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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Thursday, November 29, 2012 - 11:20 am:   

Brief thoughts... I now believe that H.G. Wells was the foundation, Robert A. Heinlein was the architect, Henry Kuttner was the bridge and Philip K. Dick was the culminator of a certain strand of science fiction literature. Discuss...
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Thursday, November 29, 2012 - 11:32 am:   

And everyone since has been playing with the form - often to glorious effect, but always playing - until... Gene Wolfe, who took all the elements that had gone before, including those of classic fantasy, and turned them into Great Literature that can be enjoyed in the same way those earlier masters' stories can be enjoyed... as pure STORY. {Yes, I'm a little bit stoned as I'm writing this but still the point stands)

Now, can anyone identify the "certain strand" I talk of?
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Mbfg (Mbfg)
Username: Mbfg

Registered: 09-2010
Posted From: 212.219.63.204
Posted on Thursday, November 29, 2012 - 11:50 am:   

Certain strand? I'll have a go...

To me Philip K Dick was a great exponent of political science fiction. Also, wth stories such as "The Man in the High Castle" there is a strong element of what we now call sliptream. What I mean is, there were no aliens or spaceships, he had created an alternative reality which was perfectly logical and the story's interest lay in the interaction of its characters rather than epic dystopia. At the end of the story, the world he had created had not changed, only our understanding of it and also the lives of the main protagonists.

Cheers
Terry
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Thursday, November 29, 2012 - 12:24 pm:   

I wouldn't call it political science fiction rather than personal science fiction. Heinlein & Dick were as different politically as it is possible to imagine yet still they loved and admired each others works. This was a time when the human imagination was soaring high in the wake of Einstein & Heisenberg & (sadly) Oppenheimer.

I think you're right in identifying the concentration on character (always the foundation of pure storytelling) as those writers' greatest strength, over hard science or ingenious prophecy (which they all had in spades), but when you get all those elements combined the result is Literature as Great and as important and as beneficial to read, for the mind and soul of the reader, as anything by Dickens, Dostoevsky or Golding, imho.
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Hubert (Hubert)
Username: Hubert

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 178.116.60.39
Posted on Thursday, November 29, 2012 - 04:14 pm:   

I'd say Dick was the culmination of the 'inner space' movement, as it was called at the time - late fifties, early sixties, unless I'm mistaken. It got to a point where the reader was wondering whether what he was reading could rightfully called science fiction.
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Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 99.126.164.88
Posted on Friday, November 30, 2012 - 03:43 pm:   

Waitamminut waitamminut waitamminut... that came and went so quickly I think we all missed it....

Yes, I'm a little bit stoned as I'm writing this but still the point stands

Ah, looking back over the years... SO much becomes clear, now....

(just yanking your chain, Stevie )
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Hubert (Hubert)
Username: Hubert

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 178.116.60.39
Posted on Friday, November 30, 2012 - 03:53 pm:   

All that spice will eventually turn him into a Third Stage Navigator

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