Did "The Big Sleep" author Raymond Chandler actually create and name "Google" 44 years before Larry Page and Sergey Brin registered the domain in 1997?
Yes, it would seem. Chandler seemed to presage future events in a cranky letter to his agent H. N. Swanson, written March 14, in 1953. Celebrated for his two-fisted Phillip Marlowe detective novels including "Farewell My Lovely" and "The Long Goodbye," the hard-drinking Chandler mocked the sudden boom in science-fiction books in the poison-pen missive.
Mystery and crime novels now seemed "old hat" after Atomic Bombs ended World War II with a bang. What had been science-fiction a decade earlier was now terrifying science fact. In the letter, Chandler penned a sci-fi parody -- a pastiche worthy of both George Lucas and Mickey Spillane. "Did you ever read what they call Science Fiction?” Chandler asked in the letter. “It’s a scream. It’s written like this:"
"I checked out with K19 on Adabaran III, and stepped out through the crummaliote hatch on my 22 Model Sirus Hardtop. I cocked the timeprojector in secondary and waded through the bright blue manda grass. My breath froze into pink pretzels. I flicked on the heat bars and the Bryllis ran swiftly on five legs, using the other two to send out crylon vibrations. The pressure was almost unbearable, but I caught the range on my wrist computer through the transparent cysicites. I pressed the trigger. The thin violet glow was ice-cold against the rust-colored mountains. The Bryllis shrank to half an inch long and I worked fast stepping on them with the poltex. But it wasn’t enough. The sudden brightness swung me round and the Fourth Moon had already risen. I had exactly four seconds to hot up the disintegrator and Google had told me it wasn’t enough."
Yeah, Google.
Too bad Chandler didn’t think to patent his "wrist computer" as well.
Yes, it would seem. Chandler seemed to presage future events in a cranky letter to his agent H. N. Swanson, written March 14, in 1953. Celebrated for his two-fisted Phillip Marlowe detective novels including "Farewell My Lovely" and "The Long Goodbye," the hard-drinking Chandler mocked the sudden boom in science-fiction books in the poison-pen missive.
Mystery and crime novels now seemed "old hat" after Atomic Bombs ended World War II with a bang. What had been science-fiction a decade earlier was now terrifying science fact. In the letter, Chandler penned a sci-fi parody -- a pastiche worthy of both George Lucas and Mickey Spillane. "Did you ever read what they call Science Fiction?” Chandler asked in the letter. “It’s a scream. It’s written like this:"
Raymond Chandler invented Google (& was mostly right about sci-fi) pic.twitter.com/JJ7IWizUrj
— Gene Healy (@GeneHealy) October 22, 2013"I checked out with K19 on Adabaran III, and stepped out through the crummaliote hatch on my 22 Model Sirus Hardtop. I cocked the timeprojector in secondary and waded through the bright blue manda grass. My breath froze into pink pretzels. I flicked on the heat bars and the Bryllis ran swiftly on five legs, using the other two to send out crylon vibrations. The pressure was almost unbearable, but I caught the range on my wrist computer through the transparent cysicites. I pressed the trigger. The thin violet glow was ice-cold against the rust-colored mountains. The Bryllis shrank to half an inch long and I worked fast stepping on them with the poltex. But it wasn’t enough. The sudden brightness swung me round and the Fourth Moon had already risen. I had exactly four seconds to hot up the disintegrator and Google had told me it wasn’t enough."
Yeah, Google.
Too bad Chandler didn’t think to patent his "wrist computer" as well.