Subcultural engagement for the 21st Century...
Barbelith is a new kind of community (find out more)...
You can login or register.

Underground > Books, Criticism & Writing >

Who is Cordwainer Smith?

BioDynamo

21:03 / 11.06.02

A pseudonym, I remember that..

Of some guy(?) who knew chinese and wrote SF. I just remember one really amazing short story that I must have read about 10 years ago about these aliens that sent all of humanity into a feeding frenzy. I thought it was the best ever, and then saw the name "Cordwainer" in the Harlan Ellison thread and it all came back to me. So was/is SHe any good? What should I read?

Irony of Ironies

21:33 / 11.06.02

Bizarrely:

Here

A cordwainer, incidentally, I'm reliably informed is an old name for a shoe maker.

Cordwainer Bird was a different pseudonym, used by both Harlan Ellison and (I think) Philip Jose Farmer.

Spatula Clarke

10:51 / 12.06.02

I keep meaning to read some of Smith's work, but the whole Instrumentality thing has, so far, turned me off (as do most series set in ongoing universes).

betty woo

14:09 / 12.06.02

Yep, Cordwainer Bird was used by Philip Hose Farmer for the short story "The Impotency of Bad Karma", after he got permission to use it from Ellison.

Cordwainer Smith is the psuedonym for Dr. Paul M.A. Linebarger. I haven't read his stuff myself, but I understand he's got a sort of mythic Christianity thing going.

Ria

17:24 / 12.06.02

I would definitely reccomend him to anybody who likes sf. even/especially as snobby a reader as me. ignore the art on the NESFA Press' otherwise-definitive editions...

Less searchable M0rd4nt

09:55 / 13.06.02

Oh, hell, you HAVE to read Corwainer Smith! He's incredible. I've never read anything quite like his work.

Add Your Reply