Time Exposures
Page 27
Amazing: Why are there so many variant versions of your books?
Tucker: (laughs) Because of damn fool stunts on my part, and damn fool stunts on editors’ and printers’ parts. The Long Loud Silence originally had an ending of cannibalism. The hero bound and killed and ate the heroine at the end, but the editor would not allow it. She was a lady, a sweet little old lady in tennis shoes, and to her it was revolting. She said, “I like the book, but no, I will not accept the ending. You must change it.” So I eliminated that and wrote a happy ending. The hero and the heroine got together and lived happily ever after. Gaaaak! But I wanted a sale, so I had to change it. In The Time Masters, the printer, who works for the Science Fiction Book Club, lost the last page of the manuscript and no one caught it, not the editor, not the copy reader, not me. The book went to press and exists today—you can find any number of copies in hardcover—without the ending of the story, simply because the printer lost it. The paperback edition is complete. The hardcover is not. In Ice and Iron, Doubleday printed the ending that I wanted and wrote. Judy-Lynn del Rey at Ballantine did not like the ending. She asked for a new chapter to give it a different ending, and because I wanted the sale, I gave her a new chapter.
Amazing: Is it always the right thing to do to make such changes on demand?
Tucker: Yes. I'm not one of these authors like some writers we could name but won’t—no point in embarrassing them—who scream, “No! No! These are my precious words. You shall not touch a comma.” I think that’s ... bull. If the editor, who knows his or her business far better than I do, wants the changes, I make the changes. I'll do it rather than lose the sale. Editor X, shall we say, says, “Okay Tucker, I like the story; I'll offer five thousand bucks; but I don’t like that page or that chapter. You change it.” You’re damn right. For five thousand bucks I’ll give her the ending she wants.
Amazing: Do you ever want to go back and restore the original ending, as in The Long Loud Silence, when the opportunity arises?
Tucker: Yes, I'd like to, and I have only once had the chance. About a year ago [1977 or so] a publishing firm in Italy wrote to me and said that they’d heard a rumor that there had been an original ending which had been suppressed. Could I supply it? I said, “Sure,” and I sent them the original ending, the cannibalism ending. Now I haven’t seen the book yet. If they published it, I haven’t got my copies yet, but as far as I know, only the Italian edition has my original ending.
Amazing: Since you are so noted for humorous presentations of everything, why are your books so frequently grim?
Tucker: Because humor in print does not sell as well as serious doom stuff. I know it may surprise you, but it’s true. I once wrote a humorous novel based on a science fiction convention, and nobody would touch it. “Ah this is funny stuff. They don’t want that. Give us a real story.” And by ‘real story,’ they mean action. Bang-bang. Sweep the girl off her feet. Rape her if necessary. Kill the villain. That’s what they want. They want grim stuff, serious stuff, whereas at conventions I can be and do what I want to do. Funny stuff. I have never been able to sell humor, with small exceptions.
Amazing: But several editors today specifically don’t want grim fiction. They want upbeat, positive stuff.
Tucker: Well, I don’t know the answer. I don’t write many short stories. I’ve only sold three of them in the past eight years. I sold one to Terry Carr in 1970. I sold one to Ben Bova in 1976, and I sold one to Harlan Ellison in 1978. All three are tongue-in- cheek. But it isn’t outright humor. It appears to be serious on the surface, murder and all that jazz; if you look between the lines it’s tongue-in-cheek, and how I ever managed to sell a humorous, sexy murder story to Analog I’ll never know. John Campbell must be turning in his grave.
Amazing: Would you like to do a humorous novel?
Tucker: Yes, indeed. I want to rewrite and sell the novel that I wrote about fans at a convention. But a dozen editors have seen it and nobody will buy. I wrote a convention fan novel that carries on like I carried on here at the podium this afternoon. Nobody'll buy it.
Amazing: Was it science fiction?
Tucker: Yes, it was about a science fiction convention, with a science fictional background, and it was a people story, what the people did at the convention. They decided to go into politics and take over the United States, a dictatorial takeover. Which is sort of science fictional.
Amazing: I would think the problem with such a work today is that too many such novels have been published, including two by Buck Coulson and Gene DeWeese. Mack Reynolds did one—
Tucker: Yes, [Gordon R.] Dickson did one. It’s dead today, but this was written twenty years ago and wouldn’t sell twenty years ago. I was ahead of my time. It’s worthless now because too many people have done it. Buck Coulson did two very successful books on the convention thing. But I did it first and it didn’t sell. If I had waited twenty years and done it now, possibly it would have.
Amazing: Mack Reynolds did one in the early 1950’s, The Case of The Little Green Men. He published it as a mystery. Suppose you rewrote yours as a mystery?
Tucker: Yes. It’s possible. Tony Boucher did it first in Rocket To The Morgue. Mack followed him up with Little Green Men, and [Barry N.] Malzberg did In The Hall of The Planets. But mine was written before all these came out. Because it couldn’t sell, it’s passé today. I just lost out entirely.
