På en annan lista jag frekventerar (utländsk, kallas Fictionmags) började man
plötsligt prata om Captain Future, känd i Sverige som Kapten Frank (i JVM/VÄ på
1940-talet, även med någon story i Bertil Falks JVM och senare i Kapten Frank
och rymdkejsaren, som Pulp Press gav ut).
Till båtnad för främst Bertil, fan av den frankiske kaptenen (och han har
träffat parte Hamilton/Bracket också!), tänklte jag återge en del som kom upp.
En Ian C började med att skriva:
..I was fascinated recently by Mike A's revelation that Leigh Brackett wrote
6 of the last 7 'Captain Future' stories from outlines by hubby Edmond
Hamilton. I bought the collection of 7 stories, and just finished reading
it.
Has it ever been noted that this is a series of demolition jobs, bordering
on hatred for the character and the series?
An editorial piece in the 4th Brackett story, 'Moon of the Forgotten', says:
"..So a little over a year ago, we had Edmond Hamilton bring them {{CF and
companions}} back to life - in somewhat briefer form, in somewhat more
mature form as befits a science fiction that is rapidly growing up."
The stories are structurally formulaic (19 pages, 4 chapters, the same
descriptive phrases about the four main characters and their history) - but
the _feeling_ of the stories is dark and even vicious. Where there was once
playful banter, there are endless conversations with CF addressing a
companion with, '"Shut up," said Curt Newton'. And he means it. The group
are seen as manipulative, secretive, and inhuman. When earlier adventures
are mentioned, it's in terms of the damage they did, or which they didn't
spot at the time. The Captain and companions, earlier portrayed as
justified heroes and protectors of humanity, are basically shown as
squabbling, near-insane, near-monsters. All four main characters are shown
to be broken and despairing. Simon even gets the chance to be completely
human but finally decides not to be because it's too painful and
restrictive.
Curt's paramour Joan is almost entirely written out, and the 'relationship'
between them (which in the Hamilton novels was definitely romantic) has
become an icy nothingness. Earth, their supposed charge, is shown as
decadent: soft, ignorant, corrupt. A man from our time wakes up in their
time and finally decides to spend his life among the stars rather than live
on Earth.
Brackett's solo work of the time had become harsh and barren ('The Starmen
of Llyrdis', 'The Ark of Mars'.. the jet-black pellet of poison, 'Mars Minus
Bisha') with a clear agenda about race relations which would culminate in
the unspeakable 'All the Colors of the Rainbow'.. but this was 'Captain
Future'.
I wonder if Startling Stories knew what they were getting into? I wonder if
Hamilton wrote outlines that were embellished rather than inverted by
Brackett. I wonder if readers brought about the end of the series, or
Hamilton / Brackett just decided they'd done what they needed to do
(seemingly destroy Captain Future) and wouldn't write any more? The letters
column certainly has much praise for the stories, but there are two sharp
nays to the series in the 'last' issue which CF is in, and here's the nayest
(from Les and Es Cole):
** And while we are at it, let us discuss that intellectual giant, the
people's cherce, the great lover, the one-and-only Captain Future. We wonder
about him. Here he has been going around with the dimpled-darling of the
spaceways, Joan Randall, for some ten years, and he has yet to make an
honorable woman of her. We think he should - and then retire. Permanently.
Here's one reason why you are lacking a mature magazine. This latest horror,
which, we could not finish, places the scene on Europa. Fine. So what have
we? Homo cf. sapiens - but we won't go into that. Also, and get this anyone
with even a grammar school scientific background, earthian ecology. The
not-so-odd thing about this, Anonymous, is that we couldn't have complained
if Hamilton had set the scene on another planet in a different star system.
(At least, we couldn't have complained about those particular things!)
But speaking psychologically, we could have predicted all this. You see, Fig
Newton grew up on the Moon, surrounded by inept fatheads. Never having had a
chance to resolve his oedipus, the kid was bound to be a pervert. The
Futuremen series has over the year, shown abysmally poor plotting, no
scientific background and phony, artificial Characters. In case you didn't
get us the first time, we repeat: Captain Future is a vacuous, vapid idiot.
And that goes for his ghoulish, moribund crew, too! **
Mike A gav referenser:
I raised this in a message I posted way back in January and on which no one
commented at the time. But it suddenly seems to have grown legs and run. Here's
what I said:
"There's a good essay about Leigh Brackett by Bertil Falk at BEWILDERING
STORIES
http://www.bewilderingstories.com/issue250/brackett1.html ;
http://www.bewilderingstories.com/issue250/brackett1.htmlhttp://www.bewilderingstories.com/issue250/brackett1.html
http://www.bewilderingstories.com/issue250/brackett1.html ;
And in the second part Falk writes:
"When Startling Stories asked Hamilton, in 1950, to revive Captain Future for
a series of short stories, he was busy working on other assignments.. He wrote
the first story “The Return of Captain Future.” Then he wrote the synopses for
the other stories. But when I visited them, I was told that it was actually
Leigh Brackett who wrote them under his guidance using the “pen name” Edmond
Hamilton."
