Theodore Sturgeon
Theodore Sturgeon (born Edward Hamilton Waldo; ✦February 26, 1918 – †May 8, 1985) was an American science fiction and horror writer and critic. The Internet Speculative Fiction Database credits him with about 400 reviews and more than 200 stories.
Sturgeon's most famous work may be the science fiction novel "More Than Human" (1953), an expansion of "Baby Is Three" (1952). More Than Human won the 1954 International Fantasy Award (for SF and fantasy) as the year's best novel and the Science Fiction Writers of America ranked "Baby is Three" number five among the "Greatest Science Fiction Novellas of All Time" to 1964. Ranked by votes for all of their pre-1965 novellas, Sturgeon was second among authors, behind Robert Heinlein.
"The Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame" inducted Sturgeon in 2000, its fifth class of two deceased and two living writers.
Sturgeon's Law
In 1951, Sturgeon coined what is now known as Sturgeon's Law: "Ninety percent of [science fiction] is crud, but then, ninety percent of everything is crud." This was originally known as Sturgeon's Revelation; Sturgeon has said that "Sturgeon's Law" was originally "Nothing is always absolutely so." However, the former statement is now widely referred to as Sturgeon's Law. He is also known for his dedication to a credo of critical thinking that challenged all normative assumptions: "Ask the next question." He represented this credo by the symbol of a Q with an arrow through it, an example of which he wore around his neck and used as part of his signature in the last 15 years of his life.
Sturgeon's Quotes
- Father-dominated people who form father-dominated cultures have father-religions: a male deity, an authoritative scripture, a strong central government, an intolerance for inquiry and research, a repressive sexual attitude, a deep conservatism (for one does not change what Father built), a rigid demarcation, in dress and conduct, between the sexes, and a profound horror of homosexuality.
- Mother-dominated people who form mother-dominated cultures have mother religions: a female deity served by priestesses, a liberal government-one which feeds the masses and succors the helpless-a great tolerance for experimental thought, a permissive attitude toward sex, a hazy boundary between the insignes of the sexes, and a dread of incest.
- A pig among people is a pig, he tells himself, but a pig among pigs is people.
- Love’s a different sort of thing, hot enough to make you flow into something, interflow, cool and anneal and be a weld stronger than what you started with.
- Morals: They’re nothing but a coded survival instinct!
- Do you know what morals are? Morals are obedience to rules that people laid down to help you live among them.
- An ethic isn’t a fact you can look up. It’s a way of thinking.
- Father-dominated people who form father-dominated cultures have father-religions: a male deity, an authoritative scripture, a strong central government, an intolerance for inquiry and research, a repressive sexual attitude, a deep conservatism (for one does not change what Father built), a rigid demarcation, in dress and conduct, between the sexes, and a profound horror of homosexuality.
External links
- Sturgeon quotes on wikiquotes
- The Theodore Sturgeon Page - an informative and comprehensive fansite
- The Theodore Sturgeon Literary Trust - owners of Sturgeon copyrights, information on Sturgeon publications
- Theodore Sturgeon Papers (MS 303 and MS 254) housed at the Kenneth Spencer Research Library, University of Kansas
- TCSOTS Listing and cover pictures from the book series The Collected Stories of Theodore Sturgeon
- Theodore Sturgeon's online fiction at Free Speculative Fiction Online
- Gary Westfahl's Biographical Encyclopedia of Science Fiction Film
- The Work of Theodore Sturgeon - lengthy biographical and critical study of Sturgeon
- More information is available at [ Wikipedia:Theodore_Sturgeon ]
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