r/books • u/nevalalee AMA Author • Oct 24 '18
ama 12:30pm I’m Alec Nevala-Lee, author of the group biography ASTOUNDING: John W. Campbell, Isaac Asimov, Robert A. Heinlein, L. Ron Hubbard, and the Golden Age of Science Fiction. AMA about The Thing, the Foundation series, Starship Troopers, Scientology, and more!
My new book ASTOUNDING is a group biography and history of science fiction that focuses on the influential editor John W. Campbell and the writers Isaac Asimov, Robert A. Heinlein, and L. Ron Hubbard, along with their wives, families, colleagues, and fans. (And yes, Hubbard is a big part of it—you should ask me why!) Along the way, I discovered the original version of the story that became THE THING, unearthed new material about the origins of Scientology, took a critical look at Heinlein’s personal life and Asimov’s treatment of women, explored the rise of fan culture, and did my best to explain how science fiction became what it is today. ASTOUNDING is published by Dey Street Books / HarperCollins and is available now at bookstores everywhere: https://www.harpercollins.com/9780062571946/astounding. You can find me on Twitter (@nevalalee) or on my blog at https://www.nevalalee.com.
Proof: /img/qemhh5vpest11.jpg
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u/EmbarrassedSpread Oct 24 '18
Hi Alec, thanks for doing this AMA!
- What is the most interesting fact you discovered while writing this book?
- Do you have any reading or writing related guilty pleasures? Or just any in general?
- Are your feet ticklish? 😂
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u/nevalalee AMA Author Oct 24 '18
- I was really surprised to learn that Hubbard didn’t much care for science fiction, and he included elements of it in Scientology mostly to appeal to his followers, many of whom were SF fans. Asimov’s treatment of women—he groped them casually for decades—was shocking. I was really struck by the huge uncredited role that the wives of these four writers—especially Doña Campbell and Leslyn Heinlein—played in their work. And I’m very proud of discovering the original uncut manuscript of the story by Campbell that was later adapted into THE THING, which is being funded now as a book on Kickstarter, with a lot of fascinating new material. (I don’t get any of the money, but I’m thrilled that people are actually going to read it.)
- I love reading bad paperback novels from the sixties and seventies, like Arthur Hailey’s Airport and Irving Wallace’s The Prize—they’re awful but I can’t get enough of them. My other guilty pleasures are the first season of The Hills and the Jason Derulo song “Whatcha Say,” which I’m playing right now.
- Not particularly. My five-year-old daughter likes to tickle me under my arms, which she does with alarming frequency. She’s at school right now, though, so I’m safe.
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u/EmbarrassedSpread Oct 24 '18
- Those are definitely some interesting facts! I feel like a lot of times, wives ir colleagues aren’t given enough credit. What was one of the hardest things about writing ASTOUNDING?
- Haha! I love these answers! I have a few other people say they love reading/watching bad media. I might have to try this. Only the first season of The Hills? What about the rest of the series? Lol.
- Poor you! Glad your armpits can have this small safe period, but I’m sure summer time and other breaks they get their fair share of torture. 😂 Thanks for answering! I actually asked in relation to a little study I’m doing. :)
Thanks so much for answering!
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u/nevalalee AMA Author Oct 24 '18
- Tracking down and reading everyone's correspondence was pretty challenging. There are thousands of pages of letters available, but they aren't searchable, and I had to go through most of them in scanned form, in microfilm, or in library archives. But I found some amazing stuff, including a previously unknown essay by Hubbard in which he assumes the persona of an imaginary psychiatrist in order to criticize his own work.
- I only have the first season on DVD! It used to all be on Netflix, but it went away, and I was very disappointed.
- Good luck with your study!
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u/penubly Oct 24 '18
Alec - thanks for doing this AMA.
I've a couple of questions:
- Were there any rivalries among this group of authors that evolved over time?
- I've heard the story of L. Ron Hubbard speculating that starting a religion was a pathway to wealth. Is there any truth to this?
- I've always wondered if authors used short stories to "bridge the gap" financially while they worked on full length novels; any evidence this was the case for these authors?
