"Henry Kuttner - The Best of Henry Kuttner" - читать интересную книгу автора (Kuttner Henry)

Cold War 253

Or Else 276

Endowment Policy 284

Housing Problem 298

What You Need 312
Absalom 326

Henry Kuttner: A NEGLECTED
MASTER

Move around in high schools and colleges, in various semiintellectual circles high and iow, and listen to the names spoken there when books come into the conversation. A great deal of the time you'11 hear:
Tolkien. Lovecraft. Heinlein. Sturgeon. Wells. Verne. Orwell. Vonnegut. And, you should excuse the expression, Bradbury.
But not often enough-Kuttner.
Why is this so?
Why has Henry Kuttner been so unfairly neglected since his death back in the late fifties?
Was he as good a writer as the others?
Yes.
Did he write as much?
In some cases more.
Was he a pomegranate writer-popping with seeds, full 0f ideas?
He was.
Was he as flamboyant as the others mentioned?
Perhaps not enough.
Did he sound his own horn?
Rarely.
Perhaps he was too diversified, working in too many sub-areas of the science-fiction and fantasy genres.
That may well be.
In any case, this book will remedy the need for a collection that can be handed around in and out of schools and will cause the name Kuttner to be spoken more frequently in the years ahead.
But before we consider all the reasons for Kuttner's temporary obscurity, I must lapse into the personal and linger there awhile.
This introduction to Henry Kuttner must be very personal or it will be meaningless. I will not burden you with endless intellectual weighings and assayings of his stories. That is for you to do as you move along through this fascinating book, realizing that you have come upon the work of a man who helped shape science fiction and fantasy in its most important years-years which included the decline of Weird Tales,

the growth of Astounding Science Fiction, and the amazing birth of Unknown, and The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. I speak roughly of the time between 1938 and 1950, when most of the truly important writers in the field erupted on the scene, many of them encouraged by John W. Campbell, Astounding's editor.
Kuttner was one of those writers.
If you will allow the blasphemy, I will not soon forgive Cod for taking Kuttner out of this world in 1958. His death alone made that year a bad one for remembrance. It was especially bad because his talent was peculiar and special.
We would like to pretend that the populations of our world are full of undiscovered geniuses. From what I have seen, that simply is not true. The genetically intuitive talents are rare. Creative people are few and far between.
It is the rustiest of cliches to say, upon the death of most people, that they were irreplaceable. Save on a personal and loving level, this is just not so. Hundreds of writers, one not distinguishable from the next, might be replaced tomorrow without changing our universal culture in any way.
Because we are surrounded by oceans of the noncreative, and open fields of unprocreative mulch, I much admire the intuitive Henry Kuttner. He was indeed special, peculiar and, in his own mild way, manic-ally creative.
I would like to be able to recall all sorts of wondrous things about Henry Kuttner. The facts are otherwise, however. He was a shy man who gazed at you and thought his private thoughts.
I am sure that he found me ridiculous and amusing a good deal of the time. At our first meeting I was seventeen, which means-in my case, anyway-I was so unsure of myself that I did a lot of running around, shouting, and speechifying to hide my confusions and private despairs. Kuttner put up with this for an inordinate number of years and then gave me the best piece of creative advice I ever got.
"Ray," he said one day, "do me a favor?"
"What?" I asked.
"Shut up," he said.
"I beg pardon?"
"You're always running around, grabbing people's elbows, pulling their lapels, shouting your ideas," Kuttner replied. "You give away all your steam. No wonder you never finish your stories. You talk them all out. Shut up."
And shut up I did.