"A. E. Van Vogt - The World of Null-A" - читать интересную книгу автора (Van Vogt A E)

installment was published (Mr. Moskowitz continues), "Letters of plaintive puzzlement began to
pour in. Readers didn't un-derstand what the story was all about. Campbell [the editor advised
them to wait a few days; it took that long, he suggested, for the implications to sink in. The days
turned into months, but clarification never came-"
You'll admit that's a tough set of sentences to follow. Plain, blunt-spoken Sam Moskowitz, whose
knowledge of science fiction history and whose collection of science fic-tion probably is topped
only by that of Forrest Ackerman (in the whole universe) ... is nevertheless in error. The number of
readers who wrote "plaintive" letters to the editor can be numbered on the fingers of one and a
half hands.
However, Moskowitz might argue that it isn't the quan-tity of complainers, but the quality. And
there he has a point.
Shortly after The World of Null-A was serialized in 1945, a sci-fi fan, hitherto unknown to me,
wrote in a science fiction fan magazine a long and powerful article at-tacking the novel and my
work in general up to that time. The article concluded, as I recall it (from memory only) with the
sentence: "Van Vogt is actually a pygmy writer working with a giant typewriter."
The imagery throughout this article, meaningless though that particular line is (if you'll think about
it), in-duced me to include in my answering article in a subse-quent issue of the same fan
magazine-which article is lost to posterity-the remark that I foresaw a brilliant writing career for the
young man who had written so poetical an attack.
That young writer eventually developed into the science fictional genius, Damon Knight,
who-among his many accomplishments-a few years ago organized the Science Fiction Writers
of America, which (though it seems im-possible) is still a viable organization.
Of Knight's attack so long ago, Galaxy Magazine critic Algis Budrys wrote in his December, 1967,
book review column: "In this edition [of critical essays] you will find among other goodies from the
earlier version, the famous destruction of A. E. van Vogt that made Damon's reputa-tion."
What other criticisms of The World of Null-A are there? None. It's a fact. Singlehandedly, Knight
took on this novel and my work at age 23-1/2, and, as Algis Bu-drys puts it, brought about my
"destruction."
So what's the problem? Why am I now revising World? Am I doing all this for one critic?
Yep.
But why?-you ask.
Well, on this planet you have to recognize where the power is.
Knight has it?
Knight has it
In a deeper sense, of course, I'm making this defense of the book, and revising it, because
General Semantics is a worthwhile subject, with meaningful implications, not only in 2560 A.D.
where my story takes place, but here and now.
General Semantics, as defined by the late Count Alfred Korzybski in his famous book, Science
and Sanity, is an over-word for non-Aristotelian and non-Newtonian systems. Don't let that
mouthful of words stop you. Non-Aristotelian means not according to the thought solidified by
Aristotle's followers for nearly 2,000 years. Non-Newtonian refers to our essentially Einsteinian
universe, as accepted by today's science. Non-Aristotelian breaks down to Non-A, and then
Null-A.
Thus, the titles World of-and Players of-Null-A.
General Semantics has to do with the Meaning of Meaning. In this sense, it transcends and
encompasses the new science of Linguistics. The essential idea of General
Semantics is that meaning can only be comprehended when one has made allowances for the
nervous and per-ception system-that of a human being-through which it is filtered.
Because of the limitations of his nervous system, Man can only see part of truth, never the whole
of it. In describing the limitation, Korzybski coined the term "lad-der of abstraction." Abstraction, as