Campbell was basically a one-man human internet of sci-fi, a sort of Mycroft Holmes figure, routing ideas, provocations, etc to their correct destinations and absorbing all the nest output. He *was* the market. Intercessionary figure bridging to fandom.
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Heh, Asimov started avoiding aliens and went with robots because he didn’t like Campbell’s militaristic edits based on humans being superior to aliens. Interesting.
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Alright, we’re back to live tweeting my reading. Now into WW2. Heinlein is getting jingoistic, Asimov got married and is getting confident and snapping bra straps, Hubbard has messed up his navy career. Campbell is still with the magazines unable to find a role in war effort.
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Heinlein and Asimov work at the same place in the war effort, with Heinlein as superior. Clash of wills. The nerdy, awkward, deferential but strong-willed Asimov (22?) is slowly asserting himself against dominance of the 12-years older Heinlein (34?), a charismatic asshole.
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Ironic choice of words in last tweet. Looks like Heinlein had painful hemorrhoids and surgery for it etc. Wife turning into an alcoholic under stress of getting sister and kids back from Philippines interment. Just cause for assholery I guess.
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All but Asimov are trying to live up to the competent man trope they’ve mythologized in SF culture and kinda failing. A tale of 3 slow trainwrecks and one bright young kid watching and learning.
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Hubbard is coming across in this telling as at once the biggest liar and scammer and the only one not drinking the competent man kool-aid. This is a story of 3 hypocrites and one narcissistic sociopath.
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One thing I can relate to is Campbell’s constant struggle to find steady, quality contributors through the war. Despite his ability to pay top dollar and the fact that his supply was mostly physically unfit-for-duty types. Only a rare few could do what he wanted.
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What he wanted was people who could take his prompts and deliver creative results different and better than what he himself might have produced. A sort of laissez faire writers market with campbellian monopsonic characteristics. He wanted to send grand strategy. Much schwerpunkt.
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Campbell badly wanted sci-fi to be relevant to the war and got investigated and a slap on the wrist for running a story speculating too close to the Manhattan project. He did it on purpose to get exactly such a response. Ultimately all he got to do was produce sonar manuals.
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Hedy Lamarr *ESCAPED THE NAZIS* using frequency hopping yet people on the main still have no idea how to do it to do leaps between frames.
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