3 ms·

Literally the first thing that came to mind. Smith also had a super interesting background.

• YeGoblynQueenne 5y ago
  Yes indeed. I can't find this information online but I remember an anecdote according to which Cordwainer Smith had explained the entire timeline of the Instrumentality of Mankind in terms of current goings-on on the international stage. Of (some of) which he had a certain privileged vantage point, of course. I mainly read his works translated in my native Greek at a time when he was not that well-known among English-speaking SF readers anymore. I consider that lucky, for me, and sad, for everyone else. I think of him as one of the greats, one of the authors of SF whose imagination was not bound by cliché and trope, perhaps thanks to his having a day job, unlike most SF authors. I suspect he never really reached his full potential either, again because that was not his day job. His life experience certainly shaped his writing in any case.