Re: Adventures in Time and Space

Anthony Nance wrote:
In article <TNifg.31141$fb2.18865@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
lal_truckee <lal_truckee@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Anthony Nance wrote:

AiTaS is a wonderful collection. I was reviewing it in pieces here in rasfw about a year ago and never got to the fourth piece, partly due to distractions and partly...well, because it was such a shock that I bounced so incredibly hard off the Gallagher/Galloway stories.

Cultural evolution. A drunk isn't funny anymore. For a real culture shock, watch the Thin Man movies - there a drunken chain-smoker is the ultra-sophisticated hero (same for the heroine.)


That could well be - I really don't know, and I've thought about it off and on since I read the two stories.

Anyhow, the two-fold shock was having the reaction occur at all, followed by the fact that I couldn't get around it when reading those stories. I mean, I've read a bunch of SF - it's not like I typically have problems with other times and settings (whether in cultural context or inside the works themselves).

Simpler times. Probably goes back to the days when if you were too drunk to cope, your horse knew its way home.

I like reading old stories just for the culture shock. Some of the racial/ religious/ mannerisms are so alien that mainstream works become SF.


I like reading old stories, too, and I also like Kuttner/Moore a lot.
It was quite a surprise that those two stories left such a bad taste in my mouth.

Tony

Just to add another sadder perspective --

In an introduction to the screenplay of _The Blue Dahlia_, John Houseman (yeah, that John Houseman, "We earn our money the old fashioned way" -- we print it) told of Raymond Chandler's struggle with getting the plot of the script to work. Chandler had been on the wagon awhile in one of his many bouts of trying to quit drinking, and in frustration he finally told Houseman to stay with him, he'd down a few shots and he was certain the booze would carry him through the difficulties. He seemed convinced that his ability to plot was in the bottle.

Which, now you mention the Gallagher stories, seems like the opposite side of a coin.


Randy M.

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