# What kind of science fiction writer are you? (Personality test.) **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 26, 2003, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-science-fiction-writer-are-you-personality-test/150962 "2003-01-26T02:40:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Meatros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Meatros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meatros)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2003, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-science-fiction-writer-are-you-personality-test/150962/41 "2003-01-26T17:01:09Z")
Hal Clement (Harry C. Stubbs) A quiet and underrated master of “hard science” fiction who, among other things, foresaw integrated circuits back in the 1940s. D’oh! I’ve never heard of him… ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2003, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-science-fiction-writer-are-you-personality-test/150962/42 "2003-01-26T17:03:24Z")
Another **Hal Clement** here. ---
**Author:** ![dorkusmalorkusmafia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dorkusmalorkusmafia/32/7266_2.png) [@dorkusmalorkusmafia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dorkusmalorkusmafia)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2003, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-science-fiction-writer-are-you-personality-test/150962/43 "2003-01-26T17:17:22Z")
Kurt Vonnegut For years, this unique creator of absurd and haunting tales denied that he had anything to do with science fiction. Hmmm. I have never read anything by him. I also write more fantasy than science fiction but like to have a general theme. Perhaps I should check him out. ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2003, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-science-fiction-writer-are-you-personality-test/150962/44 "2003-01-26T17:52:25Z")
I’m **Stanislaw Lem**. And I have Cyberiad _in Polish!_. And I saw Solaris when it first came out! Not a bad pick. And he’s still alive 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![jmizzou](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/edb3f5/32.png) [@jmizzou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jmizzou)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2003, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-science-fiction-writer-are-you-personality-test/150962/45 "2003-01-26T17:53:11Z")
Hal Clement for me. Could be better, certainly could be worse. ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2003, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-science-fiction-writer-are-you-personality-test/150962/46 "2003-01-26T18:29:44Z")
You are: Arthur C. Clarke Well known for nonfiction science writing and for early promotion of the effort toward space travel, his fiction was often grand and visionary. That’s me alright! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2003, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-science-fiction-writer-are-you-personality-test/150962/47 "2003-01-26T18:47:50Z")
**A. C. Clarke** 🆒 Oh, yeah… And **gobear** , don’t despair. It only means you’d be _a writer like_ her. … er, on second thought, do despair. You’d produce stupendously long novels full of archetypal characters who through every 90-page-long speech and heated sex scene will make your point “against Rand and everything she stands for” over, and over, and over until impressionable college freshmen decide you have transformed their lives… 😉 ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2003, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-science-fiction-writer-are-you-personality-test/150962/48 "2003-01-26T19:15:42Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by asterion \* > \*\*She also commited suicide, if I remember correctly. \*\* Murder/suicide as a matter of fact: Tiptree shot her terminally ill husband than then herself. One of the creepiest stories I ever read was one of hers published postumously about a man who committed suicide and ended up an a paradise. :shudder: **Substatique** – Stapledon wrote vast, epic science fiction about human evolution. He was writing in England in the 40s, so didn’t get categorized as a genre writer. He’s a cricital favorite, but his books are hard to find in the U.S. ---
**Author:** ![LurkMeister](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3da27b/32.png) [@LurkMeister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LurkMeister)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2003, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-science-fiction-writer-are-you-personality-test/150962/49 "2003-01-26T19:41:41Z")
I got Isaac Asimov also. Which is interesting because one of the times I met him (at an autograph line at Noreascon) I was wearing a button which read “Unsuccessful Clone of Isaac Asimov.” He found it pretty amusing. ---
**Author:** ![cherry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/da6949/32.png) [@cherry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cherry)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2003, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-science-fiction-writer-are-you-personality-test/150962/50 "2003-01-26T20:04:29Z")
I got **Olaf Stapledon**. Standing outside the science fiction “field”, he wrote fictional explorations of the futures of whole species and galaxies. Now time for a google search on what exactly he wrote. ---
**Author:** ![irishgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/8edcca/32.png) [@irishgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/irishgirl)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2003, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-science-fiction-writer-are-you-personality-test/150962/51 "2003-01-26T21:13:36Z")
Cordwainer Smith? who the hell is he? ---
**Author:** ![aaaaaarrgg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3da27b/32.png) [@aaaaaarrgg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aaaaaarrgg)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2003, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-science-fiction-writer-are-you-personality-test/150962/52 "2003-01-26T21:32:16Z")
i am olaf stapledon. i am not a huge sci-fi person although i probably should be…i’m gonna go and find out what he wrote now! ---