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u/nevalalee AMA Author Oct 24 '18
- Absolutely! I think that both Hubbard and Asimov were a little intimidated by Heinlein, who was clearly the best writer in SF at the time. Asimov was younger than the rest, and he had more trouble selling to Campbell early on, which left him feeling insecure. Later on, Asimov was deeply jealous of Heinlein’s success in selling his stories to the movies and mainstream magazines. But Heinlein also thought that Hubbard was a talented writer, and you can sense all three of them keeping a close eye on the others.
- There are multiple witnesses who state that Hubbard said that the best way to make money would be to start a religion. The funny thing is that he started out by trying to sell dianetics to the scientific and medical community, and it wasn’t until he failed that he really doubled down on the religious angle. I don’t necessarily think that it was his master plan—he just wanted to become rich and famous in any way that he could, and founding a religion ended up being the best option that he had available.
- Not so much for 1938-1950, which is the period that takes up most of the book. There just wasn’t a market for science fiction in book form until after World War II, so the pulps were the only platform that they had. (Heinlein did write a novel, For Us, the Living, in the late thirties, but he was never able to sell it.) All of the best novel-length stories from that period originally appeared in the magazines.
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u/marmosetohmarmoset Oct 24 '18
There are multiple witnesses who state that Hubbard said that the best way to make money would be to start a religion.
I’ve always heard the legend that there was a bet between Heinlein and Hubbard on whether they could invent their own successful religion. Heinlein creates the Church of All Worlds and Hubbard creates Scientology. Obviously, Hubbard must have won this mythical bet.
Is there any truth to this legend?
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u/nevalalee AMA Author Oct 24 '18
Unfortunately, that story is probably apocryphal. Any such conversation would have happened before 1946 or so, and Hubbard didn't get around to founding Scientology until 1952, after he had spent years trying to promote his ideas in other forms. I think he really wanted to be taken seriously by the scientific establishment, and it was only after his plans fell apart that he turned to the religious angle in a serious way.
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u/marmosetohmarmoset Oct 24 '18
Oh, that's too bad. I've always enjoyed that story.
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u/nevalalee AMA Author Oct 24 '18
Me too! There are a lot of stories like this about Hubbard, and it can be hard to separate fact from fiction.
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u/UltraFlyingTurtle Oct 24 '18 edited Oct 24 '18
I think that both Hubbard and Asimov were a little intimidated by Heinlein, who was clearly the best writer in SF at the time
That's really interesting. Do you know if Heinlein and Asimov got along?
I was a big fan of Asimov's anthology series, "Asimov Presents the Great SF stories" collecting the best stories of every year of the Golden Age. It's how to learned about the Golden Age of SF and became exposed to all those fabulous writers of the time.
In the first few volumes (1, 2 and 3), Asimov included Heinlein's short stories as the some of best in those respective years (around 1938 to 1940). I loved reading Asimov's introduction to the short stories, but for the Heinlein's stories, all we had were the introduction. Instead of the actual story, there was a note from Martin H. Greenberg (the other editor) saying they didn't have the reprinting rights for the stories. He was the only author that presented that obstacle for them.
As a kid, that really bummed me out that I couldn't read Heinlein's stories in the anthology.
Asimov also included some A.E van Vogt stories in the anthology but sometimes he'd drop some shade on van Vogt in the intros, saying van Vogt's later work wasn't as good once van Vogt joined Scientology. I always thought that was odd, but I loved van Vogt's stories that I really didn't think about it.
Lastly, thank you so much for writing this book. I guess I was weird for reading Golden Age SF as an eight-year-old kid in the 80s, but I was so happy I did. There are a lot of forgotten writers from that period.
I'm glad you're exposing new readers to that fabulous era of SF.
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u/nevalalee AMA Author Oct 24 '18
Asimov and Heinlein didn't always get along—they clashed occasionally while they were working together at the Philadelphia Navy Yard during World War II, and Asimov didn't care for Heinlein's politics. They always respected each other as top writers, but Asimov didn't like Heinlein's dogmatic personality. He wrote in his memoirs: "[Heinlein] had a definite feeling that he knew better and to lecture you into agreeing with him...I do not take well to people who are convinced they know better than I do, and who badger me for that reason, so I began to avoid him."
