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The Crimes of George R. R. Martin
or, In Which I Defend the Indefensible Man
If you follow the Hugos any more, which I don’t, you’d learn that popular author George R. R. Martin has stirred up quite the hornet’s nest. He’s being denounced as a racist, different types of -phobes, and others. His crime? He mispronounced artists’ names and he dared praised dead white men for their contributions in the past. Most notably, he talked quite a bit about John W. Campbell, editor of Analog magazine, and also Robert Heinlein, one of the winningest authors of the Hugo awards. For those who have claimed the Hugos as their own private club, this was unacceptable. And so Cancel Culture goes for George R. R. Martin not for failing to finish his series, but instead for Wrongthink.
I will note that I haven’t too much sympathy for Martin. When people were noting that the Social Justice Warriors were claiming the Hugos as their own and stacking the deck for their favorite checkboxes, Martin was there defending the latter. He helped build the gallows they want to hang him on.
I find it more interesting to look at John W. Campbell. There’s a reason there was an award named after him, and it’s because few have had as much influence on modern American science fiction than he has as editor for “Astounding Science Fiction” which changed to “Analog Science Fiction and Fact” under his editorship. He steered Science Fiction away from the pulp scene and demand his writers understand the science they were writing on and to understand people. In a notorious episode, this included a story about the development of a possible atomic bomb and how it might happen — a story that brought attention to the FBI who investigated and tried to get him to pull the magazine from the newstands as indeed, America was attempting to create an atom bomb (Campbell won out). Science fiction today owes a lot to him, and he was editor for many of the visionary greats of the time.*
As for being a racist — well, that might be true. He said and wrote some things that even at the time could be considered racist, including defenses of slavery while noting that the industrial revolution would eventually make it obsolete. He was also known to play devil’s advocate — taking the opposite to foster discussion. There are other incidents that perhaps lean generally toward racist however, which would not be an unusual idea back in the 1930’s. So it creates a bit of a dilemma for the thinking person: do we dismiss his work based on his major personal flaws, or do we recognize his great influence in spite such. Those on the Left recognize no personal flaws in themselves and tolerate no such flaws in others; they immediately choose the former option. For authors who have been writing for decades, like GRRM and others, they can recognize the influence a man had because in many ways they would not be here without such persons.
Isaac Newton famously said, “If I have seen further than others, it is by standing upon the shoulders of giants.” The Leftists, they stand on the same and claim they are the giants. Pretending to have perfection, they cast stones at anyone who meets their disapproval – even at those who met approval only months ago.
*A lot of the more mature writers remember the influence editors had in their work and in starting their careers. Another editor who has received praise was Gardner DoZois of Asmov’s Science Fiction magazine. DoZois passed away recently, and many older authors wrote to praise him for how he helped their careers as writers.
Published in Literature
Say what you will about Che, but the man knows how to sell t-shirts.
Stronked zerb gluck, ewww!
The date matters. A lot.
Racism wasn’t even really a thing in the American mind until we discovered the Holocaust. Somewhere I have a DVD with decades of Life and Time magazines going back to the beginning, and there are frequent mentions and discussions of the “colored” problem and the Chinese problem (not the word used) and the “Jap” problem. Campbell wrote a story that wasn’t publishable even by the standards of the time entitled “All”. He wanted something quick from Heinlein to serialize so Heinlein rewrote it creating the 1941 serial Sixth Column. It wasn’t published as a novel until 1949 and, in Heinlein’s view, it was an artistically unsuccessful effort. In the novel the PanAsian League has invaded America and there is a project to develop a super-weapon that is only effective against the targeted race. Heinlein left the plot device in but greatly reduced its role and reportedly tried to sell Campbell on other approaches.
By the end of 1945 it probably would never have been written at all, but it was the horror of the death camps that quite rightly created the stigma against racism. Nine years later we had Brown v. Board of Education and nineteen years later the Civil Rights Act. And a very strong stigma against racism. A stigma that William F. Buckley embraced in denouncing racist positions of the John Birch Society, drawing a clear line that conservatives could rally behind as Goldwater campaigned against the racist record of LBJ.
