![]() ![]() Heinlein, Lester Del Rey, Theodore Sturgeon, and other legends of the genre. In the process, he mentored the careers of Isaac Asimov, Robert A. His greatest contribution to science fiction, however, was not as a writer, but as the legendary editor of Astounding Science Fiction (later renamed Analog), the premiere science fiction magazine for decades. ![]() He began as a writer for pulp magazines in the 30’s, working in several different genres, but specializing in what were called “fantastic” or “weird” tales at the time. “Who Goes There?” is the greatest and most influential story by one of the most important figures of the Golden Age of science fiction of the 1940’s and 50’s, John W. As we near the fortieth anniversary of John Carpenter’s masterful telling of this tale, its worth reflecting on the transformations it went through before reaching its most indelible form in that 1982 classic. ![]() We can see it, feel the bite of the cold, sense the rugged masculinity combined with sharp paranoia, and perhaps above all, practically smell its far-flung, frozen setting. We are immediately plunged into a fantastical story that we can believe in. ![]() Imagery like this is just one reason why the story that ultimately became The Thing remains such a key text of science fiction and horror. A queer, mingled stench that only the ice-buried cabins of an Antarctic camp know, compounded of reeking human sweat, and the heavy, fish-oil stench of melted seal blubber.” ![]()
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