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Theodore Sturgeon
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 Theodore Sturgeon was one of the giants of the Golden Age, both in fantasy and science fiction.
His early work was a model for the young Ray Bradbury, among others. Like Arthur C. Clarke, he came into
real prominence in the 1950s with the new magazines, Galaxy and The Magazine of Fantasy Science Fiction,
which between them published a majority of his work, and with his classic novel,
More Than Human (1953). Although his stories made clever use of science, he was never known as an hard sf writer, but rather as the
finest literary craftsman of his day in the genre. Along with Alfred Bester, Sturgeon was a primary influence on
the sf writers of the 1950s and 1960s, both as a charismatic public figure in the field, a major reviewer from
the late 1950s through the early 1970s, and as a force for increased stylistic experimentation. His stories,
collected in Without Sorcery (1948), E. Pluribus
Unicorn (1953), A Way Home (1955), A Touch of
Strange (1958) and later volumes, are deceptively clear and direct, with none of the pyrotechnics of a Bester story (although
both usually wrote about unusual, grotesque, or extraordinary people), while building toward considerable
power, often with subtle resonances. In a field noted for hastily-written stories, Sturgeon stood for advancing the
craft of writing of science fiction (especially for improving written work by revision for the aesthetic satisfaction
of the writer as opposed to changes made to editorial direction). His thumb-rule definition of sf was: a story
like any other, except that it wouldn't have happened without the science fiction idea in it. His works have
fallen out of print in recent years since his death in 1985, but a complete collection of his stories has been
announced in eight hardcover volumes forthcoming in the mid-90s. No one in the field has yet produced a body of
short fiction superior to Sturgeon's.
Originally a Campbell writer, Sturgeon came to support the broadening term "speculative fiction" as
the preferred name for the literature (note the noncategory titles of his collections, above). A lifelong outsider
and bohemian, Sturgeon bridged the undergrounds of avant garde art and science fiction fandom with
penetrating and humane insight, and was regarded by his peers with something akin to worship. In differing ways,
Kate Wilhelm, Gene Wolfe, and James Tiptree, Jr. have carried on the Sturgeon tradition in recent decades.
"Occam's Scalpel" is on the edge of being not sf at all. There is no better example herein of what the writers
of the fifties and later meant by "speculative fiction." Strict Constructionists would rule it out. Yet it more
centrally concerns science than a majority of Sturgeon's genre work: it is about scientists, about human
psychology, about unconventional moral choices. Sturgeon plays with the doctrine of literality of hard sf, teases
the genre reader with a non-sf explanation for the sf imagery, then allows the story to sit on the fence, both in
and out of the genre. But whether in or out, it has the hard sf attitude toward knowledge, toward the universe.
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The Ascent of Wonder copyright © 1994 by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer. | ||
Cramer: On Science & Science Fiction || Hartwell: Hard Science Fiction
David G. Hartwell || Kathryn Cramer || About Tor Books || Ordering Info
Interactive Intoduction to THE ASCENT OF WONDER copyright © 1995-1997 by Kathryn Cramer.