Fritz Leiber
Ted Gioia posts a retrospective of Fritz Leiber at 100, and wondered why the author of CONJURE WIFE and OUR LADY OF DARKNESS and GATHER, DARKNESS and Fafrd and Gray Mouser yarns and Change War stories, is unknown and out of stock in the bookstores. Good question. He is the guy who invented magical realism before it was magical realism. This is the guy who coined the term ‘Sword and Sorcery.’
A few weeks ago, the 100th anniversary of author Fritz
Leiber’s birth passed largely unnoticed. The literary
community offered up no tributes. No celebrations or
symposiums were held. Perhaps that should come as
little surprise. None of Leiber’s books are in stock at my
local chain bookstores, and most of his writing is out of
print. Yet few authors of the 20th century anticipated the
storytelling of the current day with more prescience than
Leiber…
Read the whole thing
then go out an buy at least two Fritz Leiber paperbacks, you young whippersnappers!
Kids these days! Say “Grok!” or “R’Lyeh!” and they look at you like you are from the dread and dreaded planet Ploor. They don’t even know what ether is, or why it is QX for ether to be clear. Do they even know enough to fear the beautiful but evil Sorainya of Gyronchi, Queen of the End of Time? Do they know why Tweel of Mars says “one-one two, yes! two-two four, no!” or why the Ninth Barsoomian Ray is so needed to preserve life on that remote, dessicated planet, lest the Sorns perish?
Now git off my lawn!
About John C Wright
John C. Wright is a practicing philosopher, a retired attorney, newspaperman, and newspaper editor, and a published author of science fiction. Once a Houyhnhnm, he was expelled from the august ranks of purely rational beings when he fell in love; but retains an honorary title.