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NOTE: This interview was recorded at the 1978 Disclave in Washington, D.C. Wilson Tucker, pro, was listed as guest of honor, but Bob Tucker, fan humorist, caused the guest of honor speech to be a bizarre Happening, complete with parades and a battle going on behind the speaker’s podium. Tucker is one of those few professionals—Robert Bloch and Bob Shaw are others—whose fan activity has only slightly diminished after years of professional involvement, and who actually enjoys two separate reputations, one as author of books like The Long Loud Silence, the other for such antics as the Disclave speech, and, stretching back over forty years, the Great Staple War.
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Note: The above interview talks about the unpublished final page or so of The Long, Loud Silence, which was deemed too strong for original publication. Tucker states that this ending was not published until an Italian editor requested it in 1977 or so. We found a copy of this edition online, punched it through a translation program, and ... here it is.
Note that in the interview, Tucker says the book's original editor was a woman; here, he says it's a man.
It's interesting to compare this situation to that of Robert A. Heinlein's early novel, Podkayne of Mars. Heinlein originally killed off the book's young heroine at the end, but was asked to change it and save her. I believe the readers at Baen Books voted the original ending superior to the rewritten version! ... which is, perhaps, what should occur here, as well....
POST SCRIPTUM of the author to the Italian edition
{Il lungo silenzio, trans. Armando Silvestri, Fanucci Editore July 1978 (tp)}
For a long time, inaccurate information circulated in the United States that the first editor of The Long Loud Silence had suppressed the final chapter as too "strong". This is not entirely true. The editor of that first edition did indeed have a fine palate, so he asked me to rewrite the conclusion. Since it was just a question of reworking a page, I did it without difficulty.
The following is the ending I originally wrote. Choose the one you prefer. However, all in all, perhaps the person who made me make the correction was right: this concluding page is really too macabre.
— Wilson Tucker
Approaching the woman, he picked up the rifle and removed the ammunition from the magazine, then throwing the now-useless weapon to the ground. Finally, climbing over the still lying body, he ran to the pot full of boiling water, to see if there was any meat inside. But there was no food in the pot. Only water.
Only then did he retrace his steps and glance at the motionless form on the floor.
A naked woman, of indefinable age. His cl
othes were folded neatly and leaned against a shabby chair, his shoes were placed on the ground behind the chair, next to a large black sack. Gary quickly walked over to the sack, picked up his knife from the ground, and with it opened a long hole in the canvas. A handful of opaque gems came out, along with a glue, apparently made of genuine pearls, and two earrings. Dumbfounded, he plunged his fingers into the sack and took out another handful of jewels, brooches and arm-beds. Small hard stones that sparkled faintly in the flames.
He moved to the motionless body, turned it over, and stared into the woman's sunken face.
Irma now looked much over nineteen.
But the body in front of Gary was not as weak as his, nor as thin. She'd eaten a lot more regularly in recent years, it seemed.
The man's gaze moved from Irma's body to the boiling pot of water, then back to the body.
She had eaten more regularly because she had learned how to set up an effective trap to capture her victims. He had learned of the ultimate resource of survival when all other resources were reduced to zero. Irma had learned how to live when there was nothing left to live with.
Gary looked again at the pot of boiling water waiting over the burning fire; then he looked at the prey that fell under his hands. He took the knife.
His hunger did not know the value of feelings.
The End
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Other collections from Wilson Tucker:
The Science-Fiction Subtreasury, Rinehart Sep. 1954 (c, hc) / as Time: X, Bantam Dec. 1955 (pb)
Introduction, (in)
1 The Street Walker, (ss) *
23 "MCMLV", (ss) Universe Nov. 1954 - 4765
49 Home Is Where the Wreck Is, (ss) Universe May 1954 - 5721
77 My Brother’s Wife, (ss) F&SF Feb. 1951
101 Gentlemen—The Queen! (ss) Science Fiction Quarterly Fall 1942
129 The Job Is Ended, (nv) Other Worlds Nov. 1950
169 Exit, (ss) Astonishing Stories April 1943
189 The Wayfaring Strangers, (ss) Fantastic Worlds Fall 1952
201 Able to Zebra, (ss) F&SF March 1953
231 - The Mountaineer, (ss) Fiendetta Dec. 1953 {aka "Mountain Justice"}
240
The Best of Wilson Tucker, Pocket Feb. 1982 (c, pb)
Introduction, (in) *
10 To the Tombaugh Station, (na) F&SF July 1960 - 18456
60 To a Ripe Old Age, (ss) F&SF Dec. 1952 - 6520
78 King of the Planet, (ss) Galaxy Oct. 1959 - 4755
94 Exit, (ss) Astonishing Stories April 1943
106 The Tourist Trade, (ss) Worlds Beyond Jan. 1951 {as by "Bob Tucker"} - 3390
118 My Brother’s Wife, (ss) F&SF Feb. 1951
132 The Job Is Ended, (nv) Other Worlds Science Stories Nov. 1950 - 8852
156 Able to Zebra, (ss) F&SF March 1953 - 5902
174 - Time Exposures, (ss) Universe 1, ed. Terry Carr, Ace 1971 - 6809
191
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