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Herovit's World
Malzberg's saga of the prolific science fiction novelist Jonathan Herovit, in mid-life crisis; i.e., writer's block! Might one of his fictional characters rescue him? 160 pages.
160 pages, Paperback
First published June 1, 1973
9 people are currently reading
263 people want to read
About the author
Barry N. Malzberg
534 books133 followersBarry Nathaniel Malzberg was an American writer and editor, most often of science fiction and fantasy.
He had also published as:
Mike Barry (thriller/suspense)
K.M. O'Donnell (science fiction/fantasy)
Mel Johnson (adult)
Howard Lee (martial arts/TV tie-ins)
Lee W. Mason (adult)
Claudine Dumas (adult)
Francine di Natale (adult)
Gerrold Watkins (adult)
Eliot B. Reston
He had also published as:
Mike Barry (thriller/suspense)
K.M. O'Donnell (science fiction/fantasy)
Mel Johnson (adult)
Howard Lee (martial arts/TV tie-ins)
Lee W. Mason (adult)
Claudine Dumas (adult)
Francine di Natale (adult)
Gerrold Watkins (adult)
Eliot B. Reston
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Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews
December 6, 2021
Herovit's World is a recursive novel about a science fiction writer descending into madness, not a science fiction novel. It does form one sturdy leg of the tripod about the genre and its fans and
practitioners that Malzberg began as a construct with possible intent to partially destruct the field with previous novels Gather in the Hall of Planets and Dwellers of the Deep, both of which were published pseudonymously as K.M. O'Donnell. The titular Heorvit, who's becoming a paranoid alcoholic with lots of frustrations and insecurities and au understandably depressed wife, is seemingly taken over by his pseudonym and his pseudonym's space opera pulp hero character, Kirk Poland and Mack Miller, respectively. Herovit worries about publishing and sex and life a lot, and perhaps one of these other guys can better deal with it all. It's a depressing read, but quite well put together in its way, with some very captivating parts and some very elegant prose. For fans of William, not Edgar Rice. Are these comments convoluted and confused? I hope so, because that matches the book.
practitioners that Malzberg began as a construct with possible intent to partially destruct the field with previous novels Gather in the Hall of Planets and Dwellers of the Deep, both of which were published pseudonymously as K.M. O'Donnell. The titular Heorvit, who's becoming a paranoid alcoholic with lots of frustrations and insecurities and au understandably depressed wife, is seemingly taken over by his pseudonym and his pseudonym's space opera pulp hero character, Kirk Poland and Mack Miller, respectively. Herovit worries about publishing and sex and life a lot, and perhaps one of these other guys can better deal with it all. It's a depressing read, but quite well put together in its way, with some very captivating parts and some very elegant prose. For fans of William, not Edgar Rice. Are these comments convoluted and confused? I hope so, because that matches the book.
October 15, 2012
Even at its most outrageously angry, dirty-minded and depressing, Malzberg's work is informed by a painfully deep love of the science fiction that it was his mission to destroy. 'Herovit's World' is the best of his 'recursive' fictions about science fiction itself - a sordid and hilarious tale of the horrors and absurdities of professional sci-fi writing.
Malzberg reminds me of the late Victorian writer George Gissing. Like Gissing he dwells obsessively - seemingly driven by personal issues - on the utter awfulness of things. This gives him a degree of focus which is easy to mock or dismiss, but which is exceedingly powerful nonetheless, and, when he is on a roll, quite exhilarating...
Malzberg reminds me of the late Victorian writer George Gissing. Like Gissing he dwells obsessively - seemingly driven by personal issues - on the utter awfulness of things. This gives him a degree of focus which is easy to mock or dismiss, but which is exceedingly powerful nonetheless, and, when he is on a roll, quite exhilarating...
August 10, 2025
I read Herovit’s World in just a few sessions. It’s not a long book, and the pace comes from Jonathan Herovit’s almost unbearably rapid decline. Once a successful author of pulp science fiction, he is now failing at everything. He’s blocked on his latest novel, his marriage is falling apart, and he is losing his role as a father. He drowns his misery in alcohol and prostitutes, each step pulling him further down.
The book is shocking because of the graphic scenes, but also because of how quickly Herovit’s connection to reality frays. He starts hallucinating, and as a reader, you’re never sure what is actually happening and what is just in his mind. His alter ego, Kirk Poland which is his own pen name appears as a separate figure, first despising Herovit’s life and then trying to take control of it. But Kirk ends up failing just as badly.
The novel feels like more than just a portrait of one man’s collapse. In fact, it reads almost like an attack on the world of science fiction writers at the time, dismantling its myths and exposing its pettiness and pretension. I can’t say for certain how it was received fifty years ago, but I imagine it may have shocked some of the science fiction author circles it mocks.
The book is shocking because of the graphic scenes, but also because of how quickly Herovit’s connection to reality frays. He starts hallucinating, and as a reader, you’re never sure what is actually happening and what is just in his mind. His alter ego, Kirk Poland which is his own pen name appears as a separate figure, first despising Herovit’s life and then trying to take control of it. But Kirk ends up failing just as badly.
The novel feels like more than just a portrait of one man’s collapse. In fact, it reads almost like an attack on the world of science fiction writers at the time, dismantling its myths and exposing its pettiness and pretension. I can’t say for certain how it was received fifty years ago, but I imagine it may have shocked some of the science fiction author circles it mocks.
December 26, 2014
This is a work of pure genius. There is a lot of material stuffed into this small novel. A lot of it is about identity. Jonathan Herovit, who writes SF as Kirk Poland, is well on his way to becoming a prolific has-been. His life is falling apart, and no one in the field respects him despite his output. These two things, by the way, seem to be his own fault, even though he doesn't recognize it. Herovit doesn't recognize a lot of things when it comes to himself. If he were telling this story from his own perspective, he'd be an unreliable narrator. It's incredible how many lies he tells himself without being aware of it. Readers would have a field day seeking them out because Malzberg plays it very subtle. As time goes by and Herovit's life becomes an even bigger shambles despite his big dreams, the book gets trippier and trippier until readers just can't recognize him. He can't even recognize himself. I can't recommend this book enough.
December 29, 2023
This is more a psychological novel about a science fiction writer than a science fiction novel; but whatever it is, it's brilliant, a masterpiece in a cheap mass market paperback. It's the only thing I've read by Malzberg (if you don't count an aborted attempt at "Guernica Night," which was bullshit) and so now I must go seek out everything else he's ever written (which is apparently a billion books under a trillion different names).
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2nd reading, even better than the first. And yes, since 2020 I have sought out everything else he has ever written, at least under his own name and K.M. O'Donnell. I have become an ardent Malzberg fan, one always championing the writer, and one always confused at how he ever sold 5,000,000 copies (as some of his paperbacks exclaim). I can't imagine anyone but me loving Malzberg and I have never met anyone who does.
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2nd reading, even better than the first. And yes, since 2020 I have sought out everything else he has ever written, at least under his own name and K.M. O'Donnell. I have become an ardent Malzberg fan, one always championing the writer, and one always confused at how he ever sold 5,000,000 copies (as some of his paperbacks exclaim). I can't imagine anyone but me loving Malzberg and I have never met anyone who does.
September 22, 2013
The author of this book wrote Science Fiction only. He sold a lot of it. but this book was not about alien relationships--- This is a book about drinking alcohol, writing childrens books, and living in a small NYC apartment with an infant and wife that the author does not much care for. This book (probably a memoir) is about a man who writes science fiction for money, a depressing look into the life of the author, Barry Malzberg, as he says "f*ck it."
This book is SERIOUSLY worth a read and extremely underrated (I bought a signed copy on Ebay for $2.)
Malzberg has "sold over 1 million copies," but I have read other stuff--- I would stick solely to Herovit's World.
This book is SERIOUSLY worth a read and extremely underrated (I bought a signed copy on Ebay for $2.)
Malzberg has "sold over 1 million copies," but I have read other stuff--- I would stick solely to Herovit's World.
August 30, 2015
Critique circles often claim that readers want a likeable main character. If so, this book isn't for you. A Sci-fi author cracks up, and questions the nature of his reality. Malzberg has a strong authorial voice and the book packs a punch. Gritty and engaging.
May 26, 2022
I love the characters of this book. Herovit's World is complete debauchery. This book smells like cigarettes put out in a bowl of fruit loops. Surprisingly, what holds the book back is when the plot actually comes in. It becomes less interesting when Herovit attempts to solve his problems, I'd like for it to keep getting worse and worse. Instead, things are stagnant until the pages run down. But the novel is filled with such colorful scenes and the tongue-in-cheek commentary on the sci-fi literature community is so very enjoyable that it far outweighs its lack of a forward moving plot.
February 24, 2024
Premise/plot: 3
Pathos: 2.5
Themes: 4
Aesthetic/prose: 4
Impact: 2.5
Overall rating:3.2
Let's just say when I randomly bought this novel at my used bookstore, I was not expecting a semi-meta reflection on the life of a 1970's pulp Science Fiction author. Alas, that is what I got.