**Author:** ![Kal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9de053/32.png) [@Kal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kal)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2003, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-science-fiction-writer-are-you-personality-test/150962/53 "2003-01-26T21:35:40Z")
I’m **Stanislav Lem** - Who the hell is he? > [@](#): > > This pessimistic Pole has spent a whole career telling ironic stories of futility and frustration.\_ Yet he is also a master of wordplay so witty that it sparkles even when translated into English. ---
**Author:** ![Kat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b19c9b/32.png) [@Kat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kat)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2003, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-science-fiction-writer-are-you-personality-test/150962/54 "2003-01-26T21:37:09Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Gassendi \* > An interesting exercise in your knowledge of science fiction is to answer the questions to produce a particular author. I was able to punch out Heinlein on the first try by answering as I imagined he might. Now I’m going to try for Frank Herbert. Let me know if you’d like me to assist you on that, **Gassendi**. You are: Frank Herbert His style is often stilted, but he created what some consider the greatest SF novel of all time. (Sorry about the lack of suitable pictures.) ---
**Author:** ![Celaeno](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f475e1/32.png) [@Celaeno](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Celaeno)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2003, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-science-fiction-writer-are-you-personality-test/150962/55 "2003-01-26T22:17:45Z")
**Samuel R. Delany** Few have had such broad commercial success with aggressively experimental prose techniques. I take it that I’m the only one to get this response so far. Weird. ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2003, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-science-fiction-writer-are-you-personality-test/150962/56 "2003-01-26T22:20:47Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Kal \* > \*\*I’m **Stanislav Lem** - Who the hell is he? \*\* [Stanislaw Lem](http://www.cyberiad.info/english/main.htm) wrote Sloaris although I don’t he envisioned George Clooney for the movie. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2003, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-science-fiction-writer-are-you-personality-test/150962/57 "2003-01-26T22:30:41Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by irishgirl \* > \*\*Cordwainer Smith? > who the hell is he? \*\* Another of the forgotten greats of the field. He’s known for his short stories, which were years ahead of his time. He started out (officially – there was a story many years earlier that had been forgotten) with “Scanners Live in Vain” in an obscure magazine called “Fantasy Book.” It made such a big splash (it’s still a great story) that people began to search him out. Finally they tracked him down and he produced “The Game of Rat and Dragon,” for H.L. Gold at “Galaxy” and he was off. Smith had some of the best story titles in the field: “The Crime and Glory of Commander Suzdal,” “Golden the Ship Was. Oh! Oh! Oh!,” “Alpha Ralpha Boulevard,” “The Ballad of Lost C’Mell,” “Mother Hitton’s Littul Kittons,” “No, No, Not Rogov!,” “A Planet Called Shayol,” and “The Dead Lady of Clown Town.” His one novel “Norstrilia” (aka “The Planet Buyer”) is OK, but not representative of his best work. Smith’s stories fit into a future history about The Instrumentality of Mankind and was one of the first to write about things like cyborgs and enhanced animals. In real life, he was a psychologist and China expert by the name of Paul Linebarger, who claimed his greatest accomplishment was during the Korean War, when he wrote pamplets telling the Chinese soldiers that they could shout the Chinese words for “love,” “duty,” and “humanity,” and the U.S. soldiers would take them prisoner without their losing face, since the three words sounded just like “I surrender.” Find his works and prepare to be amazed. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2003, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-science-fiction-writer-are-you-personality-test/150962/58 "2003-01-26T22:35:39Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Celaeno \* > \*\ ***Samuel R. Delany** > Few have had such broad commercial success with aggressively experimental prose techniques. > > I take it that I’m the only one to get this response so far. Weird. \*\* Be heartened. Delany is one of the smartest man in SF; just about every time I’ve heard him speak, he’s come out with the most amazing insights just off the cuff. He hasn’t published in awhile, but his **Dhalgren** was a massive best seller (the most SF popular book its publisher put out). That’s surprising, since it’s incredibly dense prose, though there is a lot of explicit sex, so I guess that compensates. 🙂 He’s also known for **Babel-17, The Einstein Intersection** , and short stories like “Time Considered as a Helix of Semi-Precious Stones” and “Aye and Gomorrah.” As trivia, he’s a relative of the Delany sisters from the best seller “Having Our Say.” ---
**Author:** ![Badtz\_Maru](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e36b37/32.png) [@Badtz\_Maru](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Badtz_Maru)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2003, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-science-fiction-writer-are-you-personality-test/150962/59 "2003-01-26T23:23:40Z")
Kurt Vonnegut For years, this unique creator of absurd and haunting tales denied that he had anything to do with science fiction. Hmm, I’ve been told my stuff is reminiscent of Ellison, though I’m probably not a big enough asshole to be linked to him from that test. ---
**Author:** ![Badtz\_Maru](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e36b37/32.png) [@Badtz\_Maru](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Badtz_Maru)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2003, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-science-fiction-writer-are-you-personality-test/150962/60 "2003-01-26T23:40:41Z")
BTW, [here](http://www.mrcranky.com/movies/eventhorizon/131.html) is the only thing I’ve written that’s on the internet (I think). It’s an earlier draft of an unfinished story I worked on a few years ago. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-science-fiction-writer-are-you-personality-test/150962.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-science-fiction-writer-are-you-personality-test/150962.md?page=4)