"James E. Gunn - Mimsy Were The Kuttners" - читать интересную книгу автора (Gunn James E)

Fury:


After we'd established through long discussion the basic ideas, the background
and the characters, whichever of us felt like it sat down and started When
that one ran down, the other, being fresh to the story, could usually see what
ought to come next, and took over. The action developed as we went along. We
kept changing off like this until we finished. A story goes fast that way.
Each of us edited the other's copy a little when we took over, often going
back a line or two and rephrasing to make the styles blend. We never disagreed
seriously over the work. The worst clash of opinion I can remember ended with
one of us saying, "Well, I don't agree, but since you feel more strongly than
I do about it, go ahead."


By 1948 the Kuttners' contributions to Astounding had dwindled to only a few
stories. They had returned to Kuttner's birthplace, Los Angeles, where Kuttner
earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Southern California and
nearly completed a master's degree in English (in 1958 he died of a heart
attack at the age of forty-four). Moore also earned a bachelor's degree and a
master's degree.
Their production of science fiction in these years dwindled as a consequence
of their studies, and as a consequence of their creation of seven mystery
novels - five of them between 1956 and 1958 and nine novels or novellas of
science fantasy for Startling Stories and Thrilling Wonder Stones between 1947
and 1952. After Kuttner's death Moore taught fiction writing at Southern Cal
and wrote screenplays for Warner Brothers' Maverick, and 77 Sunset Strip
before her remarriage.
The Kuttners' period of intensive science fiction writing was brief, only half
a dozen years, but they helped carry Astounding through the war years when
Heinlein, Asimov, de Camp, van Vogt, Sturgeon, and many others of the new
writers who had been attracted to the Campbell Astounding were busy with other
matters, particularly the war effort. And the Kuttners sustained the Golden
Age with such skill that no drop in quality was perceptible. Kuttner was named
favorite science fiction writer in a 1945 fan poll as information about his
Pseudonyms became widely known.
More important, they broadened science fiction to encompass a concern for
literary qualities and cultural reverberations; they expanded its techniques
to include those prevalent in the mainstream, and expanded its scope to
include the vast cultural tradition outside science fiction. Much of the
development of the genre over the next twenty years would follow paths the
Kuttners pioneered.