Malzberg's writing is quite good and the book is a miserably cynical exploration of a deteriorating career and psyche and it handles these themes in an interesting way.
But my biggest issue was I didn't really care or like any of the characters that much which makes this novel only decent for me.
Pathos: 2.5
Themes: 4
Aesthetic/prose: 4
Impact: 2.5
Overall rating:3.2
Let's just say when I randomly bought this novel at my used bookstore, I was not expecting a semi-meta reflection on the life of a 1970's pulp Science Fiction author. Alas, that is what I got.
Malzberg's writing is quite good and the book is a miserably cynical exploration of a deteriorating career and psyche and it handles these themes in an interesting way.
But my biggest issue was I didn't really care or like any of the characters that much which makes this novel only decent for me.
March 5, 2021
People whose opinion I respect love this book. I disliked almost all of it. After the protagonist commits rape early in the novel, I totally stopped caring about him.
A couple of "by the way" points:
I don't mean to be pretentious, but I felt that Herovit's World had some tenuous relationship to John Updike's novel Rabbit, Run. Both books are about men who are no longer young and whose glory days appear to be behind them. They are profoundly dissatisfied with their lives. Harry "Rabbit" Angstrom was a basketball star who became a salesman. Jonathan Herovit was a successful science fiction author whose career has stalled. They both have young children and a wife named Janice, with whom they no longer get along. They both have adulterous relationships. However, I think that Rabbit, Run is obviously a vastly better book.
My second comment is about the cover of the 1974 Pocket Books edition. Charles Moll's picture shows a man with arms extended as in a crucixion coming out of a typewriter. I found a quote about Moll's work by someone who posts as Codex:
James Lileks called it: The era of execrable taste. So Chas. Moll is literally it’s [sic] poster boy.
A couple of "by the way" points:
I don't mean to be pretentious, but I felt that Herovit's World had some tenuous relationship to John Updike's novel Rabbit, Run. Both books are about men who are no longer young and whose glory days appear to be behind them. They are profoundly dissatisfied with their lives. Harry "Rabbit" Angstrom was a basketball star who became a salesman. Jonathan Herovit was a successful science fiction author whose career has stalled. They both have young children and a wife named Janice, with whom they no longer get along. They both have adulterous relationships. However, I think that Rabbit, Run is obviously a vastly better book.
My second comment is about the cover of the 1974 Pocket Books edition. Charles Moll's picture shows a man with arms extended as in a crucixion coming out of a typewriter. I found a quote about Moll's work by someone who posts as Codex:
James Lileks called it: The era of execrable taste. So Chas. Moll is literally it’s [sic] poster boy.
February 28, 2008
This is a favorite of mine. It's not actually sf; it's about an sf writer, but what he writes is incidental, the point of this is the horror and desperation of having to churn out page after page of drivel on deadline. Being Malzberg, it's very funny, too.
March 23, 2015
Likely, I'm just too dense to get it. But this seems a case of incomprehensibility substituting for profundity.
The story os about a hack science fiction writer, Jonathan Herovitz, who turns out a dreadful series about Mack Miller under the pseudonym Kirk Poland. All the names are important, 'cause, ultimately, the book is about an identity crisis.
Herovit is having a hella hard time adapting to the new demands of science fiction publishing at the end of the 1960s, which is asking for unusual plots and literary competence. He still has a market, though, and has recently signed a contract with a large publishing house that seems intent on wrangling the last nickels out of the series. He's having writer's block, though, and simply cannot go through the motions any more. He's also having trouble with his wife--he has a series of casual affairs--and is drinking too much. His agent if riding him. His frenemy--an ex-science fiction writer who has started teaching at a college--is goading him.
And so as his world collapses, he finds his personality disintegrating, his self replaced first by the pseudonymous author--but that proves a shell, too easily pierced by those he is trying to fool. His agent might be confused, since he can only talk to him on the phone, but those who actually see him still know it's Jonathan Herovit. Which is when he starts hearing Mack Miller in his head.
Mack Miller, his science fictional creation, is the leader of a rough-and-ready survey team that visits unknown worlds, mostly to destroy them. If it's possible to spoil a book that is four decades old, here's a spoiler: Jonathan then starts thinking he's Mack, and the world around him--earth, our earth--is alien. He must destroy it: of course, without Mack Miller's special skills and technology, he can do know such thing, and so the book ends with Herovit being destroyed.
There is a lot of meta-commentary on science fiction itself. Herovit is kicked out of a science fiction league by a thinly disguised A. E. Van Vogt--who's intrigued by a thinly-disguised Scientology. Mack Miller's team is the antipodean version of Star Trek--killing rather than bringing peace, but still an on-going series, the very definition of genre entertainment--which makes the pseudonymous author's name Kirk resonant. Probably there are more inside baseball references I just missed.
The biggest problem with the book, though, is the language. For one thing, it is very dated--it says late '60s early '70s all over it. Another is that it is wooden and pulpish. The sex scene is a rape scene and it is unclear to me whether the actual author--Baryy N. Malzberg--knows this. Herovit's descent seems clunky--forced--and there are way too many dream sequences. This is where lack of clarity--simply making unexplained jumps--seems to substitute for profundity.
One might make the case that the book is purposefully pulpish, since it's being told through the point of view of a pulp writer: the way, for example, Kennifer Egan's "The Keep" is purposefully poorly written at the beginning. But Egan has a pay-off for the reader willing to take up her bet. The reward is worth the risk. There's really no pay-off here--other than Herovit becoming a pulp creature he has always ben--which means that one has to put up with a lot of clunky, wooden writing. Not sure it's worth it in the end.
The story os about a hack science fiction writer, Jonathan Herovitz, who turns out a dreadful series about Mack Miller under the pseudonym Kirk Poland. All the names are important, 'cause, ultimately, the book is about an identity crisis.
Herovit is having a hella hard time adapting to the new demands of science fiction publishing at the end of the 1960s, which is asking for unusual plots and literary competence. He still has a market, though, and has recently signed a contract with a large publishing house that seems intent on wrangling the last nickels out of the series. He's having writer's block, though, and simply cannot go through the motions any more. He's also having trouble with his wife--he has a series of casual affairs--and is drinking too much. His agent if riding him. His frenemy--an ex-science fiction writer who has started teaching at a college--is goading him.
And so as his world collapses, he finds his personality disintegrating, his self replaced first by the pseudonymous author--but that proves a shell, too easily pierced by those he is trying to fool. His agent might be confused, since he can only talk to him on the phone, but those who actually see him still know it's Jonathan Herovit. Which is when he starts hearing Mack Miller in his head.
Mack Miller, his science fictional creation, is the leader of a rough-and-ready survey team that visits unknown worlds, mostly to destroy them. If it's possible to spoil a book that is four decades old, here's a spoiler: Jonathan then starts thinking he's Mack, and the world around him--earth, our earth--is alien. He must destroy it: of course, without Mack Miller's special skills and technology, he can do know such thing, and so the book ends with Herovit being destroyed.
There is a lot of meta-commentary on science fiction itself. Herovit is kicked out of a science fiction league by a thinly disguised A. E. Van Vogt--who's intrigued by a thinly-disguised Scientology. Mack Miller's team is the antipodean version of Star Trek--killing rather than bringing peace, but still an on-going series, the very definition of genre entertainment--which makes the pseudonymous author's name Kirk resonant. Probably there are more inside baseball references I just missed.
The biggest problem with the book, though, is the language. For one thing, it is very dated--it says late '60s early '70s all over it. Another is that it is wooden and pulpish. The sex scene is a rape scene and it is unclear to me whether the actual author--Baryy N. Malzberg--knows this. Herovit's descent seems clunky--forced--and there are way too many dream sequences. This is where lack of clarity--simply making unexplained jumps--seems to substitute for profundity.
One might make the case that the book is purposefully pulpish, since it's being told through the point of view of a pulp writer: the way, for example, Kennifer Egan's "The Keep" is purposefully poorly written at the beginning. But Egan has a pay-off for the reader willing to take up her bet. The reward is worth the risk. There's really no pay-off here--other than Herovit becoming a pulp creature he has always ben--which means that one has to put up with a lot of clunky, wooden writing. Not sure it's worth it in the end.
March 8, 2020
3,3 * (HEYNE-SF, Nr. 3548; ca. 154 Seiten)
Die Geschichte handelt von einem vielschreibenden SF-Autor, der eine Schreibblockade hat, Probleme in der Ehe, mit Freunden, Alkohol ... und immer weiter absackt. Er identifiziert sich immer mehr mit der Hauptfigur seiner Romane und pendelt zwischen Realität und Fiktion.
Eigentlich ein deprimierender Roman mit überwiegend unsympathischen (Anti-)Helden. Ich erinnere mich noch an die heftige Diskussion Ende der Siebziger, ob das nun SF sei oder nicht. Ich meine nicht; dennoch habe ich ihn aus aktuellem Anlass nach über 40 Jahren wieder gelesen.
