John W. Campbell Reshapes Sci-Fi - Pulp! Astounding Stories - Extra Sci Fi
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- Опубліковано 10 жов 2024
- Writer-turned-famous-editor of Astounding Stories, John W. Campbell helped usher in the golden age of science fiction, driven by a new authorial understanding of real science and real psychology.
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John W. Campbell saved science fiction. John W. Campbell remade science fiction. John W. Campbell ruined science fiction. All of these are true statements.
We'd better see something about E. E. "Doc" Smith.... That's All I'm sayin' :D
Would you consider doing an episode about 90's anime and its science fiction roots?
Extra Credits can u do an episode on foreign companies becoming more popular/relevant in the US? Using Capcom’s Monster Hunter World could be a good example. I know You could make it awesome.
Extra Credits campbell doesn't feel so good
He was "The Man" in Sci-Fi for a lot of years when the world was making both significant Sci-Fi and Changes to reality that resembled ideas only seen before in it. The Story of the FBI in the office shows that and really any overview is also biased, by current views. I think his racism is overrated here, based on the time and place he came from and worked in, as well as the point that slavery is not economically viable, being true and a more important point..
Scientology was an area he actually harmed far more lives by encouraging in my view. Though I blame R.L.H. and such fools as men be, more.
The quote” You either die a hero, or live long enough to see yourself become the villain” seems very applicable in Campbell’s case.
Cooper de Ruiter LOL
I can just imagine Cambell nonchalantly telling the FBI agent, "Hey I know where your building nukes it's pretty obvious."
How do not get arrested by doing that I have no idea.
I mean it wasn't really his fault that the project's staff loved the magazine and actually kept on getting their subscription.
Maybe he framed it as advice for future secret endeavors? "Bee Tee Dubs, you probably should use trusted people doing mail forwarding, when a ton of subscriptions move to some nowhere corner of New Mexico it's kinda obvious something's up."
They really should have told the staff to have all their mail forwarded secretly rather than changing their actual address.
As a physicist by training himself - he was able to put together two and two. Or maybe he was in touch with his readers - Sci-Fi geeks are a big family. Funny how the FBI was taken by surprise. They probably started surveillance of this new cult called Sci-Fi.
Well, he DID point out that if they made any sudden moves with no explanation, it would look suspicious. The FBI guy was probably smart and knew better than to suddenly arrest this man for, what would seem like to the public, no reason whatsoever.
There are at least two high-profile cases where the writer figured out classified information simply by deductive reasoning. One of the Die Hard films had an incredibly accurate depiction of what Fort Knox looked like, how its security worked, and how to break into it. Tom Clancy, meanwhile, went to libraries, and through that, figured out how particular fighter jets worked and what the cockpits must have looked like (which is classified). In both cases, the FBI came over and asked them how they found out. Once they explained truthfully, the FBI people left quietly, but also impressed.
I believe that in all three of these cases, from the perspective of the FBI, these people had found holes in their security, and they deemed it more important to plug up these holes as soon as they can instead of silencing the people who found out, which by then would've been too late and created more trouble. After all, it was their fault that this information slipped through. It's their responsibility to try not to let it happen again.
I finally tracked down a print copy of Campbell's "Who Goes There?" and read it. After having the poo scared out of me by Carpenter's vision of "The Thing," I had to read the original story. It did not disappoint! I also read Amazing, Astounding, and Fantastic (I think) when I was a kid and loved those magazines. I cannot tell you how many SciFi books I read, but after exhausting the LA Public Library's juvenile section (much Heinlein there), the librarian directed me to the adult shelves. I read them all. Thanks for that memory!
David Thompson try at the mountain(s) of madness
I agree that it's important to acknowledge someone's meaningful contributions while still being aware of their faults. I like that the EC crew tries to paint a nuanced picture of the people they cover.
What a dog... "By the way you're doing it in Los Alamos.." what a ballsy thing to say.
