Void2258

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Robert Silverberg's "regrets"

You recently added a passage stating that Robert Silverberg "regretted committing to paper almost all of his writing from this time frame" [his early magazine days], referencing the preface to The Masks of Time. However, in a comment to a review which relied on this passage, Mr. Silverberg has said that it is not an accurate description of his views. Can you provide a quote which directly backs the statement which you made - or perhaps a scan of the preface? GreenReaper (talk) 20:56, 12 December 2011 (UTC)

Reply from Void2258:

I am not going to sit here and retype the entire introduction, but here are some relevant portions (emphasis added). I trust that the below transcription will address your issue.

I also take offense at your assertion (in that discussion) that "Their user talk page suggests a history of dubious additions." I will admit to a few issues when I started out, but 6 comments is not 'a history', and I have since done my best to amend my ways.

From THE MASKS OF TIME: INTRODUCTION

"It was the late winter of 1967 and I was preoccupied with a need to prove to the science fiction community that I was a reformed character. Back in the 1950’s, at the outset of my career, I had allowed some early discouragements in the marketplace to turn me into a purveyor of mass-produced claptrap; I had written (and sold) untold reams of stuff with titles like “Guardians of the Crystal Gate” and “Thunder over Starhaven,” unreconstructed zap-zap pulp adventure fiction. This phase lasted roughly from 1955 to 1958, after which I repented of my literary sins and resolved to write no more formula sf; but I wrote enough in those few years to tarnish my escutcheon for eons to come. When I returned to science fiction in the mid-1960’s, it was with considerably less cynicism and higher ideals, but I faced the severe problem of overcoming my earlier reputation and getting readers (and editors) to take me seriously..."

"...I still chafed under the need to make people see that I was a different sort of writer, and a different sort of human being, from the boy of 22 or 23 who had committed “Pirates of the Void” and its myriad companions..."

"...designed to show that its author, past evidence to the contrary, really was a reasonably cultured man whose private tastes were somewhat more elevated than could be determined from examination of what he once had written..."

"...By the time Ballantine issued Masks of Time in the spring of 1968 I no longer had to feel motivated by any need to atone for ancient literary sins, and could produce my books with care only for themselves in themselves, not as warriors in some battle I was waging against my own past..."

"...People who know only the last decade of my work find it hard to believe that I am the very same writer who committed “The Overlord of Colony Eight” and all that other early junk. He is not only nearly forgotten but almost mythical these days, except to me. Except to me..."

—Robert Silverberg Oakland, California November 1977

Void2258 (talk) 20:24, 12 December 2011 (EST)

Thank you for taking the time to provide these excerpts. I can see where you are coming from with the repeated use of words such as "sins", "committed" and "repented". However, if the word "regret" is not explicitly used by the source, it is inappropriate to include it, especially without specifying the time at which the feeling was expressed. A lot can change in 34 years, and perhaps it has in this case. Personally I would like to see a contrast between what was said then and more recently in Other Spaces, Other Times: A Life Spent in the Future, as it does provide relevant background on the subject's motivations during the decade following 1958. However, other editors have suggested such a comparison should be done by a third-party reliable source, not Wikipedians - otherwise it falls under original research. GreenReaper (talk) 12:06, 13 December 2011 (UTC)

Sources needed

You've been adding a lot of information to articles without including reliable sources. This is especially important when adding a claim that efforts to include Stephanie Brown have been repeatedly blocked. However true that may be, no one has managed yet to add a source to confirm that, only sources that include a great deal of speculation. Doczilla _{@SUPERHEROLOGIST} 05:56, 7 April 2013 (UTC)

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