Die Geschichte handelt von einem vielschreibenden SF-Autor, der eine Schreibblockade hat, Probleme in der Ehe, mit Freunden, Alkohol ... und immer weiter absackt. Er identifiziert sich immer mehr mit der Hauptfigur seiner Romane und pendelt zwischen Realität und Fiktion.
Eigentlich ein deprimierender Roman mit überwiegend unsympathischen (Anti-)Helden. Ich erinnere mich noch an die heftige Diskussion Ende der Siebziger, ob das nun SF sei oder nicht. Ich meine nicht; dennoch habe ich ihn aus aktuellem Anlass nach über 40 Jahren wieder gelesen.
August 11, 2022
I'm not sure if the author was nudging throughout the novel with an "I'm being soooooo ironic" attitude, but after dreary pages of the main character, a writer, waffling on about how he can cheat the word count in his latest book by being repetitive and filling it out with meaningless drivel, the real author ... fills out his word count with meaningless drivel and repetition. What could have been an interesting look at a character who falls apart under pressure turns out to be a basic lesson in how to lose your reader.
March 15, 2013
A meditation on the inner life of a hack writer. Despite the fact that it's incredibly depressing and filled with utterly despicable, unlikable characters, this novel is actually pretty good.
September 5, 2019
Well, that was weird.
September 28, 2025
Overlay (1972) https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Underlay (1974) https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Galaxies (1975) https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Herovit’s World (1973)
* Četiri koliko-toliko reprezentativna i u potpunosti distinktivna romana iz Malzbergovog opusa.
* U vezi naslova Herovit’s World na raspolaganju će biti vidno skraćena verzija recenzije Harlana Elisona, objavljena u časopisu Fantasy and Science Fiction (maj, 1974).
* Poslije kratkih recenzija i Elisonovog uvida, slijedi kratki info-dump o autoru.
Herovit’s World, iz pera Harlana Elisona:
(…) Rekavši sve to, sada bih se osvrnuo na najnoviji naslov jednog od šest-sedam najvažnijih pisaca koje je iznjedrio ovaj žanr.
Autor je Beri Malzberg, a roman je Herovitov svijet, knjiga koju sam zdušno preporučio Komitetu Udruženja američkih SF pisaca za nagradu Nebula kao najbolju knjigu u kategoriji romana objavljenog tokom 1973.
Mada je roman potpisan imenom pisca SF-a, iako se recenzira u SF časopisu i premda, doduše spolja, posjeduje neke osobenosti SF romana – to u stvari nije naučna-fantastika. Kao Bredberi, Vonegat i Danijel Kiz prije njega, Beri Malzberg mudro pokušava da odstrani najčešće komercijalno obogaljujuće riječi “sci-fi autor” sa prostora ispod svog imena. Njegovi napori u tom pravcu istovjetni su sa trudovima brojnih drugih pisaca koji su se pojavili u žanru. Kao jedan od tih, pokušaću da objasnim fanovima i čitateljima ono što na prvi pogled apsolutno zvuči kao nezahvalno ophođenje prema onoj podkategoriji fikcije što nam je dala kakvu god renomiranost da smo dosegli.
Nijedan SF pisac, bez obzira da li se radi o tezgarošu ili o onoj vrsti koga kritičari svako malo nabijaju na kolac zbog sterilnosti njegove imaginacije, nepostojanja zapleta ili stilske odbojnosti, ne može da opovrgne potrebu za budućim prepoznavanjem izvan okvira onoga gdje se dokazuje. Budućnost je ono o čemu najčešće razmišljamo. (…)
Piščevoj duši je potrebna konstantna prehrana. Na žalost, na polju SF-a, to – u najboljem slučaju – može biti osjećaj gdje jedna jalova močvarica podstiče rast velike žabe. Osim toga, postoje pisci čiji talenti očito premašuju ili su suviše veliki za naš najčešće sputavajući univerzum. Rej Bredberi je klasični primjer. Vonegat je drugi. Ted Sterdžen ima isti problem, sa Filipom Hozeom Farmerom tik za petama.
Ted je, za mene, prvoklasni tragični primjer enormnog talenta u potpunosti sputanog kategorizacijom. U slučaju da se Sterdženov rad pojavio izvan okvira zacrtanih SF tržištem, on bi danas bio ništa manje slavan nego kao Džon Kolijer ili Edgar Alan Po. Ili bogat kao Ričard Bah ili Žaklin Suzen (podrazumijeva se da u ovoj tački prestaju sve sličnosti).
Međutim, Sterdžen i Farmer su identifikovani kao “sci-fi pisci”, opet taj užasni neologizam, pa su njihovi životi i sreća dodatno postali komplikovani po pitanju nomenklature. Kurt Vonegat je, prije mnogo godina, percipirao ovu jednostavnu istinu i Kilgor Traut je Kurtovo upozorenje svima nama u žanru. Pa se Vonegat, sasvim svjesno i sistematično, odlučio da prekine svaku vezu sa getom u kome mi još uvijek prebivamo. (Dokaz: čak i Publishers Weekly, vješta i dobro informisana publikacija koja SF naslovima pošteno daje konstantno fer i odgovoran pregled, koliko još od izdanja od 27. avgusta 1973, publiku koja voli SF knjige naziva “svemirskim kicošima”.) Insistirao je da se slova “s” i “f” ne pojavljuju nigdje na njegovim knjigama, u izvještajima za štampu, u bilo kom materijalu napisanom za njega. Očito mu se trud isplatio, Vonegatovom opusu ne nanijevši nikakvu trajniju štetu.
(…) Za druge je velika čast što mogu uskliknuti, “Ja sam pisac naučne fantastike!” Za brojne druge među nama, dovoljno je da možemo reći “Ja sam pisac… koji ponekad napiše naučnu fantastiku.”
Malzberg je očigledno jedan od ovih potonjih.
Isplativši sve svoje dugove vatrenim krštenjem u SF palpu (…) napokon se suočio sa vlastitim krucijalnim željama. On želi da postane slavan, želi da bude bogat, želi da ga čita što veći broj ljudi, želi u tolikoj mjeri da bude slobodan da bi pisao o svim čudima unutar sebe. I zbog toga i u to ime naporno je radio na politici izdavanja gdje se njegovi duži naslovi nisu klasifikovali kao naučna fantastika, već jednostavno kao romani.
(…) Malzberg, odista velika žaba u najvećoj močvari, nastavlja da raste i raste u bogatstvu ideja, vrhunskoj prozi, smionim i rizičnim premisama, kao i sposobnošću da vas zaokupi pogibeljnim istinama svijeta koji vidi pred sobom (…), u romanima koji ne prestaju da lome kičmu tradicionalistima do te mjere da su sa mene strgli teško stečenu titulu AntiHrista i bržebolje je prišili Malzbergu.
(Dokaz: Malzbergovo dobijanje PRVE nagrade John W. Campbell za najbolji roman Beyond Apollo iz 1972, iznudilo je iz određene sredine tako bolne jauke i leleke, da razuman čovjek jedino može da pretpostavi da su sudije po svemu sudeći imale kolektivnu boljku žudnje za samouništenjem, te da njihov izbor nije bio samo pravičan, već i dozlaboga hrabar.)
Što me napokon dovodi do Herovitovog svijeta, ne naučnofantastičnog romana…. već samo knjige koja će škrgut zuba u našem malenom svijetu zagarantovati da odjekne i na rihterovoj skali.
Džonatan Herovit nije načinjen od jedne vrste tkanine. Radi se o amalgamu prostih metala komercijalnog SF pisanja. On je težak skoro kao četrdeset godina nedovoljno plaćenog i teškog rada, konstantnog unižavanja i posprdavanja koje obično trpe SF tezgaroši prije nego što se ponovo vrate samotnom dvanaestočasovnom dirinču za pisaćom mašinom. On je Anapurna napisanih jeftinih svemirskih romana koje zapljusnu trafike prije nego što ih, tridesetak dana kasnije, ne zamijene još jeftiniji. On je geštalt strah stotina hiljada romanopisaca koji drže da ono šta rade je u suštini i više nego trivijalno. On je skup noćnih radnih sati, polusna, iskucavanja rečenica koje većma nisu ni raščlanjene, u standardnom pokušaju da se stigne štamparev dedlajn. On je ona prožimajuća aroma frustracije i otuđenosti i kompletnog ludila. On je zbir rana nametnutih ljudima kojima izdavači i distributeri sabiraju svaku napisanu riječ, ali i maloprodavaca koji maštarê mahom sagledavaju kao tkače “proizvoda”.
On je portret, isklesan od krvi i vitriola, zagarantovan da naježi kožu svakome profesionalcu na polju SF-a. On, kao i svi mi, prokleta je duša, koja iz trenutka u trenutak postaje sve bespomoćnija i mahnitija.
I s obzirom na groznu preciznost Malzbergove inovacije, tog tragičnog stvorenja sa imenom Herovit, istina je da će njegov “proizvod” prihvatiti vrlo mali broj SF pisaca, a nekmoli se saglasiti sa njim. U svakom slučaju, radi se o portretu koji će fanove koji idolizuju pisce navesti da ga pošto-poto prokunu i onda pokušaju da ga suzbiju.
