QX buddy, the Lensmen are here to save Civilization

August 3, 2004 10:54 PM

If you like Science Fiction, if you like Star Wars, Babylon 5, or the Green Lantern, then you've probably heard of E. E. "Doc" Smith Ph.D., the man credited with getting powdered sugar to stick to donuts and with creating several of the most influential tales to ever spring from the "pulps" of the 1940s. The grandfather of Space Opera his Lensmen books, while badly written and horribly dated, still create that sense of wonder that all SF junkies crave.
posted by Grod (19 comments total)

Weren't the Lensmen the inspiration for Jedi Knights?
I seem to remember reading or hearing that somewhere.

No idea if it is true or not....
posted by Trik at 12:38 AM on August 4, 2004

Holy Klono's carballoy claws, a Lensman post! But baffle your jets: if you haven't read the books as an impressionable child or teen, you'll probably find them near-unreadable.

Though I notice that compared with modern pulp fiction, the Doc uses very complicated sentence structure and a wide vocabulary; which confuses some contemporary readers.

Also very militaristic and politically incorrect by today's standards. After he explicitly explains how in both galaxies, Lensman can come from any alien race, no matter how strange, bizarre, exotic; it seems a little odd that women aren't allowed...

Great fun though, and the guy had a terrific imagination, produced ideas at a mile a minute, and managed to produce intensely memorable scenes as well as a fast-moving plot.

Clear ether.
posted by TheophileEscargot at 12:54 AM on August 4, 2004

Why do we always have to say "[grandfather / godfather] of x"? "Space opera" is a good example: The real "grandfather" would be the first adventure pulpsmith who retyped a western story with "sci-fi" terminology replacing the western (hover bikes to stand in for horses, blasters for six-guns). The most egregious examples came to be known as "Bat Durstons" (see Reg Bretnor's hilarious short, "Bat Durston, Space Marshall"); the cleverer pulpsmiths learned the peculiar demands of SF, and craftsmen passionate about their ideas (like Smith) saw license to engage in enthusiastic storytelling.

But of course, the real "godfather", if we have to have one, is Hugo Gernsback.

Theophile: The verbal sophistication isn't surprising. The sentence structure, vocadulary and syntax in even average writing was much more complex in those days. I think the change since then is most obvioius in looking at literature intended for teenagers. There's more to it than books reflecting the language of the time (look to dialogue passages for that); it's that modern "children" aren't expected to tolerate sophisticated sentence structures or use context to learn vocabulary. Compare one of Walter Farley's "Black Stallion" books to a modern example (excluding Harry Potter) targeted at the same age range. This, I think, explains part of the enthusiasm for the Potter books: It's just so rare to see moderately challenging prose targeted at teenagers.

SF, AFAICS, always had a higher standard for prose craft than mainstream fiction, anyway. (That may be a truth about genre fictions in general.) I haven't sampled widely in the genre since the 70s, so I don't have a sense for the quality of prose right now, but at that time it was definitely better than the average for the mainstream.
posted by lodurr at 4:55 AM on August 4, 2004

Yep. I picked up the first novel as an adult, wanting to read up on what's been inspiration for so many later works and just could not get past the first chapter or two.
posted by ursus_comiter at 4:56 AM on August 4, 2004

phew, for a second there, i misread Lensmen as Lensman.
posted by lotsofno at 5:34 AM on August 4, 2004

But of course, the real "godfather", if we have to have one, is Hugo Gernsback.

Is that the Hugo Gernsback who was all of 11 when 'The Time Machine' was published?
posted by biffa at 6:02 AM on August 4, 2004

The sentence structure, vocadulary and syntax in even average writing was much more complex in those days.

It was also pretty common to get paid by the word back then.
posted by Cyrano at 6:42 AM on August 4, 2004

SF, AFAICS, always had a higher standard for prose craft than mainstream fiction, anyway.

Hahahaha! Jesus, you won't find a bigger fan of Golden Age sf than I, but "prose craft" was right down there with character development as the least of its virtues. When people like Theodore Sturgeon and Cyril Kornbluth came along who could actually write, it was like the first rays of sun breaking through an age-old darkness (ruled by Cthulhu and labored subordinate clauses). Then the New Wave came along in the '60s (to much kicking and screaming from old-line fans and writers) and by, I'd say, the '80s it began to be taken for granted that sf should be as well written as "mainstream fiction" (whatever that multiheaded beast may be). Seriously, take a look through some old copies of Amazing and Astounding and tell me you can find anything resembling "prose craft" there.
posted by languagehat at 7:21 AM on August 4, 2004

