What's Keeping Your Love of Old SF Alive?

[Tom Hering]

Adding books and magazines to your collection? Discovering minor authors you've never read before? Or finally reading a major author who - for one reason or another - you've avoided or neglected? Finally getting around to the lesser-known books and stories of your favorite authors? Or upon rereading it, now seeing something in an old favorite you've never seen before? Maybe just getting around to something you've always wanted to read?

Might it be something social? Participating in some gathering of Classic SF lovers? An old or new friend who shares your interest? Or just talking about your interest in forums like this one?

Here are some things that recently got my juices flowing again.

Acquiring books and magazines. (1.) Getting hold of a story that had stuck with me since my early teens. I had just the vaguest memory of it, so it took some detective work to figure out what it was. Remembering one or two details of the illustrations that accompanied it really helped to track it down. It was Secret Weapon by Joseph P. Martino, which appeared in the April, 1968 issue of Analog. Cover and interior illustrations by Kelly Freas. I look forward to reading it again after 48 years. (2.) Finally finding an affordable copy of the original edition of my all-time favorite, The Witches of Karres by James H. Schmitz. Chilton Book Company, First Edition, Third Printing, 1968. Not what a collector would consider a true first edition, but I'm pretty darned happy with it. Perfectly mint. (I've recently read The Demon Breed and A Tale of 2 Clocks for the first time.)

Reading a major author for the first time. Ray Bradbury. The Martian Chronicles. The Illustrated Man. Fahrenheit 451. I'm not sure why I never felt an attraction to his work in the past, but The Martian Chronicles is now one of my top 10 favorites. Maybe you have to discover an author like Bradbury at the right age - either when you're still very young, or when you're getting kind of old.

Getting a good deal on a series that will be my Winter reading project. All 12 Sector General novels by James White (4 omnibus volumes and Double Contact). I had only ever read The Genocidal Healer, maybe ten or twelve years ago. But that book left me with a strong taste for more. Now, at last, it's time to gorge myself.

 

[J-Sun]

I've got the Baen collections of Schmitz's complete works and, for whatever reason, I fell off at the end and still haven't read the last volume of more miscellaneous stuff but there's nothing in Schmitz's Hub or Vega series or other works (such as the great Karres) that I've read so far that wasn't worthwhile.

I'm still kind of waffling on White's Sector General books but I've got a lot, read a couple-three and intend to keep going eventually but if you have any interest in White (or even if you don't) I really recommend All Judgment Fled. That's one of those books that truly is classic SF and really does further kindle (can't say rekindle because it's never died) a love for classic SF. "How have I not read this? What if I'd missed it? What else am I missing?"

It's basically everything you say and I'm not sure if I can add to it: major authors I haven't gotten to or that I'm willing to give another try, deepening my experience with the authors I am familiar with, exploring some under-the-radar folks, etc. And, yeah, I find I resonate with fellow classic-lovers a lot. But it's not even so much the coverage or collection or what have you but just what it is. Some old SF is very nuts-and-bolts and can-do and optimistic and problem-solving and all sorts of things that I think both SF and the world at large sorely need and sorely miss and some old SF is very wild and exhilarating and fun and seems very free and unburdened with the false gravitas that seems to have infected most modern SF and some are both. It's much more story-centered and idea-driven and it's not so egocentric and focused on the transient - if there's "egocentrism" it's a generalized "cheerful self-appreciation" that encompasses the whole species. Sometimes it's good to point out what humans do wrong and what we need to fix but sometimes it's okay to not always think we suck all the time. And sometimes it's good to focus on the individual and transient but it's good to look at the big picture and deep time and vast space. There's a lot of new SF that I love and sometimes it's harder and/or wilder than ever and there's plenty of old SF that's unreadable either in the same senses that some new stuff is or in the sense of just being poorly done but there is a sort of "classic zeitgeist" that was dominant that I actually do prefer to the recent/current one. So that'll keep me reading the classics indefinitely.

 

[dask]

By doing this whenever I can:

 

[Tom Hering]

... if you have any interest in White (or even if you don't) I really recommend All Judgment Fled. That's one of those books that truly is classic SF and really does further kindle (can't say rekindle because it's never died) a love for classic SF. "How have I not read this? What if I'd missed it? What else am I missing?"

The only White I've read besides The Genocidal Healer (1991) is The Dream Millennium (1974). Written at the tail end of the New Wave, I thought the book was something of a throwback for its time: an excellent example of the Golden Age tradition, whether you consider the Golden Age to be the 1940s or the 1950s - or both. Could we say that White, whose career in SF got started in the early 1950s, was one of the last practitioners of the Golden Age tradition? And a superb practitioner at that, right up to his death in 1999? (Was White, who hit his stride in the 1960s, overshadowed by all the attention given to the New Wave - that movement begun by his fellow writers across the pond? And later, did he continue to be overshadowed by things like Cyberpunk and the Space Opera Revival?) Regardless, I'll surely be picking up copies of The Escape Orbit (1964), The Watch Below (1966), All Judgment Fled (1968) and other White titles to add to my collection.

