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Jerry Pournelle

Jerry Pournelle Seattle Science Fiction Convention
Born August 7, 1933 (1933-08-07) (age 74)
Shreveport, Louisiana
Pen name "Wade Curtis" (early work)
Occupation novelist, journalist, essayist
Nationality American
Genres Science fiction
Influences
Official website

Jerry Eugene Pournelle (born August 7, 1933) is an American science fiction writer, essayist and journalist who contributed for many years to the computer magazine Byte and has since 1998 been maintaining his own website/blog. Events 322 BC - Battle of Crannon between Athens and Macedon following the death of Alexander the Great. Year 1933 ( MCMXXXIII) was a Common year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Shreveport is the third-largest city and the principal city of the third largest Metropolitan area in the U The State of Louisiana ( or, État de Louisiane, pronounced) is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America A pen name, nom de plume, or literary double, is a Pseudonym adopted by an Author or their publishers to conceal their identity Employment is a Contract between two parties, one being the employer and the other being the employee. A novel (from Italian novella, Spanish novela, French nouvelle for "new" "news" or "short story A journalist (also called a newspaperman) is a person who practices Journalism, the gathering and dissemination of information about current events trends An essay is usually a short piece of writing It is often written from an author's personal point of view. Nationality is a relationship between a Person and their State of Origin, Culture, association Affiliation and/or Loyalty The United States of America —commonly referred to as the A literary genre is a category of literary composition Genres may be determined by Literary technique, tone, Content, or even (as in the case of fiction Robert Anson Heinlein (July 7 1907 – May 8 1988 was an American Novelist and Science fiction Writer. Poul William Anderson ( November 25, 1926 – July 31, 2001) was an American Science fiction author who wrote during a Golden Alfred Elton van Vogt (April 26 1912 – January 26 2000 was a Canadian -born Science fiction author who was one of the most prolific John Wood Campbell Jr (June 8 1910 – July 11 1971 was an important Science fiction editor and writer Russell Kirk ( 19 October 1918 &ndash 29 April[[ 994]] was an American Political theorist, Historian, Social Events 322 BC - Battle of Crannon between Athens and Macedon following the death of Alexander the Great. Year 1933 ( MCMXXXIII) was a Common year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the A writer is anyone who creates a written work although the word usually designates those who write creatively or professionally as well as those who have written in many different forms An essay is usually a short piece of writing It is often written from an author's personal point of view. A journalist (also called a newspaperman) is a person who practices Journalism, the gathering and dissemination of information about current events trends Byte magazine was an influential Microcomputer magazine in the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s because of its wide-ranging editorial coverage Year 1998 ( MCMXCVIII) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link will display full 1998 Gregorian calendar)

From the beginning, Pournelle's work has engaged strong military themes. A military is an Organization authorized by its Nation to use force usually including use of Weapons in defending its Country (or by attacking Several books are centered on a fictional mercenary infantry force known as Falkenberg's Legion. A mercenary is a person who takes part in an armed conflict who is not a national or a party to the conflict and is "motivated to take part in the hostilities essentially by The Infantry is the oldest and most numerous of the Combat Arms in the Armed forces, and consists There are strong parallels between these stories and the Childe Cycle mercenary stories by Gordon R. Dickson, as well as Heinlein's Starship Troopers, although Pournelle's work takes far fewer technological leaps than either of these. The Childe Cycle is an unfinished series of Science fiction novels by Gordon R Gordon Rupert Dickson ( November 1, 1923 – January 31, 2001) was an American Science fiction author Starship Troopers is a Science fiction Novel by Robert A Heinlein, first published (in abridged form as a serial in The Magazine

He has served as President of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. Science Fiction Writers of America, or SFWA (ˈsɪfwə or /ˈsɛfwə/ was founded in 1965 by Damon Knight.

Contents

Biography

Pournelle was born in Shreveport, the seat of Caddo Parish in northwestern Louisiana, and educated in Capleville, Tennessee. Shreveport is the third-largest city and the principal city of the third largest Metropolitan area in the U Caddo Parish is a Parish located in the US state of Louisiana. The State of Louisiana ( or, État de Louisiane, pronounced) is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America Capleville is an unincorporated community in Shelby County, Tennessee, United States, southeast of Memphis and just north of the Tennessee ( is a state located in the Southern United States. [1] He served in the U.S. Army during the Korean War. The United States Army is a military organization whose primary mission is to "provide necessary forces and capabilities. The Korean War refers to a period of military conflict between North Korean and South Korean regimes with major hostilities lasting from June 25 1950 until the After Korea, he obtained advanced degrees in psychology, statistics, engineering, and political science, including two PhDs. Psychology (from Greek grc ψῡχή psȳkhē, "breath life soul" and grc -λογία -logia) is an Academic and Statistics is a mathematical science pertaining to the collection analysis interpretation or explanation and presentation of Data. Engineering is the Discipline and Profession of applying technical and scientific Knowledge and Political science is a branch of Social sciences that deals with the theory and practice of Politics and the description and analysis of Political systems He acquired political experience by serving as Executive Assistant to the Mayor and Director of Research for the City of Los Angeles, campaign manager for Congressman Barry Goldwater, Jr. (Rep. Los Angeles (lɑˈsændʒələs los ˈaŋxeles in Spanish) is the largest City in the state of California and the American West Barry Morris Goldwater Jr (born July 15, 1938) is a former Republican member of the United States House of Representatives from California ), and campaign manager for the third (successful) campaign for Mayor Samuel William Yorty (Dem. Samuel William Yorty ( October 1, 1909 &ndash June 5, 1998) was a Politician from Los Angeles, California. ).

