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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Very Juicy Oral History,
This review is from: Reflections of A. E. Van Vogt: The Autobiography of a Science Fiction Giant: With a Complete Bibliography. (Paperback)
This was a delightful memoir to read. This work is not so much written as it is an edited verbatim transcript from interviews. The text reads authentically, graceless, clumsy, awkward and choppy though always clear, and contains highly provocative content that is a joy to read for the would-be writer, professional writer, and psychologist as well, although the talk about books, human nature, writing, methods of art and science don't get fully focused on until Chapter 15 of this 19-chaptered book of only 120 pages in length. We read about a prolific science fiction writer who, while strongly attracted to conscious methods of writing fiction (such as those prescribed by John Gallishaw and the Palmer Institute), nonetheless was forced to capitulate to his non-conscious mind for ideas and themes and plot resolutions. Born and raised in Canada, not the least bit well off although he had an attorney for a father, A. E. Van Vogt identified himself as a writer at the age of 14 and never looked back, even though his productions at the time and in the early lean years (and they were lean and mean years) were mostly female-identified stories for Confession magazines! Along the way as we read, A. E. Van Vogt has some trenchant and prescient ideas to offer about the state of humanity and the U.S. He suggests we vote no one in for office who is an attorney as they are makers of laws ruining the country and, he adds, "To me, it looks as if all the battles for democracy are going to have to be fought over again." In other words, folks, even from his vantage point in 1975, A. E. Van Vogt saw the need for another Spartacus and a new Slave Rebellion coming. Was he ever so right! At the last two pages of the book, before the long Bibliography of Works that is included, are two black-and-white photographs reproduced of A. E. Van Vogt and his wife, E. Mayne Hull. These are photographs of two very handsome people at the height of their vigor and talent. A. E. Van Vogt humbly admits in the book that while he acknowledges the photo of himself is stunning, he "never" looks like that in real life.
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