The title of this post may make no sense to you. If so, I apologize, I just like the way it sounded, and it was better then that overdone article title: "Science: Fact or Fiction?" My love of science fiction is no secret. I have mentioned my favorite author Robert Heinlein many times before, and I still re-read his books every now and then, even though I know the outcome. During a summer when one of his novels, or collections of short stories was always in my possession, I began looking for Heinlein's first published stories in the pulp science fiction books of the 40's and 50's. I never found any, but the ones I did find fit in with my interest in old paper and the anachronistic view of the future from a very pre-digital era.
The stories are good and the cover art is true to the contents, not created for shock, or titilation, almost always an illustrated page out of the feature story:
The ads in these "Pulps" are typically just as good, if not for their imagery, for their promise:
The "Friction" between the "Factions" I referred to was the conjecture that an author's politics are part of his stories or vice versa, and the labeling of the reader for following an author for what he believed in rather than for what he wrote. Then there is the argument that Science creates science fiction, and then the opposing argument that Science Fiction (or the free-thinking minds of authors) has influenced or spurred advances in science. While you ponder that grey matter blender, here's another nice cover from Astounding 1950:
I think both arguments have valid points, look at the innocent child on the cover above, yet inside is a story by non other than L. Ron Hubbard. It would be hard to argue that his writing didn't contain some fictional cum practical applications of his ideas ala Dianetics. And in the second argument, well, it may not be science, but Heinlein is credited with the invention of the water bed, or at least the idea of it. Either way, if you pick up the right Sci-Fi novel, be fore -warned, you may not be able to put down anything by the author.
In conclusion, I never did get to buy a Heinlein pulp cover, but I did find one on the web, so I'll know what to look for:
Happy Birthday Greg. Love the "Astounding" cover at the top with the little space man escaping from the iron. I see that Street & Smith are the publishers, known more for their fantasy sports pubs these days. Good stuff. Bob
ReplyDelete