Conference noted::sf

1173.0. "John W. Campbell, Jr." by VERGA::KLAES (Quo vadimus?) Tue Sep 28 1993 12:32

Article: 373
From: [email protected] (Dani Zweig)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.reviews
Subject: REPOST: Belated Reviews #31: John W. Campbell, Jr.
Organization: Netcom Online Communications Services (408-241-9760 login: guest)
Date: 23 Sep 93 23:42:28 GMT
 
		Belated Reviews #31:  John W. Campbell, Jr.
 
"See the Universe!  Meet interesting aliens!  And exterminate them!"
 
No, that's not a Berserker or Dalek recruiting poster, but a synopsis of
the typical 1930s John Campbell novel.  (The term 'novel' when applied to
this period, usually means a series of stories eventually published as a
fixup novel.)  Campbell is best known as an editor, but before he became
editor of Astounding, he was one (two) of the most most popular science
fiction authors of his time.  
 
Initially, he was known for his grandiose and bellicose space operas.  In
the typical John W Campbell novel the scientist-hero of the story will
make a key breakthrough and almost immediately turn it into a working
spacedrive and superweapons, at which point he and his friends will head
for outer space to find a war in which to take sides, unless they are
lucky enough to have a war to come to them.  (Rapidity of application is
standard:  Any self-respecting scientist who realizes on Monday that
E=MC^2 should have a working atomic engine by Tuesday and have it
installed in a functioning spaceship by Friday.)  The pleasures, for the
reader, seem to be in big numbers (It's hard for Campbell, in this period,
to cite a distance in light-years without telling the reader what that
comes to in miles) and in the unlimited possibilities of Science -- or at
least technology. 
 
"The Black Star Passes", "Islands of Space" and "Invaders from the
Infinite" represent one series of such books.  "The Mightiest Machine" and
"The Incredible Planet" represent another.  (Fans of the Legion of Super
Heroes will appreciate this last for the scene in which our intrepid
scientists fetch home a piece of a dwarf star.)  The one I reread several
dozen times (no exaggeration) when I was about eleven was "The Ultimate
Weapon" (originally "Uncertainty"), in which the scientist-leader of the
invading aliens, and the best human scientist churn out weapon after
weapon in a dizzying hundred-page-long arms race, until the human side
finally wins by inventing a gizmo that suspends the laws of nature in
whatever manner the plot requires.  As is typical of the subgenre, close
to half the wordcount is devoted just to *explaining* each gizmo.  ("The
Ultimate Weapon" actually ends with a peace treaty, rather than a planet-
sized cloud of debris.)  I see no real point in trying to give these ratings,
or to describe the plot elements which distinguish one of these books from
another:  Read any one of them if you're curious, and take my word for it 
that they are all thrilling to a reader of the right age.
 
	The atmosphere flamed below, and the planet caught fire
	from the terrible glowing coal.  Almost simultaneously,
	with a precision that was astounding, two bodies struck
	Teff-el.  And the planet burst like a rotten tomato.
 
I should mention the Penton/Blake stories, collected as "The Planeteers",
about a pair of scientists who invent atomic energy, put together the
basics (atom-driven space ship, atomic handguns), and set out to explore
the solar system.  This series is more slapstick than space opera, with
every planet seemingly inhabited by escapees from Wonderland.
 
	We did.  We destroyed all the thushol.  Some of the thushol
	helped us, but we thought that they were our own people.  It
	happened because a very wise, but very foolish philosopher
	calculated how many thushol could live parasitically on our
	people.  Naturally the thushol took his calculations to heart.
	Thirty-one percent of us are thushol.
 
"The Moon is Hell" (***) is a later (1951) work, and describes the last
days of a stranded Lunar expedition in diary form.  This science-versus-
nature tale of scientists trying to survive by synthesizing or extracting
photoelectric cells, water, even food, from lunar materials still has power.
Where it strikes the modern reader as being furthest off is not in its 
science (which is fictional), or in its selenology (which is often wrong), 
but in the management of the expedition.  For example, after over three 
decades of living with the reality of the space effort, it doesn't make sense
to us that a two-year lunar expedition wouldn't set up a communications 
relay.  Or that they'd have forgotten to train backup pilots.  But the 
nearest thing writers like Campbell had on which to base their speculations
were arctic or antarctic expeditions.  "The Moon is Hell" has its early-
Campbell touches, particularly in the timely stream of inventions, but it's 
a more thoughtful, Golden Age work:  Space here is an enemy to be conquered,
not just a backdrop for scientific adventurers.
 
	10:30 A.M.  Bender cursing us, and refuses to tell where it is.
	Says he's going to keep us from it.  He wants enough of us to 
	die off so there'll be load capacity enough on the rocket ship
	to carry back precious metals.  If he is the sole survivor, as
	he hopes to be, he will claim the mines.  At least he can take
	thousands of dollars worth of osmiridium.  Calls us fools and
	insane to take loads of instruments back...
 
