HW Time of the Hawklords

[Andy Gilham]

> Does that mean they "got" Michael Butterworth?  Or merely that
> he's just as
> bad a writer as LRH?

Well, yes he is, but what it means is that LRH used a lot of familiar sf
tropes in his religion - one reason most of his early converts came from sf
"fandom".  The "superman" we can all become through Dianetics is a favourite
sf device, and indeed much of his early fiction revolves around a superman
fantasy.

There's an interesting section on all this is Thomas M Disch's _The Dreams
Our Stuff is Made Of: How Science Fiction Conquered the World_, which as it
happens I just finished reading.  Strongly recommended to anyone interested
in the history and development of sf, especially vis-a-vis popular culture
(and especially recommended for Robert Heinlein fans :).

Stephen King writes highly of LRH's _Fear_, fwiw.

- Andy

ObCD: The Deviants - _Human Garbage_

mailto:Andy.Gilham at btinternet.com; http://www.btinternet.com/~andy.gilham