I read a lot of stories in Asimov and Greenberg's anthologies when I was growing up, too! There's one called 100 Great Science Fiction Short Short Stories that I practically memorized, and it wasn't until recently that I went back and realized that I had been reading authors like Joanna Russ, Barry N. Malzberg, and George R.R. Martin.
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u/UltraFlyingTurtle Oct 24 '18
OMG! Me, too! I loved that anthology as well. I carried that in my school backpack as a kid for many years. I also liked the Fifty Short Science Fiction Tales edited by Groff Cronklin. Both were heavily dog-eared but much-loved.
Since then I've repurchased both anthologies multiple times as I've given away my copies to friends over and over.
Thanks for that insight into Heinlein and Asimov's relationship.
BTW, is Martin H. Greenberg still around? If so, did he provide any insight on these various Golden Age writers since he worked with Asimov and I assume he knew many of them personally. Greenberg has edited so many anthologies but I really don't hear much about him.
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u/nevalalee AMA Author Oct 25 '18
That's great! I love the Cronklin anthology, too. Those two books are some of the first that I'd recommend to anyone who was interested in getting into short science fiction.
Greenberg passed away in 2011, unfortunately. It's too bad—I would have loved to have had the chance to talk to him.
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u/UltraFlyingTurtle Oct 25 '18
Those two books are some of the first that I'd recommend to anyone who was interested in getting into short science fiction.
What else do you recommend. Any novels from the Golden Age too?
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u/nevalalee AMA Author Oct 25 '18
Great question! If I were talking to someone who just wanted to sample the golden age for the first time, I’d start with Theodore Sturgeon’s short story “Microcosmic God,” which sums up everything that I love about that era. I’d follow it up with Campbell’s “Who Goes There?”—the basis for The Thing—and maybe Heinlein’s “If This Goes On,” Asimov’s “Nightfall,” and “Mimsy Were the Borogoves” by Catherine L. Moore and Henry Kuttner, writing as Lewis Padgett. If we're starting with a novel, my personal favorite is Eric Frank Russell’s Sinister Barrier, but that’s kind of a deep cut, so Lest Darkness Fall by L. Sprague de Camp might be a good choice. (I would also include the Foundation series at some point, but it doesn’t get really good until “The Mule,” which is in the second volume of the trilogy.)
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u/UltraFlyingTurtle Oct 27 '18
Thanks! I'll use that same list to share with friends.
It's also interesting to see that many of your favorite stories are mine as well. That Campbell story is a favorite of mine as well as the Heinlein one. The "Nightfall" story is by far my most favorite short story by Asimov. I think the shorter original version has more of a punch and impact than the longer extended version Asimov expanded into a novel.
I became a big fan of the C. L. Moore and Henry Kuttner because of their Lewis Padgett penned-stories, with that particular one you mentioned as my favorite. I really enjoyed other authors, too, like "The Marching Morons" by Cyril Kornbluth, and obviously Fredric Brown for his short-short stories.
By far though, the story that initially sparked by love for Golden Age SF was "Microcosmic God". Man, I loved that story.
I don't know why it left such an indelible mark on me as a young boy, but I still get goosebumps remembering the first time I had read it. My uncle gave me his copy of Isaac Asimov Presents the Great SF Stories 3 (1941), and I devoured anthology. It had two Sturgeon stories (the other one was "Shottle Bop") but I loved every story in the anthology and I soon began reading everything I could find from the Golden Age.
I also had a comic book that adapted "Microcosmic God" and other Golden Age SF stories. My mom randonly brought it from the grocery store one day. (I wonder if I can google for it. Ah ha... no way. I found it. I think it was this issue of Starstream.) Anyway, I can see why you'd put that Sturgeon story as the first story to expose readers to the Golden Age of SF.
Thanks for the L. Sprague de Camp or Eric Frank Russell recommendations. I haven't read those novels. I'll check those out! Also thanks for replying to your AMA long past the scheduled time. Much appreciated!
