Editing A. E. van Vogt (section)

==Method and themes==
Van Vogt systematized his writing method, using scenes of 800 words or so where a new complication was added or something resolved. Several of his stories hinge on temporal [[Riddle|conundra]], a favorite theme. He stated that he acquired many of his writing techniques from three books: ''Narrative Technique'' by Thomas Uzzell, ''The Only Two Ways to Write a Story'' by [[John Gallishaw]], and ''Twenty Problems of the Fiction Writer'' by Gallishaw.<ref name=panshin/>  He also claimed many of his ideas came from dreams; throughout his writing life he arranged to be awakened every 90&nbsp;minutes during his sleep period so he could write down his dreams.<ref name=platt>[[Charles Platt (science-fiction author)|Platt, Charles]], [http://www.icshi.net/worlds/Plattprofile.htm "A. E. van Vogt – A Profile"]. From ''Who Writes Science Fiction?'' (London: Savoy Books, 1980); ''Dream Makers: The Uncommon People Who Write Science Fiction'' (Berkeley Books, 1980).</ref>

Van Vogt was also always interested in the idea of all-encompassing systems of knowledge (akin to modern [[meta-systems]]).  The characters in his very first story used a system called "Nexialism" to analyze the alien's behavior. Around this time, he became particularly interested in the [[general semantics]] of [[Alfred Korzybski]].{{citation needed|date=January 2025}}

He subsequently wrote a novel merging these overarching themes, ''[[The World of Ā]]'', originally serialized in ''Astounding'' in 1945. Ā (often rendered as ''Null-A''), or [[non-Aristotelian logic]], refers to the capacity for, and practice of, using [[Intuition (knowledge)|intuitive]], [[inductive reasoning]] (compare [[fuzzy logic]]), rather than reflexive, or conditioned, [[deductive reasoning]].  The novel recounts the adventures of an individual living in an apparent [[Utopia]], where those with superior brainpower make up the ruling class... though all is not as it seems.  A sequel, ''The Players of Ā'' (later re-titled ''[[The Pawns of Null-A]]'') was serialized in 1948–49.

At the same time, in his fiction, van Vogt was consistently sympathetic to [[absolute monarchy]] as a form of government.<ref name="DK">{{cite book|last=Knight|first=Damon|author-link=Damon Knight|date=1967|title=In Search of Wonder|url=https://archive.org/details/insearchofwonder0000knig|url-access=registration|location=Chicago|publisher=Advent|isbn=9780911682076}}</ref> This was the case, for instance, in the ''[[The Weapon Shops of Isher|Weapon Shop]]'' series, the ''[[The Mixed Men|Mixed Men]]'' series, and in single stories such as "Heir Apparent" (1945), whose protagonist was described as a "[[benevolent dictator]]".  These sympathies were the subject of much critical discussion during van Vogt's career, and afterwards.

Van Vogt published "Enchanted Village" in the July 1950 issue of ''Other Worlds Science Stories''. It was reprinted in over 20 collections or anthologies, and appeared many times in translation.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?56655 |title=Title: Enchanted Village |website=www.isfdb.org |access-date=10 March 2017}}</ref>

===Dianetics and fix-ups (1950–1961)===
In 1950, van Vogt was briefly appointed as head of [[L. Ron Hubbard]]'s [[Dianetics]] operation in California.  Van Vogt had first met Hubbard in 1945, and became interested in his theories, which were published shortly thereafter.  Dianetics was the secular precursor to Hubbard's Church of [[Scientology]]; van Vogt would have no association with Scientology, as he did not approve of its mysticism.

The California Dianetics operation went broke nine months later, but never went bankrupt, due to van Vogt's arrangements with creditors. Shortly afterward, van Vogt and his wife opened their own Dianetics center, partly financed by his writings, until he "signed off" around 1961.  From 1951 until 1961, van Vogt's focus was on Dianetics, and no new story ideas flowed from his typewriter.

===Fix-ups===
However, during the 1950s, van Vogt retrospectively patched together many of his previously published stories into novels, sometimes creating new interstitial material to help bridge gaps in the narrative.  Van Vogt referred to the resulting books as "[[fix-up]]s", a term that entered the vocabulary of science-fiction criticism. When the original stories were closely related this was often successful, although some van Vogt fix-ups featured disparate stories thrown together that bore little relation to each other, generally making for a less coherent plot.  One of his best-known (and well-regarded) novels, ''[[The Voyage of the Space Beagle]]'' (1950) was a fix-up of four short stories including "Discord in Scarlet"; it was published in at least five European languages by 1955.<ref name=isfdb/>

Although Van Vogt averaged a new book title every ten months from 1951 to 1961, none of them were entirely new content; they were all fix-ups, collections of previously published stories, expansions of previously published short stories to novel length, or republications of previous books under new titles and all based on story material written and originally published between 1939 and 1950. Examples include ''[[The Weapon Shops of Isher]]'' (1951), ''[[The Mixed Men]]'' (1952), ''[[The War Against the Rull]]'' (1959), and the two "Clane" novels, ''[[Empire of the Atom]]'' (1957) and ''[[The Wizard of Linn]]'' (1962), which were inspired (like [[Isaac Asimov|Asimov]]'s [[Foundation (book series)|Foundation series]]) by [[Roman Empire|Roman imperial history]]; specifically, as [[Damon Knight]] wrote, the plot of ''Empire of the Atom'' was "lifted almost bodily" from that of [[Robert Graves]]' ''[[I, Claudius]]''.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Knight |first1=Damon |author-link1=Damon Knight |title=[[In Search of Wonder]] |edition=2nd  |date=March 1967 |orig-year=First Edition 1956 |publisher=Advent  |isbn=0-911682-15-5 |oclc=489853415 |page=62 |chapter=Cosmic Jerrybuilder: A. E. Van Vogt  |lccn=67-4260 }}</ref> (Also, one non-fiction work, ''The Hypnotism Handbook'', appeared in 1956, though it had apparently been written much earlier.)

After more than a decade of running their Dianetics center, Hull and van Vogt closed it in 1961.  Nevertheless, van Vogt maintained his association with the organization and was still president of the Californian Association of Dianetic Auditors into the 1980s.<ref name=platt/>