We do not and should not cover up the imperfections and even crimes of our predecessors, but it is foolish to erase them rather than learn from them. That is the way of Mao’s “Cultural Revolution” that left him with a nation that could not feed itself, among many other major shortcomings. Xi would like us to transfer political potency to the violent reckless feckless fools of CHAZ/CHOP. (Seattle has placed itself in a position where the only vote they can cast for civic order is a vote for Trump. That would be quite a thing.)
The Lord bless and keep John and Bob and these United States.
It started getting obnoxious circa 2010.
I can’t tell, I’d have to read them. Connie Willis, 2011, I would expect well of.
It is much the same for almost any famous historical figure or entertainer. The Left’s only solution: erase history.
I’ve got relatives for whom answering “Pepsi” will get you disowned from the family.
Problem solved!
Exactly. And perhaps for both sides of the fence.
History and Christianity are their twin kryptonites. History shows just how imbecilic it is to place your trust in a totalitarian of any stripe, much less one pushing a command economy. Christianity says he who says he is without sin is a liar and the truth is not in him. Jewish prophets, too. It is a wild slalom to end up ignorant enough to buy so much stupid.
It would be a novel reason for a permanent rift in these politically-charged times.
Reason, pretext, excuse, it’s all good.
While I agree with you about Martin’s talent or lack of same, there is a bit more of a connection with the sainted Zelazny. Apparently Martin showed up in Zelazny’s home town essentially broke and divorced, and RZ staked him to a few month’s rent as well as being a literary guru. At least, that’s what it says in RZ’s biographical notes in the collected short stories. Hope Martin paid him back.
Oh gosh, I hadn’t thought about Sixth Column in ages. As I recall, an Asian good guy sacrificed himself to the race-zapgun in the process of stopping a bad guy. RAH could make a good story out of a bad concept.
I understand the idea that the Holocaust is viewed as racist, but I have never really understood how anyone could consider Jews as a different race. Judaism is an intellectual entity, and I can choose to be Jewish through an intellectual exercise without changing my outward appearance.
Judaism is more than that. There are several definitions: intellectual, cultural, religious, and tribal (genetic) as four. In the case of the tribal, the question is, “Was your mother Jewish?” If she was, you’re Jewish, even if you’ve never read the Torah. While there are those who have converted to Judaism, among most Jews there is a genetic relation to that tribe that existed thousands of years ago in Israel.
There is a huge literature built up about the phrenological and other morphological signs that mark the Jewish race. All bogus beyond belief, but taken quite seriously by the same sort of racists who found blacks to be genetically less advanced and had “scientific” observations on the swarthier Europeans, the Irish, and, of course, the Yellow Peril. Racism gets its first real proponent as a doctrine from an English prince who married a Spanish noble during the war of liberation against the Muslim invasion and subsequently managed to establish racist legislation in the 14th Century. Maybe connected with the Pogroms that began in Spain in 1391. What a way to be remembered by history. Once the idea penetrated European thought it was inevitable that scientific theories and “proofs” would be cobbled up to justify racist policies.
Clearly, 20th Century racists were focused on detecting ethnic Jews whom they believed were secretly corrupting society pretending to not be Jews by detecting telltale, they believed, physical traits. (Of course, just as anyone might be a religious Jew, and ethnic Jew, a true descendent of Abraham for the sake of argument, might well not be religiously Jewish.) Pogroms against Jews became a more frequent and common thing in 19th Century Europe and Russia. Add Eugenics from late 19th Century Indiana Progressivism and stir to create race madness across Europe peaking with the Holocaust.
Lord have mercy.
It’s unique in that it’s a religion tied to one specific ethnicity. The worst part of the ancient bloody Middle East strife is that Jews and Arabs are genetic cousins. They are all Semitic people. Cousins who have been hating and killing each other for thousands of years. (And nothing we or any other government ever do will change it). So while it’s true that you or I could convert to Judaism just as we could convert to Islam, we still wouldn’t be ethnic Semites.