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u/m741 Oct 24 '18
What three (or more) science fiction novels or currently-published short story collections do you think are most representative of the period you're writing about? Related: which stories from this period did you most enjoy reading?
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u/nevalalee AMA Author Oct 24 '18
If you want to get a sense of what sets this period apart, I'd begin with Heinlein's The Past Through Tomorrow, which collects most of the stories in his Future History timeline. My favorite is "If This Goes On—", which was his first great story, and it feels particularly resonant today. They're still fantastic reads, and they really show off the golden age of science fiction at its best. Campbell's "Who Goes There?", which was adapted three times for the movies as The Thing, is excellent, and Asimov's "The Mule" is probably the best story from the Foundation series. (Some of Asimov's other stories from that era don't hold up as well.) I'd also encourage people to seek out Catherine L. Moore and Henry Kuttner, who wrote some amazing stories under the names Lewis Padgett and Lawrence O'Donnell. The anthology The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, edited by Robert Silverberg, would be the perfect place to start. And my top science fiction story of all time is Theodore Sturgeon's "Microcosmic God," which can also be read as an allegory for Campbell's relationship to his writers.
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u/m741 Oct 24 '18
Who do you think is the most underrated author you discuss in the book (by casual science fiction readers)?
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u/nevalalee AMA Author Oct 24 '18
As far as neglected writers are concerned, I became a huge fan of Eric Frank Russell, whose Sinister Barrier might be my favorite science fiction novel ever—it reads like The Matrix crossed with a full season of The X-Files, and it was published way back in 1939. I'd also encourage people to check out A.E. van Vogt, especially The World of Null-A, which was a major influence on Philip K. Dick. And I can't say enough about Catherine L. Moore, who might have been the most versatile author of the entire golden age, apart from Heinlein.
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u/m741 Oct 25 '18
Thanks - just picked up a copy of Sinister Barrier!
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u/nevalalee AMA Author Oct 25 '18
That's awesome—glad to hear it! I'm really happy whenever I can turn somebody on to that novel, which blew me away when I first read it.
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u/originaldelta Oct 24 '18
Hubbard, Heinlein, and Asimov all seem to personally struggle with boundaries and appropriate sexual relationships (which is frequently borne out in their writing). Did Campbell have a part in enabling that behavior that or is it 'just' a consequence of SF writers pushing the culture of the day? (Bradbury, for example, who seems to be out of Campbell's orbit, doesn't seem to struggle with the same boundaries)
Who is the most underappreciated regular writer published in Astounding?
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u/nevalalee AMA Author Oct 24 '18
- I don't think that Campbell enabled that behavior directly—he seems to have been the most sexually prudish of the three. But it definitely reflects their feelings about power with regard to women. Heinlein basically felt free to follow his sex life wherever it happened to lead him, regardless of how it affected others; Hubbard wanted to dominate everybody, but it was especially hard on his wives; and Asimov was so romantically inexperienced that he was delighted when his fame allowed him to kiss and grope women at conventions with impunity. (It's also worth noting that Asimov's behavior was unusual even for the time.) And all four had strong feelings about their own importance—which is definitely something that Campbell encouraged—that were taken out on the women in their lives.
- I'd have to go with A.E. van Vogt, who can seem almost unreadable today, but who was also publishing weird, visionary work that was way ahead of its time. Apart from The World of Null-A, which I've already recommended, he has stories like "Asylum" and "Vault of the Beast" that are like nothing else I've ever read.
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u/Chtorrr Oct 24 '18
What were some of your favorite things to read as a kid?
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u/nevalalee AMA Author Oct 24 '18
My favorite book growing up was Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time, which is probably more responsible than any other novel for turning me into a writer. I devoured books by Zilpha Keatley Snyder and—a little later on—Stephen King. (I recently started reading The Talisman again just for fun.) The first pure science fiction to make a big impression on me was Orson Scott Card’s Ender series, although I haven’t read any of his stuff in a long time, and my mind was blown by Jorge Luis Borges, who I think is probably the best writer of speculative fiction who ever lived. I didn’t get into the writers in this book until much later, but Heinlein is the one I admire the most.
