Section A·Page 6
The University Daily Kansan
Wednesday, July 14, 1999
KU sci-fi writer ponders future
Jupiter, Saturn Mars could be next frontier
By Lisa John
By Lisa John
Kansan managing editor
Science fiction writers may be visionaries, but they don't try to predict the future, said James Gunn, professor emeritus of English and author of 34 science fiction books.
A Star Trek coffee mug in his hand, Gunn leaned back in a chair in his crowded, windowless and book-filled office on the third floor of Wescoe Hall, contemplating the role of science fiction writers. He chuckled, then said that fellow science fiction author Ray Bradbury said his goal was not to predict the future, but to prevent it.
"What we're really interested in are the speculative possibilities that lie in front of us and in exploring these for entertainment, but entertainment that has a solid base in scientific reality and probability." Gunn said. "And every once in a while, something happens to come true in a way that we imagined it."
One such instance was man's first step on the moon 30 years ago. Gunn said that step was a great event for him, almost as great a moment as when his first story was dramatized on television in 1959.
"The story was called "The Cave of Night" but was dramatized on television under the title of Man in Orbit," Gunn said. "It was about the first man in space, so 10 years later, in 1969, people landed on the moon, so it didn't take very long after I had imagined it."
But again, Gunn stressed, science fiction writers are not in the business of being prophets.
Gunn said Campbell meant that certain things that are going to happen are irreversible.
Gunn likened this to a para chute iump.
"We're in the business of thinking, of creating thought experiments. In fact, John Campbell once said that science fiction is a way of practicing in a no-practice area."
"One very prominent example is an atomic war, which science fiction imagined long before it ever became a reality or a near reality," Gunn said. Gunn likened this to a para-
"We have to be perfect the first time. We need to anticipate how things are going to come out," he said. "Some of this entails imagining events that haven't happened yet and seeing what might be the results."
As for that ever-looming future, what will the world be like in 20 years?
"Different," Gunn answered in an atypical (for him) one-word answer.
Then the familiar chuckle and smile again before he said he couldn't make predictions, but he could make guesses. Some of these guesses reflect Gunn's favorite science fiction quote from a book by Robert Heinlein. "This world's used up — let's go find another one."
Gunn: writers don't predict future; they create possibilities.
"Well, certainly in 10 years we should have landed on Mars," Gunn said. "We might even be able to send manned expeditions as far as Jupiter or even Saturn. Maybe we'll be exploring the moons of Jupiter or Saturn."
Closer to home, Gunn said, "I think we'll find new ways of creating energy and food and new medical techniques for extending life and improving health.
"I hope we find new methods for distributing wealth and eliminating poverty and, most of all, improving education so that people can appreciate the wonders around them."
Part of the
process of improving education is making people aware that the world is not static. Gunn said.
"The one true thing you can say about the world today is that it's changing. And people not only need to accept this, they need to think about it. That's what science fiction does," Gunn said. "It helps people think about change and not to be terrified of it or paralyzed by it, but to be able to deal with it in a sensible and mature way."
And will books remain a part of this scenario?
Gunn, whose own journey into science fiction began at age 7 when he discovered a copy of Edgar Rice Burroughs' "Tarzan" in his grandmother's closet, said he does not envision a world without book
"But I think there will be some competition. Clearly, the Internet and the computer compete for reading time, and we may well reproduce books in electronic formats if certain technological hangups can be solved." Gunn said.
He mentioned the electronic books that are coming onto the market.
"I don't know that they have yet reached a stage where they really compete in terms of availability and handiness, but they will," Gunn said.
"It doesn't really matter. The important thing is the ability to read anything and to use the words to create images in the head rather than depending upon those that are thrown up on a screen for us."
- Edited by Chad Bettes
Author George Zebrowski accepts the Campbell Award for his science-fiction novel "Brute Orbits." The awards dinner was held last Friday night in the Adams Alumni Center. Photo by Roarer Kansan/KANSAN
Stellar writers honored at conference
By Stephanie McCarty Kansan staff reporter
Winners of the John W. Campbell Award and the Theodore Sturgeon Award rose proudly in the presence of about 60 other authors as James Gunn, professor emeritus of English, announced their names at a semi-formal awards dinner Friday night.
the annual awards dinner, held at the Adams Alumni Center, honors the winners of the Campbell and Sturgeon Awards, as well as new inductees to the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame. It also concludes the Writer's Workshop in Science Fiction and precedes the Campbell Conference and the Intensive English Institute on the Teaching of Science Fiction.
George Zebrowski won the Campbell Award for his science-fiction novel of the year, "Brute Orbits." The Campbell Award is one of three major annual awards in science fiction, along with the Hugo Award and the Nebula Award.
"Brute Orbits" is of a future in which asteroids have been drawn to near-Earth orbits, mined for their minerals, and then the hollowed-out interiors have been fitted out as prisons, filled with the Earth's criminals of all kinds, and sent on decades' long orbits, some beyond the farthest planet in the solar system," said Gunn, Director of the Center for the Study of Science Fiction at the University of Kansas.
The group of authors applauded Zebrowski's acceptance speech in which he recollected a memory of speaking
with Campbell before his death.
when he came.
