tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5448581132479481740.post6867434041223862945..comments2024-03-25T11:29:25.356-04:00Comments on Existential Ennui: Kingsley Amis: My Enemy's Enemy (1965, Penguin #2346) and The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction (Lewes Book Bargains)Nick Jones (Louis XIV, the Sun King)http://www.blogger.com/profile/17716508525331235684noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5448581132479481740.post-51044244749411413022013-03-30T21:13:38.262-04:002013-03-30T21:13:38.262-04:00Oh I know Amis wrote a fair bit of SF--partly beca...Oh I know Amis wrote a fair bit of SF--partly because of Nick's valiant efforts here, of course. <br /><br />And I can't speak for how he was regarded by UK enthusiasts, but in the U.S., I do seem to recall him being regarded with something akin to--well--puzzlement. Like something along the lines of "What are we to make of this guy? Is he on the level or what?" <br /><br />Because again, in America, the road to literary respectability always led AWAY from the genre, and here's this writer who has achieved widespread critical acclaim AWAY from the genre deciding to come in and make it his own. What's up with that? It wasn't in any sense a hostile reaction--admiring even--but still--a puzzlement.<br /><br />We don't have an H.G. Wells, you know. Or an Olaf Stapledon (I have no idea what the critics thought of him). Our first really big name was Hugo Gernsback (who was actually from Luxembourg). A great publisher. A horrible horrible writer. The stuffy old critics had every reason to poke fun. <br /><br />Eventually, we produced some truly great writers in the genre (I mean great without any qualification whatsoever), and some of them did eventually win over the critics. It only took half a century or so. <br /><br />So were things different over there? Actually, judging by the quote Tod just produced, maybe not that much. <br /><br />Chrishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00271250698430923736noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5448581132479481740.post-56695712844314494932013-03-29T10:12:46.498-04:002013-03-29T10:12:46.498-04:00Ha! Sorry, my eye was caught by comments before I ...Ha! Sorry, my eye was caught by comments before I properly read your piece...redundancy not intended! But Amis wrote a fair amount of fantasy and sf...THE GREEN MAN, certainly...THE ALTERATION...Todd Masonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01815516018079824802noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5448581132479481740.post-14440471851602583372013-03-29T10:08:37.839-04:002013-03-29T10:08:37.839-04:00I don't know if Amis ever attended a con (I...I don't know if Amis ever attended a con (I'd guess no, but not with any great confidence), but he was hardly seen as too much an Outsider by the mid '60s, when his and Robert Conquest's SPECTRUM anthology series began (where one or both of them wrote, close paraphrase: "SF's no good, they bellow till we're deaf, and if it's good, then it's not SF!), and NEW MAPS OF HELL was no longer controversial for suggesting Frederik Pohl was a first-rate writer. Amis's reference to his character reading ASTOUNDING SCIENCE FICTION (nowadays ANALOG) magazine in LUCKY JIM had preceded that book, as well. F&SF, btw, reprinted that Amis story from THE SPECTATOR, members of one of my mailing lists were reminded yesterday, in a nice coincidence. But that was his only story in F&SF so far, though not his only fantasy or sf story...and Disney really messed over Thomas Disch through his inept agent. PSYCHO all over again.Todd Masonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01815516018079824802noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5448581132479481740.post-17505538027892360322013-03-26T04:26:03.527-04:002013-03-26T04:26:03.527-04:00All the Blood Within Me and Something Strange are ...All the Blood Within Me and Something Strange are two of the best short stories I've ever read. They both use the same trick - I suppose you could call it the "slow reveal".<br /><br />Love the cover - I thought "Ah, one of those 60s Alan Aldridge-style covers". Well spotted, me. It's by Alan Aldridge. With a Tom Wesselman nude in one corner.Lucy R. Fisherhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08632983296994349550noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5448581132479481740.post-9109570565381674442013-03-25T10:14:42.615-04:002013-03-25T10:14:42.615-04:00I'm a science fiction fan, and I didn't ev...I'm a science fiction fan, and I didn't even know about this. As I've mentioned before, I do recall mentions of Amis in various science fiction publications--but they wrote about him as a sort of distant cousin. He wasn't quite considered part of the club--but of course with such a distinguished member as Brian Aldiss to vouch for you, not hard to get published in The Magazine of SF & Fantasy, which as its name indicates, was pretty flexible in its genre standards. I remember reading Thomas Disch's "The Brave Little Toaster" in that same publication. Basically a children's fable written for adults. <br /><br />Amis was respected, I think, because he was coming over from the other side--the 'mainstream' authors who got some flak from the rather incestuous straight SF circles tended to be the ones who had started in the genre, then went legit, and then stopped showing up at conventions. <br /><br />Which begs the question--did Amis go to any SF conventions? Chrishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00271250698430923736noreply@blogger.com