I stopped short, asking myself, "did I know that?" and decided that I don't
think I did. I've always thought that, like Moore and Kuttner, after their
marriage Brackett and Hamilton sparked off each other and may well have
collaborated without it being acknowledged, though they did write in very
different ways. But it's interesting that Brackett wrote these later Captain
Futures as I don't think I've seen that identified anywhere else."
Ian C igen:
Mike mentioned on list a few weeks ago - I think when there was some
discussion of Brackett - that Leigh and Edmond had been quite open about it:
Edmond wrote the first story, and made notes for the other six, which Leigh
was expanding into full stories.
The response in Startling Stories' letter column begins quite gently - some
say the stories are as good as other stories in the mag, that they are
definitely better written than the earlier novels, some even call for new
full-length novels rather than these brief and formulaic shorts, others
saying the series is probably out of date - then the comments ramp up as
some readers praise Brackett for her own stylish stories (like _Starmen_)
and say her work is far better than Hamilton whose work has not got better
and (actually said) has become worse.
The Captain Future stories appear in Startling Stories for Jan 50
(Hamilton), May 50, Sept 50, Nov 50, Jan 51, Mar 51, May 51 (all Brackett);
Hamilton's 'complete novel' _The City at World's End_ appeared in the July
50 issue. So Hamilton 'appeared' to be in almost every issue for over a
year, with the majority being CF.
Is it also noteworthy that Startling changed editors {Merwin to Mines} one
issue after CF was curtailed?
I quite like _City_ and it may be of note that Hamilton's brutal 'What's It
Like Out There?' would finally appear 'soon' after the CF stories finished..
in Startling's sister mag, Thrilling Wonder Stories. Hamilton didn't appear
in the mag for a few years after CF (Brackett had several, but her output
was slowing by the year). Startling would of course publish Vance, Boucher,
Fyfe, John D MacDonald, Kuttner, The Glory That Was, Hellflower, The Lovers,
Big Planet.. so they certainly didn't lack for authors.
There are sections in the 6 Brackett/Hamilton stories when it’s absolutely
obvious it’s Brackett writing; the similes are unmistakable .
For example: pages of ‘Moon of the Forgotten’ could be taken from any of her
‘Mars’ stories:
“They came out into a wide square, from which many streets led off. In the
center was a winged monument, so effaced by millenniums of wind and dust that
it had the look of a grotesque skeleton, its eroded pinions stark against the
sky. Curt and Otho paused beneath it, tiny figures beside that hundred-foot
bulk of greenish marble.
Nothing stirred in the square. The deserted avenues stretched away, edged
with clotted shadow. The fallen palaces and shattered temples reared to unknown
gods stood still and brooding, remembering the banners and the glory, the
incense and the crimson robes.
One or two of the streets showed life, where flaring light marked the
wine-shops and the inns.
"Down there," said Captain Future and they went on, their boots ringing on
the paving blocks.
They entered the street that Curt had chosen. And as they walked a little
crowd began to gather, softly, unobtrusively, the dark-faced men in dusty
cloaks coming without sound from the doorways, from the mouths of alleys, from
nowhere and everywhere.
They were not the young men, the hot-handed fighters. Most of them were grey
and some were bent and even the youngest of them had an indefinable look of
age, a thing of the spirit rather than the flesh. They did not speak. They
watched the tall Earthman and the lithe one beside him that seemed to be a man.
Their dark eyes glistened and they followed the strangers, borne with them like
a ring of tattered shadows shifting, flowing, thickening.”
Slutligen (via tips på listan) om Allen Steeles NYA Captain Future-roman,
Avengers of the Moon, recenserad i Locus
http://locusmag.com/2017/04/paul-di-filippo-reviews-allen-steele-3/
Of the reviving of old franchises there is no end. No pulp hero is ever truly
dead. I suppose that their unkillable nature is what made them true pulp heroes
to begin with. And although some revivals seem crass and merely mercenary, we
have no complaints of that nature when the result is an authentic, heartfelt
and evocative novel like Allen Steele’s newest.
