Post #2360875

2026-05-09 02:23 UTC

Yeah, all that “style over substance” nonsense is really strange given that those early sci-fi authors were more notable for cleverness and sheer volume of output than for consistent literary quality (and I say this as someone who also read and enjoyed a lot of Asimov and friends growing up). Like, Sturgeon may have coined the “90% of everything is crap” law, but when you write the amount that they did for the pulps you end up with some real gems in that 10%.

Replies (1)

@dgerard@awful.systems 2026-05-10 21:47

I spent January 1990 I think? reading all of Analog/Astounding from about 1959 to 1975. (It was 40 deg C all month and I stayed in with my aircon.) I loved that stuff from anthologies of the best of it, and I can assure you the original mags are extremely much the 90%.

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