A while ago I spoke of buying a book I owned fifty-some-odd years ago.\u00a0 So, here\u2019s a story from that book to talk about.\u00a0 The author Fritz Leiber was pretty popular back in the day.\u00a0 So, I don\u2019t intend to rewind the plot here because it\u2019s a short story (twenty-eight pages) and anyone can find it out there in the public domain, I\u2019m sure.<\/p>\n
But I just want to give some impressions of the best aspects of the story.\u00a0 This is explicitly a post-apocalyptic world.\u00a0 New York City and Washington DC are craters.\u00a0 And because of the disaster the US government has been supplanted by a regime called the Thinkers.\u00a0 They are frauds who have convinced the populace that they have supercomputers and atomic rockets that go to Mars to commune with the all-wise Martians and something called the \u201cMind Bomb,\u201d etc., etc., etc. \u00a0The real scientists have been cowed into keeping quiet and the nominal leader is a guy named Jorj Helmuth who was a publics relations specialist in the before time but now believes his own hype and thinks he\u2019s a master of sleep learning and hypnotism and whatever else he\u2019s made up.<\/p>\n
The story is basically the maneuvering of Jorj, his cronies, the scientists and a few other actors on stage.\u00a0 Leiber lays out the story and the characters in broad strokes but very skillfully and it\u2019s fun to recognize the Soviet (and American) propaganda playbook being run to fascinating effect.\u00a0 It\u2019s a cautionary tale about idealism and chicanery and power politics and the danger of believing in your own lies.\u00a0 And even thought this story was written in 1951 it reads the same as if it was written today or tomorrow.<\/p>\n
And it has a great villain who just exudes realpolitik and a feme fatale and even a twist ending to make sure you don\u2019t forget that it\u2019s from the golden age of science fiction.\u00a0 And even the title of the story is the punchline.<\/p>\n
All these same people inhabit our present world.\u00a0 The lies and make believe from then is no different from the BLM or Antifa grifts that we see all around us.\u00a0 Probably the closest thing would be the climate change scam that has bankrupted Europe and exacerbated the monetary problems we\u2019re experiencing.<\/p>\n
So, that was fun.\u00a0 There are a few more stories in the book that I\u2019ll highlight in later episodes of this book review.\u00a0 But I\u2019ll say that \u201cPoor Superman\u201d is the cr\u00e8me de la cr\u00e8me of the entire collection.\u00a0 And since it\u2019s the last story in the book you finish it off with a smile on your face.\u00a0 See, that Bob Heinlein really knew the trick to editing an anthology.\u00a0 Make sure the last story leaves them wanting more.<\/p>\n
So, who remembers this story or at least remembers the name Fritz Leiber?\u00a0 Surely, I\u2019m not the only old science fiction fan here and I\u2019d love to get some other opinions.\u00a0 After all, I\u2019m just one man.\u00a0 And I\u2019m not even superman.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A while ago I spoke of buying a book I owned fifty-some-odd years ago.\u00a0 So, here\u2019s a story from that book to talk about.\u00a0 The<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[241,237,4,242],"tags":[68,5022,38,1355,711,265,4947],"class_list":["post-34771","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-reviews","category-reviews","category-sff","category-sff-book-reviews","tag-book-review","tag-fritz-leiber","tag-review","tag-reviews","tag-robert-a-heinlein","tag-science-fiction","tag-tomorrow-the-stars"],"yoast_head":"\n