Dream makers: Science fiction and fantasy writers at work : profiles

by Charles Platt

Interviews with: Philip K. Dick; J. G. Ballard; Michael Moorcock; Isaac Asimov; Frank Herbert; Thomas M. Disch; E. C. Tubb; Damon Knight; Kate Wilhelm; Ian Watson; John Brunner; Gregory Benford; Robert Silverberg; Brian W. Aldiss; Robert Sheckley; Kurt Vonnegut; Hank Stine; Norman Spinrad; Frederik Pohl; Samuel R. Delany; Barry N. Malzberg; Edward Bryant; C. M. Kornbluth; Algis Budrys; Philip Jose Farmer; A. E. van Vogt; Harlan Ellison; and Ray Bradbury.

Genres: Nonfiction, Biography, Anthologies, Lit Crit

Hardcover

First published November 1, 1980

About the author

From wikipedia:

Charles Platt (born in London, England, 1945) is the author of 41 fiction and nonfiction books, including science-fiction novels such as The Silicon Man and Protektor (published in paperback by Avon Books). He has also written non-fiction, particularly on the subjects of computer technology and cryonics, as well as teaching and working in these fields. Platt relocated from England to the United States in 1970 and is a naturalized U. S. citizen.

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

See:

Charles Platt, born 1869

Reviews

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a fairly nice collection of interviews (or perhaps biographical sketches) of many of the leading science fiction authors of its day, forty years ago now. Platt tended to lead with his questions to reach his own conclusions, and his personality and opinions tended to color the whole, but he still presented some worthwhile information. It's somewhat telling that there are no women writers included save Kate Wilhelm, and she's lumped in with the section with her husband Damon Knight. (And yes, before you say it, there were plenty of females in the field in 1980 he could have chosen to interview!) Still, some fascinating bits pop up here and there, and it's an interesting volume. It wasn't always the most well-known or outre authors who presented themselves most interestingly; E.C. Tubb, for example, was one of the most entertaining subjects.

[EmBe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Charles Platt, selbst auch Fiction-Autor führt Interviews mit überwiegend bedeutetenden englischsprachigen Science Fiction Autoren. Das heißt er lässt sie reden, man hat den Eindruck eines Gesprächs, wobei Platts Anteil am Text eher Bemerkungen zu Autor, ihren Aussagen und den Umständen des Gespräches ist. Die Gespräche stammen aus den Jahren vor 1980, sind also schon über 40 Jahre alt, viele Autoren sind bereits gestorben, so dass das Buch fast schon ein literaturhistorisches Dokument ist. Die Autoren sind Brian Wood Aldiss, Isaac Asimov, J.G. Ballard, Gregory Benford, Alfred Bester, Ray Bradbury, John Brunner, Edward Bryant, Algis Budrys, Samuel R. Delaney, Philip K. Dick, Thomas M. Disch, Harlan Ellison, Philip José Farmer, Frank Herbert, Damon Knight und Kate Wilhelm, C.M. Kornbluth (Telefongespräch mit der Witwe Mary Kornbluth), Barry N. Maltzberg, Michael Moorcock, Frederik Pohl, Robert Shekley, Robert Silverberg, Norman Spinrad, Hank Stine, E.C. Tubb, A.E. van Vogt, Kurt Vonnegut jr., Ian Watson. Eine große Spannbreite von Autoren. Indes mit Kate Wilhelm nur eine Autorin, was auch kritisiert worden ist. Platt hat darauf reagiert und später auch Autorinnen wie Joanna Russ interviewt.
Ich habe das Buch gerne gelesen, ich erfuhr viel, man könnte Seiten mit so entstandenen Porträts füllen. Standardfragen mit Standardantworten findet man nicht. Es geht sehr launig zu und der paranoide Philip K. Dick hat sein eigenes Tonband (es sind die 70er Jahre des 20. Jahrhunderts) aufgestellt, so dass sich Platt selbst interviewt fühlte.

[Liquidlasagna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Positively one of my favorite books around...

gave me some of the best insights into the personalities of the different writers, and I think it was edited beautifully.

