From: "Strong, Lee" <StrongL at MTMC.ARMY.MIL>
To: "'WSFA members'" <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: Talking SF, oh my; was: time travel
Date: Wed, 20 Mar 2002 16:37:47 -0500
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net>
Ah, that explains these strange markings...!
Actually, I am generally familiar with the Shaver Mystery and the
deros, which I first encountered in H. Beam Piper's _The Cosmic
Computer_/_Junkyard Planet_, a book that changed my life. The deroes also
show up in Dungeons & Dragons, which closes the loop on another thread in
this chat. One of my hobbies is reading "borderline" stuff such as Shaver,
von Daniken, Atlantis, the Bermuda Triangle, the Philadelphia Experiment,
time travel, Spear's New Motor, and similar stuff. This, in turn, bleeds
into theosophy, Urantia, Black Muslim theology and the like. Interesting
stuff provided you drink lots of milk first.
-----Original Message-----
From: Michael Walsh [mailto:MJW at mail.press.jhu.edu]
Sent: Wednesday, March 20, 2002 2:27 PM
To: WSFAlist at keithlynch.net
Subject: [WSFA] Re: Talking SF, oh my; was: time travel
The Evil Robots of the Shaver mystery were called Deros ("deros" - short =
for "detrimental robots" (who were not robots as the term is ordinarily =
understood but "robots" in the sense of being slaves to their passions; =
from http://www.disorganization.com/History/Shaver.html). And they lived =
underground; hence a possible propensity to scribble messages on the =
bottoms of shoes (this bizarre notion came to some us ages ago at some =
convention).
Anyway, the Shaver Mystery didn't quite plunge all of fandom into war, but =
it did cause a lot of mimeo ink to be used, see: http://www.sff.net/people/=
diccon/SIERRA.HTM .
mjw
>>> StrongL at MTMC.ARMY.MIL 03/20/02 02:21PM >>>
No. Why?
-----Original Message-----
From: Michael Walsh [mailto:MJW at mail.press.jhu.edu]
Sent: Wednesday, March 20, 2002 2:13 PM
To: WSFAlist at keithlynch.net
Subject: [WSFA] Re: Talking SF, oh my; was: time travel
Been reading the bottoms of your shoes, eh?
mjw
>>> StrongL at MTMC.ARMY.MIL 03/20/02 02:16PM >>>
The Shaver Mystery was an allegory for nuclear warfare and the
dangers of radiation. It might also be one of the sources of the 1960 =
movie
_The Time Machine_... which neatly closes the loop on this thread.
-----Original Message-----
From: Michael Walsh [mailto:MJW at mail.press.jhu.edu]
Sent: Wednesday, March 20, 2002 1:58 PM
To: WSFAlist at keithlynch.net
Subject: [WSFA] Talking SF, oh my; was: time travel
Steve Smith cast forth into cyberspace:
>Ted White wrote:
>
>> If you've really read all of Heinlein, *and* you've read his contemporar=
=
=
ies,
>> you know that *all* SF from the '40s and most of it from the '50s can =
=
=
be
>> described as "coming] under the category of 'puzzle stories', little
>> intellectual pieces like mystery short-stories, with a prize for the =
=
=
winner and
>> not a whole lot of characterization."
>
>All? Even in "Astounding", that citadel of the "puzzle story", there
>were quite a lot that didn't come under this heading. A lot of
>Heinlein, for example. Get out of JW Campbell's orbit, and you find all
>sorts of stuff, like "The Martian Chronicles".
Martian Chronicles was post-WWII, the beginning of the end of the JWC =
hegemony with the arrival of the Boucher/McComas The Magazine of Fantasy =
=
=
(second issue added "science fiction") and H. L. Gold's Galaxy. From =
1939 through the late 1940s the only orbit of note was JWC. There were =
=
=
some exceptional authors outside that orbit, but when it came to being =
assured of reading - for the era - quality SF, one went to ASF.
As an aside, the pre-JWC, the Gernsback era it could be called, was =
essentially a vast wasteland; with some exceptions and some notable =
writers at the begining of their careers (Jack Williamson comes to mind). =
=
=
Bleiler is particularly tough on one of the era's fave writers, David H. =
=
=
Keller, M.D., calling one of Keller's stories one of the worse racist =
stories pulished in the genre.
>
>The 1940s bad stuff was mostly shoot-em-ups and monsters. No real
>"puzzles" unless you count "tomato surprise" endings, which Kit may
>actually be talking about.
The pre-Campbell era material can be described in one word: dreadful. =
Though Stanley Weinbaum is a sad case of a potential great talent felled =
=
=
by cancer.
>The stuff I think of as "puzzles" was mostly
>1950s and 1960s, with Christopher Anvil, Hal Clement, and Poul Anderson
>doing real "need to solve this" stories, with definite science and math.
One of JWCs pet ideas was the idea of the Homo Sapien being superior to =
=
=
all, many of Eric Frank Russell's stories deal with the lone earthman =
defeating an entire galactic empire, or some such.
But a lot of genre stuff does rely upon the "surprise ending". And it =
ain't neccessarily bad - Kornbluth's Little Black Bag is an example.
>
>I could make a case that "all SF from the 1940s and 1950s was actually
>allegories about totalitarianism or nuclear war".
I think it would be a difficult case to make considering the volume of =
crap published. Shaver Mystery anyone?
mjw
mjw at mail.press.jhu.edu
>Not a good case, but
>a case. ("Everything is related to the numbers 5, 17, or 23, if you
>think about it hard enough.")
>
>--
>Steve Smith sgs at aginc.net
>Agincourt Computing http://www.aginc.net
>"Truth is stranger than fiction because fiction has to make sense."
>