Delirious Van Vogt!
Here's one for my buddy Jim!
Now here's ANOTHER guy who doesn't get his "props" as they used to say. Back when Astounding lived up to it's name in the late 40's, van Vogt was there. "Null-A", "War with the Rull" and of course "The Weapon Shops of Isher"!
I'll never forget the first time i read that immortal line of his - "The right to buy weapons is the right to be free"!
The thing that i really liked about his writing style is the pacing and rhythym that he consciously used to keep the flow of the story going. He once said he used 700 word cadences repeted in succession to biuld a dramatic and emotional effect.
As a result, his best works seem to take on the aspects of some delirious fever dream (hence the title of this post).
Looks cool huh? Now go out and read something already!
Oh yeah, there was this one too. Only THE difinitive SF novel revolving on the war 'twixt telepaths and norms (that's us).
van Vogt (Alfred Elton, if you were wondering) also had a keen understanding of archetypes, mythology & meta-stories... you know, all that Joseph Cambell stuff. "Wizard of Linn" is just "I, Claudius" in a post atomic holocaust setting. He said so himself.
Many of the ultra-futuristic contrivances and settings in his novels harken back to primitive, almost magical fairy-tale stuff. i mean that in a good way. And he's very big in France i hear. Good for them!
Like so many of the old SF writers of note, he was a learned gentleman and master of many disciplines. Apart from being an excellent author, he was also a keen student of history and an authority on (strangely enough) China..... as well as being a close pal of L. Ron Hubbard... all in all a pretty interesting guy!
Plus don't forget his very bizarre "straight" novel!
Now here's ANOTHER guy who doesn't get his "props" as they used to say. Back when Astounding lived up to it's name in the late 40's, van Vogt was there. "Null-A", "War with the Rull" and of course "The Weapon Shops of Isher"!
I'll never forget the first time i read that immortal line of his - "The right to buy weapons is the right to be free"!
The thing that i really liked about his writing style is the pacing and rhythym that he consciously used to keep the flow of the story going. He once said he used 700 word cadences repeted in succession to biuld a dramatic and emotional effect.
As a result, his best works seem to take on the aspects of some delirious fever dream (hence the title of this post).
Looks cool huh? Now go out and read something already!
Oh yeah, there was this one too. Only THE difinitive SF novel revolving on the war 'twixt telepaths and norms (that's us).
van Vogt (Alfred Elton, if you were wondering) also had a keen understanding of archetypes, mythology & meta-stories... you know, all that Joseph Cambell stuff. "Wizard of Linn" is just "I, Claudius" in a post atomic holocaust setting. He said so himself.
Many of the ultra-futuristic contrivances and settings in his novels harken back to primitive, almost magical fairy-tale stuff. i mean that in a good way. And he's very big in France i hear. Good for them!
Like so many of the old SF writers of note, he was a learned gentleman and master of many disciplines. Apart from being an excellent author, he was also a keen student of history and an authority on (strangely enough) China..... as well as being a close pal of L. Ron Hubbard... all in all a pretty interesting guy!
Plus don't forget his very bizarre "straight" novel!
posted by hyperdave at 10:10 PM
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