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The Way the Future Was, 1930–1951

Michael R. Page

in Frederik Pohl

This chapter looks at Frederik Pohl's first foray into creating a science fictional world by focusing on his youthful adventures in science fiction (SF) fandom. Pohl discovered SF at age ten in 1930. ... More

This chapter looks at Frederik Pohl's first foray into creating a science fictional world by focusing on his youthful adventures in science fiction (SF) fandom. Pohl discovered SF at age ten in 1930. At that time, SF as a defined category of fiction was only in its fifth year, although the genre itself had a much longer pedigree. Hugo Gernsback launched the first SF magazine, Amazing Stories, in April 1926. The first SF magazine Pohl read was the Summer 1930 issue of Wonder Stories Quarterly. This chapter discusses Pohl's discovery of a collection of pulp magazines in 1931 at his uncle's farm in Pennsylvania; his interest in science fiction magazines; his initial attempts at writing his own stories; and his involvement with the group called Futurians. The chapter also describes Pohl's involvement in the literary agency business.Less

Gateways, 1970–1987

Michael R. Page

in Frederik Pohl

This chapter focuses on Frederik Pohl's literary output as a science fiction (SF) writer during the period 1970–1987, including Gateway and The Way the Future Was. After stepping down from Galaxy, ... More

This chapter focuses on Frederik Pohl's literary output as a science fiction (SF) writer during the period 1970–1987, including Gateway and The Way the Future Was. After stepping down from Galaxy, Pohl went into a funk and did not write. Having turned fifty at the close of 1969, Pohl claims that he was experiencing a midlife crisis. Instead of buckling down and writing fiction, he took time to travel with his family, embarking on trips to London and Paris, Bermuda, and Japan and also to Eastern Europe. At this time his marriage to wife Carol was beginning to show signs of trouble. Moreover, Pohl was getting involved in grassroots politics, working in 1968 on the Eugene McCarthy campaign in New Jersey. His political experiences are articulated in his first book of the 1970s, Practical Politics 1972. Pohl contributed to anthologies about the craft of SF writing as well. This chapter also considers the shift in Pohl's work in 1987 for a variety of reasons, including the conclusion of the Heechee saga.Less

The Galaxy Years, 1952–1969

Michael R. Page

in Frederik Pohl

This chapter focuses on Frederik Pohl's Galaxy years that began in 1952, when his novel entitled Gravy Planet was published in the June, July, and August issues of the magazine. The early 1950s were ... More

This chapter focuses on Frederik Pohl's Galaxy years that began in 1952, when his novel entitled Gravy Planet was published in the June, July, and August issues of the magazine. The early 1950s were marred by the Cold War paranoia of McCarthyism, when intellectuals around the country were investigated, indicted, and otherwise harassed. Curiously, the science fiction community, by and large, was not brought before the McCarthyite witch hunters, even though they had been writing stories about atomic war, political oppression, and future power-politics and global political realignment for years. For instance, Pohl and C. M. Kornbluth's novels The Space Merchants and Gladiator-At-Law did not attract the forces of political oppression, particularly given Pohl's former dabbling in communist political circles. This chapter examines some of Pohl's works that were published in Galaxy between 1952 and 1969, including the novels The Reefs of Space, The Starchild Trilogy, The Age of the Pussyfoot, and A Plague of Pythons, as well as the short story “Day Million.”Less

All the Lives He Led

Michael R. Page

in Frederik Pohl

This book chronicles the work of Frederik Pohl, one of the leading figures in the field of science fiction (SF). Pohl's literary output spans nine decades from his poem “Elegy to a Dead Planet: ... More

This book chronicles the work of Frederik Pohl, one of the leading figures in the field of science fiction (SF). Pohl's literary output spans nine decades from his poem “Elegy to a Dead Planet: Luna,” published in 1937, to his final book, All the Lives He Led, and The Way the Future Blogs. In between he wrote novels, short stories, story collections, and nonfiction books; edited anthologies and SF magazine issues; and wrote countless essays, editorials, and reviews. The book examines how Pohl's publishing activity and his work as a literary agent in the late 1940s and early 1950s shaped the SF field. It also considers the role played by Pohl in the development of SF as a more or less respectable area of academic study and in the creation and development of SF fandom.Less

Conclusion

Michael R. Page

in Frederik Pohl

This conclusion reflects on Frederik Pohl's legacy as a science fiction writer, editor, agent, and fan. Pohl died on September 2, 2013, leaving a chasm in the world of science fiction. Among those ... More

This conclusion reflects on Frederik Pohl's legacy as a science fiction writer, editor, agent, and fan. Pohl died on September 2, 2013, leaving a chasm in the world of science fiction. Among those who paid tribute were Joe Haldeman, James Gunn, Mack Hassler, and Christopher McKitterick. But Pohl's legacy continues and will continue for many decades to come: through the readers who discover his work for the first time on a library shelf or paperback rack; through the writers who are influenced by his writing, his editing, his advice, and his mere presence in the field; and through the scholars who will find in Pohl an astute critic of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries and an advocate for future alternatives to the roads humanity now travels. Pohl lived a life in science fiction, building and shaping it for over three-quarters of a century.Less

