Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow : Earl Kemp’s Who Killed Science Fiction?

[james_davis_nicoll]

Earl Kemp undertook a visionary effort to assess the state of science fiction 60-odd years ago. The result won the Hugo.

Yesterday, Today, & Tomorrow: Earl Kemp’s Who Killed Science Fiction?

Comments

[conuly]

...is sci-fi no longer a thing?

[bolindbergh]

Note: Dreamwidth tag names can't have commas in them.

[voidampersand]

"We know how the story played out! Earl Kemp did not."

It's pretty clear from his 2006 into to the electronic edition that he did.

[oh6]

Fascinating reading. I don't know how Earl Kemp induced so many leading figures in the field to contribute, but he's done a great service in making it available to everyone.

Having read up to George W. Price, I'm nowhere near finished, but one thought that has come to me so far is that the distinction drawn by some respondents between "serious" and "entertainment" fiction is probably imaginary. Reading the acknowledgements of The Norton Anthology of Short Fiction makes it clear that nearly every famous short story, serious or not, first appeared in a popular magazine, and likely specifically because that avenue of publication existed.