Editing New Wave (science fiction) (section)

== Criticisms ==
Moorcock, Ballard, and others engendered some animosity to their writings. When reviewing ''[[2001: A Space Odyssey (film)|2001: A Space Odyssey]]'', [[Lester del Rey]] described it as "the first of the New Wave-Thing movies, with the usual empty symbolism".<ref name="delrey196807">{{Cite magazine
 |last=del Rey
 |first=Lester
 |date=July 1968
 |title=2001: A Space Odyssey
 |url=https://archive.org/stream/Galaxy_v26n06_1968-07#page/n193/mode/2up
 |magazine=Galaxy Science Fiction
 |pages=193–194
}}</ref> When reviewing ''[[World's Best Science Fiction: 1966]]'', Algis Budrys mocked Ellison's [["Repent, Harlequin!" Said the Ticktockman|" 'Repent, Harlequin!' Said the Ticktockman"]] and two other stories as "rudimentary social consciousness... deep stuff" and insufficient for "an outstanding science-fiction story".<ref name="budrys196610">{{Cite magazine
 |last=Budrys
 |first=Algis
 |date=October 1966
 |title=Galaxy Bookshelf
 |url=https://archive.org/stream/Galaxy_v25n01_1966-10#page/n151/mode/2up
 |magazine=Galaxy Science Fiction
 |pages=152–161
}}</ref> Hartwell noted Budrys's "ringing scorn and righteous indignation" that year in "one of the classic diatribes against Ballard and the new mode of SF then emergent":<ref name=":1" />{{rp|146}} 

<blockquote>A story by J. G. Ballard, as you know, calls for people who don't think. One begins with characters who regard the physical universe as a mysterious and arbitrary place, and who would not dream of trying to understand its actual laws. Furthermore, to be the protagonist of a J. G. Ballard novel, or anything more than a very minor character therein, you must have cut yourself off from the entire body of scientific education. In this way, when the world disaster—be it wind or water—comes upon you, you are under absolutely no obligation to do anything about it but sit and worship it. Even more further, some force has acted to remove from the face of the world all people who might impose good sense or rational behavior on you...{{r|budrys196612}}</blockquote>

Budrys in ''Galaxy'', when reviewing a collection of recent stories from the magazine, said in 1965 that "There is this sense in this book... that modern science fiction reflects a dissatisfaction with things as they are, sometimes to the verge of indignation, but also retains optimism about the eventual outcome".{{r|budrys196508}} Despite his criticism of Ballard and Aldiss ("the least talented" of the four), Budrys called them, [[Roger Zelazny]], and [[Samuel R. Delany]] "an earthshaking new kind" of writers.{{r|budrys196710}} Asimov said in 1967 of the New Wave, "I want science fiction. I think science fiction isn't really science fiction if it lacks science. And I think the better and truer the science, the better and truer the science fiction",{{r|asimov196708}} but Budrys that year warned that the four would soon leave those "still reading everything from the viewpoint of the 1944 ''[[Astounding Science Fiction|Astounding]]''... nothing but a complete collection of yellowed, crumble-edged bewilderment".{{r|budrys196710}}

While acknowledging the New Wave's "energy, high talent and dedication", and stating that it "may in fact be the shape of tomorrow's science fiction generally — hell, it may be the shape of today's science fiction", as examples of the fashion Budrys much preferred Zelazny's ''[[This Immortal]]'' to [[Thomas Disch]]{{'}}s ''[[The Genocides]]''. Predicting that Zelazny's career would be more important and lasting than Disch's, he described the latter's book as "unflaggingly derivative of" the New Wave and filled with "dumb, resigned victims" who "run, hide, slither, grope and die", like Ballard's ''[[The Drowned World]]'' but unlike ''[[The Moon is a Harsh Mistress]]'' ("about people who do something about their troubles").<ref name="budrys196612">{{Cite magazine
 |last=Budrys
 |first=Algis
 |date=December 1966
 |title=Galaxy Bookshelf
 |url=https://archive.org/stream/Galaxy_v25n02_1966-12_modified#page/n91/mode/2up
 |magazine=Galaxy Science Fiction
 |pages=125–133
}}</ref> Writing in ''[[The Dreams Our Stuff Is Made Of]]'', Disch observed that "Literary movements tend to be compounded, in various proportions, of the genius of two or three genuinely original talents, some few other capable or established writers who have been co-opted or gone along for the ride, the apprentice work of epigones and wannabes, and a great deal of hype. My sense of the New Wave, with twenty-five years of hindsight, is that its irreducible nucleus was the dyad of J. G. Ballard and Michael Moorcock..."<ref name="disch1">Disch, Thomas M. ''The Dreams our Stuff is Made of'' (New York: The Free Press, 1998)</ref>{{rp|105}}