Sean Ramsey
He might have been able to tell the FBI some of the important people working there. Given knowledge of the V2 rocket he might have suspected the eventual development of the ICBM.
You made me like, then tolerate, then really dislike a man. What an emotional rollercoaster. Thank you, Extra Credits.
Lol
I never knew about this person ^^" And as A person who loves sci-fi and writing my own work on the genra, I kind of feel ashamed about that :,D
I`m so happy you guys do these videos it has helped me a lot in recent works and It really is awesome just knowing the history of it.
Thank you always on making these. ^-^
oh wow! I got a fav from you guys! :,D I`m having a senpai noticed me moment right now! :DDD lol
John Campbell is like the Sci Fi Trinity: The Campbell is the Inventor, and the Savior, and the Destroyer. But the Inventor is neither the Savior nor the Destroyer. The Savior is neither the Inventor nor the Destroyer. And the Destroyer is neither the Inventor nor the Savior. But all of them are the Campbell.
Connor Walters
A lot like lovecraft...odd, why where many of Sci-Fi’s staunch’s believers of new ideas, where so reactionary as people?
Joan of Arc Alter No idea. Feels dismissive to simply say "product of the times", but that's really all I've got. That's one of the reasons why I choose to focus on larger ideas than individuals. Because in the end, almost every individual person throughout history is horrible in some way. What's important are the ideas they created and pasted on.
Sometimes a man with vision can only see so far.
Corpus Campbell *eats potato chip*
+Joan of Arc Alter My best guess is that, in order to push one type of idea so hard, you kinda forget all what is around it. It probably is the same with the rebels of Rock that fought the establishment suddenly becoming the establishment and therefore stagnating into sticking with same old same old and being afraid of the new because it means your loss of importance
I believe that cycle's of Rebirth and stagnation are simply part of every genre, and those that can't be reborn once more are those that were most likely a fad rather than a proper genre.
Excellent work. He was indeed a complicated man and his faults as well as his strengths deserve a proper unpacking. We are better off with for his contributions and his negatives we can learn lessons from.
I wish there was more of this series coming out constantly.
Yes, I know, wishful thinking. I fully understand the realities of production and I don't seriously want you guys to do that. You already do so much amazing work as it is.
But seriously, I have read Foundation, Frankenstein, A Dreamers Tales and I just found a 1977 copy of Red Nails all because of this series and I can't want to discover more works.
Thank you for making this series, and all the others. This channel as a whole is one of my favorites and I honestly feel understanding the things you show has helped me understand gaming industry and story telling better then I ever would have if you didn't exist.
This whole time I was waiting for L Ron Hubbard to be mentioned. I wasn't disappointed.
I really want to know what the response to this was, but it is as invisible as my body-thetans.
Kudos for bringing to light something that history classes seem to gloss over: a person's legacy is usually a complicated affair. A person can accomplish a lot of great things, but that doesn't mean that they themselves were 100% good.
So Dune was originally a magazine story wow didn't know that.
In its glory days Analog was fantastic. BTW, I've read several of Campbell's stories. They are hard sci-fi, I'll give you that. I never payed much attention to any editorial; it's just somebody's two cents.
its funny as two other sci-fi i like were inspired by Dune. Mamuro Nagano's Five Star Stories and Games Workshop's Warhammer 40K.
Barry Bend Up until the late 60s almost every "book" appeared in magazines first. Whether short story themed collections (like the Good Doctor's I, ROBOT) or a serialuzed novel virtually all appeared in zines first.
One of the other magazines that drew writers and readers away from Campbell was Horace Gold's GALAXY. And even though Gold focused more on character development he had his own quirk--he liked to rewrite his authors.
When Ben Bova took over the helm of ASTOUNDING after Campbell was gone, although he kept the hard science focus, he was apparently a lot easier to get along with. I never cracked the magazine markets, (by then Stan Schmidt was editor), but I did at least sell to some pro level anthologies.
