7/17/2023 0 Comments Van vogt supermind![]() And, his science background for his stuff can often get into the "Spaceman Spiff" world. But you don't need to belive in this stuff to get into his thing. As mentioned above he even was an auditor in Scientology for a while. He is obsessed with psuedoscientific hypnosis brain improvement systems and they are featured in all his work. The drawback or the charm of VanVogt is that he is a first rate oddball. I thought these particular stories were wonderful: I'd say if you start with his short stories, (which are currrently collected in the volume entitled- "Transfinite') I'd be very surprised if you couldn't find at least a couple that'll absolutely knock your socks off! I'm in the process of going through all his novels now. But then I picked up a short story collection almost by accident -"Destination Universe" and was mindblown! I too was unimpressed by Null-A, and that kept me away from anything else that he wrote. It sounds like it's a bit different, I've previously suspected I wouldn't like it as much and you've been compounding my fears Mugwump, but I'm will to give it a try and I'd recommend you give Slan a go and see if you like it any better. I've been trying to pick up a copy of The World of Null-A to no avail so far, but I'm keen to get a rounder representation of the "best" of his work. He obviously managed to get some good translators. ![]() He apparrently was also one of the first true "international" science fiction authors coming from the Golden Age at the time (much moreso that Asimov, Clarke and Heinlein), most notably with a huge following in France. My understanding of van Vogt is that he was ahead of the curve in a lot of his ideas and paved the way for a lot of later writers. It's the first van Vogt novel I've read (I've read some of his short stories like Black Destroyer and The Weapons Shop) and it has a lot of interesting ideas (though some of the science is a little dated) as well as being a very entertaining romp, albeit firmly entrenched as a sci-fi fare from the period. I've almost finished reading Slan and I have to say I'm really enjoying it. You didn't really have time to think about the implausibles whilst reading on to the next part.Īnd it's interesting to see Mugwump mention LRH there too - Van Vogt was one of the first to take an interest in Dianetics, and actually ran a centre for Hubbard in its early days. Didn't agree with all he said, but I liked the story. He was also one of my first reads too, and as raggedy has said above I thought he was great, in a 'with one bound, he was free' sort of style. Many well known authors have said that their interest was started by Van Vogt's ideas. Yes, his style was clumsy and yes, it changed little but it got people's imaginations working - 'what if' kind of stories. Click to expand.I think the point is that in the context of the 1940's & 50's, Van Vogt's work was a revelation - a step up from 'the pulps' of the 1930's whilst still containing the speed of such stories, there were also ideas there, and these ideas at the time were new and generated more wild ideas, emphasing the use of the mind.
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