Literary Birthday – 21 January – Judith Merril

Judith Merril was born 21 January 1923, and died 12 September 1997.

Six Quotes

1. There are not two cultures, only half-cultured individuals.
2. What I like is getting my head turned around. I get off on fresh perceptions, widening horizons, new thoughts, and I like them best when they occur as a process in my own mind, rather than an exposition at which I am a passive spectator/receiver. What I look for in SF is the story… conceived and written in such a way as to suggest alternatives that will cause me to exercise my own imagination to broaden my own vision. To ‘ask the next question’.
3. Science fiction is not necessarily either fiction or anything to do with science.
4. Newspapers, magazines, counselling services all told us firmly that children who had less than constant attention from their very own mothers were doomed to misery and delinquency; the greatest joy available to the ‘natural woman’ was the pleasure of Building Her Man’s Ego. (There were not enough jobs for returning veterans till the ladies went home.) There was a lot of pressure; one couldn’t help wondering. Could it be true? I didn’t think so; neither did my returning husband.
5. We have met the Alien and it is us.
6. There was a woman who worked there, who showed me, without any surprise at my ignorance, just how the card catalogue worked, and what the numbering system meant; she didn’t ask me how old I was, or any other questions, or demand any proof of any kind to convince her that I had a right to use the place. She didn’t even bother me much with questions about what I was looking for. I told her there were a lot of things I wanted to know, and she seemed to think that was a good answer.

Judith Merril was an American and then Canadian science fiction writer, editor, and political activist. She is the author of The Best of Judith Merril and Shadow On The Hearth.

Source for Quotes

by Amanda Patterson

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