Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site allegra.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!don From: don@allegra.UUCP (D. Mitchell) Newsgroups: net.books Subject: crossover authors Message-ID: <2690@allegra.UUCP> Date: Sun, 12-Aug-84 18:00:53 EDT Article-I.D.: allegra.2690 Posted: Sun Aug 12 18:00:53 1984 Date-Received: Mon, 13-Aug-84 01:02:01 EDT Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill Lines: 28 It is unusual for a top-class author to write Sci Fi (or murder mysteries, westerns, romance novels, etc.). I can think of a couple instances though. C.S. Lewis wrote a strange trilogy of books "Out of the Silent Planet", "Perelandra", and "That Hideous Strength". My impression is that these books are not popular among Science Fiction fans. Lewis was an Oxford theologian, I believe. He equated technology with satanism. H. G. Wells is a highly respected author and one of the most powerful political forces in England of this century. Of the hundreds of Sci Fi novels I have read, I cannot think of any that contain such fine writing. The plots of the books revolve around Wells' political and social theories (i.e. Fabian socialism). I should mention Tolkien. Lord of the Rings is fantasy, and I am sure almost everyone has read it. No one of his literary stature (an Oxford professor of philology) has since contributed to that genre. Like Lewis (a close friend of his), Tolkien's books contain images of industrial devastation and waste counterpoised against primeval natural forces. Burroughs classifies some of his novels as Sci Fi. In particular, "The Soft Machine", and "Nova Express", and "The Ticket that Exploded". These books are about as difficult to reads as Joyce's "Ulysses" though. They describe how men addicted to power ("the boards and syndicates of the world") control the masses through mind control and the media.