Cascadian Sites  and Stories

NORTH AMERICA'S GREAT APE: the SASQUATCH
A wildlife biologist looks at the continent's most misunderstood large mammal
 

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Classics of Science Fiction

Following the example of some recent s-f con ventions, we’re scheduling discus ­ sions of s-f classics. Each will take up one story , with a moderator , panelists , and you . Here’s the list so you can get ready to join in.

It’s been suggested that classic s are artwork s which survive their time , which are seen to shine after the currents they used to float on have changed . With decades passed since these stories were first published , that may be more interesting than whether the future actually turned out, or will, as any of them painted.

As you read these tales again, or for the first time, or reflect on them while you pull weeds and wash dishes, what are their strengths? Do they look better today ?

Karel Capek (1921) : R.U.R.

“R.U.R.” is “Rossum’s Universal Robots,” a word coined by this Czech author in this play. At the first New York performance in 1922, R.U.R. was called “murderous social satire, done in terms of the most hair-raising melodrama.” Decide for yourself.

Robert A. Heinlein (1953): Starman Jones

Heinlein’s “juveniles” may be his best. Here he imagines broadcast-power ring trains that have never been invented, and interstellar flight by human mathematics without our last fifty years of computers, guesses good or bad to frame a novel of unreadiness and truth.

C.L. Moore (1944) : No Woman Born

This masterly novelette, many times reprinted, explores beauty and attraction with almost inhuman resonance. It has the precision of poetry and the passion of science. It probably could not have been written by a man or in any other genre.

H.G. Wells (1897): The Invisible Man

Introducing the 1992 Tor Books edition Greg Benford wrote, “Common childhood daydreams have great power.” Is that the heart of this famous book? Is it the skill with which Wells brings out the story, and characterizes Marvel, Kemp and Griffin?