C. M. Kornbluth

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C. M. Kornbluth

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25 Quotations from C. M. Kornbluth

aircar n. 1952 F. Pohl & C. M. Kornbluth Gravy Planet in Galaxy Science Fiction June 8/1 ‘They listened to the safety cranks and stopped us from projecting our messages on aircar windows, but Lab tells me—’ he nodded to our director of research across the table—‘that soon we’ll be testing a system that projects direct [sic] on the retina of the eye.’
automatics n. 1940 ‘S. D. Gottesman’ King Cole of Pluto in Super Science May 94/2 ‘Fire!’ And the ship roared sharply up and out of the asteroid belt, its powerful rocket engines—designed to move twenty times the weight of the scow alone—straining to drag the ponderous cargo hulk behind it. Soon the initial speed lessened, and they were roaring along at an easy thousand K. P. S. The captain rose and set the automatics; tried to shake some of the blood from his legs into his head. He could rest now.
automatics n. 1954 C. M. Kornbluth & F. Pohl Search the Sky iii. 33 It is conceivable, of course, that a planet might be asleep at the switch. We could believe it, I suppose, if it seemed that the first-choice planet somehow didn’t pick the ship up when this longliner came into radar range. In that event, of course, it would orbit once or twice on automatics, and then select for its first alternate target—which it did.
Betelgeusean n. 1 1941 ‘S. D. Gottesman’ Fire-Power in Cosmic Stories July iv. 15/2 Marines swarmed through the streets in the traditional manner of rightist revolutionaries. Should a face appear that hinted of Rigelian blood, or should a half-breed with the abnormally long hands and black teeth of a Betelgeusian pass the marines, there would be bloodshed and no questions asked. After a few hours of the reign of terror, the extraterrestrials crept into cellars and stayed there for the duration.
Callistan adj. 1941 ‘P. D. Lavond’ Callistan Tomb in Science Fiction Quarterly Spring 111/1 The prop was shoved against the ceiling, and they swung their bodies against it to batten it into place. Then they waited to see. Slowly the beam arced under a pressure greater than the soft Callistan timber was cut to resist; as the men stood aside it snapped with the noise of a gunshot.
colony planet n. 1942 ‘S. D. Gottesman’ Perfect Invasion in Stirring Science Stories Mar. 10/2 I don’t know what it was like before; the usual colony-planet, I suppose, with labor-barracks and factories and semi-detached homes.
Earther n. 1952 C. M. Kornbluth Make Mine Mars in Science Fiction Adventures Nov. 73/2 ATTN MCGILLICUDDY RE CLIENT RELATIONS NEED SOONEST ILLUMINATED SCROLL PRESENT HOMER WITHERSPOON PRESIDENT FROSTBITE HONORING HIM 40 YEARS MEMBERSHIP FROSTBITE PLANETARY PARTY USUAL SENTIMENTS NOTE MUST BE TERRESTIAL STYLE ART IF NOT ACTUAL WORK EARTHER ACCOUNT ANTIBEM PREJUDICE HERE FRBBUO END.
floater n. 1952 C. M. Kornbluth Make Mine Mars in Science Fiction Adventures Nov. 84/1 After a smooth landing I took an Eastbound chair from the field and whistled as the floater lifted me to the ISN floor.
home sun n. 1949 C. M. Kornbluth Only Thing We Learn in Startling Stories July 130/2 The Middle Epic writers did not despise the Home Suns People, as did the bards of the Old Epic. Perhaps this was because they did not have to—since their long war against the Home Suns was drawing to a victorious close.
Luna City n. 1952 F. Pohl & C. M. Kornbluth in Galaxy Science Fiction July 156/1 They pooh-poohed that possibility and set me to wait on a bench while queries were sent to the Schocken branch in Luna City.
marsquake n. 1941 ‘S. D. Gottesman’ Mars-Tube in Astonishing Stories Sept. 17/1 Bombs and guns and force beams and Earth—Marsquakes, too.
