Raymond’s snooty (but hilarious)…

I have got to find me a sharp one-piece suit like that.
As you know, I love science fiction, especially its early gems. I lament the fact that most readers are unaware of the classics, especially when it comes to short stories. Ray Bradbury’s Illustrated Man, for example, should be taught in schools: it’s a classic and has influenced generations of authors, whether they realize it or not.
You probably know that my favorite author is P.K. Dick, whom I consider a modern-day prophet. His stories lift the veil of reality in a way that few have ever managed. I would also add to the list of all-time classics Isaac Asimov – whose Foundation series blew my mind long before I got into the I Robot stories – and, of course, Frank Herbert – whose mixture of politics, religion/philosophy, and science fiction I’ve tried to mimic in Pearseus.
However, I’m also painfully aware of science fiction’s humble, pulpy origins. Much of the earlier work was plagued by ridiculous contraptions, tongue-twisting names, and weird physics, as attested by Raymond Chandler in a 1953 letter to his agent, H. N. Swanson.
What really sells this, however, is the wrist computer and the casual name-drop of Google, some 45 years before Larry and Sergey registered the domain…
Did you ever read what they call Science Fiction? It’s a scream. It is written like this:
“I checked out with K19 on Adabaran III, and stepped out through the crummaliote hatch on my 22 Model Sirus Hardtop. I cocked the timejector in secondary and waded through the bright blue manda grass. My breath froze into pink pretzels. I flicked on the heat bars and the Bryllis ran swiftly on five legs using their other two to send out crylon vibrations.
The pressure was almost unbearable, but I caught the range on my wrist computer through the transparent cysicites. I pressed the trigger. The thin violet glow was ice-cold against the rust-colored mountains. The Bryllis shrank to half an inch long and I worked fast stepping on them with the poltex. But it wasn’t enough.
The sudden brightness swung me around and the Fourth Moon had already risen. I had exactly four seconds to hot up the disintegrator and Google had told me it wasn’t enough. He was right.
(from the Verge, courtesy of the Passive Voice)
And a fun fact: I recently added the name Bryllis to a short story as a tongue-in-cheek nod to Chandler.
And Neil’s a darling
Mercifully, another great writer (and one of my all-time favorites), Neil Gaiman, is more positive about sci-fi.
In a celebrated speech at the Reading Agency, he had this to say on the matter:
I was in China in 2007, at the first party-approved science fiction and fantasy convention in Chinese history. And at one point I took a top official aside and asked him Why? SF had been disapproved of for a long time. What had changed?
It’s simple, he told me. The Chinese were brilliant at making things if other people brought them the plans. But they did not innovate and they did not invent. They did not imagine. So they sent a delegation to the US, to Apple, to Microsoft, to Google, and they asked the people there who were inventing the future about themselves. And they found that all of them had read science fiction when they were boys or girls.
You can read an edited version of Neil’s speech on The Guardian – a highly recommended read.
Also, visit Damien Walter for a lively discussion of Neil Gaiman’s quote.
I love every one of those authors you’ve mentioned 🙂
Same here 🙂
Hi Ellie,
For proper attribution: “…At the 2013 International Skoll Forum, Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus, born in Bangladesh but he traveled extensively in India, reportedly said something like, ‘We have science fiction and science follows….’ Muhammad Yunus heads a company that loans money to entrepreneurs who live in impoverished areas and who would not otherwise qualify for financial assistance….”
https://www.girl-who-reads.com/2015/09/robert-eggleton-social-science-fiction.html
Personally, I’m no longer a fan of mainstream science fiction, especially not young adult subgenre science fiction, the popularity of which I believe has damaged the genre by influencing great writers toward self-censorship and editors toward formula sales. I loved pulp for what it represented, and I loved the next logical step with Vonnegut, Adams, and Robbins, but, in my opinion, the genre has a long way to go on its road to recovery from the Harry Potter Disease — so contagious.
https://freshfiction.com/page.php?id=7667
Sometimes, great medicines like Harry (I especially admire Rollins’ past affiliation with Amnesty International) can have adverse side effects.
Hi Robert and welcome!
You make some great points. I love Yunus’ quote, and see its applications daily.
