“Surely the worst SF novel ever written.”
February 2, 2017 12:39 PM Subscribe
James Gleick on "the father of science fiction," Hugo Gernsback.
My favourite thing about Gernsback was that he provided a mildly clever pun for the currency of my imaginary world on which the Museum of All Things Awesome and that Go Boom is located. (This has nothing to do with the article. I'm just excited to get to talk about it. Carry on.)
posted by joannemerriam at 1:10 PM on February 2, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by joannemerriam at 1:10 PM on February 2, 2017 [2 favorites]
Back when people thought that technology would make the world a better place. Perhaps the world is a better place, though it depends on your definition of better.
posted by Beholder at 2:22 PM on February 2, 2017
posted by Beholder at 2:22 PM on February 2, 2017
Worth it just for the photo of "Hugo Gernsback wearing his Isolator"! This is a delightful piece:
The many writers he stiffed may have included the darkly brilliant—and, as Wythoff notes, “spectacularly racist”—H. P. Lovecraft, who called him “Hugo the Rat.”
I've never forgotten the title of his terrible novel Ralph 124C 41+, because I learned about it at just the age (ten? twelve?) when its terrible pun was calculated to give me a real thrill. Hey, I get it! One to foresee for one!!
posted by languagehat at 2:45 PM on February 2, 2017 [3 favorites]
The many writers he stiffed may have included the darkly brilliant—and, as Wythoff notes, “spectacularly racist”—H. P. Lovecraft, who called him “Hugo the Rat.”
I've never forgotten the title of his terrible novel Ralph 124C 41+, because I learned about it at just the age (ten? twelve?) when its terrible pun was calculated to give me a real thrill. Hey, I get it! One to foresee for one!!
posted by languagehat at 2:45 PM on February 2, 2017 [3 favorites]
Though we know what the REAL worst sci-fi novel is.
Tom: "Grignr"?
Mike: Look, we're already on the second chapter. Get over it.
Tom: I know, I know, it's just... I'd like at least buy a vowel or something.
posted by delfin at 2:49 PM on February 2, 2017 [4 favorites]
Tom: "Grignr"?
Mike: Look, we're already on the second chapter. Get over it.
Tom: I know, I know, it's just... I'd like at least buy a vowel or something.
posted by delfin at 2:49 PM on February 2, 2017 [4 favorites]
For a spot-on parody of Gernsback, try tracking down John Sladek's short story "Ralph 4F":
Doris abducted! Ralph bit his lip until the blood ran cold, for he had no doubt that the stranger was Fenster, and he had kidnapped Doris XK100! But where could he have taken her? 'Where can they be?'
Chapter V. The Turning Point
'I think I can help you there,' said a newsboy with an honest manner. 'Fenster 2814T and his lovely victim are most likely at his secret laboratory -- an artificial moon circling about the earth.'
Chapter VI. Fenster's Mistake
In one corner of the magnesium room sat a clergyman, chained to a rubidium chair by unbreakable ytterium chains ...
posted by kyrademon at 3:07 PM on February 2, 2017 [4 favorites]
Doris abducted! Ralph bit his lip until the blood ran cold, for he had no doubt that the stranger was Fenster, and he had kidnapped Doris XK100! But where could he have taken her? 'Where can they be?'
Chapter V. The Turning Point
'I think I can help you there,' said a newsboy with an honest manner. 'Fenster 2814T and his lovely victim are most likely at his secret laboratory -- an artificial moon circling about the earth.'
Chapter VI. Fenster's Mistake
In one corner of the magnesium room sat a clergyman, chained to a rubidium chair by unbreakable ytterium chains ...
posted by kyrademon at 3:07 PM on February 2, 2017 [4 favorites]
Back when people thought that technology would make the world a better place.
Grrr, do your children have rickets? Clean drinking water? From a stream that the upstream tribe pees into? How many finger and toes do you still have? Set cleanly with xray imaging? When you chop wood is it with an ax made with an alloy that keeps an edge? Even have to bother chopping if the programmable thermostat has not been hacked?