Međutim, neće biti u prilici da to oposle. Jer Herovit nikada nije bio življi!
On je SF tezgaroš od 37 godina, oženjen Dženis koja ga povremeno pojebe – najvećma samo zato što ga prezire – a ujedno je i otac male Natali koju zauzvrat on prezire. Autor je 92 palp pejperbeka o avanturama Meka Milerovog Istraživačko-nadzornog svemirskog tima pod pseudonimom Kirk Poland. Karijeru je jamačno počeo daleko ranije, pišući svemirske avanture za urednika Džona Stila, vladajućeg monarha časopisa Goropadne priče. Herovit jeste jalov pisac.
Isto tako, on ne protivriječi nikome i ne ulazi u konfrontacije, ali zato konzistentno kuka i jadikuje, ujedno je folirant je i švaler – navodim njegove najpozitivnije kvalitete. Herovit stanuje u Njujorku i sama ta pojedinost enormno pojašnjava čovjekov sunovrat u ludilo. Svakodnevno je pod presijom vlastite profesije, ali i zbog i rudimentarnog nedostatka karaktera svoje fiktivne kreacije. To ga apsolutno polako ubija, kao i sve očigledniji nesklad u komunikaciji sa suprugom, djetetom i prijateljima. Nad svim tim naročito stoji mazohistička introspekcija, zapravo laži kojima kljuka sebe i, iznad svega toga bdi sami Grad, koji njegovu dušu čini sve sivljom, paranoidnijom i beznadežnijom.
(…)
Herovit postaje višestruka ličnost. Ne podijeljena, već višestruka. Prva naprslina postaje evidentna čim njegov pseudonim, Kirk Poland, počne da se se materijalizuje pred njim, zahtijevajući da on, Herovit, skrajne sebe sa strane i dopusti da on, Poland, počne da upravlja njegovim, Herovitovim, životom.
Dabome da se Džonatan u početku odupire tom zahtjevu, ali ne zadugo i ne odve uspješno. Na kraju se digne obje ruke i dozvoli da Kirk Poland preuzme njegovu davljeničku egzistenciju, dok pritom ta druga ličnost ne radi ništa bolje nego on. Ali ovaj zato misli da Kirku ide daleko bolje nego njemu. A u stvari, sve što Poland radi jeste da krizira svoga vlasnika na daleko glasniji i arogantniji način nego što je to ovaj sebi radio prije njega.
Na toj kritičnoj tački, naprslina se širi u ambis kad Mek Miler dođe na bojište s namjerom da Herovitov život istrgne iz pandži Kirka Polanda. Te do kraja knjige ambis postaje psihijatrijski Marijanin rov dok se Herovit, Poland i supersposobni hajlajnovski “kompetentni muškarac” iz spejs opera 1940-ih, Mek Miler, napokon ne sintetizuju, stope jedan sa drugim i amalgamišu u finalnoj manijakalnoj sceni koja u sebi nosi crtice marksovskog humora (Gručovog, a ne Karlovog) i simplističnu narativnu egzekuciju, u smislu ozbiljnog upozorenja svima nama što dirinčimo u vinogradima komercijalnog pisanja.
(…) Za moje poimanje stvari – a očigledno i Malzbergovo – literatura (a u to, jasno, spada i SF) trebala bi da se poistovjećuje sa onim što je Fokner imenovao “…problemima ljudskog srca u konfliktu sa samim sobom, što samo po sebi čini dobro pisanje zato jer samo o tome i vrijedi pisati, a što je ujedno vrijedno naše agonije i znoja.”
(…) Hrabro se ostrvivši na do sada nekodifikovanu šaradu, mučenički rad i generalnu plitkoću našeg polja… njegovih loših pisaca… njegovih potkupljivih izdavača… njegovih vampirskih fanova... njegovih beskonačnih ćorsokaka... Malzberg je poklonio neizmjeran dar ovom žanru i svakome ko je povezan sa njim. Svakako nas je poveo korak dalje od sjenke geta, te sve dok gacamo kroz sjedinjeno cičanje gurua i fanova koji u onome što je Malzberg uradio (kao i u generalnoj prihvaćenosti SF-a od strane šireg književnog svijeta), vide otimanje omiljene svoje igračke iz sopstvenih ruku, to je bez sumnje korak prema zrelosti koji smo kad-tad morali napraviti. (…)
******
MALZB (trolopijanski mini-esej)
MALZBERG, BARRY N(ATHANIEL) [1939-2024], američki pisac, vjerovatno najliterarnija i apsolutno najkontroverznija ličnost u SF žanru tokom 1970-ih. Mejnstrim pisac koji je doslovno zalutao u žanr, gdje je našao da je taj milje daleko lukrativniji i dostupniji.
–The New Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (1988), ed. James Gunn
Za one koji očekuju eskapizam urolan u oblandu hard SF fazona, Malzberg će garantovano biti neprohodan; nepristupačan. Menjstrim autor zaglavljen u žanru, odvajkada je bio unesrećen onim što je postigao, ili nije postigao, u spisateljskoj karijeri i do samoga kraja sebi nije uskratio tu slobodu da bude cinik.
Obrni-okreni, u pitanju je jedan od najliterarnijih pisaca SF-a u prvoj polovini 70-ih, doslovno u rangu Balarda, Elisona i Diša, a po inventivnosti i Dika, Prista i Sladeka.
No, tu i tamo, katkada bi do čovjeka doprli sunčevi zraci.
U nekom intervjuu izjavio je da mu je najžalije što je istinu o kvalitetu 14 svojih krimića o “Lone Wolf” osvetniku napisanih za godinu i po dana, i objavljenih pod pseudonimom “Mike Barry” saznao tek 40-ak godina kasnije, kad su nanovo objavljeni u kući Stark House Press. Tada je, po svemu sudeći, morao ponovo da ih pročita i aminuje tekstove, možda da ispravi grešku-dvije?...
Apropo toga, Malzberg je bio poznat po tome što je izdavaču na prelom obično slao prve draftove, iz jednostavnog razloga što nije imao vremena za finese.
Naročito pisci znaju koliko ovakva konstatacija velikoj većini njih zvuči gotovo bezumno. Prvi draft bi trebalo da bude samo uvod u ili postavka za daleko bolji tekst, zar ne? Ali ne i za Malzberga i tu vrstu “tezgaroša” iz 60-ih i 70-ih.
Elem, ono što je pročitao od svojih krimića, prilično mu se dopalo, uprkos anksioznom načinu na koji su nastajali, gotovo jedan preko drugog.
U dobu kad ih je pisao, mislio je da štancuje grozne i doslovno nečitljive stvari.
Malzberg, ukratko.
Već je na početku karijere dosegao momentum, izjavivši da je apsolutno znao šta radi narednih sedam-osam godina, počev od 1968, dok je pisao kao čovjek pozajmljen iz nekog drevnog mita.
Prethodno je htio postati Mejler – zvijezda vodilja – možda Filip Rot; htio je da dobije Nobela za fikciju (za razliku od pomenute dvojke), ali sve što je ispalo od tolike nakupljene ambicije bilo je da je prilično brzo razjasnio sebi da od planirane karijere mejnstrim pisca neće biti ništa.
Otkud Malzberg u SF-u?
Radio je u spisateljskoj agenciji “Skot Meredit” (za 90 dolara sedmično) koja je predstavljala žanrovske pisce, pa je imao uvid u ono što se prodavalo i motalo po komercijalnom tržištu. Njegov posao je bio da preporučuje tekstove za koje je mislio da posjeduju potencijal. Poređenja radi, za pripovijetku koju je prodao časopisu Fantasy and Science Fiction, “Closed Sicilian” (2600 riječi), dobio je 80 dolara.
Nekoliko godina kasnije je za 4 dana istu priču preradio u roman od 55,000 riječi, The Tactics of Conquest, i za taj napor je zaradio 4,000 dolara.
Najveći avans koji je dobio u karijeri.
Momentum, ukratko.
Između 1968. i 1975, vodeći se striktno prema kvantitetu, imao je unikatnu karijeru. Pisao je sve iz čega je mogao izmusti novac: filmske novelizacije, pornografiju, krimiće, SF…
Za tih sedam godina, napisao je 25 SF romana i oko 200 pripovijetki.
Tokom perioda 1973-74. napisao je 16 romana (većinom pomenute “Lone Wolf” krimiće, imitacije Pendltonovog akcionog fenomena sa imenom Mek “Executioner” Bolan), 30 pripovijetki i jednu poemu. Za 14 “Lone Wolf” romana je Malzbergu dato 27,500 dolara; a samo za premisu serijala na pet strana mu je plaćeno gotovo 7,000. Već tada mu je karijera bila u silaznoj putanji. Ali je prihvatao svaki izazov.
