John C. Wright ([info]johncwright) wrote,
@ 2007-08-03 14:30:00
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Calling Doctor Smith! Your negasphere is ready
An article about Doc EE Smith which puts him in the proper historical context:
http://jordan179.livejournal.com/30340.html
Please read.

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Doc Smith Rules!
[info]gray_roger
2007-08-03 06:46 pm UTC (link)
Bravo! Bravissimo!

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[info]baduin
2007-08-04 04:26 pm UTC (link)
Smith was one of the few Western writers who could understand the method of operations used by Russia.

It is of course greatly simplified, but the dual system of Boskone/Zwilnik is very good description of the military and propaganda war by Red Army/KGB. Note especially numerous front operations, with lower level agents not knowing who is their real commander. This method, with multiple cut-outs, false flag operations etc, is signature of KGB.

Read eg about Willi Münzenberg.

http://newcriterion.com:81/archive/12/nov93/koch.htm
http://www.cashill.com/intellect_fraud/understanding_sacco.htm

Of Smith works, First Lensman is, I think, most valuable in that regard. In Subspace series the whole episode with the Nameless leader of Russia and his influence in the USA is also very good.

I sometimes think it would be interesting to make a list of books for an Americans to read - so that they could understand something of the way the world beyond their borders works. Another suggestion would be "Children of Hurin" and Telnarian series by John Norman - it shows something about the mentality of partisan leaders, tribal warfare etc.

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[info]jordan179
2007-08-04 06:19 pm UTC (link)
Smith was one of the few Western writers who could understand the method of operations used by Russia.

It is of course greatly simplified, but the dual system of Boskone/Zwilnik is very good description of the military and propaganda war by Red Army/KGB. Note especially numerous front operations, with lower level agents not knowing who is their real commander. This method, with multiple cut-outs, false flag operations etc, is signature of KGB.

I find it rather ironic that some people criticize Smith claiming that he had a "naive" attitude towards spycraft, when his books in fact describe in detail how a gigantic multi-layered cellular subversive organization can be run, and how can be taken apart by sufficiently talented investigators (*)

Of Smith works, First Lensman is, I think, most valuable in that regard.

*nods*

And it shows infiltration of almost every possible variety, from corruption through drug dealing to high-level political moles to raids by whole battle fleets. "Doc" Smith had tremendous understanding of how real spy - counterspy and police - organized criminal organizations work, to the point that I sometimes wonder if he had inside contacts, since much of what he talked about was information not easy to find in his day.

===
(*) Real-world counterintelligence organizations, lacking Lenses, would use intensive surveillance to achieve similar effects.

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[info]baduin
2007-08-04 06:39 pm UTC (link)
As for taking apart cellular subversive organizations - since Russian subversive operations continue unchecked to this day, this part must be thought of as pure SF.

Of the Russian operations, infiltrating Nosenko into CIA was my favourite, btw.

As for the the multiple layers in operations, the attempt to assassinate John Paul II was very instructive. The assassin was a single Turkish nationalist, under Bulgarian control. Bulgarians were under East Germans, with Polish secret services cooperating. And here the trail ends, but I think it wouldn't be so difficult to form conjectures about the higher levels.

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[info]jordan179
2007-08-06 03:02 pm UTC (link)
As for taking apart cellular subversive organizations - since Russian subversive operations continue unchecked to this day, this part must be thought of as pure SF.

Russian (and other national) subversive operations continue today, but hardly "unchecked" -- many such organizations have been uncovered and dismantled. The problem is, of course, that as long as the sponsor remains a Power, said sponsor can construct new ones. Cryptography substituted for telepathy here.

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[info]baduin
2007-08-06 08:24 pm UTC (link)
You are thinking about Russian espionage operations. Those are periodically dismantled - or, at least, some agents get caught, without seriously damaging the operation as a whole.

As for the subversive operations: google Sacco and Vanzetti, or Kojeve, or Zygmunt Bauman, or Frankfurt School. They are going on happily, mostly under their own steam, without any direct control; the reason they are not noticed is that they are now the orthodoxy; anyone who tries to seriously oppose them eg in university shouldn't count on a lucrative career.

http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/SaccoV/SaccoV.htm
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067698/
http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/history/A0842879.html
http://www.albany.edu/jmmh/vol2no1/saccovanzetti.html
http://www.amazon.com/Sacco-Vanzetti-Must-Mark-Binelli/dp/1564784452

And this is an old, irrelevant and discredited affair.

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[info]jordan179
2007-08-06 09:31 pm UTC (link)
The stinger injected its poison and the tissue damage is slow-healing. Note that

http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/history/A0842879.html

which you cited got it mostly right (Sacco the triggerman, Vanzetti possibly innocent), though it swallows the lie that they were arrested merely because they "looked Italian" and were anarchists (the evidence was a lot more solid than that), and it ignores their general history of violence (including Vanzetti's participation in another armed robbery in which people were hurt).

Oh yeah, you want to really upset a left-winger? Inform them about what the Venona Project proved regarding Alger and Priscilla Hiss :)

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Heinlein on Smith
[info]gray_roger
2007-08-06 04:06 pm UTC (link)
Jordan's review reminded me of an article Robert Heinlein wrote after Smith's death, called LARGER THAN LIFE (in EXPANDED UNIVERSE, perhaps the only collection of actual Heinlein opinions). He admired Smith extremely, both as an author and as a man. His only critique was that Smith could not write a good "love scene".
What you would really be interested in, however, is an article called THE HAPPY DAYS AHEAD. A largely correct summary of our current sad national situation, and a surprising condemnation of contemporary sexual mores. Was STRANGER simply an attempt at cashing in on the 60's? If so, he succeeded beyond his wildest expectations.

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