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Archeology of the Future

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Abstract

Part II of the present study focuses on the work and legacy of John W. Campbell, Jr. Campbell experienced the new paradigm of manliness and civilization both as a physics undergraduate student and through the fiction promoted by Gernsback. In his own fiction and later as an editor, Campbell demonstrates the refinement of the paradigm into one of personal responsibility. Even though the fallacies that supported the paradigm were no longer accepted in the scientific community, Campbell maintained his reputation as promoting scientific rigor. For many years, Campbell’s stature as a golden-age writer and an editor was irreproachable. Recently, a growing consensus has condemned Campbell’s work as irredeemably racist and sexist. The revaluation of Campbell is justified; if anything, Campbell was more deplorable than his critics suggest. That being said, it is curious to consider how Campbell’s beliefs and actions were accepted for so many years, while his work was held out as an exemplar of science fiction. Learning to reevaluate his legacy provides a window onto the subtle synergy among racism, sexism, and imperialism in the writers he promoted as editor as well as in the STEM professions generally. Campbell’s fiction, and the fiction he promoted as editor, resisted the change of thinking about the connections between race, sex, and civilization.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    This chapter focuses on the correspondence between Campbell and Asimov inasmuch as it reveals Campbell’s attitudes. Asimov’s responses are found in Chap. 5.

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  1. Bangkok, Thailand

    Christopher Leslie

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Leslie, C. (2023). Archeology of the Future. In: From Hyperspace to Hypertext. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-2027-3_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-2027-3_4

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