Charles Platt (science-fiction author)
Encyclopedia
Charles Platt is an author, journalist and computer programmer. He relocated from England to the United States in 1970, is a naturalized U.S. citizen and has one daughter, Rose Fox. Platt is the nephew of Robert, Baron Platt, of Grindleford
.
as "A plausible, well-crafted narrative exploring cyberspace in a wholly new and very refreshing way". Platt was nominated for Hugo awards and received a Locus Award
for his two books of profiles of science-fiction writers, Dream Makers (1980) and Dream Makers II (1983).
As a fiction writer, Charles Platt has also used pen-names: Aston Cantwell (1983), Robert Clarke (Less Than Human, a science-fiction comedy, in 1986) and Charlotte Prentiss (historical and prehistory novels, between 1981 and 1999). He contributed to the series of Playboy Press erotic novels under the house pseudonym Blakely St. James that was shared by many other writers during the 1970s.
Although Platt ceased much of his activity as a fiction writer after 2001, in 2005 he was offered a contract for a new picaresque black comedy about a teenage female serial killer.
Platt is also known for writing The Gas (novel) in 1970 for the Ophelia Press (OPH-216), an imprint of notorious publisher Maurice Girodias
's Olympia Press
. (Girodias also published several of Barry N. Malzberg's early novels.) When Platt's novel was published in the United Kingdom by Savoy Books in 1980, copies were seized by the UK's Director of Public Prosecutions.
, J.G. Ballard, Frank Herbert
, Isaac Asimov
, Kurt Vonnegut, Jr, Ray Bradbury
, John Brunner
.
In a review of a book (Hammer's Slammers
) by David Drake
, Platt asserted that Drake wouldn't write such "queasy voyeurism" if he had really seen war. Drake, a Vietnam veteran
, has since taken to including despicable characters named "Platt" in his writings.
Platt began writing for Wired in its third issue, and ultimately became one of its senior writers, contributing more than thirty full-length features. He was an early and prominent user of MindVox
and wrote five books on computers and computer programming during that period. His nonfiction has appeared in publications such as Omni
, The Washington Post
, and The Los Angeles Times.
While covering the 1994 Hackers on Planet Earth Conference for his article "Hackers: Threat or Menace?" in Issue 2.11 of Wired Magazine, Mr. Platt drew the ire of attendees for his interjections during the panel discussion entitled "What is this Cryptography Stuff and Why Should I Care?" Mr. Platt repeatedly loudly inquired "Where's the crime?", an exclamation later adopted as a nickname for him by some members of the hacker community. The conference organizer, Eric Corley
(aka Emmanuel Goldstein) penned a rebuttal to Platt's article and commentary on his methods that was partially published in the "Rants and Raves" section of Wired Magazine Issue 3.02.
C4P, and learned to write game programs for it which were distributed as shareware. Subsequently he wrote educational software published by Trillium Press, and participated in the first conference on cellular automata at MIT, where he demonstrated MS-DOS
software that he wrote himself and sold subsequently by mail order. His program to generate the Mandelbrot Set
was also self-published and sold primary to university mathematical departments. He is the author of six computer books, from the satirical Micro-Mania to the instructional Graphics Guide to the Commodore 64. For many years he taught computer graphics classes in Adobe Illustrator
and Photoshop at The New School for Social Research in New York City.
's team at New Worlds
as de facto art director and graphic designer from 1967 to 1971. Although completely untrained in the field, he was largely responsible for the collage-oriented look of the magazine at the time, matching the style of much of the fiction published therein.
In 1970 Charles Platt became a consulting editor for Avon Books, acquiring work for their science-fiction list. Subsequently he performed a similar role for the short-lived paperback imprint Condor Publishing, and was science-fiction editor for Franklin Watts, Inc.
During the 1980s Platt self-published The Patchin Review, a little magazine of literary criticism and commentary centered on the science-fiction field. Although each issue sold only 1,000 copies, the venture acquired notoriety for its edgy attitude and attracted contributions from many then-well-known editors and authors in the field, including Philip K. Dick
, Gregory Benford
, Brian W. Aldiss, David Hartwell, and others.
In 2007 Platt became a section editor for Make magazine
, for which he had already been a frequent contributor.
in 1990 after visiting the Alcor Life Extension Foundation
. He wrote a book on the subject, Life Unlimited, for which a contract was issued by Wired Books; the publisher ceased doing business, and the text remains unpublished. Platt became President of CryoCare Foundation, which he co-founded in 1993. He worked for Alcor, a company which may be best known for cryopreserving
Ted Williams
' head and body after he died. In 2004 Platt became a director of Suspended Animation, Inc., based in Boynton Beach, Florida
. Suspended Animation pursues R&D to develop equipment and procedures for use in mitigating ischemic injury immediately after cardiac arrest in terminal patients who have made arrangements for cryopreservation
. Platt resigned his positions at the company at the end of 2006 but continues to design equipment for it as an independent contractor.
Robert Platt, Baron Platt
Robert Platt, Baron Platt , was a British physician.His research was on kidney diseases, but he is remembered for the 1940-1950s Platt vs. Pickering debate with George Pickering over the nature of hypertension...
.
