I was surprised when this video popped into my sub feed because I don't read much magazine science fiction but had read this story recently in Moskowitz's collection you mentioned. I agree with your analysis. The works of his I have read come across to me as challenging due to how callous or downright stomach-churning they can be, while at the same time pulling you forward with effective emotional moments, really creepy ideas and astonishingly weird situations. He definitely had some problems itself. I guess it's a shame that significant and somewhat brilliant authors like him are unavoidably to be forgotten due not only to the often politically retrograde nature of their works but also their unpleasantness.
@chrononautspodcastАй бұрын
That's certainly the case with a lot of these magazine pulp authors - I think in this one the positives outweigh the negatives, but I can definitely see how reading a collection of his stuff all in one go might be a bit much. Over the last several months, he's been one of these authors that seem to come up in unexpected places in the background research we've been doing. The crossover between his medical research and his fiction is an interesting angle as well.
@geocraftsmanАй бұрын
@@chrononautspodcast He definitely is an interesting guy. I especially like The Thing in the Cellar for seeing how his psych training influenced his stories.
@DamnableReverendАй бұрын
@@geocraftsman "The Thign in the Cellar" was a really interesting one, yeah. I must admit a part of me is sort of pleased that a guy like this is impossible to just write off for his less pleasant qualities, because his ideas are often pretty novel and, as you said, really out there, and he seems to at least attempt to grasp psychological angles that many of his contemporaries just wouldn't have bothered with. I knew we had to include him in this episode when we discovered a letter he wrote to a fanzine where he complained about the lack of baby representation in science fiction stories and pointed out that his stories had more babies in them than anyone else's. I'd read a few of his things before as mentioned on the podcast but didn't really come across much of the unpleasantness at first. Anyway yeah, interesting guy and writer; not sure we'll come back to him on the podcast but I'll likely at least finish this collection myself.
@geocraftsmanАй бұрын
@@DamnableReverend Okay, that baby thing sounds really interesting. I've seen people on the internet talking about how they had to read the Thing in the Cellar in elementary school, which just horrifies me as it literally justifies children's fear of monsters and the dark, lol