Which deceased SF&F Authors would you like to talk to?

[paranoid marvin]

It would have to be Douglas Adams. He has my sense of humour.

 

[Don]

My moratorium questions to PKD are:

1. Relative to the world you knew decades ago, is the world of 2021:
   a. more fubar
   b. less fubar
   c. about the same amount of fubar
2. Has your paranoia over the world of 2021:
   a. increased
   b. decreased
   c. stayed about the same

 

[Astro Pen]

J.G.Ballard for his "ferocious intelligence" and the human complexity he brought to a genre that decidedly lacked it.
Arthur C. Clarke For capturing my imagination whilst working reasonably within scientific / technical possibility.

and a three way conversation with James Cameron and Philip K. Dick to discuss "Strange Days" and see what that leads on to.

 

[Vince W]

It would have to be Douglas Adams. He has my sense of humour.

So you can ask for it back, I suppose.

 

[Piman25]

Clifford D. Simak - favorite author. Has influenced my world view and thinking. I would like to say thank you.
Lloyd Biggle Jr. - another huge influence. I would love to talk music with him.
CM Kornbluth - his prescience with Marching Morons and his works with Pohl. I would like to see his reaction to today's world.
Octavia Butler - to be in the presence of such a brilliant mind.
Thomas Disch - Brave Little Toaster and Camp Concentration? Interesting guy, plus he had stories and was a known raconteur.
Alfred Bester
James Blish
James White
E.E. "Doc" Smith

 

[Extollager]

Simak wasn't one of my choices, but my sense is that he'd likely have been a good conversationalist. Dave Wixon might respond to that.

 

[BAYLOR]

Simak wasn't one of my choices, but my sense is that he'd likely have been a good conversationalist. Dave Wixon might respond to that.

City
Waystation
All Fresh is Grass A fine writer and nobody quite like him.

Dave also knew a quite number or writers of note.

 

[BAYLOR]

Roger Zelazny
Keith Laumer
Jose Phillip Farmer
Michal Shea
Fred Saberhagen
Fritz Lieber
jack Vance
Gene Wolfe
Bernard Wolfe
Arthur Machen
William Morris
George MacDonald
Kenneth Morris
Norvell Page
David Lindsey

 

[tobl]

heinlein
heinlein
heinlein
heinlein
and
heinlein

did i already said heinlein?

tom goodwin - i loved cold equations
arthur c clarke - loved the tv series
wells
edgar rice burroughs
ben bova - liked kinsman
jules verne
you did say dead.. so.. oh and fantasy also... hum
yeah i guess lovecraft would be interesting

 

[dask]

H.G. Wells. Think I’d rather listen to him deliver a series of lectures than have a sit down chat. Wouldn’t know what to say and I doubt he’d be interested in anything I said. If I could ask him any question I’d ask him how he got his mind blowing vision of the far future in The Time Machine.

 

[Luiglin]

I think Tolkien would be too intellectual for me so I'd have to say Sir Terry Pratchett, just because of how he saw life and the little things. However, I'd also like to pick the writing brain of Roald Dahl just, for the range of his various works.

 

[Daysman]

Wow... so much thought put into this, it's clearly a thing... but I think I'd be pretty tongue tied around this lot.

Wait, no Edgar Allan Poe? Was he a talker?

Mary Shelley might be fun... you know, being resurrected to discuss novels...

What about Edmund Cooper? Bob Shaw? Harry Harrison? John Brunner?

 

[Extollager]

Samuel Taylor Coleridge!

 

[paranoid marvin]

So you can ask for it back, I suppose.

Exactly the kind of humour Douglas would appreciate!

 

[Guttersnipe]

Charles Beaumont
Richard Matheson
Ray Bradbury
Robert Asprin
Ursula K. Le Guin
C.S. Lewis
Michael Ende (if we could speak the same language)
H.G. Wells

 

[Luiglin]

Just remembered, while not specifically SF&F, I'd have loved to share a mug of mead with Will Shakespeare... not fond of ale.

 

[Abernovo]

I imagined a dinner party, with select guests, all with nicely handwritten place settings:

• Angela Carter - a huge influence, she introduced me to feminist fantasy and science fiction, and helped me to question;
• Ursula K Le Guin - because, of course I want to meet one of the seminal writers of the 20th Century, plus she continued my education following Carter;
• Anne McCaffrey - again, of course, a prolific writer, capable of incredible flights of fantasy;
• Aphra Behn - a spy, poet, translator, writer, and playwright who wrote The Emperor of the Moon;
• Andre Norton - one of the authors who opened up sff to me at a young age;
• Diana Wynne Jones - a wondrous, leaping imagination, great storyteller, and writer of The Rough Guide to Fantasyland;
• Leigh Brackett - the writer of The Empire Strikes Back, and that's not even her greatest work!;
• Olivia Butler - I cannot say how important I consider her work, but she's up there with Le Guin in making me think;
• Naomi Mitchison - a polymath from a family of polymaths, and an activist, who wrote now out of print philosophical sf;
• William B Yeats - (can we fit him in, somehow?) inspirational for many a work, if not strictly sff;
• Iain Banks - an incredible intellect, with a great sense of humour, and we shared some locales (plus I could reminisce (literally) bumping into him in an Aberdeen bookshop);
• Herbert G Wells - a teacher, activist, and one of the grandparents of modern sff;
• Robert A Heinlein - despite not being his biggest fan, he helped get me through my teenage years and gave me an odd representation; and
• Clive S Lewis - because I would love to talk allegory and philosophy with him, plus I imagine he'd be a warm avuncular figure.

Now that's the dinner party I want to be invited to in however many years. Hopefully many, many years, by which time it'll be an even bigger party. Mind you, I'd have to up my game with the brain power in this crowd.

not specifically SF&F, I'd have loved to share a mug of mead with Will Shakespeare

Yes, Will Shakespeare, and Kit Marlowe could be in the snug, but only allowed in the dining room if they behaved, Then again, they'd probably be fun even if they didn't.

 

[chongjasmine]

CS Lewis- Will like to ask him about his opinions with Christianity.
Robert Jordan- Will like to ask him about his visions of wheel of time series.

 

[Thiswriterinme]

Anne McCaffrey - One of my earliest inspirations for sci fi and fantasy writing. Her creation of Pern has been my "template" for deep, thorough world building with rich history and accounting for everything necessary to bring a world to life.

Mary Shelley - I'm curious about her "free love" lifestyle back in her time. Also, discussing what it was like to be a writer as a woman back then. I think there is a lot to be learned from her struggle, especially since Frankenstein was very possibly written about her experiences in loss with her mother and first child. I'd love to talk to her about the translation of a woman's emotions into a tale of horror, as that is often how it can feel with how dismissive many cultures are; writing women's emotions off as "crazy" and "over exaggerated."

 

[KGeo777]

Mary Shelley was my vote too-not just because Frankenstein is a favorite but also because people grew up quickly in those times, in addition to her being unusual for her early education and the literary social circle she was part of, it would be very interesting to listen to her about things and her reaction to modern times if she was made aware of it.

I'd also be curious what Jonathan Swift thinks of today. I recall someone writing into National Geographic in the 1980s about NASA's plan to convert astronaut urine into drinking water for a Mars mission and the letter writer was saying that was one of the experiments the scientists in Laputa were doing.