tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7456211.post583980447774787052..comments2023-11-02T06:01:21.793-07:00Comments on Visions of Paradise: The Pritcher Massadamosfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17388012371752166422noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7456211.post-29136248104539116282012-01-29T10:05:31.816-08:002012-01-29T10:05:31.816-08:00As a young SF fan of the giants such as Robert A. ...As a young SF fan of the giants such as Robert A. Heinlein, Issac Asimov, Carl Sagan, L Sprauge DeCamp, Arthur C. Clarke, Edgar Rice Burroughs… I had devoured them all and many others cover to cover until they were dog eared and yellowed…then one day from a bin at the used book store I picked up a paperback copy of the Pritcher Mass on a whim because of the cool cover art… the slinky sex-pot with glowing eyes in green and red striped cammo, and the feral imagery of the wolverine, with the psychic wizard in the back and the industrial polluted future scene… tech art with the red flares of the Pritcher Mass rising in the background. I was only seven in 1976 but had already devoured every SF novelist of Hugo and Nebula level work...so I took the dog eared copy for a few dollars and went into a park of tall pines in the Arkansas woods, leaned against a tree, and with one barefoot crossed <br />over the other I opened the book in the early afternoon and there I was on that train, and in that wreck, and outside on the ground waking up with that cold stone held against my head desperately thinking of how to get back inside the city. Face it, we have passed beyond that golden age where the writers were the savants of imagery and emotion and their art form carried us all far beyond this space and time...because of the advance of technology we now live many of their dreams, but we now have that spark of mind from them in print still and like a time machine we can call back those early years where some of us sat in the deep of winter, having sneaked out an open window, to sit spell bound staring into the sky through a cheap metal telescope bought at the five and dime with change scraped together from recycled coke bottles found in the ditches and wondered, really wondered, did the stars really sing? If I had a spacesuit would I really travel? Are there giant hovering creatures on the gas planet Jupiter? Would we some day walk the red planet in suits escaping from an overbearing private school still wearing our custom painted helmet? Will we ever travel beyond this universe and see the wonders of it all? Thanks to the dreamers like Gordon who poured their thoughts and imaginations into a forge and out came, like molten gold, onto the page their adventures into space and time… thanks to them as long as we keep their print alive and pass it on the glitter of that golden age of SF genre they will never fade, and like gold their dreams will shine on for every young reader who is fortunate enough to find them still.AbdullahMikailhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02543434925029245952noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7456211.post-44436456219823897452011-01-15T10:55:41.009-08:002011-01-15T10:55:41.009-08:00I read with envy. It is wonderful that you have th...I read with envy. It is wonderful that you have that collection of old magazines. I got my first taste of the old Galaxy magazines last year when a friend gave me a couple of them to read. It felt like stepping back in time, in all the right ways. Of course it didn't hurt that the main stories in these issues were by Cordwainer Smith, a favorite, and Lester Del Rey, who I hadn't read but became an instant fan after reading "To Avenge Man". I hoping to pick up some more copies at shows/stores this year as I think it would be fun to read more of these older science fiction short stories in the format in which they initially appeared.Carl V. Andersonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15948764216438379394noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7456211.post-21083850358360983942011-01-13T20:53:56.957-08:002011-01-13T20:53:56.957-08:00Finally, one of your reviews that does not add to ...Finally, one of your reviews that does not add to my "to be read" list. I already had "The Pritcher Mass" on my stack. Based on your review, it will move up in the stack.<br /><br />I love the experience you had reading the old magazines. The discovery of new to you authors is always a rewarding one.Jim Blackhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16768774128257259384noreply@blogger.com