This laid the foundation for his suc-cessful
career. Equally as honored, Arthur C. Clarke was one of the upcoming young British
literary lions, influenced by Campbell's writing and first published in
ASTOUNDING SCIENCE FICTION in this country, yet, like many other likely
prospects, quickly lured away to contribute his best work to the competition.
By 1952 the science fiction tide was cresting. At one time 32 different titles were
on the stands simultaneously. The earlier boom in 1939 had healthily stabilized with
science fiction magazines aimed at different strata of readership. This boom took the
cue of "follow the leader." THRILLING WONDER STORIES and STARTLING
STORIES, once the bastions of teen-age action, under the successive
administrations of editors Sam Merwin and Sam Mines, in content had become
indistinguishable from ASTOUNDING SCIENCE-FICTION, GALAXY SCIENCE
FICTION and THE MAGAZINE OF FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION. Not
only had the stories been lifted to a new height of sophistication, but in August,
1952, like a bombshell they exploded a novel, The Lovers, by Philip Jose Farmer
which proved a milestone in the history of science fiction, opening up the various
manifestations of sex to writers of modern science fiction, breaking a taboo which
had been rigidly inflexible before.
It was not that the incorporation of sex into science fiction proved unhealthy—the
field would be much poorer without the contributions of Farmer—it was the
completeness of the usurpation of the strongholds of scientific wonder, action, and
romance by stories of a philosophical, psychiatric or sexual bent that posed a
danger.
A number of forces contributed to the switch by most of the remaining holdouts
to the publication of "modern" sci-ence fiction to the virtual exclusion of any other
type. Predominant was the weight of new titles, far too burdensome to be supported
by the existing readership. As the complete pie of audience was sliced ever thinner
by the accumulation of new titles, publishers attributed their circulation problems to
editorial policy. On every hand (even in their own pages) reviewers praised the
polished works of the modern masters and ridiculed any other form. To publish and
read "modern" science fiction had also become a status symbol, a badge of prestige
and maturity. Was that not the logical direction to take?
AMAZING STORIES, which had been the circulation leader the entire decade
between 1940 and 1950, abandoned its policy of elementary science fiction and with
the April-May, 1953 number converted from pulp to digest size with slick stories by
Robert A. Heinlein, Theodore Sturgeon, Murray Leinster and Ray Bradbury.
FAMOUS FANTASTIC MYSTERIES, symbolic of those maga-zines publishing
reprints of escapism for 14 years, folded with its June, 1953 number. PLANET
STORIES did not abandon its policy but found a declining pool of usable ma-terial
at its low rates. It perished in 1955 as did TIIRILL-INO WONDER STORIES and
STARTLING STORIES. At the onset of 1956, "modern" science fiction was all
there was. All other forms had vanished. For better or for worse, science fiction
stories with the emphasis, on the turn of phrase, with the plot twists pivoting on
various aspects of psychol-ogy, philosophy, psychiatry, religion, sociology and sex
domi-nated the field.
One man in particular bitterly deplored the changeover —John W. Campbell. It
had never been his intent to super-sede the other forms of science fiction. He had set
out to add a new, more mature dimension to the existing body of the literature. The
field needed the elementary types. Now there were many universities but no grammar
schools.
Actually John W. Campbell had already taken a divergent tack. He had always
been interested in the exploration of hidden powers in the human mind. This first
took the form of what he called mutants and led to the writing of such stories as
Slan by A. E. van Vogt, of a human species with flesh--and-blood antennae called
tendrils, that can read other minds. This approach was followed by Henry Kuttner
under the pen name of Lewis Padgett in a series about the "baldies," a mind-reading
group attempting to integrate into the pop-ulace.
The theories of Charles Fort regarding strange events that seemed to defy the
tenets of scientific theory, also fascinated him, and it was his interest in this phase
that led to publi-cation of Eric Frank Russell's novel Sinister Barrier, in which it is
discovered that the human race is nothing more than the kept cattle of a superior
culture.
Stories based on intellectually superior mutants and vari-ous ramifications of
Charles Fort's presentation were to become frequent in ASTOUNDING
SCIENCE-FICTION. When new competitors appropriated most of the tenets he
had pro-moted in "modern" science fiction, John Campbell moved his authors
further in the Fortean direction. The kick-off piece was an article titled Dianetics:
The Evolution of a Science by L. Ron Hubbard (ASTOUNDING
SCIENCE-FICTION, May, 1950). Hubbard was a prolific pulp writer, who made a
good record on naval duty during World War II and claimed to have been the actual
inspiration for the title character of the play Mr. Roberts. He had done some
remarkable writ-ing of science fiction for Campbell, his novel Final Blackout
without question ranking as one of the finest future war stories ever written.
Dianetics proposed to be a system of self-help therapy that could cure all forms
of insanity where there had been no brain damage; a technique for curing non-germ
