Brain Snacks: Tasty Tidbits of Knowledge
Sturgeon's short story "The World Well Lost," also from 1953, broke new ground in U.S. science fiction with its sympathetic portrayal of a gay hero who helps gay prisoners escape an interplanetary extradition request. Righteous. (Source)
Sturgeon invented the concept of "Pon farr" for Star Trek. That's the Vulcan mating ritual. The significance in the Star Trek universe is that even the most logical creatures, such as Spock, are subject to overwhelming biological urges—and we're not talking about just having to go to the bathroom. (Source)
Sturgeon's Law, originally called Sturgeon's Revelation, states that "90% of everything is crud." He said people who scorned science fiction used the genre's worst examples as evidence that the writing was no good. They're correct, he argued, but only insofar as 90% of any category is bad. In other words, 90% of highbrow literary fiction is bad, 90% of ballets are bad, and so on. If people want to argue against science fiction as a genre, he'd say, they should aim their arguments at the best examples. Burn. (Source)
Sturgeon sometimes wrote in metric prose to shift a story's mood. If prose is metric, lines aren't broken; nothing tips the reader off to any oddness. Readers simply feel a subtle change. Example? Scan this snack: it's fully trochees. (Source)
Sturgeon's personal symbol, which he wore as a pendant and signed next to his name late in his life, was a capital-letter Q with an arrow through it. It meant "Ask the next question," the arrow shooting toward the truth. He argued that every incident or statement is an opportunity to ask another question, and that living an interesting life and humanity's progress depends on you doing so. No pressure or anything. (Source)