After being more or less defunct for decades, this seems to be Captain
Future’s time to be reborn. The deluxe yet affordable omnibuses from Haffner
Press deliver all the old-fashioned goodness of the series that initially
flourished from 1940 to 1951, and which sparked up in reprints or refashionings
at intervals thereafter. The Captain’s retro yet timeless virtues–both the
hero’s personal creed and the narrative stylings–are arguably congruent with
cultural trends today toward a desired and desirable return to basics and old
verities with a useful revisioning. And this type of space opera is essentially
an infinite canvas on which new adventures can be perpetually inscribed.
As for the choice of author to pick up the Captain’s tale–well, who else on
the current scene might one nominate? It would have to be, I think, someone of
a certain age. It’s not likely a Millennial writer would care for the job or
bring the appropriate zest and fondness to the task. So that limits out
choices. Mike Resnick or Stephen Baxter or Robert Sawyer or David Brin or
Catherine Asaro or C. J. Cherryh would do a fine job. But not necessarily
better than Steele’s loving performance. As he says in his afterword, his novel
is “neither an homage to the Hamilton novels nor a parody, but rather an effort
to bring Captain Future into the twenty-first century for a new generation of
readers.”
I think Steele has succeeded wonderfully, while still retaining all the old
virtues and attractions of the original property.
First off, the science and interworld logistics and realpolitik of his
version of the old Planet Stories consensual future (every planet in our Solar
System inhabitable, and productive of different races of mankind) is utterly
believable and well-conceived. This is far from a Hard SF book, but nonetheless
Steele takes the time to consider such matters as the terraforming of Mars and
daily residential life on the Moon in substantial detail. Likewise, Steele
provides us with a level of character development which, while not on the level
of, say, a postmodern space opera by M. John Harrison, is still fully mature
and of sufficient depth to endear the characters to us and make us
enthusiastically savor their aspirations, their triumphs and defeats.
The primary beneficiary of this attention is of course Curt Newton, Captain
Future himself. Steele wisely introduces Curt at the very start of his career,
as a naive yet brilliant and brave twenty-something lad raised by his three
oddball companions: Simon, a disembodied human brain housed in a drone; Otho,
an android; and Grag, a sentient robot. The bonds among this quartet power the
tale; family is the engine of their adventures. Then in comes the feisty Joan
Randall, officer of the Interplanetary Police Force. Devoted to her corps, Joan
crosses paths with Curt and crew and is swept up in their destiny, never to be
the same. The seeds of romance between her and Curt are planted in this
installment and sprout, while leaving many prospects ahead.
So then: good setting, good cast. What of the story itself? Steele has wisely
kept the tale from becoming overcomplicated, hewing to a more-or-less
straightforward revenge theme, while still providing generous subplots and
larger avenues to propel subsequent developments. And the furniture of such
tales is nicely arrayed. Extinct Martian volcanoes! Castaway in space!
Biosphere-capped craters!
We begin with Curt’s desire for revenge on Victor Corvo, the sleazy
politician who murdered Curt’s parents twenty years in the past. But this
personal desire ensnares Curt in Corvo’s own schemes, leading the posse
ultimately to Mars, where the sinister and secretive Ul Quorn, criminal and
cult chieftain, awaits.
Steele keeps his chapters of modest length, his sentences graceful yet
uncomplex, and while not every segment ends on a cliffhanger, there are still
cliffhangers aplenty. But the pacing of this book is not feverish and the plot
is not overstuffed, so there is room for contemplative moments.
One special feature that Steele has mastered is porting over the whimsical
moments of the original books. I will affirm that it takes a rare talent to
make a modern reader accept seriously and willingly a concept like “Eek the
moonpuppy.” On a similar note, the superscience aspect of the old books are not
scanted, but neither are they pushed beyond believability.
Blending melodrama with restraint, mixing tragedy and comedy, and hewing to
tradition while simultaneously honoring contemporary tastes, this book deserves
to find a big audience amongst old and young readers alike.
Finally, let me praise the really striking and distinctive cover art by
Thomas Ed Walker. It evokes old-school sense-of-wonder magnificently.
Som ni ser är det Bertils besök hos Hamilton/Brackett som var upphov till
diskussionen. Då fick han reda på att det var Brackett som skrev de sista
novellerna (på outlines från Hamilton). Intressant också att Allen Steele
återupplivat den gode Kaptenen.
Jag kände f ö Sveriges, kanske Världens Störste Kapten Frank-fan, Bengt-Olov
Ringberg (utgivare av t ex fanzinet Future Fan). Besökte honom ett par ggr (t
ex på ett födelsedagskalas, både Laars-Olov Strandberg och Bo Stenfors var där
också) och var på hans begravning.
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