1970. godine je napisao 14 romana; 1971. 6 romana; 1972. napisao je 9 romana. Raznih žanrova, naravno. Najtačniju bibliografiju ćete naći na posljednjim stranama reprinata izdavačke luće Stark House Press, kojoj se najviše može zamjeriti što nisu utilizovali veći font, međutim, lako je zaključiti da su njihova korisna izdanja od one jeftinije fele.
Svoju omiljenu priču, “Uncoupling”, Malzberg je napisao u subotu veče 14. januara ‘73. godine, između 20:15 i 20:50, dok je čekao da mu se supruga spremi za parti.
Priča ima 4,200 riječi i napisana je za 35 minuta (u “the best of” zbirci iz 1976. broji 13 stranica). Dok su izlazili iz kuće, imao je dovoljno vremena da kovertu sa “Uncoupling” ubaci u poštansko sanduče kojih je tada bilo na svakome ćošku.
Još više neispunjeniji nego na početku karijere… 1976. je rekao zbogom SF-u, pa je, i dalje u žanrovima, počeo pisati druge stvari u saradnji sa drugim autorima (Ket Kodžom, Bilom Pronzinijem, Majkom Reznikom).
Posljednji njegov SF roman mu je ujedno i najduži, Remaking of Sigmund Freud iz 1985.
Malzberg ima i tri knjige sasvim azdovoljavajuće nebeletristike, mahom recenzija, samorefleksivnih tekstova o književnosti i stanju žanra, i kritičkih osvrta: Engines of the Night (1982), Breakfast in the Ruins (2007) i Bend at the End of the Road (2018). Želja mu je oduvijek bila da ima svoju nonfict-zbirku poput Advertisements For Myself.
Odatle su preuzeti ovi podaci.
Underlay (1974) https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Galaxies (1975) https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Herovit’s World (1973)
* Četiri koliko-toliko reprezentativna i u potpunosti distinktivna romana iz Malzbergovog opusa.
* U vezi naslova Herovit’s World na raspolaganju će biti vidno skraćena verzija recenzije Harlana Elisona, objavljena u časopisu Fantasy and Science Fiction (maj, 1974).
* Poslije kratkih recenzija i Elisonovog uvida, slijedi kratki info-dump o autoru.
Herovit’s World, iz pera Harlana Elisona:
(…) Rekavši sve to, sada bih se osvrnuo na najnoviji naslov jednog od šest-sedam najvažnijih pisaca koje je iznjedrio ovaj žanr.
Autor je Beri Malzberg, a roman je Herovitov svijet, knjiga koju sam zdušno preporučio Komitetu Udruženja američkih SF pisaca za nagradu Nebula kao najbolju knjigu u kategoriji romana objavljenog tokom 1973.
Mada je roman potpisan imenom pisca SF-a, iako se recenzira u SF časopisu i premda, doduše spolja, posjeduje neke osobenosti SF romana – to u stvari nije naučna-fantastika. Kao Bredberi, Vonegat i Danijel Kiz prije njega, Beri Malzberg mudro pokušava da odstrani najčešće komercijalno obogaljujuće riječi “sci-fi autor” sa prostora ispod svog imena. Njegovi napori u tom pravcu istovjetni su sa trudovima brojnih drugih pisaca koji su se pojavili u žanru. Kao jedan od tih, pokušaću da objasnim fanovima i čitateljima ono što na prvi pogled apsolutno zvuči kao nezahvalno ophođenje prema onoj podkategoriji fikcije što nam je dala kakvu god renomiranost da smo dosegli.
Nijedan SF pisac, bez obzira da li se radi o tezgarošu ili o onoj vrsti koga kritičari svako malo nabijaju na kolac zbog sterilnosti njegove imaginacije, nepostojanja zapleta ili stilske odbojnosti, ne može da opovrgne potrebu za budućim prepoznavanjem izvan okvira onoga gdje se dokazuje. Budućnost je ono o čemu najčešće razmišljamo. (…)
Piščevoj duši je potrebna konstantna prehrana. Na žalost, na polju SF-a, to – u najboljem slučaju – može biti osjećaj gdje jedna jalova močvarica podstiče rast velike žabe. Osim toga, postoje pisci čiji talenti očito premašuju ili su suviše veliki za naš najčešće sputavajući univerzum. Rej Bredberi je klasični primjer. Vonegat je drugi. Ted Sterdžen ima isti problem, sa Filipom Hozeom Farmerom tik za petama.
Ted je, za mene, prvoklasni tragični primjer enormnog talenta u potpunosti sputanog kategorizacijom. U slučaju da se Sterdženov rad pojavio izvan okvira zacrtanih SF tržištem, on bi danas bio ništa manje slavan nego kao Džon Kolijer ili Edgar Alan Po. Ili bogat kao Ričard Bah ili Žaklin Suzen (podrazumijeva se da u ovoj tački prestaju sve sličnosti).
Međutim, Sterdžen i Farmer su identifikovani kao “sci-fi pisci”, opet taj užasni neologizam, pa su njihovi životi i sreća dodatno postali komplikovani po pitanju nomenklature. Kurt Vonegat je, prije mnogo godina, percipirao ovu jednostavnu istinu i Kilgor Traut je Kurtovo upozorenje svima nama u žanru. Pa se Vonegat, sasvim svjesno i sistematično, odlučio da prekine svaku vezu sa getom u kome mi još uvijek prebivamo. (Dokaz: čak i Publishers Weekly, vješta i dobro informisana publikacija koja SF naslovima pošteno daje konstantno fer i odgovoran pregled, koliko još od izdanja od 27. avgusta 1973, publiku koja voli SF knjige naziva “svemirskim kicošima”.) Insistirao je da se slova “s” i “f” ne pojavljuju nigdje na njegovim knjigama, u izvještajima za štampu, u bilo kom materijalu napisanom za njega. Očito mu se trud isplatio, Vonegatovom opusu ne nanijevši nikakvu trajniju štetu.
(…) Za druge je velika čast što mogu uskliknuti, “Ja sam pisac naučne fantastike!” Za brojne druge među nama, dovoljno je da možemo reći “Ja sam pisac… koji ponekad napiše naučnu fantastiku.”
Malzberg je očigledno jedan od ovih potonjih.
Isplativši sve svoje dugove vatrenim krštenjem u SF palpu (…) napokon se suočio sa vlastitim krucijalnim željama. On želi da postane slavan, želi da bude bogat, želi da ga čita što veći broj ljudi, želi u tolikoj mjeri da bude slobodan da bi pisao o svim čudima unutar sebe. I zbog toga i u to ime naporno je radio na politici izdavanja gdje se njegovi duži naslovi nisu klasifikovali kao naučna fantastika, već jednostavno kao romani.
(…) Malzberg, odista velika žaba u najvećoj močvari, nastavlja da raste i raste u bogatstvu ideja, vrhunskoj prozi, smionim i rizičnim premisama, kao i sposobnošću da vas zaokupi pogibeljnim istinama svijeta koji vidi pred sobom (…), u romanima koji ne prestaju da lome kičmu tradicionalistima do te mjere da su sa mene strgli teško stečenu titulu AntiHrista i bržebolje je prišili Malzbergu.
(Dokaz: Malzbergovo dobijanje PRVE nagrade John W. Campbell za najbolji roman Beyond Apollo iz 1972, iznudilo je iz određene sredine tako bolne jauke i leleke, da razuman čovjek jedino može da pretpostavi da su sudije po svemu sudeći imale kolektivnu boljku žudnje za samouništenjem, te da njihov izbor nije bio samo pravičan, već i dozlaboga hrabar.)
Što me napokon dovodi do Herovitovog svijeta, ne naučnofantastičnog romana…. već samo knjige koja će škrgut zuba u našem malenom svijetu zagarantovati da odjekne i na rihterovoj skali.
Džonatan Herovit nije načinjen od jedne vrste tkanine. Radi se o amalgamu prostih metala komercijalnog SF pisanja. On je težak skoro kao četrdeset godina nedovoljno plaćenog i teškog rada, konstantnog unižavanja i posprdavanja koje obično trpe SF tezgaroši prije nego što se ponovo vrate samotnom dvanaestočasovnom dirinču za pisaćom mašinom. On je Anapurna napisanih jeftinih svemirskih romana koje zapljusnu trafike prije nego što ih, tridesetak dana kasnije, ne zamijene još jeftiniji. On je geštalt strah stotina hiljada romanopisaca koji drže da ono šta rade je u suštini i više nego trivijalno. On je skup noćnih radnih sati, polusna, iskucavanja rečenica koje većma nisu ni raščlanjene, u standardnom pokušaju da se stigne štamparev dedlajn. On je ona prožimajuća aroma frustracije i otuđenosti i kompletnog ludila. On je zbir rana nametnutih ljudima kojima izdavači i distributeri sabiraju svaku napisanu riječ, ali i maloprodavaca koji maštarê mahom sagledavaju kao tkače “proizvoda”.
On je portret, isklesan od krvi i vitriola, zagarantovan da naježi kožu svakome profesionalcu na polju SF-a. On, kao i svi mi, prokleta je duša, koja iz trenutka u trenutak postaje sve bespomoćnija i mahnitija.
