(no subject)
Apr. 28th, 2015 07:42 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
madbakerInstead of aarghing about the multi-level transit fail this morning, I am going to speak briefly of a happier thing.
I've been occasionally perusing the NESFA catalog through the library. They've been reprinting collections of SF short stories, generally by author. I started with Zelazny, because I was a huge fan and still own (and re-read) many of his books. Also Jack Vance, for similar reasons. Lately it's been Poul Anderson, with whose longer work I am fairly familiar but less so with many of his short stories. It's been (revelatory is over-strong, but something in that mode) to read the variations in structure, characterization, and length while still appreciating how much talent PA had. (The authors-honor-Poul-by-writing-short-stories-in-his-worlds book was terribly uneven, with some of the terrible written by otherwise generally good authors, which I guess only goes to show how hard it is.)
Currently I'm about two-thirds through CM Kornbluth. This has also been revelatory: I did not know how many of his stories I was familiar with without knowing it. He coined (ha!) "I'd buy that for a quarter!" which was used to memorable effect in Robocop. Mike Judge ripped off one of his stories for Idiocracy, though the story was much better. I must have read dozens of these in reprint collections as a kid without ever twigging to the name. Possibly because he wrote mostly short stories before dying much too early...
Anyway: thank you, NESFA.
I've been occasionally perusing the NESFA catalog through the library. They've been reprinting collections of SF short stories, generally by author. I started with Zelazny, because I was a huge fan and still own (and re-read) many of his books. Also Jack Vance, for similar reasons. Lately it's been Poul Anderson, with whose longer work I am fairly familiar but less so with many of his short stories. It's been (revelatory is over-strong, but something in that mode) to read the variations in structure, characterization, and length while still appreciating how much talent PA had. (The authors-honor-Poul-by-writing-short-stories-in-his-worlds book was terribly uneven, with some of the terrible written by otherwise generally good authors, which I guess only goes to show how hard it is.)
Currently I'm about two-thirds through CM Kornbluth. This has also been revelatory: I did not know how many of his stories I was familiar with without knowing it. He coined (ha!) "I'd buy that for a quarter!" which was used to memorable effect in Robocop. Mike Judge ripped off one of his stories for Idiocracy, though the story was much better. I must have read dozens of these in reprint collections as a kid without ever twigging to the name. Possibly because he wrote mostly short stories before dying much too early...
Anyway: thank you, NESFA.