nightside n. 1941 ‘S. D. Gottesman’ Return from M-15 in Cosmic Stories Mar. 63/1 They must have landed on the night[-]side of the artificial asteroid, for he could see the blazing corona of the sun eclipsed by the sphere on which he was standing.
slidewalk n. 1952 F. Pohl & C. M. Kornbluth Gravy Planet in Galaxy Science Fiction July 139/2 I stepped on the leftbound slidewalk and went past the door marked ‘Mail Room’, to the corridor juncture where my slidewalk dipped down around its roller.
spaceline n. 1952 C. M. Kornbluth Goodly Creatures in Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction Dec. 81 Farwell snorted and poured himself a drink before he buckled down to planning a series of releases for the International Spacemen’s Union. The space lines, longing for the old open-shop days, were sniping at the I.S.U. wherever they found an opening.
spacer n. 2 1941 ‘S. D. Gottesman’ Dead Center in Stirring Science Stories Feb. iv. 20/1 About them rose the gigantic ribs of the super-spacer that Angel Maclure had undertaken to build.
space tug n. 1940 ‘S. D. Gottesman’ King Cole of Pluto in Super Science Stories May 100/2 Reeking with oil and dressed in the rags of an outlaw space-tug’s crew, he passed into the dismal underworld as one of its own creatures.
spacing n. 1 1942 ‘C. Corwin’ Crisis! in Science Fiction Quarterly Spring 130/2 Earth was in a very peculiar situation. Only a century ago it had begun really intensive spacing, with freight-exchanges and mining.
stunner n. 1941 ‘S. D. Gottesman’ Fire-Power in Cosmic Science-Fiction July 12/2 Armament, every first-class operative own a hand-gun and shells. Most of them carry illegal personal electric stunners.
supernormal n. 1950 C. M. Kornbluth Little Black Bag in Astounding Science-Fiction July 135/2 The supernormals ‘improved the product’ at a greater speed than the subnormals degraded it, but in smaller quantity because elaborate training of their children was practiced on a custom-made basis.
Tellus n. 1941 ‘W. C. Davies’ Interference in Cosmic Science-Fiction July 38/1 I can’t get a damned thing out of the ether except the pressure-waves from Tellus.
terrestial adj. 1952 C. M. Kornbluth Make Mine Mars in Science Fiction Adventures Nov. 73/2 ATTN MCGILLICUDDY RE CLIENT RELATIONS NEED SOONEST ILLUMINATED SCROLL PRESENT HOMER WITHERSPOON PRESIDENT FROSTBITE HONORING HIM 40 YEARS MEMBERSHIP FROSTBITE PLANETARY PARTY USUAL SENTIMENTS NOTE MUST BE TERRESTIAL STYLE ART IF NOT ACTUAL WORK EARTHER ACCOUNT ANTIBEM PREJUDICE HERE FRBBUO END.
time cop n. 1953 C. M. Kornbluth Time Bum in Fantastic Jan.–“Feb. 143/2 TAIM KOP NABD: PROSKYOOTR ASKS DETH Patrolm'n Oskr Garth 'v thi Taim Polis w'z arest'd toodei at hiz hom, 4365 9863th Strit, and bookd at 9768th Prisint on tchardg'z 'v Polis-Ekspozh'r.
time police n. 1953 C. M. Kornbluth Time Bum in Fantastic Jan.–Feb. 141/2 In the end the Time Police punished him for unauthorized time traveling. They had come back and got him, brought him back to his own time.
Vegan n. 2 1952 C. M. Kornbluth That Share of Glory in Astounding Science Fiction Jan. 10/1 He cast a glance which he hoped would not be the final one over it; a glance which lingered a little fondly on the reel rack where were stowed: ‘Nicholson on Martian Verbs,’ ‘The New Oxford Venusian Dictionary,’ the ponderous six-reeler ‘Deutche-Ganymediche Konversasionslexikon’ published long ago and far away in Leipzig. The later works were there, too: ‘The Tongues of the Galaxy—An Essay in Classification,’ ‘A Concise Grammar of Cephean,’ ‘The Self-Pronouncing Vegan II Dictionary’—scores of them, and, of course, the worn reel of old Machiavelli’s ‘The Prince.’
Venusian adj. 1941 ‘S. D. Gottesman’ Fire-Power in Cosmic Stories July 7 From some confidential instructions he dropped while making a getaway they learned that he was secret agent for some Venusian colony or other.