diseases such as ulcers, arthritis and asthma; a method of giving a man a perfect,
error-free memory, among other things. A book titled Dianetics proved a best seller
and launched Hubbard on a career that eventually found him living in a great Eng-lish
mansion, unabashedly wealthy.
Campbell, with considerable vigor, attempted to get stories based on Dianetics
(Hubbard wrote a fantasy involv-ing Dianetics, Masters of Sleep, for FANTASTIC
ADVEN-TURES, October, 1950). He also pushed forward a search for evidence of
the existence of extra-sensory motivated equip-ment (which he termed psionic
machines) and new principles of dynamics which led him to champion a prototype
of an "anti-gravity" device called the Dean Drive.
Some very clever and entertaining stories did result from this divergence, though
they were actually sheer fantasies based on hypothetical, imaginary sciences. The
better re-jects trickled down to the lower paying markets and by this method, "psi"
stories become an integral part of what is today called "modern" science fiction.
"Modern" science fiction has been criticized for many things. The most damning
has been the charge that its cas-ual narration, its stress on indirection and its
interweaving of background as part of the story flow has deleted a great deal of what
has been euphemized as "sense of wonder" from its context. Another major criticism
has been that with the em-phasis on psychology, philosophy, psychiatry, sociology
and psi, there has been a lag in new concepts, and scientific ad-vances have been
rapidly turning many tried and true gambits into history. A consequence of this is
that backgrounds in "modern" science fiction stories tend to be props, standard-ized
so as to make it easier to make a point in a plot in which the science and technology
are merely incidental.
Even if all the foregoing are acknowledged, it still must be admitted that "modern"
science fiction has recorded unpre-cedented achievement. There is not a major
reference work on English literature produced in the past 10 years without material
on science fiction, and it is rare that such a volume does not assign at least minor
status to certain science fic-tion writers.
A quarter of a century ago, any science fiction writer de-veloped by the magazines
who could boast even a single hardcover book to his credit, was regarded by his
fellows with awe. Today, one would be sorely pressed to find a published magazine
story by a ranking science fiction writer that had not gone into book form or at least
been included in an an-thology.
Every technologically advanced non-Communist nation in the world today
regularly publishes science fiction, and the majority of it is reprints of America's
"modern" science fiction. Almost anywhere in the world it is possible to secure a
selection of outstanding American authors. Behind the Iron Curtain, American
science fiction is translated and reprinted. Science fiction is as much a cultural
export of this nation as jazz and has resulted in the formation of
conven-tion-sponsoring clubs even as far away as Japan.
The six authors anthologized in this volume are beyond doubt among the major
shapers of "modern" science fiction. These are the writers who gave it substance,
contributed something distinctive and have written a disproportionate share of the
landmarks in the format. Two authors, who had a monumental influence on the
development of "modern" science fiction are not included here, because they belong
to an earlier era. They are Olaf Stapledon and Stanley O. Weinbaum. From
Stapledon was derived the emphasis on philosophical concepts as a plot basis for
science fiction. From Weinbaum the methods of combining narrative, dialogue and
background in a non-interrupted flow.
Murray Leinster and Jack Williamson had made reputations in the field long before
the popularity of modern science fiction and were among the old guard that most
successfully converted to and contributed to the development of the new form. One
author who initially appeared in 1930, Clifford D. Simak, is not presented in this
group because his was only a secondary figure until the forties.
L. Sprague de Camp, among the transitional discoveries made while
ASTOUNDING STORIES was becoming ASTOUNDING SCIENCE-FICTION, is
an extremely able satirist in the Mark Twain tradition.
Isaac Asimov is one of those who most purely symbolize what is referred to as
"modern" science fiction. He not only gave the field the "Three Laws of Robotics"
which, by limit-ing the action of robots, offered authors unprecedented story
opportunities, but wrote the most successful of all detective stories in a science
fiction context.
C. L. Moore was discovered by WEIRD TALES magazine, and gained her first
reputation in tales of science fantasy, the supernatural and the horrifying. She is
probably the most outstanding of modern women writers of science fiction. Her
tales of Northwest Smith, space rover, won her first reputa-tion and she gained
another writing as Lawrence O'Donnell, for Campbell. The C. L. Moore story has
been taken from FAMOUS FANTASTIC MYSTERIES to provide a sample of the
摘要：

ContentsIntroductionSamMoskowitzDoorwayIntoTimeC.L.MooreALogicNamedJoeMurrayLeinsterWithFoldedHandsJackWilliamsonTheCommandL.SpraguedeCampLiar!IsaacAsimovBeforeEdenArthurC.ClarkeAManorBookFirstprintingNovember,1966Secondprinting::October,1973ManorBooksInc.329FifthAvenueNewYork,NewYork10016LibraryofC...

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分类：外语学习 价格：5.9玖币 属性：95 页 大小：602.76KB 格式：PDF 时间：2024-12-20

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