nonionay | (no subject)

I fell victim to cheap books again. This time, from the library used book sale, I got Dream Makers, Vol II, by Charles Platt. It's a bunch of interviews of science fiction writers. The interviews are done in the authors homes, and are all very fascinating. Platt is great at making each of the authors seems absolutely batty in their own way. Then again, I did intentionally start out with the batty ones. (William Burroughs was living in a former locker room. It was bare and full of concrete and there was a table with a lone typewriter on it. I am terrified of that typewriter. One of the most memorable, disturbing movie scenes for me was the "rub it on my lips, Bill," scene from The Naked Lunch movie. Talking cockroach typewriter.)

I don't know what to think of Platt, though. He has this huge introduction where he justifies his lack of female and minority writers, since apparently people yelled at him for that in volume 1. If he hadn't said anything, I never would have said anything, but he points out that most science fiction writers are men, and most of the women are either newcomers or tend towards fantasy. He then proceeds to trash the shit out of the fantasy genre. (First he says the science fiction authors who can actually write are the true oppressed minority, buried under a glut of crap, then goes on to say that all fantasy is crap. Well fuck you too, man. (Of course, the word, "anti-rational" automatically sets me off) )

Anyway, I decided I want to read the authors' work before I read their interview. So here's the list:

~~Harry Harrison~~
Donald Wollheim
Theodore Sturgeon
Christopher Priest
~~James Tiptree, Jr.~~
The first one I read. The interview was done in 1982, and is creepy. I really want to get that biography of her.
~~William S Burroughs~~ (see above)
Jerry Pournelle
~~Arthur C Clarke~~
Edward Ferman
Joanna Russ
Fritz Leiber
Janet Morris
Keith Roberts
John Sladek
DM Thomas
Larry Niven
~~Stephen King~~ (who gives the impression he was full of coke at the time)
Joan D Vinge
Keith Laumer
Alvin Toffler
~~Joe Haldeman~~
~~L. Ron Hubbard~~ Okay, I haven't read his stuff, but I see his creepy seventies-era portrait through the window of the Scientologists every evening.
Kit Reed
Poul Anderson
~~Piers Anthony~~
~~Andre Norton~~
Jack Vance
Robert Anton Wilson

Holy Crap, it's snowing! That was unexpected.