{"id":4191,"date":"2022-02-16T17:54:13","date_gmt":"2022-02-16T23:54:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lfs.org\/blog\/?p=4191"},"modified":"2025-02-22T15:09:08","modified_gmt":"2025-02-22T21:09:08","slug":"dangerous-visions-anthology-and-reason-review-highlight-heinlein-and-other-prometheus-winners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/dangerous-visions-anthology-and-reason-review-highlight-heinlein-and-other-prometheus-winners\/","title":{"rendered":"Dangerous Visions anthology and Reason review highlight Heinlein and other Prometheus winners"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Michael Grossberg<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Several leading sf writers whose classic works have won Prometheus Awards are examined in a new anthology about science fiction\u2019s New Wave.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Most notably, Robert Heinlein\u2019s The Moon is a Marsh Mistress\u00a0<\/em>and Ursula Le Guin\u2019s The Dispossessed\u00a0<\/em>are among the libertarian sf works explored, contrasted and debated in Dangerous Visions and New Worlds: Radical Science Fiction, 1950-1985.<\/em><\/p>\n

Reason\u00a0book editor Jesse Walker reviews the anthology of essays while noting its discussions of libertarian writers and libertarian-themed sf in the March 2022 issue of Reason <\/em>magazine.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Edited by Australian writer-editors Andrew Nette and Ian McIntyre, the Dangerous Visions<\/a> <\/em>anthology (published in November 2021 by PM Press) explores sf literature against the cultural and political backdrop of the period from 1950 to 1985. That era, by no coincidence, went through major social change, technological and economic progress and the emergence of several notable liberation movements, from the civil-rights marches and anti-war protests to the rise of the anti-war and pro-civil-liberties libertarian movement itself.<\/p>\n

Describing the 224-page anthology as \u201cuneven but often incisive,\u201d Walker observes in his Reason<\/em> magazine review that the essays cover \u201cthe New Wave\u00a0moment<\/em>\u00a0without limiting itself to the New Wave\u00a0movement<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Ursula Le Guin (Creative Commons photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThe most talented New Wave writers are covered here \u2014 there are essays on J.G. Ballard, Octavia Butler, Barry Malzberg, and others \u2014 but so are TV tie-ins and porny paperbacks, showing how such ideas seeped through society,\u201d Walker writes in his review.<\/p>\n

While the thrust of most essays focus on writers more associated with the Left (although some actually were civil libertarian or mid-century liberals, arguably roughly somewhere between libertarian and progressive views), the anthology admirably recognizes the intellectual and cultural diversity of the sf field, which then and now tends to attract mavericks and independent thinkers.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Robert Heinlein (Creative Commons photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThe editors also understand that not every experimentalist was on the political left,\u201d Walker said.<\/p>\n

\u201cRobert Heinlein shows up too, though he was a stalwart of the old guard that the New Wave was challenging,\u201d Walker writes.<\/p>\n

One essay contrasts and compares Heinlein\u2019s libertarian sf classic The Moon is a Harsh Mistress<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>– one of the first two works inducted into the Prometheus Hall of Fame in 1983 \u2013 with Le Guin\u2019s The Dispossessed,\u00a0<\/em><\/a>inducted after some years of debate<\/a> within the LFS into the Hall of Fame in 1993.
\n\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Walker, in his review, describes both novels as memorable explorations of extraplanetary anarchist communities.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThe author finds more differences than similarities between Heinlein’s individualist anarchism and LeGuin’s collectivist kind…”<\/p>\n

“But both books were products of the same historical moment, and \u2014 I speak from experience \u2014both could have similar effects on a young reader,\u201d Walker said.<\/p>\n

Check out the Reason review here.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Note: Walker is the author of the nonfiction books Rebels on the Air\u00a0<\/em>and The United States of Paranoia.
\n\"\"<\/a>
\n<\/em>Walker spoke last year on a videotaped Prometheus-Awards-related panel discussion<\/strong> <\/a>– with Reason editor-in-chief Katherine Mangu-Ward, 2021 Prometheus Best Novel winner Barry B. Longyear and LFS President William H. Stoddard – exploring why libertarian themes historically have emerged so much in the history of science fiction and why people tend to become libertarian, among other subjects.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

* Read\u00a0\u201cThe Libertarian History of Science Fiction,\u201d<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0an essay in the international magazine\u00a0Quillette<\/em>\u00a0that favorably highlights the Prometheus Awards, the Libertarian Futurist Society and the significant element of libertarian sf\/fantasy in the evolution of the modern genre.<\/p>\n

*\u00a0Join us<\/strong>! To help sustain the Prometheus Awards,\u00a0join\u00a0<\/strong><\/a>the Libertarian Futurist Society (LFS), a non-profit all-volunteer association of freedom-loving sf\/fantasy fans.<\/p>\n

Libertarian futurists believe culture is as vital as politics in sparking innovation, better ideas, positive social change, respect for each other\u2019s rights and differences and in spreading positive visions of the future and achieving universal liberty and human rights and a better world (perhaps eventually, worlds) for all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Michael Grossberg Several leading sf writers whose classic works have won Prometheus Awards are examined in a new anthology about science fiction\u2019s New Wave. Most notably, Robert Heinlein\u2019s The Moon is a Marsh Mistress\u00a0and Ursula Le Guin\u2019s The Dispossessed\u00a0are among the libertarian sf works explored, contrasted and debated in Dangerous Visions and New Worlds: … Continue reading Dangerous Visions anthology and Reason review highlight Heinlein and other Prometheus winners<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[32,10,8,1860,2561],"tags":[1454,1082,1184,705,268,1186,21,794,83,827],"class_list":["post-4191","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-author-updates","category-news","category-review","category-robert-heinlein","category-ursula-k-le-guin","tag-classics","tag-dangerous-visions","tag-jesse-walker","tag-libertarian-movement","tag-prometheus-hall-of-fame","tag-reason-magazine","tag-robert-heinlein","tag-the-dispossessed","tag-the-moon-is-a-harsh-mistress","tag-ursula-le-guin"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pe8nGl-15B","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4191","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4191"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4191\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4204,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4191\/revisions\/4204"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4191"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4191"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}