One would wish for more, but that would take many many interviews, hundreds of questions, and infinite patience. I was surprised that i found out there was a second volume to this later, and one day i'll find a copy.

The biographical notes at the end i think were extremely well done.

I still marvel after 20 years of reading it now and then how the personality quirks of the writers come through, and you even get the sense of that from the author speaking about trying to get interviews from some writers who refused an interview... and even the few souls that Platt thought, he didn't want to interview...

I still wonder if Barry Malzberg should have kept his old Cadillac, or if Delany really has any friends, or why Brunner derailed his career with a novel about a Steamboat race!

or why Asimov likes some claustrophobia cubicle to stare at his typewriter. Though is Stephen King any different?

[TrumanCoyote · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really should be called profiles rather than interviews. The most annoying ones were Delany, Malzberg and Disch (not surprising, since they're about the 3 most annoying writers in sci-fi); also Moorcock and Ballard (I loved his "I don't believe in a fiction of nuance"...evidently he doesn't believe in reading what he's written either). Interesting were Farmer, Van Vogt (with his systems), Sheckley and Silverberg. Oh, and E C Tubb--he was a cool guy. This on writers' tendencies to gloss themselves up: "'I married a beautiful White Russian countess, that was my first wife, I was 16 and she was 21, and she promised me an estate in Estonia...that poor woman, never shall I forget, the red smear under the bus.' And then the balalaikas play and they say, 'Ah, that man's lived, hasn't he? That man's lived!'"

[Robert Adam Gilmour · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sometimes people will say how awfully SFF writers speak of each other these days, sometimes people say it was never really different decades ago, I saw this book series once used as an example. A lot of these writers knew each other so I wonder if some of them remained friends despite the criticisms but some of them really do trash each other.

There has been lots of different editions of the Dream Makers books, none of them complete, these 2021 editions leave out the Hank Stine (now Jean Marie Stine) and Andre Norton interviews with no explanation. But I'd urge you to get these newest editions because the new introduction and "historical context" afterwards to the interviews double or maybe even triple the substance and entertainment; Platt is able to say a lot of things now that he couldn't in the 80s and talk about his further relationships with the writers. I found some of the introduction and the afterwards about Disch, Bester and Brunner quite sad.
I already knew lots of bad things about Harlan Ellison but there's some truly appalling behaviour described here that I hadn't heard about before. Platt's criticisms of Damon Knight were very interesting too. But there's lots of funny stuff here too and almost everyone comes across like a really vivid character. A E Van Vogt is especially eccentric (and its nice to hear him talk about TJ Bass because I never hear anything about him). Algis Budrys was fascinating too.

A recurring subject is the increasing commercial pressures that were coming in with the late 70s and that has never really stopped. When people talk about the artistic freedom of the late 60s to the mid 70s, and the idea that it's been downhill since then, it's striking what a short period of time that was.

Getting a feel for Platt's sensibilities was interesting. Initially I knew about him only as a new waver who rubbed some people wrong but he's actually somewhere between new wave experimenter and golden age optimist, very idealistic about what science can still do for us. He was even disappointed about the extent of the backlash against John W Campbell.
He wanted to do a third Dream Makers book but he said no publisher would pay for this now and crowdfunding was probably too steep a challenge.

This book and the next were a real joy. Highest recommendation, lots of fun.

[Simon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Actually much more interesting than I expected. Platt himself seems sometimes slightly frustrated that he can’t get the authors to just talk directly and in detail about how they work, but for me the strength of the book is the variety of subjects discussed, the vastly different personalities, perspectives, and approaches to storytelling. Some of it is entertainingly bitchy as authors slag each other off, some of it is spiky and confrontational (Jerry Pournelle’s political diatribes), and some authors have simply led fascinating lives (Alice Sheldon). And I don’t think you even need to like science fiction to find something of interest here. I’d love to read a similar volume on modern day authors.