Pournelle was an intellectual protege of Russell Kirk (Kenneth C. Russell Kirk ( 19 October 1918 &ndash 29 April[[ 994]] was an American Political theorist, Historian, Social Cole, Pournelle's mentor at the University of Washington, was co-founder with Kirk of Modern Age) and Stefan T. Modern Age is an American conservative academic quarterly journal founded by Russell Kirk in 1957, and published by the Intercollegiate Possony with whom Pournelle wrote numerous publications including The Strategy of Technology, onetime textbook at the United States Military Academy (West Point) and the United States Air Force Academy (Colorado Springs). The Strategy of Technology Doctrine involves a country using its advantage in Technology to create and deploy Weapons of sufficient power and numbers so "USMA" redirects here For other uses see USMA (disambiguation The United States Military Academy (also known as USMA, The United States Air Force Academy ( USAFA or Air Force) is an accredited college for the undergraduate education of officers for the United States Air His work in the aerospace industry includes editing Project 75, a 1964 study of 1975 defense requirements. Year 1964 ( MCMLXIV) was a Leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display full calendar of the 1964 Gregorian calendar. Year 1975 ( MCMLXXV) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. He worked in operations research at Boeing, The Aerospace Corporation, and North American Rockwell Space Division, and was founding President of the Pepperdine Research Institute. The Boeing Company is a major Aerospace and defense corporation originally founded by William E The Aerospace Corporation is a private non-profit corporation headquartered in El Segundo, California that has operated a Federally Funded Research and

As of early 2008, Dr. Pournelle has been battling a brain tumor, which appears to be responding favorably to radiation treatment. [2]

Bibliography

Pournelle began fiction writing non-SF work under a pseudonym in 1965. Year 1965 ( MCMLXV) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display full calendar of the 1965 Gregorian calendar. His early SF was published as "Wade Curtis", in Analog and other magazines. Analog Science Fiction and Fact is an American Science fiction Magazine. Some SF novels under his own name (sometimes rendered as "J. E. Pournelle") include:

In the mid-1970s, Pournelle began a fruitful collaboration with Larry Niven:

In 1985, Footfall, in which Robert A. Heinlein was a thinly veiled minor character, reached the number one spot on The New York Times bestseller list. Robert Anson Heinlein (July 7 1907 – May 8 1988 was an American Novelist and Science fiction Writer. Another bestseller, Lucifer's Hammer (1977), reached number two. Fallen Angels won the Prometheus Award in 1992 for Best Novel and Japan's Seiun Award for Foreign Novel in 1998. The Prometheus Award is an award for Libertarian science fiction novels given out annually by the Libertarian Futurist Society which also publishes a quarterly journal The Seiun Award is a famous Japanese Science fiction award It is voted on by the attendees of the Japanese National Science Fiction Convention

Journalism

Pournelle wrote the "Chaos Manor" column in the print version of Byte, beginning in January 1982. In the column, Pournelle described his experiences with computer hardware and software, some purchased and some sent by vendors for his review. After the print version of Byte ended publication in the United States, Pournelle continued publishing the column for the online version and international print editions of Byte. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the In July 2006, Pournelle and Byte declined to renew their contract and Pournelle moved the column to his own web site, Chaos Manor Reviews.

In the 1980s, Pournelle was an editor and columnist for Survive, a survivalist magazine. Survivalism is a commonly used term for the Preparedness strategy and subculture of individuals or groups anticipating and making preparations for future possible disruptions [3]

Since 1998, Pournelle has maintained a website with a daily online journal, "View from Chaos Manor", in effect a blog dating from before the use of that term. A blog (a contraction of the term " Web log " is a Web site, usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary descriptions of This is a continuation of his 1980s blog-like online journal on GEnie. GEnie (General Electric Network for Information Exchange was an online service He says he resists using blog because he considers the word ugly and because he maintains that his "View" is primarily a vehicle for writing rather than a collection of links.