Dan(s) and James, WorldCon is in San Jose this year. Y'all gonna be there?
Yep, it's like Adrienne Gormley says - magazines were what most people read back then, so it's where the writing went. Short stories were how writers made money, and novels were usually serialized in magazines before being published as an entire work, since that was more profitable and reached a wider audience. Today, magazine circulation is way down and has become a niche audience, whereas novel publication has become the profitable enterprise for fiction.
Barry Bend I always thought that Asimov's Foundation series was what 40k was really based on.
I have been an avid reader of SF my whole life and only now am I realising how much I do not know about the field. Love what you do.
He kinda sounds like he was to sci-fi what Henry Ford was to cars. A brilliant revolutionary who ushered in a new era and who succeeded on the cutting edge just long enough to convince himself that he was always in the right and remain convinced when the times passed him by.
If I ever accomplish anything incredible, I hope I have the humility to realize when I've been surpassed and get out of the way.
Asimov! Heck YEAH! I,Robot was one of the greatest books I've ever read.
Agreed. _I, Robot_ was also one of the worst movies I've ever watched. Fuck Hollywood. Harlan Ellison wrote a fantastic screenplay that managed to incorporate the stories but it was never used. Instead we got that Will Smith action travesty.
My favorite from Asimov is 'The bicentennial man'. Still, I wonder if Asimow is worth a full episode by himself. In my opinion there are only 3 points in Asimov's works that are really interesting to explore: 1- the 3(4) laws of Robotic, obviously / 2- the difference between man, machine and everything in-between / 3- psychohistory.
The best thing from Asimov is the book series: “Foundation”
I want to see a proper movie version of Nightfall, one that sticks with the original premise of the short story and novel.
MathiasGaming Yup, that one is on list of things to read this summer.
what a fascinating man to be both equally admirable for a taking something that I grew up with and loved to the heights that I would come to adore it for and also be the reason why it wouldn't progress which makes me want to hate him but at the end ultimately I cannot, I suppose that is what makes history fascinating the men that do great things can also be the ones that tear those same great things down
Props for mentioning Michael Moorcock! Hope you will do an episode on him!!!!
Just watched oppenheimer. When they started work setting up los alamos, i remembered this ep 😅
Had to study for a science quiz but... new extra credits video can’t wait.
EC has a great way of framing things. Carry that frame into your studying. :)
same
David W I especially like his history
After a several years-long slump Extra Sci-fi has gotten me back into reading. Currently reading The King in Yellow, but man, my reading list just keeps growing everytime I see one of these videos. Thank you!
John Campbell: Helping craft Sci-fi so good that not a small number of Manhattan Project participants and researchers subscribed to his magazine. That's the kind of thing that could go on the cover as an eye-catcher; you know, if it weren't for the whole 'top secret atomic warfare project' thing.
How about a video on The Expanse?... I know it's a bit outside your usual topics but since you seem to be passionate about sci-fi and this sci-fi masterpiece really needs some help to avoid cancellation, I thought you might want to help maybe.
infinity war reference @ 6:00, props to whatever artist did that.
I don't feel so good.
Its gonna be a meme soon
Prabhdeep Singh it already is.
What an AMAZING episode! I devoured Amazing Stories/ Analog as a pre-teen and young adult. I saw Campbell's name everywhere, but never really knew anything about him. Thank you so much for the overview! I really appreciate that you showed both his achievements AND his flaws. (And- I didn't know that one of his stories was the basis for "The Thing! Whoa.)
6:00 I don't feel so good.
John W. Campbell dies in infinity war.
At the hands of Walt.... I mean Thanos.
Congrats, you made my day!
i came to the comment section looking for this comment
Actually it was Wallpole! :D
So do I.
i deeply appreciate the blunt honesty in this channels videos
What a nice, balanced overview of his life. Well done! And thanks, this was a pleasant and informative video.
