Stop the presses news!
“The Eye of Argon” was actually published!
Yes, according to the November monthly online version of Dave Langford’s award-winning zine Ansible:
Guess there really is nothing that a fanzine won’t print.
As for the OP, my comment after all these years is: Nuts. Let Spider name the name if there is one. I don’t know Canadian law, but in the U.S. one cannot libel the dead.
Bad SF is, ugh, bad. I interned at a publishing company in college and one of my duties was sorting through the slush pile (unsolicited manuscripts). It was all crap, but the SF writers really went out there. Still, the biggest turd I ever read was a manuscript that the “author” described as “a sexy existentialist western”. I couldn’t believe a grown man wasted months of his life putting shit on over 300 sheets of paper.
And now, through the miracle of the Internet and POD publishing, everyone can read slush! It’s just called iUniverse or PublishAmerica or Xlibris or . . .
I just asked my husband and he says he was at a con where someone asked Spider.
The answer?
Tarzan.
I know, I don’t consider that SF either.
I managed to actually read 20 of the Gor books.
Yes, I was 13 at the time. How did you know?
My wife made me get rid of them when the children came along, a decision she regrets once she saw what they were going for on ebay.
My favorite bad SF story came from Harlan Ellison, who was talking about about reading submissions for “Dangerous Visions” and came across a concept so revolting that it made even Harlan sick.
For those of delicate sensibilities out there, I shall hide the concept behind the spoiler box:
The story was about a snot vampire. That is, a vampire who fed on, um, his victim’s, that is (hurp!), his victim’s . . . (flees for the bathroom)
If Spider Robinson actually said that and actually believed it, it only shows that he has no idea what he’s talking about. Here’s a history of Tarzan:
http://www.tarzan.org/history_of_tarzan_part1.html
Tarzan isn’t science fiction (but Robinson doesn’t call it science fiction in the quote), it’s actually fairly well written pulp, and Burroughs didn’t make a bet with a friend that he could sell anything. Such a bet wouldn’t have made any sense, since he wasn’t very far into his writing career and would never have jeopardized his career by deliberately writing badly. Furthermore, even if the story was true, what relevance would it have had to science fiction readers in 1976? Tarzan came out in 1912.
My respect for Spider Robinson just dropped a half a dozen notches.
Don’t make me sick an Oscar fic on you then. :shudders:
Huh? I have about 20 of these things at home in the attic (never read them tho, kept them for the covers 
).
Can’t be any of the ones listed. Robinson said “two dozen sequels”. Even if he was speaking loosely, there were only one or two SF/F series that IN 1982 (or so…I don’t remember the original publication date of Callahan’s) had 20-some sequels.
Remember, in the actual quote, Robinson says he won’t name the author because he’s worried that the author’s estate will come after him.
So, we need to narrow the list even further: a series that, in the early '80s had 20+ books and where the author was dead.
Gor, in 1982 was around book 12,
Xanth was at about 7 and wasn’t horrible yet (it wasn’t good or anything. but it wasn’t horrible),
Burrough’s Tarzan was at 24 (but IIRC Robinson expressed admiration for Burroughs in some interview or other).
E.C. Tubb had a long series back then, but was still alive
Marion Zimmer Bradley’s Darkover stuff was approaching the 20s, but again she was alive and at the time her stuff was very respected (Heritage of Hastur, Forbidden Tower)
The only thing I came up with the last time this came around was Edmund Hamilton’s CAPTAIN FUTURE series. 20 books, never reprinted (never a good sign), Hamilton was dead by the time Callahan’s was published. It fits all the points, but I dunno.
Ah-ha. This did come up before
I’d swear there was another discussion about this though, and (IIRC) someone who actually knew Robinson said that the story was a to illustrate a point. I’ve come to that conclusion myself. There really aren’t any books that fit the facts in evidence.
Frankly, I’ve come to the conclusion that Robinson made up a story to illustrate a point.
Fenris
Yeah, I know… I don’t get it either. Quite possibly he did make the whole thing up to make a point, and maybe he answers a different answer each time people ask.
I wouldn’t put it past him at all. After all, when you ask him about the location of Callahan’s itself (you know, inspired by a real place he says is ow was located on 25A in Suffolk County on LI) he changes his answer. I grew up out there and if you try and figure out where it is based on what he’s said, its impossible. He intentionally gives out contradictory info about it … which is quite ok by me. Makes it fun to contemplate and “argue” about with others.
[hijack]
In a similar vein, who were Niven and Pournelle referring to in Inferno?
[/hijack]
That’s clearly Kurt Vonnegut that Niven and Pournelle are referring to. Saying that he “founded” two religions is a pretty strange way to describe what he was doing. He had imaginary religions in some of his novels, not because he remotely believed in them, but because he wanted to make a point about what people could believe.
Gee, Niven and Pournelle jealous of someone who could write rings around them. Who’d’a thunk?
Well, you have to admit Breakfast of Champions pretty much stunk. I like his writing much better after he got away from science fiction anyway. But yes, as a writer, Niven and Pournelle are not in his league. Even though Niven puts out a darn good story once in a while.
I’m impressed you got through the first chapter, too. Not that I could. I nearly started crying from pain at the first line of dialogue.
Da NOIVE of some people. It is YOU, sir, who deserves to be Mercotan-ized and take it from me, brother, that STINGS, for disrespecting the poetry that was Breakfast of Champions.
Perhaps you were thinking of the movie.