As for the JK Rowling (aka Harry Potter) effect you mention, I can feel it in my own writing. In the first draft of Pearseus, the love scene between Parad and Gella was 3 pages long – and much more explicit. This was all cut out to clean up the book.
Of course…. Oh, well…
I love Neil Gaiman’s stuff! (I actually often draw to the Coraline soundtrack hehe) Also I love some of the older sci-fi/fantasy writers like Jack Vance and Harry Harrison! Jack Vance was probably my favorite writers for awhile…
You… you’re amazing! What are your thoughts on P.K. Dick?
Gaiman spoke at the WV Writer’s Conference recently!
I know. I have such a man-crush on him 😀
Great post Nicholas and I enjoyed the subsequent dialogue. It is a pleasure following you.
That’s such a sweet thing to say; thank you! 😀
You have a great blog.I will be getting to your books in November. We’ll be conversing about them soon.
Oh, wow – thanks! No need to buy them,though. I’d be happy to just email you anything you want, as a review copy 🙂
Thanks
Sure, no problem. Just let me know what you’d like to read 🙂
Love sci fi and thrillers. You have so many books that look so interesting.Do you have a lot of input on your covers?
The posts where I ask for people’s help are remarkably popular. Which goes to show you what a great bunch of people follow me 🙂
It appears most of your posts are extremely popular. You have a great following. But I have to say the writing community has always been supportive. We have so many obstacles against us we have to be united.
Couldn’t agree more! 🙂
I remember watching the original Star Trek on TV when I was a young one…loved it! I was heartbroken when it was cancelled three years later. And later on, when I fell in love with The Next Generation, I was somewhat amazed on how far special effects had come in between the two.
When the first Star Trek aired, there was a dearth of anything different on TV, and now the big and small screen both abounds with sci-if, fantasy, paranormal, horror, and weird. Books as well. It’s a great time to be alive for those of us who crave to “go where no man has gone before”.
And I’m also a big fan of Neil Gaiman.
Oh my, are you… are you me??
Maybe your female doppelgänger…lol.
Lol – lovely to meet you, female doppelganger 😀
Lovely to meet you. 😀 My friends call me Kathy.
Lovely to meet you, Kathy! My friends call me… erm… Nicholas. Sorry, that’s it 🙂
WK Tucker is my pen name. I hide behind it, and just come out to talk to other writers. 😀
Thanks for sharing your name, then 🙂
My real name is Nicholas Rossis. I added the C so people won’t recognize me. It’s like Superman’s glasses.
Ah…you’re a tricky one. 😀
What criminal mastermind could solve that riddle and see past my mask?
I loved the original Star Trek, too.
My mother used to say, how can you watch that stuff. Look at those guys talking in telephones you carry in your hand.
Gene Roddenberry had the foresight to see it coming.
Yes, he did.
So many things that others have imagined in the past are now commonplace. I hope I live long enough to see man walking on the surface of Mars. I’ve told people I’d give up ten years of my life to do just that. Long, long ago and far away, I wanted to be an astronaut. I became a writer instead. Now I go lots of places. 🙂
Yeah, now you can travel further than any astronaut.
Yes….
But still, it’d be grand to actually step off a ship onto the surface of Mars.
lol
Wouldn’t we all… Say, have you all seen this? https://nicholasrossis.me/2014/05/11/science-fiction-turned-into-fact/
When I click on your link, my phone won’t let me go there…says it may be a site pretending to be you. lol
Lol – crazy phone 😀
My iPad is also insane…refuses to go there too. And I really wanted to read the article. I love it when computers think they know best. Maybe there’s something there they don’t want me to see. Hmm…
Ha ha, let me know when you do manage to see it. It was insanely popular back then 😀
I will. Rest assured, I will circumvent the ones and zeros.
Ha! Not to mention tablets (Jake Sisko always carried one with him on DS9)
Oh, yeah forgot all about them.
Terrific post. I enjoyed reading.
Thanks! 🙂
Ooooh very interesting! That Neil Gaman quote is great, and makes so much sense. If you want to succeed at something, you need passion for it. Hence why your books are so awesome 😀
Aw, you! Thank you! Now, all I need is find some rich patron to pay me to write them 😀
Heh! Don’t we all. 😀
The Gaiman quote makes perfect sense. It’s fascinating to watch old sci-fi movies and see what is now current technology. Oh, and I can’t read the humble, pulpy origins of sci-fi. I just can’t do it. 🙂
Ha ha, not all of them have aged well, I’m afraid 😀
Ha ha. I agree: pulpy and we’ve managed to dial it up somewhat.
