This is a collection of my massive multi-part review of Sam J. Lundwell's Science Fiction: An Illustrated History that I wrote, edited, and published from January through March of 2019. In these pages you will find my criticisms of the Fandom mindset that I believe to have been damaging to art throughout the 20th and into the 21st century. I believe their attitude is just as poisonous today.
Published in 1977 this book purported to be about science fiction and its state at the time, even though it was written and released just before Star Wars which changed the entire game. What we have here is a neat snapshot into the way things were in the elite clique just before everything came tumbling down around them. My review was meant to show how out of touch Fandom was at the time and how they remain so today.
Keep in mind that this series is long so it might take awhile to get through. Nonetheless it is worth the journey. Be sure to leave a comment with your thoughts as I'm sure you have just as much to say on this topic as I had!
Without further ado:
Part I: "Origins" and "Tales From the Crypt"
Part II: "Science Fiction at the Crossroads" and "The Eternal Bliss Machine"
Part III: "Nightmares" and "Monsters and Stuff"
Part IV: "Robots and Mechanical Men" and "Galactic Patrol"
Part V: "The Human Angle" and "Adventures in the Pulp Jungle"
At the end of the year I introduced a second series, focused on the book Cheap Thrills by author Ron Goulart. This is a different angle on the pulp subject that Sam Lundwell more or less ignored for his book, which makes this a companion piece to the above. It is a history of pulps from the beginning up until their untimely end.
The reality of the pulps turned out to be very different from what Fandom has painted them as, and their importance has been greatly underestimated by those who wish to constrict writers and offer readers less than they had before. The pulps are more important that you were told they are.
You can find this series here:
Part I: "Beginnings"
Part II: "The Heroes & The Wonder"
Part III: "The Odds & The End"
In 2021, I took a look through Sam J. Lundwall's first non-fiction book, Science Fiction: What It's All About to discover just how seedy Fandom actually is. what I discovered is just how manufactured the entire "field" actually is, and how it is built on lies and subversion.
The truth is that Science Fiction (and "Fantasy") Doesn't Exist, and it never has. What you've been sold is a worldview based on an outdated worldview. And it is holding everything back from achieving its potential, particularly Futuristic and Mythic Fiction.
As a result of this series, it helped change my view on the nature of Genres and fiction classification as a whole. In order to move forward, this aberration on tradition called Fandom must be abandoned. It is the only way to get back on track and reclaim what was lost.
In 2022, we began with The Immortal Storm, written by Sam Moskowitz. This was a book that was left out of print for decades despite explaining everything Fandom was engaged with at the time, including how they subverted and destroyed an entire industry based on a materialist religion.
We dig deep to learn how the classic pulp era was destroyed and the post-1940 age fanatics cling to as a "Golden Age" was really a falsehood brought about by dishonest narrative trickery. There was no Golden Age.
What this series did was reinforce my thesis that Mythic and Futuristic storytelling are the proper terms, subgenres of Adventure and traditional Romance, and that it is the way out of the rut OldPub has led the industry. The past is the future, but we have to understand it in order to realize that very obvious truth! The future is Adventure!
Here are supplemental posts on the subject written afterwards. I wrote them to fill in the gaps in the above series.
A look at Fandom's core philosophy, as described by their head prophet, H.G. Wells. Discover just what drives Fandom to destroy.
A counterpoint to Fandom. What can normal people do when they inhabit adjacent spaces to the Fanatics? It turns out they can construct the most influential creations of all. This is the path towards a post-Fandom future.
In 2022, I compiled this series into a book I heavily edited into one cogent piece called The Last Fanatics: How the Genre Wars Killed Wonder. Including a new Foreword by the always-controversial Jeffro Johnson, it is quite a meaty work. For those who wanted a hard copy of my Fandom series, it is the best version available. Even years later this series remains controversial among genre fans. Read it for yourself to understand why.
You can find The Last Fanatics here.
Find it Here! |
Thank you for reading!
JD -- your link to Part II of The Last Fanatic goes to the Twitter announcement, not the post itself.
ReplyDeleteThank you! Fixed.
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