Other Spaces, Other Times:

OTHER SPACES, OTHER TIMES, by Robert Silverberg.
Nonstop Press, 2009, 200 pp., $29.95.
ISBN 13 978-1-933065-12-0

I found out about the origin of the word “sincere” in Dan Brown’s book, THE LOST SYMBOL. According to About.com, “sincere” is a derivation of two Latin words - sine or “without” and cera or “wax.” You see, according to that website, back when Rome was a great republic, marble craftsmen would cover up their imperfections with wax. So if something was “sincere,” it was complete and without imperfection.

OTHER SPACES is a wandering, rather unfocused autobiography, written in a wide variety of time periods. But it is starkly sincere. Silverberg, a Columbia journalism graduate, reports what he knows and what he remembers and as clearly as he can. Without blemish sometimes. Sincere.

Silverberg marks his beginnings as a Hall-of-Fame science fiction writer, first as a fanzine publisher with “Spaceship,” as a 15-year-old in 1950, and second, describing his development as a Big Name Writer in SF from the late 1950s, winning the Hugo Award as the year’s most promising new author in 1956. Thirdly, despite some personal setbacks (a fire that destroyed his New York residence – but what was the cause of it? – not explained), he details his astonishing leap as a true SF artist of very high caliber through the 1960s and early 1970s.

Silverberg the author granted us such classics as DYING INSIDE (still my favorite SF novel), and a host of stories that expanded the stylistic breadth of the entire genre almost single-handedly: “To See The Invisible Man,” “Nightwings,” “Hawksbill Station,” “Passengers,” “Good News From the Vatican” -- a list of should-be-required-reading SF classics.
           
In February 1988, in my fan magazine OGRE issue number 5, I interviewed Silverberg at Philcon 87, the science fiction convention in Philadelphia. When I asked Silverberg about how DYING INSIDE came to be, this is what he said:

“Actually, I came up with the title first. DYING INSIDE – I thought, that’s a good title. What sort of book? What sort of theme would require a title like DYING INSIDE? What is dying? What is it inside? And very quickly there came the notion of a telepath losing his powers. A book about loss. A book about the alienation that time brings.

“It’s a work of fiction, not an autobiography. It’s generally mistaken for an autobiography. I don’t see why. Except that David Selig and I both went to Columbia at the same time. However, I used some of my own term papers from the college days as his in the book.

“It was a lot of real-world inspiration. When I finished the book and turned it in, Betty Ballantine, who was my publisher, said, ‘It’s a wonderful book, Bob, but are you all right?’ And I was startled by this. I was feeling quite all right.

“There was a lot of angst. Well, the man was in a lot of trouble. He had one great gift that was leaving him.”

Silverberg does remain painfully sincere in his assessment of himself and the great (or not so great, and perhaps flawed in many ways) editors and writers of the period. He does make note that a more autobiographical work was published in Algol Magazine in 1976 entitled “Sounding Brass, Tinkling Cymbal," which is a must-read for those attempting an autobiography. It is included here, with updates. You should purchase the book for this essay alone.

Silverberg notes about this autobiography: “Apparently one should not name the names of those one has been to bed with, or give explicit figures on the amount of money one has earned, those being the two data most eagerly sought by readers; all the rest is legitimate to reveal.”
           
And much is revealed. There is a lot of insight into the writer we know today. This is a great resource for those who study and write about Silverberg, from the helpful bibliography and index to a slew of references to some pretty arcane work. OTHER SPACES is an important piece of writing for the Silverberg Compleatist and belongs in the Silverberg Library.