(Digression:  The first age of sf as a genre -- rather than as mainstream
novels with speculative-science plot elements -- came between the Wars.
It was gimmick- and gadget-oriented fiction, by and for enthusiasts, and
the quality of the writing was typically execrable.  Still, this was the
period during which many of the enduring staples and plot devices of the
genre were originated.  Asimov's "Before the Golden Age" collects some of
the best stories of that period.  The Golden Age of science fiction began
in late 1937 when Campbell became the editor of Astounding, and began to
insist on stories that were thoughtful, as well as enthusiastic.  (They
still tended not to be literary masterpieces.  More time would pass before
readers began to expect such niceties as characterization.)  The Golden
Age saw the appearance of Asimov and Heinlein and their contemporaries.  
Fannish flamewars have been fought over such weighty issues as whether the 
Golden Age of science fiction would have arisen in Campbell's absence, and 
over whether -- particularly in his later years -- he did more harm
than good as an editor.  No matter:  At the time when sf had to sputter
out or start growing up, he was the one insisting that it grow up.)
 
Even before Campbell became an editor, tales of superscientific
superadventure began to wear thin for him, and (under the pseudonym of
Don Stuart) he turned to writing the kinds of short stories he would later
demand of other writers.  Anthologies of Campbell's stories (***) ("The
Cloak of Aesir", "Who Goes There?", and (with considerable overlap) "The
Best of John W Campbell" are the ones with which I'm familiar) are mostly
Stuart anthologies.  My personal favorite among the 'Stuart' stories is
one of the earliest, "Twilight", about a future in which humanity is going
out with a whimper.  But even the best of the stories wouldn't find much
of a readership if they appeared today.  Campbell's later science fiction
is a literature of ideas, of wooden characters behaving improbably in
order to make this or that point.  
 
	That song made you feel just what the singer meant -- because
	it didn't just sound human -- it was human.  It was the
	essence of humanity's last defeat, I guess.  You always feel
	sorry for the chap who loses after trying hard.  Well, you
	could feel the whole of humanity trying hard -- and losing.
 
Again, this was a time when basic cliches of the genre was still being worked
out.  For example, in the story "Who Goes There", there is a debate between
those who wish to thaw and dissect an alien corpse (found in Antarctica)
and those who fear the possibility of disease -- but no voices are raised
in favor of taking *precautions* against any such disease.  That this
would not be overlooked today is partially because of real-world experience,
but it is partially due to the genre having had over half a century to
chew over such issues, and smooth out its handling of them.  
 
Which points at one reason I'm reviewing an author whose work I may seem
to be damning with such faint praise.  The sf of this time made the later sf
with which we are familiar possible.  If it often seems crudely done, this
is at least partly because the vocabulary of science fictional ideas was
still just coming into being, and these are the early drafts which laid the
foundation for the modern genre.  Campbell was one of the best draftsmen.
 
%A  Campbell, John W. Jr.
%S  Arcot/Wade/Morey
%T  The Black Star Passes
%T  Islands of Space
%T  Invaders From the Infinite
 
%S  Munro/Spencer/Carlisle
%T  The Mightiest Machine
%T  The Impossible Planet
 
%T  The Ultimate Weapon
%T  The Moon is Hell
 
%T  The Cloak of Aesir
%T  Who Goes There?
%T  The Best of John W Campbell
%O  These last three are the short-story anthologies with which
%O  I'm familiar.  There's considerable overlap between the first
%O  two and the third, and there are probably other anthologies.
 
Standard introduction and disclaimer for Belated Reviews follows.

Belated Reviews cover science fiction and fantasy of earlier decades.
They're for newer readers who have wondered about the older titles on the
shelves, or who are interested in what sf/f was like in its younger days.
The emphasis is on helping interested readers identify books to try first, 
not on discussing the books in depth.
 
A general caveat is in order:  Most of the classics of yesteryear have not
aged well.  If you didn't encounter them back when, or in your early teens,
they will probably not give you the unforced pleasure they gave their
original audiences.  You may find yourself having to make allowances for
writing you consider shallow or politics you consider regressive.  When I
name specific titles, I'll often rate them using the following scale:
 
**** Recommended.
***  An old favorite that hasn't aged well, and wouldn't get a good
	reception if it were written today.  Enjoyable on its own terms.
**   A solid book, worth reading if you like the author's works.
*    Nothing special.
 
Additional disclaimers:  Authors are not chosen for review in any particular
order.  The reviews don't attempt to be comprehensive.  No distinction is 
made between books which are still in print and books which are not.
 
-----
Dani Zweig
[email protected]
 
   If you're going to write, don't pretend to write down.  It's going to be the
   best you can do, and it's the fact that it's the best you can do that kills
   you! -- Dorothy Parker