I had no idea computer and google come from that far past. Amazing.
I know, I was rather shocked myself at his prophetic use of the words!
It’s a small world after all… 🙂
If it were not for science fiction, would scientists have been inspired to reach for Mars at warp speed? https://www.sciencealert.com/nasa-has-trialled-an-engine-that-would-take-us-to-Mars-in-10-weeks
Would we be close to potentially figuring out teleportation? https://www.livescience.com/52259-quantum-teleportation-sets-distance-record.html
Or would we be in a position to potentially grant those who have lost limbs or the ability to walk as second chance?
https://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/21/technology/a-bionic-approach-to-prosthetics-controlled-by-thought.html?_r=0
I love science fiction as it in many cases it has the potential to be science fact one day.
A big thank-you hug from me for the excellent comment! 😀
🙂 You are more than welcome. It is truly an exciting time to be alive.
I often think the same thing. Have you watched, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RV4fbdcsMT4 ?
Seems science fiction and fantasy always get eye rolls because of their pulpy fiction origin. Is it really so different than how westerns, crime novels, romances, and most other genres started? I mean, was Shakespeare really seen as classic, high society art when he was alive? My point here is that people look at the old stuff and pick out the flaws because we live with the refined product. Back when they first showed up, the campyness might not have been seen as such. It was pure escapism with no questions or destructive analysis. Some days I wonder if modern society has forgotten this aspect of fiction.
Mercifully, I’ve been having too much fun writing SF/fantasy to notice 🙂
I only notice because of talking with people. Seems it’s inevitable when the topic comes up.
Oh, yeah. That’s why I only talk to you guys – my online friends 🙂
Smart move. 🙂
Yeah, but some folks just weren’t bright enough to read between some lines of older SF, too.For example, Heinlein used juvenile voice to address serious race and gender issues of his day.
I guess the medium’s novelty threw them off.
Charles, I agree with your statement. I feel the science fiction genre is unappreciated in publishing circles (“the eye rolls” as you stated). Yet, when you look at the highest grossing movies and movies adapted from novels so many of the top grossing films are science fiction. Today’s science fiction is tomorrow’s science fact.
Good point. It’s probably because of the prevalence of SF in films that I don’t feel the stigma 🙂
True. The public definitely enjoys science fiction in film.
That is a strange situation. I know people who would never read a sci-fi book. Yet, they’re practically drooling over the new Star Wars movie. Maybe it has to do with the medium.
I was just talking to someone about the same subject. Science fiction is not respected in the publishing world. Its almost a frowned upon genre. Which are the top grossing movies in Hollywood? Sci-fi. Thanks for commenting.
Curious about why that is. Might have to look for any sites or info on that. Thanks.
Let me know if you find anything
That is weird, right?
Maybe people find it harder to imagine stuff from words. Seeing everything makes it clearer and doesn’t bring anything into question. I’ve really got no idea.
It’s probably the eye candy effect.
Mmmmm candy.
https://img3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20140127212049/degrassi/images/2/24/Mmm_-_Homer_Simpson.gif
Even though Chandler is an all time hero and my MC in my latest book is a little in homage to him, and he is wonderfully prescient, I am not with him at all re sci fi. And Gaiman, as ever, nails it. It’s all part of genius, thinking weird. Neat post Nick. Good start to Friday thinking about that.
Thanks! Glad you enjoyed it 🙂
I enjoyed this, and found it amusing too. I am sympathetic to Chandler though. So much of even the ‘classic’ sci-fi reads like that. As for future predictions, I feel that few of those actually happened, except the computers. At least not the exciting ones we were told about!
https://beetleypete.wordpress.com/2012/08/02/back-to-the-future/
Best wishes, Pete.
Where’s my Hoverboard, dudes? Oh, right: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZwSwZ2Y0Ops
Speaking of the pulpy origins reminded me of watching late-night re-runs of Lost in Space. So cheesy and the science is so weak, but if you consider the time period, it does hold a special kind of charm.
Ah, the memories…
Fab post! Interesting
Thanks 😀