BruceH

Oh no!! It's The Outer Limits! Run for your lives!!!

I think I've read 24 of the books on the list at the beginning of this thread (I keep meaning to get to My Friend Flicka) but as many have pointed out, there are a lot of famous banned books left off the list. Miller, Joyce, etc....there's probably not any author from the literary cannon who hasn't been banned, temporarily, SOMEwhere. And kids books get banned a lot. Some dumb parent is always scared to death that their helpless child is going to have their teeny defenseless mind polluted by some vile book. They don't realize that their children's minds are REALLY being polluted by computer games.

Because it shows the mentally handicapped in a good light? No, it must be because of that middle section where he got all smart and "uppity." Because, good as it is, it's not as good as the short story? Wait, I know: Because people who ban books are ignorant, clueless, idiots. (That's the answer to them all, but it works for me.)

Maybe I should re-read Norstrillia one of these days. I've heard of Atomsk, not the other two. It's a good bet that if Linebarger didn't use the Cordwainer Smith pseudonym, then Smith fans probably wouldn't dig the book in question. I read practically no sf between 1985 and 1995, then started to get back into it, mainly with an increased appreciation of good old fashioned pulp and space opera sf, when well done.

Is it the name? Actually, his "Dancers At the End of Time" trilogy is quite good, and the only thing by him I've read more than once.

Exactly. Imagine if new discoveries in particle physics where made in the U.S.----how terrible!

No concerns. "Gee, we might learn something about matter. Scary, scary!!!"

I've never read anything by Cordwainer Smith. I found a copy of Space Lords in a used paperback shop the other day to give him a try; it's the first book of his I've found. I don't know if I'm just unlucky, or his stuff is just hard to find. Norstrilia is in print now in a handsome new edition (I don't have it though, I have two copies of seventies paperbacks) and there is a fantastic hardcover of all his short fiction called "The Rediscovery of Man" in print, well worth seeking out. (A shorter paperback collection of short stories, "The Best of Cordwainter Smith" has been out of print for some time but I have seen it often in used bookstores). It's been a long time since I saw my copy of Space Lords, it has to have some of the "Instrumentality of Mankind" stories in it. (There were two other early paperbacks on Pyramid I think, The Planet Buyer and The Underpeople, that were standalone volumes of the full novel Norstrilia). That makes all his work in print except for three or four mainstream novels written under another nom-de-plume (Cordwainer Smith is, you guessed it, also a pseudonym). I've never read those. . . I'd like to but I don't want to pay 50 plus each for the ones that can be found. . . . Edited to clear up a mistake I made about The Space Lords. Got to put in my recommendation for The Rediscovery of Man, easily the best Cordwainer Smith collection yet. The publisher, NESFA Press, do the best single-author story collections on the market, but they tend to be pricey...you might want to look for it in a library. The Ballantine paperback you mention, Jazzbo, The Best of Cordwainer Smith, was my own introduction to him. (In fact, the Ballantine "Best of..." series from the 70's totally rocked---thoughtfully chosen, generously programmed, affordable, and, more often than not, with attractive covers. I've still got a lot of them.) The books you say you've never read, could that be the "Cashier O'Neil" series? "On the Storm Planet," "On the (whatever) Planet," etc. I bought those ages ago when they were briefly in print and never got around to reading them. Admittedly it's been decades since I've last read any Cordwainer Smith, and frankly, I'm not sure I'd like his stuff as much as I used to, but I'll always be grateful for the unique pleasure of reading his stories as a teenager.

I can assure you I'm not Paul55. But I have figured out who he is. (I should have known.)

I'm sure. Absolutely sure.

There's something funny about this guy... Like that Paul H has the same birthday, but just turned 16.

I assumed he was 56. Oh, well.

Really! This is just reminding me of how much older I'm getting.

Indeed. It's hard to imagine the early Stones covering "A Taste of Honey."

You're the best!!! :tup

PKD and Cordwainer Smith...do you dig Olaf Stapledon too?

Recorded with Charlie Parker and Clifford Brown...wow!

Makes you wish "Help!" were a better movie. Oh, wait, I wished that a long time ago, when I first saw it.

I remember them being called "trailers" back in the 60's, when I was a little kid. What I heard was that it dates back to the days when movie theaters showed an A picture, a second (B) feature, cartoons, newsreels and whatnot, all in a continuous loop. So the previews could be considered as coming before or after. I don't know if that explanation is true, but I do know that the nature of moviegoing then spawned a well-worn phrase: "This is where we (or I) came in." Since people could buy a ticket and sit through this continuous loop of programming as long as they wanted, some just came in at some point during a movie (just to get out of the rain or the heat, perhaps) then sit through the rest of it, the trailers, newsreels, cartoons, the other feature, until they got to the point where they came in...then murmur the well known phrase, get up and leave.

Does Penelope Cruz play chess? Now THERE would be a chess babe!

Double damn them all, I forgot to watch the Mad Men marathon this weekend.

I didn't know that they still did the telethon. Who the hell aires it? Don't think it was on any of the stations I get. (Jerry Lewis. The Jim Carrey of his day.)

You listen to Fox News? Never mind TV, THAT will rot your brain.

Actually, I heard that fully half the people that moved out due to Katrina never came back.

Robert, I feel like I'm telling a kid that there is no Santa Claus! I don't think there was ever a time when pro wrestling was on the level. I read a book about it (either the Complete Idiot's Guide or the For Dummies) which was "written" by Captain Lou Albano, and it said that pro wrestling developed out of phony six-hour long wrestling matches staged at carnival shows. Anyway, it was clearly ridiculous in the late 40s (before Killer Kowalski's time) when Gorgeous George was popular on TV. "Greco-Roman...great art..."