I’m so glad that you guys are doing this sci-fi series! I never bothered with it too much as a kid, since I viewed it as a stagnant genre. Recently, I revisited Dune, and decided to give it another shot, so this will be quite the treat. 😀
Hey EC have you all seen the Expanse? I'd recommend it. The world-building is insanely good and the plotting is very intricate and requires a lot of attention (much like BSG and GOT but even more complex at times). Check it out! :) We're trying to save it right now, hence why we're posting all over the internet. (Also thanks for posting these features. It's giving me a longer reading list!)
crimsonrose YOU CANT STOP THE WORK
I enjoyed the Expanse for a while and got tired of it. The series was interesting but was difficult to follow. Did Amazon decide to end it? Perhaps the series of novels it is based upon could be discussed?
I would never have been published under Campbell (still haven't). I love Clarke's Third Law to pieces, and the vast majority of my own sci-fi holds to that Law, but I just get the feeling that even though Campbell gave us Clarke that he probably would not appreciate the Third Law's logical extremes.
I'd hate to see his reaction to Freeman's Ammendment.
*Channel Extra Credits has uploaded new video 52 seconds ago*
Oh no, I'm too late
Дмитрий М
The avitar you have is perfect...
Birb memes ftw
Your videos are so fun to watch I nearly forgot to subscribe. Keep up the great work!
For some reason I'm getting a sense that Moorcock's idea of a cosmic battle between Order and Chaos might have been influenced by observing Campbell. I might also be talking out of my ass, as I only know of Moorcock's work by idea that D&D alignment is based on it.
Heck Elric and Yrkoon were characters in it at one point before the makers of D&D had to remove them for copyright reasons. Games Workshop literally just lifted Moorccok's Chaos for their own usage, the Dark Elves and Dark Eldar are based on the Melniboneans(as are the Drow).
This series has created a long list of books I need to get around to reading eventually.
Elric lives!!!
The best stories are the one's with complicated characters not only in their make-up, but also, in are own interpretations of them. This complication stems, like all ideas, from reality where every person is a complexity.
Campbell, one of the most complicated people connected to sci-fi. I honestly can't say if he did more harm than good for the genre as a whole. For every step forward he made, he also stepped on a banana peel.
LOL Complete dead pan reading your comment until I absolutely died at banana haha!
Back in the day, I called his SF style "Earthmen, earthmen uber alles" stories.
This video was 👌! I like that both acknowledges and pays respects to Campbell's legacy while also rightfully criticizing his wrongdoings. I find fanbases often either overly dismissive of an artist's work/legacy because of what they did later on, or overly critical to the point where their achievements are deemed null.
This objective take is very refreshing tbh.
"Isaac, this you must remember about robots"/Said John Campbell, said John Campbell/"There are three Laws of Robotics, now go write the stories tall."/Said John Campbell, the man behind it all./ "The Ballad of John Campbell
I had always thought that science fiction could be a powerful force for advancement of life on this planet, even a driving force behind change and/or transgressive ideas, but after seeing this I realized that the whole field is actually totally 'armless.
Thanks for the video. ;-7
Loving this series, and that you show both sides of each figure.
Oh man, I can just tell you guys will do an episode about Moorcock, and I am excited!
After seeing this, I think the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode “Far Beyond the Stars” was based on this. It’s a great episode, even if you don’t know anything about the series.
just saw the game theory episode that was made 3 months ago that referenced you and i swear i completely freaked. game theory and extra credits make up my favorite channels ever on gaming and overall just some of my favorite channels period so that was awesome.
"He told them "Oh, by the way... you're doing the project in Los Alamos. I can tell because a surprising number of subscribers have suddenly moved their subscriptions there in the last few years."
The cojones on this guy...
Also, yay, Asimov's next!
