RIVERWORLD was first published in 1971 and languished in a certain amount of obscurity until it became a completed series in 1979. However, it remained somewhat under-the-surface for some time until it was selected to be made into a movie, and then it became a blockbuster sensation. Farmer was originally best-known for a story called “The Lovers,” which appeared in STARTLING STORIES in the early 1950s and started an inordinate amount of controversy, being, for example, on taboo themes. He was a real pace-setter in writing about just about anything. This is a generally unedited interview with a very controversial author.

INTERVIEWER: It would seem that your newer writings are not sufficiently understood by fans as yet. Whereas “The Lovers”---

FARMER: It was a shocker. I had meant to explore new ideas. “The Lovers” had three major themes: lack of communication, the sexo-biological theme, and the authoritarian influence over Hal Yarrow as represented by the Sturch. This was, well, startling to a good many people. It was one of the effects the story had. A lot of readers were offended or disgusted by it.. There has been quite a passage of time. It has since been brought out by Ballantine in hardcovers and they also did a paperback edition.

INTERVIEWER: It had a very good description of a sexual relationship in it…

FARMER: You will note it does not contain prejudice.

INTERVIEWER: Did you get a lot of controversy about it?

FARMER: Yes, yes, there was a magnificent amount, in the letter column alone. The authoritarian government I described could have had something to do with it.

INTERVIEWER: I thought they were repressive.

FARMER: Not everybody understands that story. I'd like to stress that Jeannette was not described in my story as an insect. In the text itself, it's clarified that there were two races, one having endo-, the other exo-skeletons, both emerging from the sea but splitting off. Jeannette was a Llalyd, but Fobo was a member of another race which could not be confused, as hers was, with the human one, as they resembled insects, but Jeannette was of another stock entirely, could mate with humans, yet was related enough to incur prejudice. Jeannette was humanoid. I do not believe that an insect could take on a human form or be confused with one.

Sam Moscowitz called my concept “The first original idea in SF for one hundred years.” He liked it, but I first sent it to John Campbell, and Campbell said it nauseated him. As a matter of fact I got a somewhat similar reaction from H.L. Gold. I let him take a look at it too. As an interesting sidelight, when sent to STARTLING it did not arrive in the office of Sam Mines, but rather was received by the co-editor, who was at that time Jerome Bixby, I believe, he did the reading of it, and, here's that sidelight, he called Gold and said, “I heard you rejected it, why did you reject ‘The Lovers,' you son of a bitch?” Gold had asked for revision on it, but Sam Mines bought the story. “The Lovers” was a pioneer landmark. At the time it was written sexual discussion was taboo in sf, but since that time there have been a lot of people writing about it. What's discussed is a mature relationship, perhaps a little envy was not unprovoked. More recent sf? In THE LEFT HAND OF DARKNESS Ursula LeGuin has certain sexual concepts. It was, it seems, an exploration of genetics or, at any rate, people in a culture and the way they get along sexually. A friend of mine who is in pure science or biology says that he is catching on, and the field of biology is just digging out discoveries that would seem to indicate that I predicted them, or was ahead in my speculation. In my story I was the first to use the term “orgasm” in professionally published sf. My discoveries were validated by a number of people. In fact, a fellow I know in Los Angeles who is a science fiction appreciator said a lot of research was being done into this very subject, perhaps at UCLA.

INTERVIEWER: What are you writing recently?

FARMER: I've had a few stories out on non-sf topics. I wrote some marginal psychological fantasies for PLAYBOY, they were published, and I used these segments in the RIVERWORLD book of that time. And I'm doing writing. I'll publish something else. The fans are still reading RINGWORLD.

Back to Contents