 

[J-Sun]

Could we say that White, whose career in SF got started in the early 1950s, was one of the last practitioners of the Golden Age tradition? And a superb practitioner at that, right up to his death in 1999? (Was White, who hit his stride in the 1960s, overshadowed by all the attention given to the New Wave - that movement begun by his fellow writers across the pond? And later, did he continue to be overshadowed by things like Cyberpunk and the Space Opera Revival?)

Well, people like Bova and Niven got started in the 60s (or '59 at the earliest anyway) so there are some later (and you could argue that some people carry on an approximation of the tradition today) but he's definitely one of the later ones. As far as how long White went, I can't say - I haven't read any of his later work yet but, as I understand it, most people agree that he continued strong. As far as other movements overshadowing him, some people seem to be able to overcome those trends but it rare and he does seem to have never quite ridden any popular movement but was mostly swimming upstream (to mix metaphors), so that probably does explain his underrated status. But I'm still a White newbie so it's mostly guesses and hearsay for me.

 

[BAYLOR]

Because old science fiction blazed the trail for new science fiction and much of the early stuff though dated, is well written and entertaining to read.

 

[Extollager]

I'll surely be picking up copies of The Escape Orbit (1964), The Watch Below (1966), All Judgment Fled (1968) and other White titles to add to my collection.

I enjoyed The Watch Below and have read All Judgment Fled around three times. Not familiar with Escape Orbit.

 

[Extollager]

Some old SF is very nuts-and-bolts and can-do and optimistic and problem-solving and all sorts of things that I think both SF and the world at large sorely need and sorely miss and some old SF is very wild and exhilarating and fun and seems very free and unburdened with the false gravitas that seems to have infected most modern SF and some are both.

Nicely put.

 

[Frost Giant]

Partly nostalgia, partly because there have been some great ideas from writers like Asimov, Serling, Clarke, etc. The same reason I'll watch an old black and white Twilight Zone or read an old Phillip Dick novel, I suppose. The good material tends to be timeless.

 

[Vince W]

Sands of Mars by Arthur C. Clarke would be an excellent place to start for classic stories about Mars. Most of the science in it can be ignored (and should be), but Clarke is an excellent storyteller and this was his first published science fiction novel.

 

[BAYLOR]

Nostalgia and a love of the old classics.

 

[hitmouse]

What's Keeping Your Love of Old SF Alive?

Well, old SF for starters.
And an unhealthy fetish for the smell and feel of cheap old pulp novels with lurid covers.

 

[TWErvin2]

Talking with friends who've read and enjoyed the same old SF titles that I have, reminiscing so to speak.

 

[Parson]

Heroes! Most of the old SF I remember had real heroes rather than the semi-warped anti-hero so many authors seem to favor today.

 

[TWErvin2]

Heroes! Most of the old SF I remember had real heroes rather than the semi-warped anti-hero so many authors seem to favor today.

While I don't mind the occasional anti-hero with serious shades of gray, I like a story with a good 'white-hatted' hero. May not be perfect, but there's little doubt as to which side he/she supports.

 

[BAYLOR]

The good and imaginative writing in much of the old stuff.

 

[SilentRoamer]

For me one of the big benefits of the old stuff is that the storytelling is concise and erudite. Older novels rarely are larger than a few hundred pages - probably to do with the serialized format they were first released in.

Another benefit is older SF tends to be more open - in terms of it asks the questions often without providing the answers, some old SF even makes you consider the importance of the question.

Lastly I sometimes enjoy the almost prophetic vision of some of the authors and how they saw social and technological development.

Just a few reasons why I am enjoying old SF.

 

[Duskborn]

Another benefit is older SF tends to be more open - in terms of it asks the questions often without providing the answers, some old SF even makes you consider the importance of the question.

This. I truly enjoy when authors leave plenty of room for the readers' imaginations to run.

 

[Bick]

My love of old SF is maintained by several things I think:

• The can-do, niaive positivity referred to by others
• A preference for the brevity and efficiency exercised by the classic SF writers compared to the often bloated works of modern authors
• Disappointment in certain modern stories/series
• The direct writing style that suited the pulps mirrors my preference for straightforward unpretensious prose (see Asimov, Simak, Anderson)
• Great ideas
• I think the old authors had a gift of imparting that elusive sense of wonder which often seems to be difficult to achieve these days, perhaps as so much stuff these days is coloured by an underlying negative prognosis for humankind

 

[Vince W]

My love of old SF is maintained by several things I think:

• The can-do, niaive positivity referred to by others
• A preference for the brevity and efficiency exercised by the classic SF writers compared to the often bloated works of modern authors
• Disappointment in certain modern stories/series
• The direct writing style that suited the pulps mirrors my preference for straightforward unpretensious prose (see Asimov, Simak, Anderson)
• Great ideas
• I think the old authors had a gift of imparting that elusive sense of wonder which often seems to be difficult to achieve these days, perhaps as so much stuff these days is coloured by an underlying negative prognosis for humankind

Nailed it.