{"id":1371,"date":"2018-08-29T09:33:36","date_gmt":"2018-08-29T14:33:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/adventuresfantastic.com\/futurespastandpresent\/?p=1371"},"modified":"2018-08-29T09:33:36","modified_gmt":"2018-08-29T14:33:36","slug":"the-pre-campbell-science-fiction-challenge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/adventuresfantastic.com\/futurespastandpresent\/the-pre-campbell-science-fiction-challenge\/","title":{"rendered":"The Pre-Campbell Science Fiction Challenge"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

John W. Campbell, Jr.<\/p><\/div>\n

It\u00a0 has been said that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. With that in mind, I’m going to steal<\/s> borrow an idea<\/a> from Alexandru Constantin over at the Barbarian Book Club.\u00a0 His challenge was to read three fantasy short stories published before The Lord of the Rings<\/em> changed the landscape of fantasy.<\/p>\n

I’m going to apply that idea to science fiction.<\/p>\n

There can be little argument that when John W. Campbell, Jr. became editor of Astounding Stories<\/em> (which later became Astounding Science Fiction)<\/em> in 1938, he changed the field of science fiction forever.\u00a0 Whether this was a good thing or a bad thing is certainly open to interpretation.\u00a0 The accepted narrative for years has been that this was a completely good thing.\u00a0 Campbell introduced scientific rigor and raised the literary standards by jettisoning many of the pulp tropes of mad scientists (usually with beautiful daughters for the hero to win) and scantily clad women being abducted by bug-eyed monsters.<\/p>\n

Lately that narrative has been challenged.\u00a0 Some writers have claimed that this wasn’t a good thing at all.\u00a0 I’m not going to try to name them because I will invariably leave someone out and this isn’t intended to be a personal attack on anyone.\u00a0 A few have even gone so far as to say Campbell ruined science fiction.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>I’m not prepared to go that far.\u00a0 I happen to like Campbellian science fiction, just as I like Tolkienesque fantasy.\u00a0 I also happen to like science fiction from before Campbell, just as I like fantasy that predates Tolkien.\u00a0 Much of the science fiction from the previous century hasn’t aged well, but that can be said of any genre.<\/p>\n

But I do think these folks have a point.\u00a0 Science fiction wasn’t the same after Campbell, and we lost some of\u00a0 the energy and thrill that went with it.\u00a0 Even Isaac Asimov, a Campbellian writer if there ever was one, admitted as much in his introduction to Before the Golden Age<\/em>, his autobiographical anthology of pre-Campbellian science fiction.<\/p>\n

With a tip of my space helmet to Alexandru Constantin, here’s what I’m proposing.<\/p>\n