I s obzirom na groznu preciznost Malzbergove inovacije, tog tragičnog stvorenja sa imenom Herovit, istina je da će njegov “proizvod” prihvatiti vrlo mali broj SF pisaca, a nekmoli se saglasiti sa njim. U svakom slučaju, radi se o portretu koji će fanove koji idolizuju pisce navesti da ga pošto-poto prokunu i onda pokušaju da ga suzbiju.
Međutim, neće biti u prilici da to oposle. Jer Herovit nikada nije bio življi!
On je SF tezgaroš od 37 godina, oženjen Dženis koja ga povremeno pojebe – najvećma samo zato što ga prezire – a ujedno je i otac male Natali koju zauzvrat on prezire. Autor je 92 palp pejperbeka o avanturama Meka Milerovog Istraživačko-nadzornog svemirskog tima pod pseudonimom Kirk Poland. Karijeru je jamačno počeo daleko ranije, pišući svemirske avanture za urednika Džona Stila, vladajućeg monarha časopisa Goropadne priče. Herovit jeste jalov pisac.
Isto tako, on ne protivriječi nikome i ne ulazi u konfrontacije, ali zato konzistentno kuka i jadikuje, ujedno je folirant je i švaler – navodim njegove najpozitivnije kvalitete. Herovit stanuje u Njujorku i sama ta pojedinost enormno pojašnjava čovjekov sunovrat u ludilo. Svakodnevno je pod presijom vlastite profesije, ali i zbog i rudimentarnog nedostatka karaktera svoje fiktivne kreacije. To ga apsolutno polako ubija, kao i sve očigledniji nesklad u komunikaciji sa suprugom, djetetom i prijateljima. Nad svim tim naročito stoji mazohistička introspekcija, zapravo laži kojima kljuka sebe i, iznad svega toga bdi sami Grad, koji njegovu dušu čini sve sivljom, paranoidnijom i beznadežnijom.
(…)
Herovit postaje višestruka ličnost. Ne podijeljena, već višestruka. Prva naprslina postaje evidentna čim njegov pseudonim, Kirk Poland, počne da se se materijalizuje pred njim, zahtijevajući da on, Herovit, skrajne sebe sa strane i dopusti da on, Poland, počne da upravlja njegovim, Herovitovim, životom.
Dabome da se Džonatan u početku odupire tom zahtjevu, ali ne zadugo i ne odve uspješno. Na kraju se digne obje ruke i dozvoli da Kirk Poland preuzme njegovu davljeničku egzistenciju, dok pritom ta druga ličnost ne radi ništa bolje nego on. Ali ovaj zato misli da Kirku ide daleko bolje nego njemu. A u stvari, sve što Poland radi jeste da krizira svoga vlasnika na daleko glasniji i arogantniji način nego što je to ovaj sebi radio prije njega.
Na toj kritičnoj tački, naprslina se širi u ambis kad Mek Miler dođe na bojište s namjerom da Herovitov život istrgne iz pandži Kirka Polanda. Te do kraja knjige ambis postaje psihijatrijski Marijanin rov dok se Herovit, Poland i supersposobni hajlajnovski “kompetentni muškarac” iz spejs opera 1940-ih, Mek Miler, napokon ne sintetizuju, stope jedan sa drugim i amalgamišu u finalnoj manijakalnoj sceni koja u sebi nosi crtice marksovskog humora (Gručovog, a ne Karlovog) i simplističnu narativnu egzekuciju, u smislu ozbiljnog upozorenja svima nama što dirinčimo u vinogradima komercijalnog pisanja.
(…) Za moje poimanje stvari – a očigledno i Malzbergovo – literatura (a u to, jasno, spada i SF) trebala bi da se poistovjećuje sa onim što je Fokner imenovao “…problemima ljudskog srca u konfliktu sa samim sobom, što samo po sebi čini dobro pisanje zato jer samo o tome i vrijedi pisati, a što je ujedno vrijedno naše agonije i znoja.”
(…) Hrabro se ostrvivši na do sada nekodifikovanu šaradu, mučenički rad i generalnu plitkoću našeg polja… njegovih loših pisaca… njegovih potkupljivih izdavača… njegovih vampirskih fanova... njegovih beskonačnih ćorsokaka... Malzberg je poklonio neizmjeran dar ovom žanru i svakome ko je povezan sa njim. Svakako nas je poveo korak dalje od sjenke geta, te sve dok gacamo kroz sjedinjeno cičanje gurua i fanova koji u onome što je Malzberg uradio (kao i u generalnoj prihvaćenosti SF-a od strane šireg književnog svijeta), vide otimanje omiljene svoje igračke iz sopstvenih ruku, to je bez sumnje korak prema zrelosti koji smo kad-tad morali napraviti. (…)
******
MALZB (trolopijanski mini-esej)
MALZBERG, BARRY N(ATHANIEL) [1939-2024], američki pisac, vjerovatno najliterarnija i apsolutno najkontroverznija ličnost u SF žanru tokom 1970-ih. Mejnstrim pisac koji je doslovno zalutao u žanr, gdje je našao da je taj milje daleko lukrativniji i dostupniji.
–The New Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (1988), ed. James Gunn
Za one koji očekuju eskapizam urolan u oblandu hard SF fazona, Malzberg će garantovano biti neprohodan; nepristupačan. Menjstrim autor zaglavljen u žanru, odvajkada je bio unesrećen onim što je postigao, ili nije postigao, u spisateljskoj karijeri i do samoga kraja sebi nije uskratio tu slobodu da bude cinik.
Obrni-okreni, u pitanju je jedan od najliterarnijih pisaca SF-a u prvoj polovini 70-ih, doslovno u rangu Balarda, Elisona i Diša, a po inventivnosti i Dika, Prista i Sladeka.
No, tu i tamo, katkada bi do čovjeka doprli sunčevi zraci.
U nekom intervjuu izjavio je da mu je najžalije što je istinu o kvalitetu 14 svojih krimića o “Lone Wolf” osvetniku napisanih za godinu i po dana, i objavljenih pod pseudonimom “Mike Barry” saznao tek 40-ak godina kasnije, kad su nanovo objavljeni u kući Stark House Press. Tada je, po svemu sudeći, morao ponovo da ih pročita i aminuje tekstove, možda da ispravi grešku-dvije?...
Apropo toga, Malzberg je bio poznat po tome što je izdavaču na prelom obično slao prve draftove, iz jednostavnog razloga što nije imao vremena za finese.
Naročito pisci znaju koliko ovakva konstatacija velikoj većini njih zvuči gotovo bezumno. Prvi draft bi trebalo da bude samo uvod u ili postavka za daleko bolji tekst, zar ne? Ali ne i za Malzberga i tu vrstu “tezgaroša” iz 60-ih i 70-ih.
Elem, ono što je pročitao od svojih krimića, prilično mu se dopalo, uprkos anksioznom načinu na koji su nastajali, gotovo jedan preko drugog.
U dobu kad ih je pisao, mislio je da štancuje grozne i doslovno nečitljive stvari.
Malzberg, ukratko.
Već je na početku karijere dosegao momentum, izjavivši da je apsolutno znao šta radi narednih sedam-osam godina, počev od 1968, dok je pisao kao čovjek pozajmljen iz nekog drevnog mita.
Prethodno je htio postati Mejler – zvijezda vodilja – možda Filip Rot; htio je da dobije Nobela za fikciju (za razliku od pomenute dvojke), ali sve što je ispalo od tolike nakupljene ambicije bilo je da je prilično brzo razjasnio sebi da od planirane karijere mejnstrim pisca neće biti ništa.
Otkud Malzberg u SF-u?
Radio je u spisateljskoj agenciji “Skot Meredit” (za 90 dolara sedmično) koja je predstavljala žanrovske pisce, pa je imao uvid u ono što se prodavalo i motalo po komercijalnom tržištu. Njegov posao je bio da preporučuje tekstove za koje je mislio da posjeduju potencijal. Poređenja radi, za pripovijetku koju je prodao časopisu Fantasy and Science Fiction, “Closed Sicilian” (2600 riječi), dobio je 80 dolara.
Nekoliko godina kasnije je za 4 dana istu priču preradio u roman od 55,000 riječi, The Tactics of Conquest, i za taj napor je zaradio 4,000 dolara.
Najveći avans koji je dobio u karijeri.
Momentum, ukratko.
Između 1968. i 1975, vodeći se striktno prema kvantitetu, imao je unikatnu karijeru. Pisao je sve iz čega je mogao izmusti novac: filmske novelizacije, pornografiju, krimiće, SF…
Za tih sedam godina, napisao je 25 SF romana i oko 200 pripovijetki.
Tokom perioda 1973-74. napisao je 16 romana (većinom pomenute “Lone Wolf” krimiće, imitacije Pendltonovog akcionog fenomena sa imenom Mek “Executioner” Bolan), 30 pripovijetki i jednu poemu. Za 14 “Lone Wolf” romana je Malzbergu dato 27,500 dolara; a samo za premisu serijala na pet strana mu je plaćeno gotovo 7,000. Već tada mu je karijera bila u silaznoj putanji. Ali je prihvatao svaki izazov.
