Science Fiction Author Brian Aldiss Dies Aged 92 (theguardian.com)

Long-time Slashdot reader Freshly Exhumed writes: Acclaimed Science Fiction author Brian Aldiss, first published in the 1950s, has died at the age of 92. Aldiss wrote such science fiction classics as Non-Stop, Hothouse and Greybeard, as well as the Helliconia trilogy, winning the Hugo and Nebula prizes for science fiction and fantasy, an honorary doctorate from the University of Reading, the title of grand master from the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, and an OBE for services to literature. Tributes from contemporaries and younger authors have been plentiful.
In 1969 Aldiss published the short story "Super-Toys Last All Summer Long" (1969), which after decades of work became the basis for the Stanley Kubrick-developed Steven Spielberg movie A.I. in 2001.

Comments

A.I. super-toys vs. pulp fiction supertoys

[epine]

Wikipedia can't make up its mind.

The A.I. Artificial Intelligence page consistently uses "Super-Toys", while the main article, Supertoys Last All Summer Long consistently goes the other direction.

Google: "Super-Toys" Last All Summer Long -"supertoys" = 66,800 results

Google: "SuperToys" Last All Summer Long -"super-toys" = 70,300 results

Squeaker. By the Law of Electoral College, I think the first item wins.

But no, let's aim higher.

Writing Talk: Conversations with top writers of the last fifty years — 2014

As this book goes to print in 2012, author Brian Aldiss tells me that his entire production of fiction is to be republished.

And this:

How many times can films destroy books? ...

"The risk was patent," he allowed, "because Stanley gave me a beautiful illustrated copy of Pinocchio, and he always wanted Pinocchio to be the Blue Fairy. When I heard those dreadful words, the Blue Fairy, I really started throwing up. I couldn't take this.

"But all right, I went to work with him. At ten o'clock they'd come and collect me, we'd find a pub, we'd go over this with lots of coffee, lots of Marlboros, and sometimes we seemed to be getting somewhere. But always he was determined that David the super toy should cease to be a fairy and become a real boy, while I hoped that between us we could have created a modern myth. That this robot child could exist in modern society and it would be of enormous interest.

"But this didn't interest Kubrick one bit. Do you know, he spent two years thinking about my short story? Perhaps he'd lost some of his earlier genius."

When Kubrick died it was taken over by Spielberg, and was out of reach of its originator, who now said to me wistfully, "Super-Toys Last All Summer Long is a nice title. It's poetic, it sounds nice. And what will the audience thing when winter comes?"

My bold & paragraph breaks.

I think Aldiss would have wanted his views known, so I quoted a bit more than normal given the occasion.

As copyright now works—de facto—everyone who reads the above quotation is now obligated to buy Alex Hamilton's fine book—that's how it now works, right?