RIP: Frederik Pohl
Sep. 3rd, 2013 10:05 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dexfarkinFirst Leonard and now Pohl. Not a good time to be a transformational writer.
Frederik Pohl is one of the more under-appreciated writers of the Golden Age of Sci-Fi, lost behind the Asimovs, Heinleins, and Clarkes. But he was a tremendous figure in the industry, both as a writer and as an editor, agent, and critic. He was tremendous in discovering new talent and pushing it forward into the spotlight and a major contributor to the nascent maturing literary criticism in the field. He also remained relevent up to his death, blogging regularly, managing appearances as his health would allow, and writing right up until the point that his body gave out before his ideas. You can`t ask for more.
If you haven`t read him, I can`t recommend `The Space Merchants`more. Written in 1953 with C. M. Kornbluth, it described a future where nation-states exist merely to support massive corporations which control everything on an overpopulated Earth, and advertising has turned into a courtier`s caste in service to them. It is stilted in prose and clunky in terms of characterization, but the ideas show a remarkable foresight and critical understanding of how a path to the future can be built. It is futuristic satire that out-Mad Men's Mad Men easily.
'Re-writes,' [Tildy] said wildly. 'I slave my heart out for that white-haired old rat, and what does he give me? Re-writes. "This is good copy, but I want better than good copy from you," he says. "Re-write it," he says. "I want colour," he says, "I want drive and beauty, and humble, human warmth, and ecstasy, and all the tender, sad emotion of your sweet womanly heart, " he says, " and I want it in fifteen words." I'll give him fifteen words, " she sobbed, and pushed past me down the hall. 'I'll give that sanctimonious, mellifluous, hyperbolic, paternalistic, star-making, genius devouring Moloch of an old -'
The slam of Tildy's own door cut off the noun. I was sorry; it would have been a good noun.
Frederik Pohl is one of the more under-appreciated writers of the Golden Age of Sci-Fi, lost behind the Asimovs, Heinleins, and Clarkes. But he was a tremendous figure in the industry, both as a writer and as an editor, agent, and critic. He was tremendous in discovering new talent and pushing it forward into the spotlight and a major contributor to the nascent maturing literary criticism in the field. He also remained relevent up to his death, blogging regularly, managing appearances as his health would allow, and writing right up until the point that his body gave out before his ideas. You can`t ask for more.
If you haven`t read him, I can`t recommend `The Space Merchants`more. Written in 1953 with C. M. Kornbluth, it described a future where nation-states exist merely to support massive corporations which control everything on an overpopulated Earth, and advertising has turned into a courtier`s caste in service to them. It is stilted in prose and clunky in terms of characterization, but the ideas show a remarkable foresight and critical understanding of how a path to the future can be built. It is futuristic satire that out-Mad Men's Mad Men easily.
'Re-writes,' [Tildy] said wildly. 'I slave my heart out for that white-haired old rat, and what does he give me? Re-writes. "This is good copy, but I want better than good copy from you," he says. "Re-write it," he says. "I want colour," he says, "I want drive and beauty, and humble, human warmth, and ecstasy, and all the tender, sad emotion of your sweet womanly heart, " he says, " and I want it in fifteen words." I'll give him fifteen words, " she sobbed, and pushed past me down the hall. 'I'll give that sanctimonious, mellifluous, hyperbolic, paternalistic, star-making, genius devouring Moloch of an old -'
The slam of Tildy's own door cut off the noun. I was sorry; it would have been a good noun.
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Date: 2013-09-07 06:18 am (UTC)