What a great and straight forward video. Great work
WOW !! I thought I knew a little about this. Now I know a lot more. Thanks EC
Well it's nice to be one of the first to post. I love this series.
please do a moorcock video. PD: that was an awesome image
All he needed was a black runesword and it would've been perfect
The saddest part about dianetics? The two basic concepts, the reactive mind and the engram, are perfectly sound. Indeed, they're both quite basic to actual psychology, though not under those names, and are nothing close to the revolutionary insights Hubbard believed. Of course, the "scientific" edifice he built on top of those, shaped largely by his loathing of psychology and psychiatry, is absolutely worthless at best, and at worst, actively harmful. And that's not getting into the well-documented harm the Church of Scientology has done.
I'm glad you brought up Cambell's racism. I, like you believe that a persons ignorant views shouldn't undermine the good work that they do, but it shouldn't be ignored either. I hope Asimov's incredibly ignorant sexist views are in his episode. These men should be remembered for who they really were and not just placed on pedestals and worshipped because of what they accomplished.
Yeah I think the only one out of the golden age with little to no bad point of view is Frank Herbert. As his views are on full display in his works which is surprising as I think the god Emporer and his way of ruling an empire is a jab at Cambell.
Frank Herbert was homophobic, like to the point of disowning one of his sons for coming out of the closet.
Kyle Towers I did say little to no as I kinda expected that due to the era he was raised in.
While not Sci-Fi, I wonder what Lovecraft had messed up views about...
UA-cam University well theres racism, anti-semitism, classism, xenophobia, and he wasn't very fond of dogs.
I am totally looking forward to next week's episode about one of my favorite authors!
ASIMOV AT LAST! Seriously he is my favorite golden age sci fi writer and in my opinion, the greatest of the big three, though my opinion is colored by my respect for his humanistic and inclusive personal views and his robots setting the stage for some of my favorite ideas about artificial intelligence and how it might differ from that which we as humans enjoy.
Plus as an A Sexual I enjoy that his stories and his characters seem as disinterested in romance and sexuality as I am. I know allot of people see that as a flaw and that their is a coldness to many of his protagonists, but I personally enjoy it as a nice brake from feeling like an outsider to the human experience by not 'getting' things other writers seem to think is a key part of being human.
Duhad You must really dislike that one scene from the Robots of Dawn.
you are an outsider.
I kept wondering when was "The Hero With a Thousand Faces" going to be mentioned.
I later realized that I was thinking of Joseph Campbell.
Side question, are they related? Not likely but worth asking to sate my curiosity.
Also, fun trivia: Joseph Campbell's middle name is John, so they're both technically John Campbells.
Moorcock away....to write a highly influential fantasy series.
Can you do a video about The Expanse? It's another cornerstone in the history of sci-fi!
4:42 On the subject of Campbell nonchalantly throwing in the location of the tests into the conversation, the wiki page of the mentioned story 'Deadline' says otherwise:
"Campbell, in the meantime, had guessed from the number of Astounding subscribers who had suddenly moved to the Los Alamos area, that the US government probably had some sort of technical or scientific project ongoing there. He declined to volunteer this information to the FBI."
[i.e. he figured, but never mentioned it]
Wiki isn't ironclad, but I failed to find any other sources that say otherwise.
Was this artistic embellishment or is there a source where you got this tidbit from?
At 5:38 you mention that Campbell's tenure at Amazing Stories was just about over... Did you mean Astounding?
Interesting question: Is it really possible to overthrow one type of stereotype without in effect creating another, especially while remaining popular with a wider audience?
It's the inherent problem with being the sort of visionary that Campbell was - or any visionary that really made waves. It takes immense willpower, self-confidence and stubbornness to essentially bull your way into changing culture. Which is amazing, when you're the one enacting the change. But once you've done so - you become culture. So when the sea changes again, and it's time for culture to change with it - this time in a way you didn't anticipate, and make happen yourself - that same willpower and surety works against progress just as much as it previously worked towards it. It's an inevitably tragic trait in these types of personalities that makes the whole "live long enough to see yourself become the villain" incredibly true despite how casually the phrase gets tossed around.