Humor is an important part of his journalistic output. He wrote of an incident when he and his wife drove to Baja California to witness a total solar eclipse. Baja California (pronounced ˈbɑːhɑː kælɨˈfɔrnjə in English is the northernmost state of Mexico. A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between the Sun and the Earth so that the Sun is wholly or partially obscured Driving a rugged trail to a mountain top, the better to see the umbra approaching at hundreds of miles per hour, they found another vehicle there. For other uses of the word "umbra" see Umbra (disambiguation. Parking next to it, Mrs. Roberta Pournelle rolled down a window and asked "Pardon me, do you have any Grey Poupon. Grey Poupon is the largest selling Dijon mustard in the USThe Brand of Dijon -style mustard was originally owned and Marketed in the U "

Humorist Dave Barry gives accolades to Pournelle's guru column in Byte magazine in Dave Barry in Cyberspace. David "Dave" Barry (born July 3, 1947) is a bestselling American author and Pulitzer Prize -winning columnist who wrote a nationally Byte magazine was an influential Microcomputer magazine in the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s because of its wide-ranging editorial coverage

Politics

In a 1997 article Norman Spinrad wrote that Pournelle had written the SDI portion of Ronald Reagan's State of the Union Address, as part of a plan to use SDI to get more money for space exploration, using the larger defence budget. Norman Richard Spinrad (born September 15, 1940) is an American Science fiction author The Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI was a proposal by US President Ronald Reagan on March 23, 1983 to use ground and space-based systems to protect [1] Pournelle wrote in response that while the Citizens' Advisory Council on National Space Policy "wrote parts of Reagan's 1983 SDI speech, and provided much of the background for the policy, we certainly did not write the speech . . . We were not trying to boost space, we were trying to win the Cold War". [2] The Council's first report [1980] became the transition team policy paper on space for the incoming Reagan administration. The third report was certainly quoted in the Reagan "Star Wars" speech.

Pournelle opposed both Gulf Wars, maintaining that the money would be better spent developing energy technologies for the United States. He is quoted as saying "with what we spent in Iraq we could build nuclear power plants and space solar power satellites and tell the Arabs to drink their oil. " His web site is critical of the Iraq War, but demands support of troops committed there. "Once you send the troops in, you have no choice but to give them what they need until you bring them home. "

Pournelle is also known for his Pournelle chart, a 2-dimensional coordinate system used to distinguish political ideologies. The Pournelle chart, developed by Jerry Pournelle (in his 1963 political science Ph It is similar to the Nolan chart, except that the X-axis gauges opinion toward state and centralized government (farthest right being state worship, farthest left being the idea of a state as the "ultimate evil"), and the Y-axis measures the belief that all problems in society have rational solutions. The Nolan Chart is a political diagram popularized by the American libertarian David Nolan. (top being complete confidence in planning, bottom being its total lack).

Pournelle has popularized a "law", which he calls Pournelle's Iron Law of Bureaucracy:

In any bureaucracy, the people devoted to the benefit of the bureaucracy itself always get in control and those dedicated to the goals the bureaucracy is supposed to accomplish have less and less influence, and sometimes are eliminated entirely.

Also stated as:

. . . in any bureaucratic organization there will be two kinds of people: those who work to further the actual goals of the organization, and those who work for the organization itself. Examples in education would be teachers who work and sacrifice to teach children, vs. union representative who work to protect any teacher including the most incompetent. The Iron Law states that in all cases, the second type of person will always gain control of the organization, and will always write the rules under which the organization functions.

His "blog", "The View from Chaos Manor", often references apparent examples of the law.

Pournelle's first use of the term "Pournelle's law" appears to be for the expression "one user, one CPU. " He has also used "Pournelle's law" to apply to the importance of checking cables connections when diagnosing computer problems.

Contrarian scientific views

Pournelle has expressed support for several viewpoints that differ from the general scientific consensus. These include skepticism on a significant human contribution to global warming and on evolution, and he has advocated research to directly investigate Peter Duesberg's controversial views on the cause of AIDS. Global warming is the increase in the average measured temperature of the eVolution is the third Album by eLDee, it was due to be released in 2008 Peter H Duesberg (born December 2, 1936 in Germany) is a professor of molecular and Cell biology at the University of California Pournelle has also commented on possible links between race and IQ (as evident in Lucifer's Hammer and The Burning City). The study of race and intelligence is a controversial field which seeks to determine whether or not human intellectual abilities vary between races The modern controversy Lucifer's Hammer is a post-apocalyptic Science fiction Novel by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle, first published in 1977 The Burning City is a Fantasy novel by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle set in the same prehistoric world as The Magic Goes Away He emphasizes that in some cases, particularly when the effects of wrong decisions could be disastrous, contrarian research by competent researchers is valuable as insurance.

