Saturday, July 4, 2009

The blogging Futurian

You don't normally associate blogging with names like Isaac Asimov, Cyril M. Kornbluth, Donald A. Wollheim, or James Blish, since they all lived and died before weblogs came into being. Likewise, you wouldn't normally associate blogging with their fellow Futurian Frederik Pohl, but then you'd be wrong, because Polh is still alive and kicking, and also blogging.

In The Way the Future Blogs, Pohl talks about politics, writing, food, cats, and all the other topics beloved of bloggers. Reading his blog, you get the feeling that all the writing, editing, and agenting he did over the course of his long life (he turns 90 in November) was just him marking time until he could get to the real business of his life, which of course was blogging.

It's a bit eerie reading Pohl's blog. You get the feeling you're just a blog post away from a flame war between him and Sam Moskowitz, or a snarky takedown of Hamilton Fish III. You can't quite call Pohl the Last of the Futurians, because he's not: David A. Kyle and Jack Robins are also still around. But with the death of Forrest J. Ackerman last year, the first generation of Gernsback Era fans is dwindling. Nevertheless, as long as Pohl is blogging, the dawn of science fiction is still within our grasp.

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