{"id":1285,"date":"2009-07-04T23:26:04","date_gmt":"2009-07-05T03:26:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/s265039441.onlinehome.us\/philpaine\/?p=1285"},"modified":"2018-08-08T21:44:37","modified_gmt":"2018-08-09T01:44:37","slug":"fritz-leiber-the-ghost-light-%e2%80%95-masterworks-of-science-fiction-and-fantasy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/?p=1285","title":{"rendered":"(Fritz Leiber) The Ghost Light \u2015 Masterworks of Science Fiction and Fantasy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fritz Leiber, over the years, wrote some of the finest fan\u00adta\u00adsy fic\u00adtion there is, and some pret\u00adty decent sci\u00adence fic\u00adtion, as well. This col\u00adlec\u00adtion, enlivened by illus\u00adtra\u00adtions by sev\u00ader\u00adal artists, is a good intro\u00adduc\u00adtion. It con\u00adtains some of his most famous sto\u00adries \u2014 \u201cCom\u00ading Attrac\u00adtions\u201d, \u201cGonna Roll the Bones\u201d and the deligh\u00adtul \u201cSpace-Time for Springers\u201d, but it also has the unusu\u00adal semi-auto\u00adbi\u00ado\u00adgraph\u00adi\u00adcal \u201cFour Ghosts in Ham\u00adlet\u201d, based on his expe\u00adri\u00adences in his father\u2019s Shake\u00adspeare\u00adan com\u00adpa\u00adny. One well-known sto\u00adry that I\u2019d missed until now is \u201cMid\u00adnight by the Mor\u00adphy Watch\u201d, which involves the miss\u00ading pock\u00adet watch of the 19th cen\u00adtu\u00adry chess mas\u00adter, Paul Mor\u00adphy. Sto\u00adries like this make you want to buy an over\u00adstuffed arm\u00adchair and take up pipe smoking. <\/span><\/p>\n

A large por\u00adtion of the book is devot\u00aded to Leiber\u2019s rather dis\u00ador\u00adga\u00adnized auto\u00adbi\u00ado\u00adgraph\u00adi\u00adcal mem\u00adoir. I met him short\u00adly before he died, and his voice and face made a pro\u00adfound impres\u00adsion on me. I could hear that voice in my head while read\u00ading this. But despite a lot of talk about his prob\u00adlems with alco\u00adhol and his sex\u00adu\u00adal edu\u00adca\u00adtion, it does not give the impres\u00adsion of being a real self-exam\u00adi\u00adna\u00adtion. His father (a fair\u00adly well-known stage and film actor, in his day), looms every\u00adwhere, like Don Gio\u00advan\u00adni\u2019s papa (or Leopold Mozart) in the shad\u00adows of the book, but his feel\u00adings in this area are nev\u00ader con\u00adfront\u00aded. Nor is there much to explain why he wrote the things he wrote.<\/span><\/p>\n

con\u00adtains:<\/span><\/p>\n

17775. (Fritz Leiber) Intro\u00adduc\u00adtion [pref\u00adace]<\/span>
\n 17776. (Fritz Leiber) The Ghost Light [sto\u00adry]<\/span>
\n 17777. [5] (Fritz Leiber) Com\u00ading Attrac\u00adtions [sto\u00adry]<\/span>
\n 17778. [3] (Fritz Leiber) A Desk\u00adful of Girls [sto\u00adry]<\/span>
\n 17779. [3] (Fritz Leiber) Space-Time for Springers [sto\u00adry]<\/span>
\n 17780. (Fritz Leiber) Four Ghosts in Ham\u00adlet [sto\u00adry]<\/span>
\n 17781. [4] (Fritz Leiber) Gonna Roll the Bones [sto\u00adry]<\/span>
\n 17782. (Fritz Leiber) Bazaar of the Bizarre [sto\u00adry]<\/span>
\n 17783. (Fritz Leiber) Mid\u00adnight by the Mor\u00adphy Watch [sto\u00adry]<\/span>
\n 17784. (Fritz Leiber) Black Glass [sto\u00adry]<\/span>
\n 17785. (Fritz Leiber) Not Much Dis\u00ador\u00adder and Not So Ear\u00adly Sex: An Auto\u00adbi\u00ado\u00adgraph\u00adic Essay [arti\u00adcle]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fritz Leiber, over the years, wrote some of the finest fan\u00adta\u00adsy fic\u00adtion there is, and some pret\u00adty decent sci\u00adence fic\u00adtion, as well. This col\u00adlec\u00adtion, enlivened by illus\u00adtra\u00adtions by sev\u00ader\u00adal artists, is a good intro\u00adduc\u00adtion. It con\u00adtains some of his most \u2026<\/p>\n

Read more \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[946,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1285","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-b-reading","category-br-reading-2009"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1285","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1285"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1285\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7983,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1285\/revisions\/7983"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}