Science Fiction is frequently a kind of fantasy, often a pre-teens version of tech fantasy, and silly to boot. And there are a lot of problems in the world, but as bad as guns can be, jabbing youngsters from "that bad tribe" with sharp sticks caused a lot of pain and hurt. Let's work on it being better tech but let's take some inspiration from SF where we can and make better tech.
posted by sammyo at 3:23 PM on February 2, 2017 [16 favorites]
Grrr, do your children have rickets? Clean drinking water? From a stream that the upstream tribe pees into? How many finger and toes do you still have? Set cleanly with xray imaging? When you chop wood is it with an ax made with an alloy that keeps an edge? Even have to bother chopping if the programmable thermostat has not been hacked?
Science Fiction is frequently a kind of fantasy, often a pre-teens version of tech fantasy, and silly to boot. And there are a lot of problems in the world, but as bad as guns can be, jabbing youngsters from "that bad tribe" with sharp sticks caused a lot of pain and hurt. Let's work on it being better tech but let's take some inspiration from SF where we can and make better tech.
posted by sammyo at 3:23 PM on February 2, 2017 [16 favorites]
" all of this sounds extremely fantastic, but the truths of tomorrow will surpass our wildest fiction."
Yep. I had a 300 baud acoustic coupler and a VT100, when I first went online. No home computer. Just a remote VAX 750.
posted by hank at 3:25 PM on February 2, 2017
Yep. I had a 300 baud acoustic coupler and a VT100, when I first went online. No home computer. Just a remote VAX 750.
posted by hank at 3:25 PM on February 2, 2017
I don't know if it is the worst SF novel ever written, because I haven't read them all, but I have read Ralph 124C 41+, and it's really bad.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 3:54 PM on February 2, 2017 [4 favorites]
posted by Kirth Gerson at 3:54 PM on February 2, 2017 [4 favorites]
Best SF novel: 1984.
Worst SF novel: 2017.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 4:44 PM on February 2, 2017 [11 favorites]
Worst SF novel: 2017.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 4:44 PM on February 2, 2017 [11 favorites]
For a spot-on parody of Gernsback, try tracking down John Sladek's short story "Ralph 4F":
Wow, haven't thought about Sladek in ages. The other parodies from that series were pretty great too; from what I can remember he lampoons Asimov, Heinlein, Clarke, Dick and Ballard.
posted by octothorpe at 4:55 PM on February 2, 2017 [2 favorites]
Wow, haven't thought about Sladek in ages. The other parodies from that series were pretty great too; from what I can remember he lampoons Asimov, Heinlein, Clarke, Dick and Ballard.
posted by octothorpe at 4:55 PM on February 2, 2017 [2 favorites]
I was amused the other day, as I was replaying Mass Effect 2, that one of the missions has you investigating the crash of the Hugo Gernsback.
posted by Ashwagandha at 6:15 PM on February 2, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by Ashwagandha at 6:15 PM on February 2, 2017 [2 favorites]
Back when people thought that technology would make the world a better place.
Oh joy, this naive cynicism again. Pick up a stick and you have a tool. You can use it to knock down fruit or kill your neighbor.
Technology can't make people better. But it can help them to live in a better place ... unless they're determined to be unhappy, even if they don't have to grow food, carry water, sew clothes together and walk ten miles to wash them down by the river. Particularly it can't help them if their greatest joy is in seeing others unhappy, or making sure that they are.
Hugo helped hundreds of people discover the joy of radio communication, and edited and published hundreds of magazines that were very welcome indeed where people's lives were otherwise pretty damned barren, especially where they were surrounded by the joyless, uncaring, unimaginative and judge-mental. I know that, because I grew up there.
posted by Twang at 12:13 AM on February 3, 2017 [13 favorites]
Oh joy, this naive cynicism again. Pick up a stick and you have a tool. You can use it to knock down fruit or kill your neighbor.
Technology can't make people better. But it can help them to live in a better place ... unless they're determined to be unhappy, even if they don't have to grow food, carry water, sew clothes together and walk ten miles to wash them down by the river. Particularly it can't help them if their greatest joy is in seeing others unhappy, or making sure that they are.
Hugo helped hundreds of people discover the joy of radio communication, and edited and published hundreds of magazines that were very welcome indeed where people's lives were otherwise pretty damned barren, especially where they were surrounded by the joyless, uncaring, unimaginative and judge-mental. I know that, because I grew up there.
posted by Twang at 12:13 AM on February 3, 2017 [13 favorites]
https://mobile.twitter.com/nybooks/status/827603176337588226 They retweeted us!
posted by orangutan at 11:45 AM on February 3, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by orangutan at 11:45 AM on February 3, 2017 [1 favorite]
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