"I still thank you, Mr. Campbell," Zebrowski said. "And I thank all of you again from the place with the most clichés, the bottom of my heart."
"Science fiction is the literature of change," Gunn said. "It deals with how people respond to the social change created by changes in science and technology or the large or small natural processes of the universe."
Before Gunn, who is also the chairman of the Sturgeon Award Committee, presented the award, he explained the meaning of the sculptural shape of the award.
Ted Chiang won the Sturgeon Award for the best short science fiction story of the year for "Story of Your Life."
As Chiang clutched the award, he said, "When I wrote it, I didn't know if people would get it. So thank you, it's very gratifying."
Both the Campbell and the Sturgeon Awards are jointly sponsored by the J. Wayne and Elsie M. Gunn Center for the Study of Science Fiction and by the Kansas City Science Fiction and Fantasy Society.
A seven-member international committee composed of writers and scholars chose the Campbell Award winner after extensive discussion.
The Sturgeon Award winner was chosen by a three-member committee from a group of seminalists selected by a group of 25 to 30 reviewers and editors.
with 10 to 11 finalists selected by one of Sturgeon's children. Robin Sturgeon selected them this year.
"Science fiction is a useful literature because it offers a way of experiencing change imaginatively before we have to experience it in real life, and we either become accustomed to change, and immunize ourselves against 'future shock,' or we can evaluate change and try to bring about those changes we find most conducive to the life that we value." Gunn said.
The four new members of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame are Jules Verne, A. Merritt, Robert Silverberg, and Ray Bradbury. Admission into the Hall of Fame is based on excellence and lifelong achievement.
Bradbury, author of "The Martian Chronicles" and "Fahrenheit 451," is one of the best-known authors in contemporary science fiction and fantasy. His work introduced multitudes of readers to the genre.
"Since Ray is vacationing in France, like he does every year in July. That must be tough luck," said Joe Haldeman, 1998 Campbell Award recipient, "I will accept him into the Hall of Fame."
In the novel competition, second place went to "Starfarers" by Poul Anderson, and third place went to "Distraction" by Bruce Sterling.
Second place in the short-story competition went to "Wading River Dogs and More" by Michael Kandel, and third place went to "The Summer Isles" by Ian R. MacLeod.
Author launches Quayle, Hillary into orbit
- Edited by Anjum Aziz
Bv Lisa John
Kansan managing editor
Science fiction author Pamela Sargent said she doesn't have a lot of time for reading these days; but obviously, she does have time to write.
She has written more than two dozen books, has a new novel, "Find the Wind," on the market and is working on her next novel. In addition, Sargent has had more than 50 short stories published.
Sargent was at the University of Kansas last week to participate in the annual science fiction writers' conference.
Introducing her Thursday night at a gathering of science-fiction fans in Smith Hall, James Gunn, professor emeritus of English and fellow science fiction writer, said that he had only met Sargent a few times before.
"But I feel as if I have known her for a very long time because I have read her novels for a very long time," Gunn said.
Pamela Sargent and Frederik Pohl sign copies of their books at Mount Oread Book Shop in the Kansas Union. Both were a part of the writers' workshop in science fiction that ended Saturday. Photo Jamie Roper/KANSAN
Her writing, Gunn said, represents integrity.
"She wouldn't write anything that she wouldn't believe in," he said.
women and for women called "Women of Wonder." Gunn said.
Sargent published her first story in 1970, but she came to the attention of most readers of science fiction in 1975 with a series of anthologies devoted to science fiction of
Most science fiction readers are aware of Sargent's first feminist novel, "The Shore of Women," and with her epic trilogy which began with "Venus of Dreams," published in 1986. More recently, she has published a historical novel about Genghis Khan, a recent novel about AIDS and a short story titled, "Danny Goes to Mars," he said.
"Danny" refers to Dan Quayle, and in the story he's the first man to go the red planet, he said.
Sargent said she is working on a similar story, "Hillary Goes to Venus."
"At 16, Hillary Rodham wrote to NASA and asked what she should study so she could become an astronaut," Sargent said. "They told her that no women need apply. So my story is about what might have happened if they had encouraged her."
Today, Sargent is becoming known for her writing of science-fiction women and alternative history.
"Alternative history was once only a small part of science fiction," Sargent said. "Now it has become a thriving sub-genre of its own."
Sargent said that an alternative history is a description of a historical "what if?" such as, "What if the Nazis had won World War II?" or "What if the Confederates had won the Civil War?"
Her first full-length exploration
into alternative history is the novel, "Find the Wind," which asks the question, "What would have happened if there had been Native Americans in the West who could have brought the nation together?"
In comparing alternative history to history, Sargent said that alternative history was likely to appeal to a wider audience. It would probably be easier to find a publisher for alternative history, and it allowed the writer to put fantastic elements into the history.
To do this, she said, a writer needs
to know history. This is not about totally revamping a historical event.
"Rather it's seeing how radical a change in history you can produce by changing a few small events." Sargent said.
Contrary to what some people might think, she said, there are rules to writing alternative history, and she likened the craft to the game of tennis.
"It's not like playing with the net down," she said.
—Edited by Kimberly Erb
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