tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post7061199779076007210..comments2024-03-29T06:22:47.638-07:00Comments on CONTRARY BRIN: Passings: Frederik Pohl, Bruce Murray and Iain BanksDavid Brinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14465315130418506525noreply@blogger.comBlogger15125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-23592925585295658402013-09-15T15:13:43.884-07:002013-09-15T15:13:43.884-07:00Living in Chicago I felt I knew Fred and have alwa...Living in Chicago I felt I knew Fred and have always admired him. When I heard of his passing I started doing online searches for his name, hoping that I would find myriad articles about him. Imagine my chagrin when I found relatively little written about his life and death. Thank you for this beautiful remembrance. Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01654876911262969580noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-21709019868907111412013-09-05T07:10:05.913-07:002013-09-05T07:10:05.913-07:00Jumping off the subject of goodbyes and back into ...Jumping off the subject of goodbyes and back into the neo-environmentalism / modernism article of a few weeks ago. After all,I think that all three of these men would thank us for the farewell and then tell us to get back to work on the process of coming up with a better world... <br />Here is a fairly thoughtful interview with Naomi Klein, author of "No Label," in which she argues that modernist environmentalists are really doing a disservice to the movement, especially in the context of climate change. She argues that grassroots movements like Idle No More are much more important in the big scheme of things. <a href="http://www.salon.com/2013/09/05/naomi_klein_big_green_groups_are_crippling_the_environmental_movement_partner/" rel="nofollow"> Naomi Klein in Salon </a>.<br />Note that I most definitely do not agree with her stance here, but I think that the article is an important one, and that her book / documentary that is coming out will be worth keeping track of. matthewhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17757867868731829206noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-85873319822034142842013-09-04T19:25:47.917-07:002013-09-04T19:25:47.917-07:00And he could scare the hell out of you with A Plag...And he could scare the hell out of you with <i>A Plague of Pythons.</i>Jumperhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11794110173836133321noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-64570842278159432322013-09-04T10:46:12.516-07:002013-09-04T10:46:12.516-07:00Frederick Pohl was a great science fiction author....Frederick Pohl was a great science fiction author. "Gateway" was beautifully written. Thanks David Brin for remembering him.<br /><br />Frederick Pohl, R.I.P.Roger Kentnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-42906993808890248582013-09-03T16:22:19.901-07:002013-09-03T16:22:19.901-07:00Frederick Pohl put science fiction into perspectiv...Frederick Pohl put science fiction into perspective for me. Girls in the 1960s were not supposed to enjoy science fiction, but my brother and I were in our own sort of space race as readers -- he the kid who read science and I the kid who read fairy tales, who found common ground with “Space Cat” and “The Spaceship Under the Apple Tree” and started swapping volumes of more adult sci fi and fantasy which became our shared reading enthusiasm. But nearly all the sci fi authors available in our book stores seemed to be lofty males -- Clarke and Asimov and Heinlein, magically endowed and in print. Frederick Pohl's "The Way the Future Was" put the genre into perspective because he helped to build it, as a fan, a writer, an editor, and a historian. He gave me a new appreciation for the nuances of the stories, in his own work and in others'. He and the generations of writers he nurtured made scientific thinking and dreaming accessible for our space race generations that followed. Anne Lundenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-50451517572275206302013-09-03T13:49:48.629-07:002013-09-03T13:49:48.629-07:00Ever since word got out of Pohl's death the ti...Ever since word got out of Pohl's death the titles of novels and stories have been popping into my head. Some less memorable than others, but all well-reasoned and worth reading. Some, joyous and profound and unforgettable.<br /><br />A personal favorite is a trifle of a short-short called "Day Million" (1967), which looks at how very different the future might be, given the accelerating rate of change. Decades before talk of posthumanism, "Day Million" showed the beginnings of a romance -- which would be carried out entirely in what we would call virtual reality -- between a metal skinned cyborg and a transgendered otter-like woman. Pohl makes it clear while these are humans, the quotidian details of their lives would be so strange as to be more bewildering to us -- living a mere thousand years in their past -- as our lives would be to a protohuman.