Cyril Kornbluth

You know, it happened over 45 years ago and almost 30 years before I first read anything by him, and I am still pissed off about that heart attack. The great stuff we never got...
posted by PinkStainlessTail at 7:30 AM on August 4, 2004

I picked up the Lensman series when I was about 10, getting various volumes for pennies at village church hall jumble sales, and chewed through them like a chain-smoker just given a carton of Gauloise. I remember thinking at the time that they were readable in a page-turning fashion, but also almost completely incomprehensible at the plot/narrative level. I much preferred Asimov and Clarke, but I basically read any SF I could get my hands on.
posted by carter at 7:46 AM on August 4, 2004

e e "Doc" cummings.
posted by kenko at 8:12 AM on August 4, 2004

I got "Triplanetary" a year or so ago because JMS always said the series was a huge influence on his writing style, and that it influenced Babylon 5. I found it, if possible, more unreadable than most of the prose found in Lord of the Rings, which is so much of an influence on Babylon 5 that it repeats dialogue from the books word for word.
posted by WolfDaddy at 8:14 AM on August 4, 2004

Triplanetary is by far the dullest of the books.

Unfortunately, the most dangerous part of the whole six volumes, the most unrelentingly "serious" part of the entire sequence, the most likely portion of the narrative to disengage the contemporary reader, is the introductory section that makes up the first six chapters of Triplanetary....There is a reason for this....The original Lensman sequence, as published in the 1930s and 1940s in Astounding Science Fiction comprises only Volumes Three through Six of the sequence as published in book form by Fantasy Press between 1948 and 1954, because Smith, when he agreed to book publication, decided that the in medias res structure of the magazine sequence—by virtue of which everybody, Lensmen and readers alike, remain unaware of the true extent of the conflict before the last volume uncovers the arrases behind which the Arisians and the Eddorians have been hiding for hundreds of thousands of words—lacked gravitas.

That's John Clute in the foreword to the SFBC 1998 edition.
I originally read these books in my late-teens when I picked up the overpriced facsimile editions. At the time they were the only editions available. A year and a bit ago, I lost my entire collection of SF (and all my other books) to a flood. Recently I have reacquired several volumes and rediscovered just how fun these books are, hence the post.
posted by Grod at 9:48 AM on August 4, 2004

How hard is it to get powdered sugar to stick to a donut?
posted by gottabefunky at 9:49 AM on August 4, 2004

"Triplanetary" wasn't a part of the original series/serial. It's a prequel that was written later, and isn't a good as the main sequence. For instance, there's no real continuing plot, just disconnected novella-length sequences that don't really add up to anything. So, there's not much "what happens next" incentive to keep reading it.

The main plot is contained in:
First Lensman
Galactic Patrol
Gray Lensman
Second-Stage Lensmen
Children of the Lens

"Masters of the Vortex" is a kind of standalone set in the same universe, but with different characters. Works pretty well on its own, better than "Triplanetary."

Don't know for sure, but I suspect that Triplanetary is actually a "fix-up", a group of related magazine stories quickly tied together and marketed as a novel. You could say that about various other SF things from the era (Dune, Foundation, the Lensman series proper), but they were all serials with a continuing plot, so work better at novel length.
posted by TheophileEscargot at 9:52 AM on August 4, 2004

I just completed my set last week. I read all of the books as a kid and inherited teh set from my dad.

all but one ... which I found on ebay for less than 5 bucks.

now to rebuild my Skylark series.
posted by Dillenger69 at 10:45 AM on August 4, 2004

I am still pissed off about that heart attack. The great stuff we never got...

Amen, brother. Amen.

they were readable in a page-turning fashion, but also almost completely incomprehensible at the plot/narrative level.

This is true also of much of A.E. Van Vogt (a far better writer than "Doc"). But who needs comprehensibility when you can have those splendid images? "On and on Coeurl prowled..."

A year and a bit ago, I lost my entire collection of SF (and all my other books) to a flood.

*cries, prays this never happens to him*
posted by languagehat at 11:46 AM on August 4, 2004

Languagehat, I still haven't gotten over it. I'd stored the books in my father's basement along with all my important papers and letters, some luggage, even my highschool diploma thinking they'd be safer there than moving around with me. Now they're all gone.
posted by Grod at 12:09 PM on August 4, 2004

Is that the Hugo Gernsback who was all of 11 when 'The Time Machine' was published?

I can only assume. I don't know when he was born or the precise date that Wells published that particular "scientific romance" -- so different in style from the science fiction that Gernsback published in his heydey...
posted by lodurr at 12:12 PM on August 4, 2004