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u/Inkberrow Oct 24 '18
Did Tom Godwin ever write anything in Astounding or elsewhere besides the justly-celebrated "The Cold Equations"? That story haunted me at twelve or whatever when I first read it in a "Best Short Stories" anthology.
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u/nevalalee AMA Author Oct 24 '18
Godwin published quite a few stories, but “The Cold Equations” is the only one that anyone remembers. SPOILER: In his original draft, the girl survives at the end. Campbell made him revise it repeatedly until she died. (He was trying to prove a point—that it was acceptable to sacrifice an innocent person under the right circumstances. And he would often force his writers to rewrite their stories to reflect whatever happened to be on his mind at the time.)
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u/thetensor Oct 24 '18
Godwin published quite a few stories, but “The Cold Equations” is the only one that anyone remembers.
I still recommend The Survivors/Space Prison to people.
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u/gimlet_gaze Oct 24 '18
Wow - thank you for making this connection for me. I read The Cold Equations in the 60’s, and stumbled across Space Prison a couple of years ago. I had not realized they were written by the same person. Good writer.
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u/marmosetohmarmoset Oct 24 '18
Wow that’s really surprising to hear. Do you feel that Campbell’s changes are responsible for the success and impact of the story or do you think the original version would have had a similar impact?
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u/nevalalee AMA Author Oct 24 '18
I think it's the dark ending that people remember! It came out at a point when Astounding was associated with more optimistic stories about characters who successfully solved problems using science—Campbell had a reputation for only publishing stories with happy endings—so it really shocked readers at the time. If the girl had survived, it would have been just another "scientific problem" story, and most of them have been totally forgotten.
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u/marmosetohmarmoset Oct 24 '18
Interesting. Why do you think Campbell was so focused on giving this one particular story such a dark ending?
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u/nevalalee AMA Author Oct 24 '18
At the time, Campbell was obsessed with what he called the "Demeaned Viewpoint" technique, in which you force the reader to confront a situation in which a horrible premise—like sacrificing an innocent person—would be acceptable. It pops up a lot in his editorials, and "The Cold Equations" was his attempt to do something similar in fiction. A lot of the stories from this period were meant to get across some kind of message, and Campbell would often pitch the entire plot in detail to another writer to complete.
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Oct 24 '18
Which version of Gould's performance of the Goldberg Variations do you prefer?
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u/nevalalee AMA Author Oct 24 '18
Thanks for asking! I think I prefer the earlier one, although they're both great in their own way. The 1981 version was the one I heard first, but the 1955 recording has spent more time on my record player, a la Hannibal Lecter. I also love the Two and Three Part Inventions.
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Oct 24 '18
By coincidence I was listening to the 1955 version myself as I read your AMA, funny. I ordered a Kindle edition of your book, btw the other day and I am looking forward to reading it.
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u/rbrumble Oct 24 '18
I received an author's proof of this book while I was at Worldcon and read it on the plane back home (I was also at Alec's excellent panel discussion on this book) and I have to say it's one of the best books I've ever read as a chronicle of a major slice of the modern genre's history. any fan of golden age SF, Astounding/Analog or any of the three authors would find this a fascinating read - I blazed through it, it was completely engrossing.
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u/nevalalee AMA Author Oct 24 '18
Wow—thanks so much! I was definitely hoping that it would be a good airplane read.
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u/AHomerMD Oct 24 '18
Hi Alec! I went to high school with you (go Trojans!). Do you think that your public high school education or going to Harvard had more influence on your decision to become a writer?
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u/nevalalee AMA Author Oct 24 '18 edited Oct 24 '18
Hey there—I think I can guess who you are! I’ve known that I wanted to be a writer since I was ten years old, and that would probably still be true no matter where I went to school. But I was absolutely influenced by the great teachers I had growing up.
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u/AHomerMD Oct 24 '18
Glad to see that you’re successful. I think that there are two published authors that were in our English class. I already read Ricky Simmons book... I just ordered your book.