<br /><br />Compare that to the many SF futures which settle for a replay of ancient Earth history.Stefan Joneshttp://www.flickr.com/photos/stefan_e_jones/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-25889237812147743412013-09-03T13:37:16.856-07:002013-09-03T13:37:16.856-07:00Great - and moving - contributions. Thanks....Great - and moving - contributions. Thanks....David Brinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14465315130418506525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-53605246530298968192013-09-03T13:14:19.133-07:002013-09-03T13:14:19.133-07:00Fred Pohl was a member of the Young Communist Leag...Fred Pohl was a member of the Young Communist League in the mid to late 1930s even becoming head of a local chapter in Brooklyn (Flatbush). I was once on a panel with Pohl (a great honor for me!) in 2004 at the Sci-Fi Convention, and I asked him if his experience as a member of the YCL in the 1930s informed his ability to see beyond Cold War hysteria with Cyril Kornbluth in writing "The Space Merchants," which posits the US wins the Cold War with its products, including those products that meet pleasures and desires, and market economies. He smiled and asked if we should clue in the audience as to what YCL stood for and I said it was up to him, and he smiled at the audience and said very slowly, "Young...Communist...League." He waited for the gasps and then said, and I paraphrase, that he enjoyed his time as a Young Communist, was never a spy for anyone, and that he still thought they were very good at the time about labor unions, which was and remained important for him. He said while his time in an ad agency was an obvious influence, it was indeed true that his time as a Communist, and his being still enamored with leftist oriented economic stances, played a role in how he perceived the Cold War hysteria of the early 1950s.<br /><br />David may think the axis is silly, but we should not forget that Pohl saw himself as a man of the economic left. He simply had a sense of humor and was not dogmatic about it. And that is part of what made his a subtle and brilliant mind.<br /><br />I agree with David about "TSM" and I would add that "The Merchant's War" (1985) is also brilliant as a sequel to TSM. I loved "The Coming of the Quantum Cats" from the 1980s as well as "Gladiator-at-law" and "Man Plus." RIP, Fred Pohl. Your work is for the ages.<br />Mitchell J. Freedmanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09999515428915501896noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-2580323902338689642013-09-03T13:12:12.155-07:002013-09-03T13:12:12.155-07:00This comment has been removed by the author.Mitchell J. Freedmanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09999515428915501896noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-82126510904371504332013-09-03T12:25:18.760-07:002013-09-03T12:25:18.760-07:00David,
Of course Fred's writing will live af...David, <br /><br />Of course Fred's writing will live after him, and he was one of SF's giants. But what is most tragic is that we have lost one of the few who would actually expend his time and energy to help others. Most successful people do a touch of help; he did a lot. He fought for Chip Delaney. He hired Judy-Lynn del Rey, trained her, and promoted her to be the great editor she became. He rejected my novella, but he walked me from one room to another at DISCLAVE II to introduce me to Damon Knight; he then personally took my rewritten manuscript, read it on an airplane, and then handed it to "the best young agent in the business" and he told the agent to give it to Judy-Lynn and told her to publish it. Fred did such things for many others. He did not just give advice and allow someone to use his name; he took action to help others. He was a much kinder and better man than nearly anyone else I know. I loved his writing, but I'll remember him for his goodness, his willingness to put himself out, and for his warmth. Every day, I looked for his blog to see that he was okay. Tomorrow...Shawn Oueinsteenhttp://www.f1reth0rns.blogspot.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-43153806419798775432013-09-03T12:22:00.494-07:002013-09-03T12:22:00.494-07:00When you speak of people such as this the best we ...When you speak of people such as this the best we can do is remember them and be grateful for that time they spent among us. Wishing for more time with them would be greedy and 'sorry' or 'good bye' are trivial.Rudy Behrenshttp://www.beargroup.usnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-23940582484329396672013-09-03T12:03:23.906-07:002013-09-03T12:03:23.906-07:00Most eloquent. Thanks.Most eloquent. Thanks.David Brinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14465315130418506525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-44915181555821693462013-09-03T11:31:54.837-07:002013-09-03T11:31:54.837-07:00Frederik Pohl was an exceptional writer, humanist ...Frederik Pohl was an exceptional writer, humanist and social critic. He was also wicked funny, focusing on human strengths as well as human follies. I cut my baby teeth on his short story collections, progressed to his novels, then worked backwards through old issues Galaxy & Amazing. <br /><br />His work, especially his early works, are humbling must reads: For the hopeless ideologue, the Space Merchants; for the animal rights activist, Slaveship; for the peaceful collectivist, Wolfsbane; for the pompous economist, the Midas Plague; for the evolutionists, the Starchild & Undersea series; and, for the empire builders, Age of the Pussyfoot, The Cool War, Narabedla Ltd & World at the End of Time.<br /><br />His humour & intellect will be sorely missed.<br /><br />Best.locumranchnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-7803928735431158782013-09-03T11:14:19.283-07:002013-09-03T11:14:19.283-07:00Lovely piece on Frederik Pohl, David. You nailed i...Lovely piece on Frederik Pohl, David. You nailed it as only a colleague could.Tom Dupreehttp://tomdup.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-60632332918339962862013-09-03T10:52:43.130-07:002013-09-03T10:52:43.130-07:00It was really sad to hear about Frederik Pohl and ...It was really sad to hear about Frederik Pohl and Bruce Murray - I still remember the Planetary Atmospheres class at Caltech. We can at least be satisfied that that they had full, enormously beneficial lives.<br /><br />I checked in to let you have this link (not related). http://http://reason.com/archives/2013/08/30/watched-cops-are-polite-cops It looks like judges are ordering sousveillance!<br /><br />Bob PfeifferRoberthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05763643308644698795noreply@blogger.com