Terence Park's Blog - Posts Tagged "anecdote"
Explorations of the Marvellous
Just looking through my library and came across
an anthology about Science Fiction from the mid 1970s. This started as a series of lectures between January and March 1975 at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London. The lectures were organised by Ted Polhemus of North East London Polytechnic. As I was heavily into SF at the time, and as my immediately elder brother was at the time dodging and weaving through the London polytechnic scene to get a decent degree, I should be able to say: I went there. I didn't. I wanted to read product not traipse around a city some 200 miles away in hope of seeing some author who (guaranteed) I wouldn't have the confidence to approach. In fact there were only two reasons I went to London: to keep in touch with my brother, who I'd spent a difficult childhood with, and to look for second hand bookshops selling SF. Sometimes I'd drink a can or two with him.
Going back to this edition, the task of editing the lectures fell to Peter Nicholls. I ummed and ahhed about buying this - it was 1976 and I'd just started my first full time job - I was on about one third of the national average wage. Did I want to shell out £1 when Hello Summer, Goodbye by Michael G Coney was only £0.70, Norstrilia by Cordwainer Smith cost £0.85, and The Malacia Tapestry by Brian Aldiss was £0.95? Heck I could get Promised Land by Brian M Stableford (from the the Hooded Swan series) for £0.60, and Lucifer's Hammer by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle only set me back £1.50, and that was massive. But there wasn't always much SF around, and what if I didn't get the single copy in Burnley and someone else did... so I got it.
Inside is an interesting array of author views and experiences. My eyes lit on Philip K Dick, Alan Garner, Thomas Disch plus:
Harry Harrison
With the hindsight of writing under my belt, Alan Garner's contribution makes more sense. Philip K Dick sadly couldn't attend. And no Robert Heinlein (a definite buy if he'd been in).
Non genre folk were Alvin Toffler and De Bono, Edward - both then at career apogees - Toffler suggested that SF could be considered a tool to map out consequences of social-industrial-economic decisions, de Bono offered a bit of mind play - let's instil confusion in the audience - very much de Bono's style.
Overall - few instant thrills, plenty to think about.
Explorations of the Marvellous was originally published by Gollancz in 1976 as Science Fiction At Large: A Collection of Essays, by Various Hands, about the Interface between Science Fiction and Reality
an anthology about Science Fiction from the mid 1970s. This started as a series of lectures between January and March 1975 at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London. The lectures were organised by Ted Polhemus of North East London Polytechnic. As I was heavily into SF at the time, and as my immediately elder brother was at the time dodging and weaving through the London polytechnic scene to get a decent degree, I should be able to say: I went there. I didn't. I wanted to read product not traipse around a city some 200 miles away in hope of seeing some author who (guaranteed) I wouldn't have the confidence to approach. In fact there were only two reasons I went to London: to keep in touch with my brother, who I'd spent a difficult childhood with, and to look for second hand bookshops selling SF. Sometimes I'd drink a can or two with him. Going back to this edition, the task of editing the lectures fell to Peter Nicholls. I ummed and ahhed about buying this - it was 1976 and I'd just started my first full time job - I was on about one third of the national average wage. Did I want to shell out £1 when Hello Summer, Goodbye by Michael G Coney was only £0.70, Norstrilia by Cordwainer Smith cost £0.85, and The Malacia Tapestry by Brian Aldiss was £0.95? Heck I could get Promised Land by Brian M Stableford (from the the Hooded Swan series) for £0.60, and Lucifer's Hammer by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle only set me back £1.50, and that was massive. But there wasn't always much SF around, and what if I didn't get the single copy in Burnley and someone else did... so I got it.
Inside is an interesting array of author views and experiences. My eyes lit on Philip K Dick, Alan Garner, Thomas Disch plus:
Harry Harrison 
John Brunner
Ursula K LeGuin
Robert Sheckley
With the hindsight of writing under my belt, Alan Garner's contribution makes more sense. Philip K Dick sadly couldn't attend. And no Robert Heinlein (a definite buy if he'd been in).
Non genre folk were Alvin Toffler and De Bono, Edward - both then at career apogees - Toffler suggested that SF could be considered a tool to map out consequences of social-industrial-economic decisions, de Bono offered a bit of mind play - let's instil confusion in the audience - very much de Bono's style.
Overall - few instant thrills, plenty to think about.
Explorations of the Marvellous was originally published by Gollancz in 1976 as Science Fiction At Large: A Collection of Essays, by Various Hands, about the Interface between Science Fiction and Reality
