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Another spectacularly important figure in SF was John W Campbell (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_W._Campbell https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_W._Campbell)

Another spectacularly important figure in SF was John W Campbell (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_W._Campbell https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_W._Campbell), a contemporary of Hugo Gernsback. He overhauled science fiction from fantastic space opera into a modern, speculative genre. This included cultivating a number of writers that later became giants in the field - including HN favorite Isaac Asimov. And, yes, there is a Campbell award! He was also a seriously brilliant writer, from classics like 'Who Goes There?' and 'Cloak of Aesir', to the almost-forgotten 'All'. There was a big fuss over Andy Weir's 'The Martian', but everyone seems to have overlooked Campbell's 'The Moon is Hell!' (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Moon_Is_Hell! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Moon_Is_Hell!). Buzz Lightyear's catchphrase 'To Infinity and Beyond!' - Campbell wrote it first ('The Mightiest Machine', 1947)!

n4r9 8y ago
I've been reading a bunch of 60s/70s sci fi recently - the odd book by the likes of Pohl, Bester, Haldeman, Heinlein, Lem etc... as well as biggies like Arther C Clarke and Philip K Dick (yet to touch Asimov!). I've been blown away by how enjoyable and fascinating it all is, given how long ago these stories were written. My hunch was that sci fi would date a lot faster than most other genres (and sure, some of the social/cultural/gender aspects seem laughably wrong today), but in the best of these books the human element is so gripping that the sci fi aspect simply becomes a perfectly fantastical backdrop against which to explore some niche part of the human psyche. "The Stars My Destination" really stuck out to me in this sense. Another surprise I had was how much more I've enjoyed the lesser-known authors than the likes of Clarke. I've now gone through both "Rendezvous With Rama" and "The Fountains of Paradise", and whilst the ideas are epic, the actual execution generated very little interest for me. Anyway, that was all very tangential, but your comment really brought home how much further I still need to go to start touching the "source" of sci fi.
mrec 8y ago
IIRC Campbell was also mainly responsible for the obsession with "psi" which pervades so much SF of that era. He was so utterly convinced that it represented the next stage of human evolution, imminent and wholly beneficial, that he actively discriminated against story submissions which didn't take the same view. A few "rebellious" stories like PKD's The Golden Man only really make sense in the context of this dogmatic environment.

n4r9 8y ago

I've been reading a bunch of 60s/70s sci fi recently - the odd book by the likes of Pohl, Bester, Haldeman, Heinlein, Lem etc... as well as biggies like Arther C Clarke and Philip K Dick (yet to touch Asimov!). I've been blown away by how enjoyable and fascinating it all is, given how long ago these stories were written. My hunch was that sci fi would date a lot faster than most other genres (and sure, some of the social/cultural/gender aspects seem laughably wrong today), but in the best of these books the human element is so gripping that the sci fi aspect simply becomes a perfectly fantastical backdrop against which to explore some niche part of the human psyche. "The Stars My Destination" really stuck out to me in this sense. Another surprise I had was how much more I've enjoyed the lesser-known authors than the likes of Clarke. I've now gone through both "Rendezvous With Rama" and "The Fountains of Paradise", and whilst the ideas are epic, the actual execution generated very little interest for me. Anyway, that was all very tangential, but your comment really brought home how much further I still need to go to start touching the "source" of sci fi.

mrec 8y ago

IIRC Campbell was also mainly responsible for the obsession with "psi" which pervades so much SF of that era. He was so utterly convinced that it represented the next stage of human evolution, imminent and wholly beneficial, that he actively discriminated against story submissions which didn't take the same view. A few "rebellious" stories like PKD's The Golden Man only really make sense in the context of this dogmatic environment.