Mack Reynolds - NOT a Jehovah's Witness, but led a very interesting life!

by VM44 7 Replies latest jw friends

  • VM44
    VM44

    Mack Reynolds was a science fiction writer, but he didn't just sit at a typewriter and write all day. Sounds like he had more than one "Indiana Jones" like adventure during his lifetime. --VM44

    From Judith Merril's introduction to "The Pacifist", taken from 10th Annual Edition: The Year's Best SF.

    Mack Reynolds is as different from Arthur Clarke in background, education, temperament, and personality as two good science-fictionists can be. Reynolds is a bawdy, hearty, beer-drinking, well-met-indeed man, whose most likely reason for leaving Earth would be to look into the political situation on Mars (and write about it to Rogue magazine, as their travel editor).

    "My mother's people went to California in the Gold Rush," he writes (from Spain, at the moment). "My father was twice candidate for President of the United States. . . . I was once bitten by a vampire [bat--JM] and had to be treated for rabies. . . . Once while traveling across the Sahara to Timbuctu I was kidnapped by Tuareg. . . . I was onced offered a soldier-of-fortune job for Chiang Kai-Shek. . . . I was once detained by the Jordan because I couldn't prove I was neither Jewish nor a Jehovah's Witness. . . I once stole a perfect Etruscan vase out of an Italian tomb. . . . And I once participated. . . . as an observer. . . . in a demonstration against the U.S. Embassy in Moscow. . . . Although I loathe being shot at, I've been in half a dozen wars, revolutions, and military revolts. . . . I once bought a Ming-dynasty vase for six dollars from a Chinese Communist. . . . I believe the world is going through an unprecedented revolution, not only in the political field but in science, sexual and other mores, medicine and socioeconomic systems. And I'm all for it. . . ."

    Reynolds owns neither a Questar nor Scuba gear, to the best of my knowledge--but he, too, is what I call a free man. And he knows beer and politics the world over.

  • VM44
    VM44

    "I was once detained by the Jordan because I couldn't prove I was neither Jewish nor a Jehovah's Witness."

    What is one to do in that situation? How does a person prove that they are NOT a Jehovah's Witness?

    --VM44

  • fullofdoubtnow
    fullofdoubtnow

    He sounds like an interesting guy , as you say a truly free man.

    How does a person prove that they are NOT a Jehovah's Witness?

    A very good question. I suppose it might depend on what the person asking's perception is of what a jw should be. If you lit up a cigarette, came out with a stream of bad language or were wearing a crucifix around your neck, they might believe you weren't one.

  • VM44
    VM44

    During the mid 1970's Mack Reynolds wrote novels about what life in the year 2000 would be like.

    In one novel, he predicted the internet, and also that there would be some people who would be connected all day to it, reading books that they could buy online and download. They would be so busy on the internet that they would have food sent to their apartments which they would never leave!

    He also predicted that currency would disappear, to be replaced with electronic funds transfer. The world is not quite there yet, but is moving towards that direction!

    --VM44

  • luna2
    luna2

    Boy, he sounds familiar. I should go see if I've read some of his books. What an interesting man!

  • VM44
    VM44

    He wrote one novel called "The Cosmic Eye" (1969), the description on the cover being:

    "Every thought, word, deed was controlled by the super-state. Only one man dared to defy the rulers of the Technate Society."

    Replace "Technate" with "Theocratic" and it sounds like a description of The Watchtower Society! Of course anyone who would defy The Watchtower would be disfellowshipped, or, if the Watchtower ruled the world, dis-integrated!

    --VM44

  • parakeet
    parakeet

    Fullofdoubtnow said: "How does a person prove that they are NOT a Jehovah's Witness?"
    Authorities could put a Watchtower on the floor and see if he was willing to spit on it.

  • VM44
    VM44

    BTW, I knew an elderly brother in the San Diego area who had the name "Max Reynolds"! Probably why the name "Mack Reynolds" looked so familiar to me!

    Max Reynolds had bad feet, and so was well known for always wearing white socks, even when wearing a suit at the meetings.

    --VM44

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