1970. godine je napisao 14 romana; 1971. 6 romana; 1972. napisao je 9 romana. Raznih žanrova, naravno. Najtačniju bibliografiju ćete naći na posljednjim stranama reprinata izdavačke luće Stark House Press, kojoj se najviše može zamjeriti što nisu utilizovali veći font, međutim, lako je zaključiti da su njihova korisna izdanja od one jeftinije fele.
Svoju omiljenu priču, “Uncoupling”, Malzberg je napisao u subotu veče 14. januara ‘73. godine, između 20:15 i 20:50, dok je čekao da mu se supruga spremi za parti.
Priča ima 4,200 riječi i napisana je za 35 minuta (u “the best of” zbirci iz 1976. broji 13 stranica). Dok su izlazili iz kuće, imao je dovoljno vremena da kovertu sa “Uncoupling” ubaci u poštansko sanduče kojih je tada bilo na svakome ćošku.
Još više neispunjeniji nego na početku karijere… 1976. je rekao zbogom SF-u, pa je, i dalje u žanrovima, počeo pisati druge stvari u saradnji sa drugim autorima (Ket Kodžom, Bilom Pronzinijem, Majkom Reznikom).
Posljednji njegov SF roman mu je ujedno i najduži, Remaking of Sigmund Freud iz 1985.
Malzberg ima i tri knjige sasvim azdovoljavajuće nebeletristike, mahom recenzija, samorefleksivnih tekstova o književnosti i stanju žanra, i kritičkih osvrta: Engines of the Night (1982), Breakfast in the Ruins (2007) i Bend at the End of the Road (2018). Želja mu je oduvijek bila da ima svoju nonfict-zbirku poput Advertisements For Myself.
Odatle su preuzeti ovi podaci.
August 11, 2021
Science fiction readers know the greats of the “Golden Age” of science fiction- Asimov, Bradbury, Heinlein, Clarke, and so on. Not many modern readers remember the marginal figures who toiled away on stories for the pulp magazines and mass market paperback publishers, churning out potboilers to make ends meet. Barry Malzberg’s character Jonathan Herovit is a synecdoche of these lesser known, often frustrated, genre writers.
As a young man, Herovit started writing science fiction under the pen name Kirk Poland. He mimicked the authors he’d read as a youth, and found that he could make enough quick money to live a modest lifestyle. His plan was to get a foot in the door, and then start writing Serious Literary Novels. That plan failed miserably. Ninety-two pulp sci-fi novels later, Herovit is a bitter middle-aged alcoholic in a failing marriage. Every day he sits down in his filthy office and types and drinks until he passes out. He’s thoroughly unpleasant, writes bad books and is surrounded by unpleasant people.
When his friend Wilk (another disreputable minor science fiction author) appears and offers him a guest lecturer gig at a college science fiction seminar, Herovit is paralyzed by indecision. He’s floundering as a writer, but can’t pull himself together enough to move on to something else. Then he starts hallucinating that his pseudonym Kirk Poland is real, and following him around. Kirk wants to take over Herovit’s life and change everything for the better. Eventually Herovit concedes, and the Kirk Poland personality takes over. However, Kirk isn’t really any better than Herovit, he’s just terrible in different ways. Instead of insecure and hesitant, Kirk is arrogant, overconfident and abrasive. The new personality makes no improvements to Herovit’s life. The downward spiral into total psychosis continues and accelerates to its inevitable conclusion.
On one hand Malzberg is writing about the precariousness and difficulty of life as a freelance genre writer in the sixties and seventies, and the way that uncertainty can undermine a creative person and grind them down. One the other hand, the novel is an indictment of the society and the science fiction sub-culture. Herovit is exploited and pressured to succeed, while isolated and given no support for his mental health. He’s sexist and abusive, but a victim as well. Ultimately he’s just another disposable commodity, like books he writes.
As a young man, Herovit started writing science fiction under the pen name Kirk Poland. He mimicked the authors he’d read as a youth, and found that he could make enough quick money to live a modest lifestyle. His plan was to get a foot in the door, and then start writing Serious Literary Novels. That plan failed miserably. Ninety-two pulp sci-fi novels later, Herovit is a bitter middle-aged alcoholic in a failing marriage. Every day he sits down in his filthy office and types and drinks until he passes out. He’s thoroughly unpleasant, writes bad books and is surrounded by unpleasant people.
When his friend Wilk (another disreputable minor science fiction author) appears and offers him a guest lecturer gig at a college science fiction seminar, Herovit is paralyzed by indecision. He’s floundering as a writer, but can’t pull himself together enough to move on to something else. Then he starts hallucinating that his pseudonym Kirk Poland is real, and following him around. Kirk wants to take over Herovit’s life and change everything for the better. Eventually Herovit concedes, and the Kirk Poland personality takes over. However, Kirk isn’t really any better than Herovit, he’s just terrible in different ways. Instead of insecure and hesitant, Kirk is arrogant, overconfident and abrasive. The new personality makes no improvements to Herovit’s life. The downward spiral into total psychosis continues and accelerates to its inevitable conclusion.
On one hand Malzberg is writing about the precariousness and difficulty of life as a freelance genre writer in the sixties and seventies, and the way that uncertainty can undermine a creative person and grind them down. One the other hand, the novel is an indictment of the society and the science fiction sub-culture. Herovit is exploited and pressured to succeed, while isolated and given no support for his mental health. He’s sexist and abusive, but a victim as well. Ultimately he’s just another disposable commodity, like books he writes.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 23, 2024
When I found a nearly 50 year old copy of this book in a secondhand book store I was excited. I've got the 1976 Arrow Books UK edition with a classic 70s spaceship cover. The malevelont face in the montage background on the cover and the plot blurb on the back made me think: "is this a lost SF metafiction classic, a precursor to the great works of Moore & Morrison in comics later on?"
Alas no. It is finely written. Malzberg writes with an instinctive rhythm and the book moves forward at all times, it never tarrys or tries to show off. But the gender politics are in-yer-face. There are traces of evidence that Malzberg is being ironic and critical but the overriding tone of nihilistic cynicism makes this feel like a message from the worst parts of the male id. A confession and primal scream of mid-life frustration. It's amusing to think of an early teenage boy picking up this book in the mid-late 1970s attracted by the spacehip cover.
All this said, I am still keen to read another Malzberg novel. His writing skill is hard to deny.
Alas no. It is finely written. Malzberg writes with an instinctive rhythm and the book moves forward at all times, it never tarrys or tries to show off. But the gender politics are in-yer-face. There are traces of evidence that Malzberg is being ironic and critical but the overriding tone of nihilistic cynicism makes this feel like a message from the worst parts of the male id. A confession and primal scream of mid-life frustration. It's amusing to think of an early teenage boy picking up this book in the mid-late 1970s attracted by the spacehip cover.
All this said, I am still keen to read another Malzberg novel. His writing skill is hard to deny.
January 14, 2025
I had this sitting on my shelf, and recently picked it up after hearing of Barry Malzberg’s passing. In honor of a great, and probably widely misunderstood writer, I cracked this 159 page wickedly vicious book open.
The writing talent of Malzberg here was very evident from the jump. The ideas are novel and the vehicle by which the way the story is told is engrossing… but wow, this was a gnarly read. Reader be warned, this book is pretty graphic. If you can stomach the scenes that make an average person squeamish, you’ll hopefully be able to take from this book a lot of the deeper themes and thoughts Malzberg was exploring here.
I do hope that none of the main characters choices made in this book were veiled self-introspections based on things Malzberg did or thought about doing in his personal life.
All in all, very glad I read this. It was a challenge, but a very worthy challenge. I think it’ll be most rewarding to avid readers of vintage science fiction as they’ll understood the context and the dynamics of the plot, literary environment, and meta commentary going on here.
The writing talent of Malzberg here was very evident from the jump. The ideas are novel and the vehicle by which the way the story is told is engrossing… but wow, this was a gnarly read. Reader be warned, this book is pretty graphic. If you can stomach the scenes that make an average person squeamish, you’ll hopefully be able to take from this book a lot of the deeper themes and thoughts Malzberg was exploring here.
I do hope that none of the main characters choices made in this book were veiled self-introspections based on things Malzberg did or thought about doing in his personal life.
All in all, very glad I read this. It was a challenge, but a very worthy challenge. I think it’ll be most rewarding to avid readers of vintage science fiction as they’ll understood the context and the dynamics of the plot, literary environment, and meta commentary going on here.
April 12, 2020
Full review: https://sciencefictionruminations.com...
"Upon reading In the Enclosure (1973) I was immediately seduced by Barry N. Malzberg’s metafictional brand of science fiction — best illustrated by his masterpieces Beyond Apollo (1972) and Revelations (1972). Although Herovit’s World (1973) contains many of the same metafictional trademarks of Malzberg’s best work, it should be noted that the novel is not science fiction and more a work about writing (pulp) science fiction. In this case, the mental collapse of a pulp writer whose life may or may not contain “true” autobiographical kernels from Malzberg’s own experience in the field…
Woven into the classic Malzberg narrative framework that features in most of his works — tormented [...]"
