So how does Norton’s work look now? She wrote most of it the 1950s to 1970s, a time when SF expanded beyond its existing boundaries of fantasy, wowser technology, and swashbuckling adventure. The mostly male writers dabbled in everything from careful extrapolations of current technology, to adaptations of older genres, to sociological speculation, to future and alternative histories. It was the Golden Age because the writers showed SF, redubbed “speculative fiction”, was a mode rather than a genre, and like any mode could be used for any genre and any literary purpose.Norton preferred fantasy, and (as Brooks remarks) doesn’t like hard science and machine technology. But she has no qualms imagining energy-beam weapons. She likes magic and mind-talk, and alliances between humans and other animals. She uses the old mythologies to tell stories of ethical quandaries.
There’s a strong romantic streak in her writing, with handsome and chivalrous warrior heroes and beautiful strong and wise women to match with them after the usual interference from fate, or evil or merely stupid humans. The short stories are better focussed than the longer pieces, which often have the feel of role-playing games, with one damn thing after another preventing the hero and heroine from reaching their goal. They are entertainment very much of their time. SF then catered to the taste for adventure stories in which the reader could identify with the hero. Nowadays, SF is more likely to engage one’s political indignation and confirm one’s curmudgeonly despair over the human race’s follies.
Recommended for any Norton fan, and for anyone who wants a taste of what at 50 or 60 years old is already ancient literature. ** to ***
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