The Boy Who Would Live Forever, 1988–2013

Michael R. Page

in Frederik Pohl

This chapter focuses on Frederik Pohl's literary output during the period 1988–2013, including two novels that would mark a transition in his career: Chernobyl and The Annals of the Heechee. The ... More

This chapter focuses on Frederik Pohl's literary output during the period 1988–2013, including two novels that would mark a transition in his career: Chernobyl and The Annals of the Heechee. The books that follow Chernobyl and The Annals of the Heechee focus less on the Cold War and more on new, pressing issues facing the contemporary world, such as The Voices of Heaven (1994), Homegoing (1989), Outnumbering the Dead (1990), and Mining the Oort (1992). Another novel, Narabedla Ltd., was a work of lighthearted fun that demonstrated Pohl's love of music. But the work that caps Pohl's career as science fiction's most eminent Swiftian satirist was All the Lives He Led. While completing All the Lives He Led, Pohl began blogging in January 2009 on his Hugo Award–winning website The Way the Future Blogs. In celebration of his ninetieth birthday, his wife Betty prepared a Festschrift anthology, titled Gateways and published by Tor, which included new stories by old friends.Less

Beginnings: Early Life and First Stories

Jad Smith

in Alfred Bester

This chapter shows how Bester’s early identification with Renaissance thinkers of broad and varied learning led him to think of science fiction as a Renaissance genre especially suited to mixing and ... More

This chapter shows how Bester’s early identification with Renaissance thinkers of broad and varied learning led him to think of science fiction as a Renaissance genre especially suited to mixing and marrying various influences and branches of knowledge. It also examines several of Bester’s early stories. “Voyage to Nowhere” represented Bester’s initial foray into pastiche, while “The White Man Who Was Tabu”—a little-known South Sea adventure published under the pseudonym Alexander Blade—signaled his interest in psychology and laid the groundwork for Ben Reich and Gully Foyle, the distinctive antiheroes of his trailblazing novels The Demolished Man and The Stars My Destination.Less

Ruptures: Metafiction and Postmodernism

in Solar Flares: Science Fiction in the 1970s

Metafiction refers to fiction that is aware of its own fictionality. Coined in 1970 by the critic and novelist William Gass, metafiction took to extremes the tension between realism and the real in ... More

Metafiction refers to fiction that is aware of its own fictionality. Coined in 1970 by the critic and novelist William Gass, metafiction took to extremes the tension between realism and the real in the nineteenth-century novel. Examples of metafiction within the science fiction genre include Philip K. Dick's post-1974 novels such as Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said (1974) and Joanna Russ's The Female Man (1975). The strategies of metafiction and the undecidability between fiction and reality were symptomatic of postmodernism, whose definition also proved problematic. This chapter focuses on postmodern science fiction writers such as Richard Cowper, Christopher Priest, Robert Sheckley, Barry Malzberg, Richard Brautigan, Tom Robbins, Kurt Vonnegut, Philip José Farmer, William S. Burroughs, Thomas Pynchon, Robert Shea, Kingsley Amis, Angela Carter, Emma Tennant, John Sladek and Frederik Pohl. It also examines the television programme Welt am Draht (World on a Wire/World on Wires and cyberpunk.Less

Fahrenheit 451 in Contexts

David Seed

in Ray Bradbury

This chapter analyzes Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 (1953) and its dystopian contexts. The novel widely is recognized as a classic among postwar American dystopias. It belongs in that body of science ... More

This chapter analyzes Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 (1953) and its dystopian contexts. The novel widely is recognized as a classic among postwar American dystopias. It belongs in that body of science fiction published just after the Second World War, which gradually took over the function of social criticism previously performed by realist fiction. The novel shares an overall pattern common to two of the most famous dystopias of the period: Frederik Pohl and Cyril Kornbluth's The Space Merchants and Kurt Vonnegut's Player Piano (1952). All three novels focus on a protagonist working within an organization with which he becomes increasingly dissatisfied. Under the impact of a catalytic character or event, these dissatisfactions gradually come to a head and result in final separation from that organization.Less

Foul Contagion Spread: Ecology and Environmentalism

in Solar Flares: Science Fiction in the 1970s

Ecology and environmentalism are two recurring themes in science fiction. A novel may even use the environment itself as a character that the hero must contend with. Science fiction may also show ... More

Ecology and environmentalism are two recurring themes in science fiction. A novel may even use the environment itself as a character that the hero must contend with. Science fiction may also show alternatives to the Earth's current environment and the impact of the environment on characters as a whole. This is evident in the novels by Hal Clement, Frederik Pohl and Michael Coney. A number of works show how the consequences of humanity's impact on the environment causes a meltdown of society, depict nature's revenge on humanity, or reveal threats from outer space such as alien invasion. This chapter examines Clement's Star Light (1971) and Pohl's Jem: The Making of a Utopia (1979), as well as Coney's four interlinked novels: Mirror Image (1972), Syzygy (1973), Charisma (1975) and Brontomek! (1976).Less