"Upon reading In the Enclosure (1973) I was immediately seduced by Barry N. Malzberg’s metafictional brand of science fiction — best illustrated by his masterpieces Beyond Apollo (1972) and Revelations (1972). Although Herovit’s World (1973) contains many of the same metafictional trademarks of Malzberg’s best work, it should be noted that the novel is not science fiction and more a work about writing (pulp) science fiction. In this case, the mental collapse of a pulp writer whose life may or may not contain “true” autobiographical kernels from Malzberg’s own experience in the field…
Woven into the classic Malzberg narrative framework that features in most of his works — tormented [...]"
January 14, 2025
Bumping this up to 5 as I have been thinking about this an awful lot since I read it and I'm kind of in awe at the balls it must have taken to write something like this in the 70's. The portrait it paints of the life of the jobbing SF writer (John Herovit, aka Kirk Poland, author of over 100 novels of second rate hack work, most notably the Surveymen novels starring Mack Miller) is pretty bleak and unflinching. This wasn't a huge surprise based on the impression of Malzberg I'd gleaned from other readers and a few interviews with the man, but I was still shocked at how few punches he pulls in the execution. Herovit is not the misunderstood genius confined to the science fiction market against his will, but a vindictive bully whose intense victim complex prevents him from ever taking responsibility for his situation and those around him. I have read that Malzberg received a fair amount of opprobrium from some contemporaries following the release Beyond Apollo a few years earlier, but writing an entire novel on the (entirely reasonable) premise that most sf writers are nasty losers must have been equally shocking to the true believers in the Great Project of science fiction. Anyway, whilst this book certainly has plenty to say about identity, legacy and the business of science fiction publishing in the 70's, but it more than holds its own as a critique of modernity and the broken people produced by it. A great read!
June 13, 2025
A prolific hack pulp writer lets his pseudonym take the wheel—Malzberg was clearly working some stuff out.
November 4, 2025
A tedious reading experience. Lacerating satire.
December 30, 2010
pulpaweek.blogspot.com
Jonathan Herovit is a lecherous, scotch-soaked author of over 90 pulpy science-fiction novels written under the pseudonym of Kirk Poland. As Herovit's World kicks off, our protagonist is at the yearly cocktail party for the New League For Science-Fiction Professionals.
As usual, Herovit desperately tries (and finally succeeds) to lay one of the young female SF enthusiasts in attendance as a distraction from his home life, which is spiraling out of his control. Faced with his wife Janice’s post-partum depression, his own burgeoning alcohol problem, and an overdue novel that he has no desire to write, Herovit begins to hallucinate that his pseudonym is speaking to him and wants to take over his life.
As the pressure builds—his wife makes overtures at leaving him, constant threatening calls from his agent, plus a period of impotence— Herovit’s conversations with Kirk Poland (and even some of the characters from his many novels) become more and more vivid and conversative.
This is a very nervous novel, which plays to author Barry Malzberg's strengths, and, naturally, entire chapters are dedicated to awkward and unfulfilling sexual activity because old Barry is a pervert of the first degree.
Roughly halfway through the novel (right next to the full color Kent Cigarettes ad!), pseudonym Kirk Poland offers to completely take over his life and “clean up the mess” that Herovit has created. After a dark period of drunken introspection and intense anxiety, Herovit finally succumbs to the pressure, relinquishing his life to his alter-ego.
Kirk Poland has trouble adjusting to his new reality after so many years of insubstantiality, but the new man is not without an agenda. First, he burns the manuscript that has been festering on Herovit's typewriter in order to start fresh with some new material.
Secondly, Poland intends to give Herovit's wife Janice “a good fuck” to set her straight, but since he is technically a virgin he finds it prudent to practice on a prostitute, which leads to my favorite passage from this dirty little novel:
“He pours virtually yards and yards of seed into the prostitute, feeling them uncoil within, whole ropes of sperm flung from the ship of self (he must save that phrase for use someday), and he uses these ropes to clamber toward some sense of self-discovery.” (106)
Unfortunately for Poland, Janice is already on her way out the door when he gets home from his tryst, hoping to dump the baby and bills on him. Kirk bemoans that he “came into the sequence too late” and drinks himself into a stupor. When he awakens, thoroughly defeated, ready to renounce his newfound reality, he is greeted by Mack, the hard-nosed alien hater and protagonist of his Survey Team series. Mack gladly enters the shell that was once Herovit to set things right by murdering all those damn aliens that fouled it up for him in the first place.
Herovit's World really wasn't all that terrible. The nervous energy Malzberg creates is almost palpable in its intensity, and Jonathan Herovit reminded me of many of the loathsome characters you can find in any Irvine Welsh novel. I would definitely recommend this over the god-awful Sodom and Gomorrah Business if you really wanted to pick up a trashy Malzberg novel.
Jonathan Herovit is a lecherous, scotch-soaked author of over 90 pulpy science-fiction novels written under the pseudonym of Kirk Poland. As Herovit's World kicks off, our protagonist is at the yearly cocktail party for the New League For Science-Fiction Professionals.
As usual, Herovit desperately tries (and finally succeeds) to lay one of the young female SF enthusiasts in attendance as a distraction from his home life, which is spiraling out of his control. Faced with his wife Janice’s post-partum depression, his own burgeoning alcohol problem, and an overdue novel that he has no desire to write, Herovit begins to hallucinate that his pseudonym is speaking to him and wants to take over his life.
As the pressure builds—his wife makes overtures at leaving him, constant threatening calls from his agent, plus a period of impotence— Herovit’s conversations with Kirk Poland (and even some of the characters from his many novels) become more and more vivid and conversative.
This is a very nervous novel, which plays to author Barry Malzberg's strengths, and, naturally, entire chapters are dedicated to awkward and unfulfilling sexual activity because old Barry is a pervert of the first degree.
Roughly halfway through the novel (right next to the full color Kent Cigarettes ad!), pseudonym Kirk Poland offers to completely take over his life and “clean up the mess” that Herovit has created. After a dark period of drunken introspection and intense anxiety, Herovit finally succumbs to the pressure, relinquishing his life to his alter-ego.
Kirk Poland has trouble adjusting to his new reality after so many years of insubstantiality, but the new man is not without an agenda. First, he burns the manuscript that has been festering on Herovit's typewriter in order to start fresh with some new material.
Secondly, Poland intends to give Herovit's wife Janice “a good fuck” to set her straight, but since he is technically a virgin he finds it prudent to practice on a prostitute, which leads to my favorite passage from this dirty little novel:
“He pours virtually yards and yards of seed into the prostitute, feeling them uncoil within, whole ropes of sperm flung from the ship of self (he must save that phrase for use someday), and he uses these ropes to clamber toward some sense of self-discovery.” (106)
Unfortunately for Poland, Janice is already on her way out the door when he gets home from his tryst, hoping to dump the baby and bills on him. Kirk bemoans that he “came into the sequence too late” and drinks himself into a stupor. When he awakens, thoroughly defeated, ready to renounce his newfound reality, he is greeted by Mack, the hard-nosed alien hater and protagonist of his Survey Team series. Mack gladly enters the shell that was once Herovit to set things right by murdering all those damn aliens that fouled it up for him in the first place.
Herovit's World really wasn't all that terrible. The nervous energy Malzberg creates is almost palpable in its intensity, and Jonathan Herovit reminded me of many of the loathsome characters you can find in any Irvine Welsh novel. I would definitely recommend this over the god-awful Sodom and Gomorrah Business if you really wanted to pick up a trashy Malzberg novel.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 20, 2011
This book is miserable. The protagonist is a hack writer suffering a mental breakdown, watching his marriage disintegrate as his sense of self does likewise. But, although it's miserable, it's also good, and I think it's worthwhile reading for anyone interested in the SF field, especially as it stood in the middle decades of the 20th century.
April 7, 2013
Awful, I read it quickly through the end before I hate to leave things half-way but I really hated it >< I don't understand if it was because of the translation (horrible and full of mistakes) or the book itself, the story was pointless, the psychologic introspection was close to zero...A waste of time.
August 9, 2015
A neurotic, failing SF writer is taken over by his writer alter-ego. No real science fiction at all, just an interminable literary novel where everyone is hellish to each other, and tawdry to boot. Probably a thinly-veiled reference to events in Malzberg's life, but you can safely ignore this novel as a result of the worst excesses of New Wave SF.
June 23, 2020
Lucky 13.
A bit of lighter relief was needed, so I went back to this book, this author who has been a favourite for a long time.
Herovit's World is shrinking apocalyptically - a paperback writer's life coming apart over a weekend.
A bit of lighter relief was needed, so I went back to this book, this author who has been a favourite for a long time.
Herovit's World is shrinking apocalyptically - a paperback writer's life coming apart over a weekend.
Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews