
The Making of Future Man: On Hugo Gernsback (2017) - samclemens
https://www.nybooks.com/daily/2017/01/31/hugo-gernsback-making-of-future-man
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fractallyte
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
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.