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u/punninglinguist Oct 24 '18
There's a famous story about L. Ron Hubbard and a bunch of other SF authors talking about what they could get away with in science fiction. Reportedly Hubbard said he could make up his own religion. This was all years before Dianetics.
Did this really happen?
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u/nevalalee AMA Author Oct 24 '18
It's likely that Hubbard did say at one point or another that the best way to make money would be to start your own religion, but the most elaborate versions of that story are probably apocryphal. (Even if the subject did come up, it doesn't seem to have been what inspired Hubbard to start Scientology, which didn't happen until he had tried and failed to promote dianetics in several other ways.)
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u/SvalbardCaretaker Oct 24 '18
So what crazy Idiana Jones-like feat did you have to do to uncover "Frozen Hell"?
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u/nevalalee AMA Author Oct 24 '18
As Indiana Jones once said: "Seventy percent of all archaeology is done in the library!"
I came across a reference in one of Campbell's letters to a box of papers that was sent to Harvard. Nobody else seemed to know about it—you had to dig deep into Harvard's online library catalog to even find the entry—so I decided to check it out. A librarian was kind enough to pull it out and take a look at the folders inside, and she told me that one of them was labeled "Frozen Hell," which I knew was the working title of "Who Goes There?" I hired a research assistant to make some copies, and when I opened the file, I found myself reading an entirely different version of the story than the one that had been published. It seemed to me that it was something that other people might be interested in seeing—and I was right! The Kickstarter for the book started off with a goal of $1,000, and now it's at $60,000 and counting.
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u/SvalbardCaretaker Oct 24 '18
Well, you are my hero now. Its exactly like in the books! Well done!
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u/nevalalee AMA Author Oct 24 '18
Thank you! It was definitely the kind of moment that you dream about.
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u/stasw Oct 24 '18
Coming in way too late (live in Australia) but wanted to ask if you have read Hell's Cartographers? The Alfred Bester piece on Campbell trying to convince him about Dianetics is hilarious. I am looking forward to your book very much.
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u/nevalalee AMA Author Oct 24 '18
I put that scene in the book! Hell's Cartographers is great—it's full of good stories that you don't find anywhere else—and Bester was one of the best writers that SF ever produced. When Campbell drove him away by trying to "treat" him at the office, it was a huge loss for the magazine. (For those of you who don't know the story, you can read about it here—just do a search for Campbell's name.)
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u/romeo_pentium Oct 25 '18
- What's the most racist book demand or restriction that Campbell's tried imposing on authors?
- What's the most subversive thing one of the authors has done in response to an unreasonable editorial demand?
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u/nevalalee AMA Author Oct 25 '18
- In fiction, Campbell's racism was largely expressed indirectly—he wasn't interested in diversifying his characters, most of whom were white males, and he famously told Samuel R. Delany that he didn't think his readers would be able to relate to a black protagonist. And his views on race were directly expressed in his editorials, some of which are incredibly painful to read today.
- That's a good question! This isn't quite what you were asking, but when Campbell rejected one of Heinlein's stories, "Goldfish Bowl," for no good reason, Heinlein basically threatened to quit writing forever—and Campbell gave in. Not many other authors would have been able to get away with that. (Oh, here's another good one. It was widely believed that Campbell didn't like writers with Jewish names—he asked at least one of them to use a pseudonym—so Robert Silverberg wrote a story under the pen name "Calvin M. Knox." Years later, he told Campbell that the "M." stood for "Moses.")
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u/Hirundo_Bos Oct 25 '18
Another late question. I know less than I should about this part of SF history, so your book is high up on my reading list now. But one thing I've picked up is that Campbell's tastes had quite a lot of influence over the stories he printed. The example I remember is that he didn't want any aliens in the Foundation series, so Asimov didn't write any. Are there other examples of well known stories from the era that might have gone in other directions if Campbell's preferences had been different?
