PLATT, Charles (Michael)

(1945-)

   UK-born writer and editor, in the USA from 1970, who began publishing sf with "One of Those Days" for Science Fantasy in 1964 and soon became associated with NEW WORLDS during the period when, under Michael MOORCOCK's editorship, it was seen as the pre-eminent NEW-WAVEjournal. CP performed various editorial functions for several years, becoming editor in 1970 after Moorcock stepped down, and, of the NW anthology series, co-editing with Moorcock \#6 (1973; vt New Worlds Quarterly \#5 1974 US) and with Hilary BAILEY \#7 (1974; vt as \#6 1975 US).CP's first novel, serialized the previous year in NW, was Garbage World (1967 US), in which sf premise and scatological humour sometimes war - for instance, the ASTEROID of the title, used as a garbage dump, is called Kopra. Planet of the Voles (1971) is a confused SPACE OPERA, but The CityDwellers (1970 UK; rev vt Twilight of the City 1977 US) is, in its heavily revised version, a substantial NEAR FUTURE look at the death of New York and of a crisis-ridden USA surrounding it. From the first, CP's work demonstrated undeviating clarity, PULP-MAGAZINE plotting instincts, and a sure inclination to offend. The Gas (1970), which has a genuine sf premise, treats its SEX material in pornographic terms. The Image Job (1971 UK) and The Power and the Pain (1971 UK) are pornography withmarginal sf elements. A Song for Christina (1976) as by Blakely St James (a Playboy Press house name) has no genre content, though ChristinaEnchanted (1980), also as by St James, uses sf arguments to underpin an occult hoax; a third St James volume, Christina's Touch (1981), once again has no genre content. In the early 1980s CP wrote little sf, concentrating his activities in the field on The Patchin Review (June 1981-March 1985), a journal of comment, sometimes controversial, of which he edited and wrote significant portions. A successor journal, REM (July 1985-December 1987), after 10 issues became Science Fiction Guide (occasionally fromMarch 1988; though none has appeared since 1989, the journal has not been officially terminated). CP had written FANZINES during his involvement in UK fandom in the 1960s; these later journals, however, were notable for arigorous concentration upon literary issues (and scandals), and should not perhaps be categorized as fanzines. During these years CP also published Dream Makers: The Uncommon People who Write Science Fiction (coll 1980;exp vt Who Writes Science Fiction? 1980 UK) and Dream Makers, Volume II (coll 1983), a revised selection from both volumes being published asDream Makers: SF and Fantasy Writers at Work (coll 1986); the interviews here collected were polished and showed an attentive, surprisingly sympathetic mind at work.CP then returned to active sf writing with Less than Human (1986 as by Robert Clarke; 1987 UK as CP), the comic tale of an ANDROID's descent upon New York, Free Zone (1988), a novel whichhilariously makes use of almost every sf theme and instrument yet devised (a chart was provided) to tell a pixilated tale of urban anarchy anddreadful threat, and The Silicon Man (1991), a HARD-SF perusal of the implications of CYBERPUNK in which the sense of what it means actually to become information (in CP's terms an infomorph) is chillingly and at points bracingly examined.With the possible exception of this last book, it cannot be claimed that CP is a warm writer, or that he generally finds a narrative structure fit to convey the rigour of his thinking. But sf as a genre is naggingly short of genuine iconoclasts: CP is therefore a necessary writer.

   JC

   Other works: Sweet Evil (1977); Love's Savage Embrace (1981) as by Charlotte Prentiss, associational; Tease for Two (1983) and Double Delight (1983), both as by Aston Cantwell, both associational; two Chthon ties, Piers Anthony's Worlds of Chthon: Plasm * (1987) and Piers Anthony's Worlds of Chthon: Soma * (1988).Nonfiction:Micromania: The Whole-Truth Home Computer Handbook (1984; rev by David LANGFORD, vt Micromania 1984 UK); How to be a Happy Cat (1986 UK) with Gray Joliffe; When You Can Live Twice as Long, What Will You Do? (1989), a sequence of questions based upon sf-oriented visions of the near future.

   See also: CITIES; DISASTER; GAMES WORKSHOP; INTERZONE; MUSIC; PERCEPTION; POLLUTION; WOMEN SF WRITERS.