Those of us with the self-awareness, empathy, and flexibility to change with the times probably lack the ram-headedness to force change like this. The only thing we can hope for is that lessons in flexibility and self-awareness are learned at some point after their culture-coup has been waged. Which can happen, I'll bet - but still a tall ask I imagine. After all, their force of personality granted them the success they have today. Why change that?
If the culture is small enough that it only has a single paradigm of what is accepted that in effect becomes the stereotype. One paradise will only be replaced by another. As a cultural grows larger it is possible for multiple paradigms to coexist. The will be seen as multiple stereotypes. So today’s post apocalypse teen sf, cyberpunk, hard sf ( the remanant Cambell stuff) , space opera ( hortatory hornblower in space ) , whatever steam punk is, etc
Francesco Nicoletti steampunk is post Victoria sci-fi.
Yes. It may not be easy, but just because the weak-willed submissive woman was no longer the only type, didn't mean that the only permissible female character is now strong and kicks people. There was a time that was the popular idea, but by now, like. Just write the character as a human being, with the tag [woman], or [black], or whatever the thing is. Where it matters when it matters, but when it doesn't, they just act like any human being in their situation would act.
"You can either die a hero or live long enough to become the Villan"
Sounds like his carrier embodied that phrase.
Oh my god, that Los Alamos bit killed me. "I know you're doing it there, because a bunch of nerds moved their subscriptions of my nerdy magazine." BEAUTIFUL
He threw out all the hacks, so to fill in the void he became one.
I just finished a video (boo bad channel plug boo!) on Donald wollheim and really the fact that sci fi at this time was so intertwined with each other is so interesting to me. (Love this series guys)Wollheim was with Asimov during the first sci fi club, the futurians. Worked and sued Hugo for unpaid wages, had Mimic (his only story adapted) published in Campbell’s astounding stories. Help launch the popularity of the mass market paperback (brought Dune from amazing stories to Ace books) which brought the popularity of Tolkien to America (along with a feud between wollheim and Tolkien)
Hey I comented about Hubbard on one of the past episodes and you actually mentioned him, I feel accomplished lol
6:27 and 6:30 I was wondering about that myself, when looked back at Clifford Simak's works, recently.
I can probably remember at least three novels from my memory alone, whose MCs fit these description to a T.
He embodies the saying "You die a hero or live long enough to become the villain"
Take a look at the life of Raymond A Palmer. He was another Science Fiction Magazine editor.
Many people know him only because of his involvement with the Shaver Mystery.
His editorial choices changed the public view on what UFO were.
He eventually started a Magazine call Fate,
When I clicked this video (having read some of Moorcock's essays just yesterday - that is one angry man) I was prepared to be disappointed and didn't expect to see Campbell's fashy tendencies acknowledged. I'm glad to see EC are still doing the good work!
Yeah, Asimov. Foundation was the first non HHGTTG book I ever read just for the fun of it.
Will you folks mention the Strugatsky brothers at some point? Even as a footnote of "influential authors, but maybe kinda too niche / too culture-specific / not influential enough to have their own episode"?
Who can deny how "Star Terk" was plagiarized from Heinlein and Kipling while "Star Wars" was plagiarized from Asimov and Clarke.
I love your depiction of Moorcock
Wow Moorcock called him a crypto fascist? That's a huge piece of unknown history for me right there, gonna need to investigate that relationship now lol. One of the many reasons I love Extra Credits and similar truly education based channels is how they inspire you to investigate not only the topics they raise and cover, but also many of the details and sidenotes that only get a passing mention due to time/space constraints.
i always look forward to extra credits episodes... as if a boy addicted to sci-fi serials
Hey! I really enjoy your content and so do my teacher. Anyway I am doing a assignment on the ukraine conflikt and was wondering if you could either do a series about it or just do video.
