Date: Fri, 02 Jan 2004 13:48:47 -0500
From: "Michael Walsh" <MJW at mail.press.jhu.edu>
To: <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: Say What?
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net>

Yes they were in the business of selling fiction, but Campbell had his own =
set of beliefs,  Undoubtedly a reflection of how JWC was raised, and of =
the times.  (This should prove interesting, if still available: <http://www=
.scifi.com/sfw/issue278/cool.html>)

But the point that Clute is probably making, is that IF the Heinelein =
novel had been published back then, and/or RAH had stuck to the various =
philosophies within the book, perhaps, just perhaps the genre we are =
reading now would be different.

And on a somewhat digressive note:
"In the unedited recording of the 1941 Denvention speech, RAH specifically =
says that all of the stories were written with Leslyn as partner." =
[Message ID: 20030826094623.21977.00000928 at mb-m07.aol.com )  (Leslyn =
Macdonald Heinlein, his [apparently] second wife)

mjw

>>> strongl at sddc.army.mil 01/02/04 01:20PM >>>
        "A weapon of future-purification"?  I had the vague notion that
Campbell and Heinlein (among others) were trying to tell stories and
possibly earn a shekel or two from an appreciative audience.  What's this
"weapon of future-purification" stuff?

-----Original Message-----
From: Michael Walsh [mailto:MJW at mail.press.jhu.edu]
Sent: Friday, January 02, 2004 1:05 PM
To: wsfalist at keithlynch.net
Subject: [WSFA] That "new" Heinlein novel . .

John Clute gives it a fairly positive review <http://www.scifi.com/sfw/curr=
=
ent/excess.html>.

"For us, though, in 2004, For Us, the Living, as far as its arguments go, =
=
is pure Heinlein; indeed, because almost every radical notion he ever =
generated appears here in utero, the book rewrites our sense of Heinlein's =
=
entire career; and because Heinlein's career, as we understood it, has =
always seemed expressive of the nature of American SF from 1939 to 1966, =
=
this small, slightly stumblebum first novel rewrites our understanding of =
=
those years, especially the early ones, when John W. Campbell Jr. was =
attempting to shape the nascent genre into a weapon of future-purification.=
=
"

mjw