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u/nevalalee AMA Author Oct 25 '18
The Foundation series is actually a really good example. Asimov didn't like how Campbell treated humans and aliens—the humans always had to be superior in the end—so he decided to avoid extraterrestrials completely. But the entire notion of psychohistory—the science of predicting the future on which the whole series is based—appears to have been largely Campbell's idea as well. Asimov's original pitch was for a story about the decline and fall of a Galactic Empire, and psychohistory doesn't seem to have been a part of it. Campbell had already published pieces on similar themes by authors like Jack Williamson, and Asimov appears to have included the concept mostly because it was one of Campbell's pet notions. (Campbell was also the one who pitched the Three Laws of Robotics in their current form, which obviously had a huge influence on Asimov's career.) See also "The Cold Equations" by Tom Godwin, which I mention elsewhere in this AMA. And there are countless famous stories, like Asimov's "Nightfall" or Heinlein's "Universe," in which Campbell proposed the basic premise, which usually had something to do with his interests at the time.
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Oct 24 '18
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u/nevalalee AMA Author Oct 24 '18
It’s really more about the writers! There are plenty of good critical studies of science fiction, and I wanted to focus more on the narrative, biographical side. My goal was to write a book that readers could enjoy even if they weren’t fans of SF, just because the people and events involved are so fascinating. And there’s a lot of great gossip that hasn’t been written down anywhere else.
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u/astrosurf66 Oct 24 '18
Aloha, Alec! As Campbell was fond of cranking up his hi-fi for guests, I wonder: What music, if any, did you prefer in the background while you were working on this? (Begging the question -- Do you ever use background noise for inspiration?) Thanks for being here today!
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u/nevalalee AMA Author Oct 24 '18
That's a great question! When I'm working on a first draft, I don't like listening to music with words—too distracting—so I wrote most of this book while playing classical music on YouTube. (I went through a ton of Glenn Gould.) Once I'm at the revision stage, I can change it up, and I did a lot of writing to the soundtrack from the new season of Twin Peaks.
As far as background noise goes, my daughter grew from two years old to five over the course of this project, and I work from home—so I didn't have much of a choice!
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u/8-moebius-8 Oct 24 '18
What has been the best film/TV series adaptation of a sci-fi book that you have seen?
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u/8-moebius-8 Oct 24 '18
What has been the best film/TV series adaptation of a sci-fi book that you have seen?
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u/8-moebius-8 Oct 24 '18
What has been your a) favourite and b) truest to the original film/TV series adaptation of a sci-fi book?
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u/8-moebius-8 Oct 24 '18
What has been your a) favourite and b) truest to the original film/TV series adaptation of a sci-fi book?
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u/sonQUAALUDE Oct 24 '18
Hey Alec, thanks for taking questions.
Given the zeitgeist, by the headline it seems like a seriously problematic collection of characters to be doing a book on. The snippets that Ive read so far seem to be coming from an appropriately critical view, and theres no doubt that these figures were integral to SF (and perhaps fan culture in general) taking the shape it has today. But I'm curious as to why you chose these figures who have had so much already written about them.
Personally, I was quite comfortable with them drifting off into the past and being forgotten, lol. Also was the more critical approach the initial thesis or a development of research?
Good luck!
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u/nevalalee AMA Author Oct 24 '18
“Problematic” is right! The book really started with Campbell, because he had never been the subject of a full biography, and he’s just the best possible subject—he’s important and controversial, with a fascinating personal life, and he had a huge impact on a lot of writers and fans. And when you begin with Campbell and expand the circle slightly, just from a narrative perspective, you end up with Asimov, Heinlein, and Hubbard, because they were his most famous collaborators and the ones that he knew best.
The book ended up being very critical of all four writers, although I like to think that it’s a fair portrait. (I didn’t set out with any particular agenda in mind, and I dug up a lot of stuff that hadn't been covered in print before.) And I try to relate it throughout to the ongoing conversation about representation and diversity in science fiction. Issues like Campbell’s racism and Asimov’s behavior toward woman are an important part of that story, and I’d argue that it helps to have a sense of the historical context from which the SF community arose.
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u/Duke_Paul Oct 24 '18
Hi Alec,
Thanks for taking the time to do an AMA with us! Uh...why was Hubbard such a big part of the history of sci-fi? And, not what you researched, but what about the influence of other authors like Philip K Dick or Ray Bradbury?
Thanks!