Fritz Leibers The Winter Flies171 Literature Review Sample

1.
In Fritz Leiber's "The Winter Files," Heinie uses his imagination to picture himself in outer space, flying a rocketship. At the beginning of the story, we see Heinie, in his homemade wooden box and bowl-like helmet, making that very much real. However, as soon as Heinie says he's "going to take a trip" in his spaceship, the Man in the Black Flannel Suit enters, clearly a figure of the imagination due to his movements, and the fact that he does not have a name. He is Gott's fantasy, while flying in space is Heinie's. The fact that all the imaginative characters - The Black Girl, the Black Crone, Death, and more - have no names is testament to their ephemeral nature; we as people imagine them, and they are as bereft of identity as we wish to make them. Despite their threats to take us over, we are always in control of them.

Eleanor Arnason, "The Warlord of Saturn's Moon"(305)

1.
The narrator of "The Warlord of Saturn's Moon" is in the middle of writing a pulpy, Burroughs-esque yarn that is very much like his John Carter books: it is very cheap, bloody and lascivious, full of busty heroines slaying people and spilling blood. Her heroine is the perfect warrior - beautiful yet dangerous, capable of incredible feats. Regardless of quality, one can say that it is definitely a pulpy story, the kind of thing one would buy for a dime at the bookstore when she was a child. The book is very much science fantasy, as it is filled with adventures on different planets, full of fantastic aliens and prison asteroids. While it is trashy and low-quality, it brings the author great solace, since it is full of cheap excitement.