SLUSSER, George Edgar

(1939-)

   US academic and critic with a PhD in literature from Harvard. He is Professor of Comparative Literature at the University of California, Riverside, and Curator of the J. LLOYD EATON COLLECTION there; he is alsoDirector of the Eaton Program for Science Fiction and Fantasy Studies, which is devoted to research. GES has written and edited a number of critical books on sf, and has also translated sf-related works by Honore de BALZAC and J.H. ROSNY aine.His critical books, all from BORGO PRESS, are Robert A. Heinlein: Stranger in His Own Land (chap 1976; rev 1977), The Farthest Shores of Ursula K. Le Guin (chap 1976), The BradburyChronicles (chap 1977), Harlan Ellison: Unrepentant Harlequin (chap 1977), The Delany Intersection (chap 1977), The Classic Years of Robert A. Heinlein (chap 1977) and The Space Odysseys of Arthur C. Clarke (chap 1978).Anthologies of critical essays ed GES, most collecting papers delivered at the annual Eaton Conference on fantasy and sf, and generally edited collaboratively with other academics involved in the Conference, are Bridges to Science Fiction (anth 1980) ed with George R. Guffey and Mark ROSE, Bridges to Fantasy (anth 1982) ed with Eric RABKIN and RobertSCHOLES, Co-Ordinates: Placing Science Fiction and Fantasy (anth 1983) ed with Rabkin and Scholes, Shadows of the Magic Lamp: Fantasy and Science Fiction in Film (anth 1985) ed with Rabkin, Hard Science Fiction (anth1986) ed with Rabkin, Storm Warnings: Science Fiction Confronts the Future (anth 1987) ed with Rabkin and Colin GREENLAND, Intersections: Fantasy and Science Fiction (anth 1987) ed with Rabkin, Aliens: The Anthropology of Science Fiction (anth 1987) ed with Rabkin,Mindscapes: The Geographies of Imagined Worlds (anth 1989) ed with Rabkin, Styles of Creation: Aesthetic Technique and the Creation of Fictional Worlds (anth 1992) with Rabkin, Fiction 2000: Cyberpunk and the Future of Narrative (anth 1992) with Tom SHIPPEY, Fights of Fancy: Armed Conflict in Science Fiction and Fantasy (anth 1993) with Rabkin and Styles of Creation: Aesthetic Technique and the Creation of Fictional Worlds (anth 1993) with Rabkin. By academic standards, at least, GES is a controversialist. On receiving the PILGRIM AWARD for services to sf criticism and scholarship in 1986, he argued that"we need to get sf out of the English department" into comparative literature, interdisciplinary studies or even as "a discipline in itself".

   PN

   See also: ANTHROPOLOGY; CINEMA; CRITICAL AND HISTORICAL WORKS ABOUT SF.