Triffids Beard 2 - The Bearded Triffid

The Lesser Spotted Science Fiction Writer Part 7: Roger
Zelazny
Phlogiston Forty-Two, 1995
Roger Zelazny is a man famous for what is probably his weakest work; the multi-part and completely
open-ended Amber series. It seems to be perennially in print and yet his deeper, more powerful (dare I
say more serious) works seem to appear and disappear so fast that if you blink you will miss them. I
can't remember when I last saw a copy of Doorways in the Sand (my own personal favourite) on the
bookshelves. (Well actually I can, it was in 1976 -- I don't think it has been reprinted since then). All of
this makes Zelazny a most frustrating writer to discuss since all the commonly available evidence seems
to suggest that he is at best a workaday, commonplace author. Yet his status in the field indicates
otherwise. He has a whole string of awards and commendations behind him and among his peers his
reputation is second to none.
Samuel Delaney said:
The work ... abounds in literary, historical and mythological allusions. The sensitivities revealed are farranging,
capable of fine psychological and sociological analysis, and are as responsive to the
contemporary as to the traditional... There is no other writer who, dealing with the struggle between life
and death on such a fantastically rarefied level can evoke so much hunger for the stuff of living itself.
The Jewel Hinged Jaw, Samuel Delaney
High praise indeed. And so we are left with a paradox. How can we reconcile Zelazny's undoubted status
as an artist with his equally undoubted status as a writer of mass-produced fiction? In his time he has
produced books of high art as well as lowest common denominator, bread-and-butter hack work. Such
is the riddle of the man. I'm not sure I have answers, but I would at least like to examine the question in
some detail in an attempt to justify my assertions.
I will concentrate almost exclusively on the writing. I will not try to relate the man to his work. This is
generally a sterile exercise (after all if the work cannot stand alone, what use is it?). It would be a
particularly inappropriate thing to do as far as Zelazny is concerned for he is a very private person who
believes strongly that a piece of writing should be considered as a thing in its own right, quite
independent of the author. In an interview with Paul Walker published in 1987 the following dialogue took
place:
"So tell us about your childhood hangups."
"No."
Speaking of Science Fiction
Paul Walker, Luna Publications 1987
I suspect this took the interviewer somewhat aback, but after a pause for breath he continued:
"Why not?"
"Because I'm a bug on privacy."
"Shyness?"
"Some, I suppose. I like to keep my writing apart from my personal life. I make my living
displaying pieces of my soul in some distorted form or other. The rest is my own."
Ibid.
But some facts are known. Roger Zelazny was born in 1937. He gained an MA from Columbia university
in 1962. From 1962 to 1969 he was employed by the Social Security Administration in Cleveland, Ohio.
He interviewed people, wrote letters, memos, reports and manuals in the deadly dull bureaucratese that
often characterises such jobs. Strangely during these years of drudgery he produced, in evenings and