Campbell's little "C" for Campbell badge makes it look like he is a copyrighted entity. :)
Did his more questionable sides ever spill into the ideas he was helping push? Or was it for there for the most part a complete separation between his personal ideas and his professional work? It would be an interesting thing to hear more about, especially if it spilled over in subtle, non-obvious ways.
Can you do a video on this Moorcock person you keep talking about?
can't wait for next week!
I mean, while I love Science Fi, I love the classic Pulpy Sci Fiction.
Once again we have a prime example of having to seperate the art from the artist
I was wondering when Hubbard was gonna show up. Are you guys gonna do a video on him?
MinunRobotnik4 I hope not. Hubbard remains a controversial figure to this day.
That could also be a reason to make a video, but I really can't say whether it would be a good idea or not.
Are Campbell's rules for stories written somewhere? They sound useful.
Shout out to The Expanse. Best hard sci-fi around. Please do a review on it!!
YAY ASIMOV! He's one of my favorite authors, and not just in scifi!
Well he did write "Who Goes There?" The story that John Carpenter's masterpiece "The Thing" is based on. (As well as the terrible Howard Hawks movie "The Thing from Another World". But we'll politely ignore that.)
EDIT: Oh, you did point this out!
We need a John Campbell to reboot Doctor who and make it into real Sci Fi again.
"Pew-pew space gun" admittedly made me chuckle
A rule I follow is to separate the author from the work, whatever the athor's views might be, that won't affect my love for whatever that person created. Similarly I never subscribe to a person's beliefs just because I like them as an author, actor or director.
The authors views bleed into their work especially in sf (the literature of ideas) . Campbellite authors built societies in their works where the sexual politics was frozen at mid twentieth century USA no matter where in time and space they were. Like pretty much nothing else this is what gives these stories a Eisenhower with Ray Guns feel. Which I don’t think they were going for.
Apparently Campbell laid down a rule that no alien could be more powerful then humanity, shutting down what are some of the best sf ever written if he was around to enforce it.
author's views might bleed into his work, but that doesn't mean that I would agree with it just because I like the book, there have been many books and movies i've read/seen with views (many popular) that I don't agree with, but I try not to let that fight with my ego and go on enjoying the story despite the particular view.
also limitations breed creativity, some of Campbell's rules like the no alien more powerful than humans rule can lead to some creative stories if done right, similarly a limitation where aliens are superior to humans leads to another type of unique story. campbell's rules lead to certain types of sci fi tropes to be created, ofc that doesn't mean we use his rules to limit all sci fi equally because that would lead to all stories having the same limitations and thus the same cliched narrative
Did you guys do one about High Gernsback yet?
Part of me is wanting to hammer ctrl-r in preparation for the asimov episode, but part of me is yelling WHY IS THERE NOT AN ENTIRE SERIES DEDICATED TO HIM ALREADY....
Arthur C. Clarke, Isaac Asimov
Isaac Clarke is what you get when you merge the names together
Astounding stories being raided reminds me of when Steve Jackson Games was raided because their Cyberpunk book was so real clueless bureaucrats thought they were publishing a hot to hack the Government book.
the first book series I read was the Foundation by Isaac Asimov
Excellent summary. One mistake: It was not Amazing Stories that became Analog. It was Astounding.
@ExtraCredits! I enjoyed the little artistic panel of Black soldiers in the American Civil War. I hope that means you will be covering the abolitionist movement one day :)
At last! Asimov coming up!
I hope you spend several episodes on the Robot and Foundation stories. They deserve it.
Riddled with errors. One which recurs repeatedly is that AMAZING STORIES was driven out of business somehow by Campbell...AMAZING flourished in one way or another into the 2000s, though it also had lean periods. TSR, the Dungeons and Dragons people, were publishing it when Spielberg bought rights to the title for his NBC tv series AMAZING STORIES.