Although claiming not to be a proponent of Intelligent design, he argues (in opposition to many critics) that it can generate falsible hypotheses that contribute to the understanding of evolution. Intelligent Falsifiability (or "refutability" is the logical possibility that an assertion can be shown false by an observation or a physical experiment He regards proposals to teach Intelligent Design in public schools as less damaging to education the expert-dominated, centralized educational systems he sees as a prerequisite for banning such proposals. Pournelle has made several references in his blog to Hoyle's fallacy as an argument against Darwinian evolution. Named for the Astrophysicist Sir Fred Hoyle, Hoyle's fallacy refers to a specific and common misrepresentation of Evolutionary theory

Politics in fiction

In his books Pournelle delights in again and again creating situations and dilemmas from which the only solution (at least, the only one offered to the reader) is taking an action which is decidedly not "politically correct". However these stories are not mere one-sided polemics. The protagonists are at the mercy of forces they may understand but cannot control, forces which are very real and which operate in our world today. If Pournelle has specific targets in mind, they are those who for ideological or personal reasons ignore or bypass these truths. The forces involved are the need for resources, especially energy, the inevitable stratification of societies and the consequences of disturbing the existing order, and the tendency of cultures to drift towards the politics of entitlement, as demonstrated by Welfare States throughout history as well as economic oligarchies. This article refers specifically to the Welfare state of the United Kingdom. An economy is the realized social system of production exchange distribution and consumption of goods and services of a country or other area Oligarchy' ( Greek, Oligarkhía) is a Form of government where Political power effectively rests with a small elite segment Similar themes occur in the work of H. Beam Piper, who was an influence on Pournelle. Henry Beam Piper ( March 23, 1904 – c November 6, 1964) was an American Science fiction author

Pournelle is also a member of noted writer Steve Sailer's "Human Biodiversity Institute. "

Recurrent themes

This is a list of some of Pournelle's pet themes that recur in the stories.

These concepts are part of the basic underlying structure of the Pournelle Universe, at least as much as the physics which enable Faster-Than-Light travel or the engineering which goes into the weapons used by military protagonists. In the books and stories, protagonists (individuals, groups, whole cultures) who abide by such rules are likely to succeed and those who ignore or flout them are usually doomed to failure, sometimes very messy and painful failure.

Examples in fiction

Accordingly, he gets his soldiers into the stadium where the Freedom Party holds its rally, catching its members by complete surprise. His men break the disorganized resistance and proceed to systematically kill the armed militants and party leaders. Mission completed, Falkenberg hands over power to a well-meaning liberal who hitherto could only wring his hands in despair, and departs the planet. Falkenberg freely offers to use himself and his men as scapegoats, since "nobody is going to forget what happened today".
Pournelle clearly set up the situation leading to such a climax to illustrate his opinion that in some situations a brutal solution is unavoidable, and that those willing to implement such a solution unflinchingly should be considered heroes.
The climax and perhaps some of the politics are borrowed from Fletcher Pratt's The Battles That Changed History, specifically "Fighting in the Streets and the Future of Order. " Justinian the Great suppressed a revolt in Constantinople by seeming to capitulate, and then sending in Belisarius with reliable mercenaries to butcher the celebrating faction in the Hippodrome together with their leaders. This incident is formally known as the Nika riots. The Nika riots (Στάση του Νίκα or Nika revolt, took place over the course of a week in Constantinople in 532.
For more details on this topic, see The Prince (Pournelle). The Prince is a Science fiction compilation by Jerry Pournelle and S
Later on, when the aliens continue their offensive and seize large parts of Africa, the US President secretly authorizes the construction of a spaceship powered by nuclear blasts - the only way of getting at the orbiting alien mothership and ending the threat. Project Orion was the first engineering design study of a Spacecraft powered by Nuclear pulse propulsion, an idea first proposed by Stanisław Ulam The environmental considerations which led to stopping such a project in the 1960s are brushed aside in the emergency.
An investigative journalist discovers this environmentally-damaging government project and plans to reveal it, in the hope of a Pulitzer - but is murdered by his best friend to whom he had revealed his intention, and who is determined to protect the secret at all costs.
The ship takes off, with radioactive contamination of Earth's atmosphere considered an acceptable price, and successfully engages with the alien ship. But at the critical moment the President grows "soft" and is willing to settle for less than the aliens' unconditional surrender. Whereupon the President's civil and military associates seize power, hold the President incommunicado and hand effective power to the hawkish National Security Adviser - who carries the war to a successful conclusion and secures the aliens' surrender.


Bibliography

Non-fiction

Fiction

Series

Other Media

Awards

External links

References

  1. ^ The View from Chaos Manor, June 20, 2003
  2. ^ View 502 January 21 - 27, 2008
  3. ^ Notes from a Survival Sage
  4. ^ Heinlein Society 2005 Heinlein Award
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