[David Agranoff · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an interesting reading experience, my thoughts and feelings changed greatly from the first couple of chapters to the end. My book collection about the history of Science Fiction seemed incomplete considering that I often see references to the interviews in this book. I expected an experience like Stanley Wiater’s Dark Dreamers and Dark Visions with transcripts of interviews. First, I was bummed and annoyed that Charles Platt was often making these profiles about himself, and his experience doing these interviews.

When I read the Issac Asimov interview that opened the book, the profile annoyed me, and I felt I didn’t learn anything about an author I already knew much about. I like that Platt in the historical context section was brutally honest about Asimov being a sexist prick. It is also Ironic as this has zero women (profiled alone) Kate Wilhelm is there but she is with her husband Damon Knight) and Platt blames Leguin for turning him and down and makes some weak excuses.

Leigh Brackett? Andre Norton? Joanna Russ? Judith Merril, There were plenty he could have reached out to. It is a glaring weakness of the book.

Eventually, when I got used to the opinionated style of the profiles, I started to see the value in Platt’s painting the picture of the homes, and how the interviews went down. In my position as host of The Dickheads podcast and Dick scholarship I don’t say this lightly - some of the quotes in the PKD interview are some of the best I have seen. Better than most of the biographers. He is brutally frank about his VALIS experience in a way I liked.

This new edition comes with an important addition. Historical context, in 2021 Platt added up-to-date information. Many of these were worth getting the book altogether, with decades of reflection Platt adds tons of value.

Dream Makers is a classic for a reason. Its flaws are serious but it appears the most major one he fixed in the second volume. I think for diehards interested in the history of Science Fiction this is a must-have volume. Now I feel I NEED the second one. I would love to have Platt on the podcast, So we’ll see.

[Larry Wegman · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interviews with science fiction authors. The author seemed rather biased toward his own way of looking at the authors and their works, and in that, reminds me why I don't usually pay much attention to critics. The authors themselves seem to almost all come off as crazy, and many of them as jerks. The sad thing about that is that I've really liked much of their work.

[Stephen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Probably four stars the first time I read it but now it is comfort reading whilst traveling on a plane, my least favorite form of transportation. Still revelatory in spots, occasionally annoying and diverting throughout.

[Keith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book about science fiction authors.

[Logan Kedzie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a notably dated book.

I refer not to how often overpopulation is mentioned as the world's greatest crisis, nor that there is only one woman, (which is addressed in the text, and the answer is insufficient), nor any writers of color, and not that the fortunes of some of the authors herein have varied greatly in the forty years since this was written.

Instead, what dates it for me is the intense sense of New Journalism about it. The book is clearly collapsible into the parts of the world in which it was written, because the author is going to describe the act of getting to everyone's house and the feelings that he has about wherever it is they live, with each of the writers grouped geographically. The Los Angeles section is the worst, even outside of Vogt going all Scientologist, even with some of the more interesting names, and I have to wonder if, as compared to the paeans to urbanism that the author addresses NYC with, there sort of LA carscape refused him connection.

It means that the interviews are not interviews, or even character studies, but a sort of series of the way that the author is thinking about his talking to whomever he talked to in context. It is the sort of thing that I dread that people view my own review style as being.

At its best, it allows interesting things, like being able to counterpoint two authors with different views (notably for this Feminism and women in general) and dares to include shit-talk between them, or at least times when two authors are critical of one another. And I do think that it is interesting on some points of fans and fan culture how things are quite similar these days.

But I think that the variation in style, from standard interview to block text to the author more focusing on is own perception of what is going on to whatever that was with Ballard is distracting. It makes the read less accessible rather than more fun, and it means that what you get in each of the passages varies so much as to make each chapter a sort of gamble. It holds to the 3 stars by the merest of fingernails, but even if most of it is not worth the effort there is enough anecdote and personal perspective here of interesting writers to make it justifiable for people interested in these people.

[Ralph Carlson · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you read Science Fiction, you must read this book.

[Amanda G]

Read most of these, pretty interesting interviews

[Lawrence · Rating 4 out of 5]

https://gnomeship.blogspot.com/2019/0...

[Moira · Rating 1 out of 5]

No women in this at all! Huzzah.