Returning
Sweet climate and beloved spouse; after a normal day, no surprises or calamities, a lovely night time walk settled us.
Am nearing the end of a collection of early Isaac Asimov short stories; he interspersed them with observations about his life at the time he wrote them, ranging from late Depression era years to post-WWII. I would not want this sort of intrusion usually, but it's been fascinating to find out about the ways in which he got published, in some very pulpy magazines, with pretty short half-lives, as well as getting a little idea of what he was like in his younger years. I prefer him as a humanist to Poul Anderson, whose libertarian themes are practically screeds in some of his work. When I was on a sci-fi kick in my early teens, I know I read all these guys. Back then, it was just about the quality of the stories, and I didn't realize how infested some of them were with philosophies and sentiments that were abhorrant to me even then.
Am nearing the end of a collection of early Isaac Asimov short stories; he interspersed them with observations about his life at the time he wrote them, ranging from late Depression era years to post-WWII. I would not want this sort of intrusion usually, but it's been fascinating to find out about the ways in which he got published, in some very pulpy magazines, with pretty short half-lives, as well as getting a little idea of what he was like in his younger years. I prefer him as a humanist to Poul Anderson, whose libertarian themes are practically screeds in some of his work. When I was on a sci-fi kick in my early teens, I know I read all these guys. Back then, it was just about the quality of the stories, and I didn't realize how infested some of them were with philosophies and sentiments that were abhorrant to me even then.
posted by isabelita at 2:39 PM
2 Comments:
I vascillate between refusing to read people whose politics I find offensive and dangerous and reading them just so I can refute their positions when I encounter idiots who read them for guidance.
Well, frankly, I don't want fiction to be preaching to me at all! And if the authors do, I abandon them.
Insofar as supposed nonfiction is concerned, I've learned to recognize the bad signs...
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