Fiction
The Silicon Man has been endorsed by William GibsonWilliam Gibson
William Gibson is an American-Canadian science fiction author.William Gibson may also refer to:-Association football:*Will Gibson , Scottish footballer...
as "A plausible, well-crafted narrative exploring cyberspace in a wholly new and very refreshing way". Platt was nominated for Hugo awards and received a Locus Award
Locus Award
The Locus Award is a literary award established in 1971 and presented to winners of Locus magazine's annual readers' poll. Currently, the Locus Awards are presented at an annual banquet...
for his two books of profiles of science-fiction writers, Dream Makers (1980) and Dream Makers II (1983).
As a fiction writer, Charles Platt has also used pen-names: Aston Cantwell (1983), Robert Clarke (Less Than Human, a science-fiction comedy, in 1986) and Charlotte Prentiss (historical and prehistory novels, between 1981 and 1999). He contributed to the series of Playboy Press erotic novels under the house pseudonym Blakely St. James that was shared by many other writers during the 1970s.
Although Platt ceased much of his activity as a fiction writer after 2001, in 2005 he was offered a contract for a new picaresque black comedy about a teenage female serial killer.
Platt is also known for writing The Gas (novel) in 1970 for the Ophelia Press (OPH-216), an imprint of notorious publisher Maurice Girodias
Maurice Girodias
Maurice Girodias was the founder of the Olympia Press. At one time he was the owner of his father's Obelisk Press, and spent most of his productive years in Paris.-Early life:...
's Olympia Press
Olympia Press
Olympia Press was a Paris-based publisher, launched in 1953 by Maurice Girodias as a rebranded version of the Obelisk Press he inherited from his father Jack Kahane...
. (Girodias also published several of Barry N. Malzberg's early novels.) When Platt's novel was published in the United Kingdom by Savoy Books in 1980, copies were seized by the UK's Director of Public Prosecutions.
Nonfiction
From 1980 to 1987, Platt interviewed about forty major science-fiction writers such as Philip K. DickPhilip K. Dick
Philip Kindred Dick was an American novelist, short story writer and essayist whose published work is almost entirely in the science fiction genre. Dick explored sociological, political and metaphysical themes in novels dominated by monopolistic corporations, authoritarian governments and altered...
, J.G. Ballard, Frank Herbert
Frank Herbert
Franklin Patrick Herbert, Jr. was a critically acclaimed and commercially successful American science fiction author. Although a short story author, he is best known for his novels, most notably Dune and its five sequels...
, Isaac Asimov
Isaac Asimov
Isaac Asimov was an American author and professor of biochemistry at Boston University, best known for his works of science fiction and for his popular science books. Asimov was one of the most prolific writers of all time, having written or edited more than 500 books and an estimated 90,000...
, Kurt Vonnegut, Jr, Ray Bradbury
Ray Bradbury
Ray Douglas Bradbury is an American fantasy, horror, science fiction, and mystery writer. Best known for his dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451 and for the science fiction stories gathered together as The Martian Chronicles and The Illustrated Man , Bradbury is one of the most celebrated among 20th...
, John Brunner
John Brunner (novelist)
John Kilian Houston Brunner was a prolific British author of science fiction novels and stories. His 1968 novel Stand on Zanzibar, about an overpopulated world, won the 1968 Hugo Award for best science fiction novel. It also won the BSFA award the same year...
.
In a review of a book (Hammer's Slammers
Hammer's Slammers
Hammer's Slammers is a 1979 collection of military science fiction short stories by author David Drake. It follows the career of a future mercenary tank regiment called Hammer's Slammers, after their leader, Colonel Alois Hammer...
) by David Drake
David Drake
David Drake is an American author of science fiction and fantasy literature. A Vietnam War veteran who has worked as a lawyer, he is now one of the premier authors of the military science fiction subgenre.-Biography:...
, Platt asserted that Drake wouldn't write such "queasy voyeurism" if he had really seen war. Drake, a Vietnam veteran
Vietnam veteran
Vietnam veteran is a phrase used to describe someone who served in the armed forces of participating countries during the Vietnam War.The term has been used to describe veterans who were in the armed forces of South Vietnam, the United States armed forces, and countries allied to them, whether or...
, has since taken to including despicable characters named "Platt" in his writings.
Platt began writing for Wired in its third issue, and ultimately became one of its senior writers, contributing more than thirty full-length features. He was an early and prominent user of MindVox
MindVox
MindVox was a famed early Internet Service Provider in New York City. A controversial sometime media darling — the service was referred to as "the Hells Angels of Cyberspace" — it was founded in 1991 by Bruce Fancher and Patrick Kroupa , two former members of the legendary Legion of Doom hacker...
and wrote five books on computers and computer programming during that period. His nonfiction has appeared in publications such as Omni
Omni (magazine)
OMNI was a science and science fiction magazine published in the US and the UK. It contained articles on science fact and short works of science fiction...
, The Washington Post
The Washington Post
The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...
, and The Los Angeles Times.
While covering the 1994 Hackers on Planet Earth Conference for his article "Hackers: Threat or Menace?" in Issue 2.11 of Wired Magazine, Mr. Platt drew the ire of attendees for his interjections during the panel discussion entitled "What is this Cryptography Stuff and Why Should I Care?" Mr. Platt repeatedly loudly inquired "Where's the crime?", an exclamation later adopted as a nickname for him by some members of the hacker community. The conference organizer, Eric Corley
Eric Corley
Eric Gordon Corley, Born December 16, 1959, also frequently referred to by his pen name of Emmanuel Goldstein, is a figure in the hacker community...
(aka Emmanuel Goldstein) penned a rebuttal to Platt's article and commentary on his methods that was partially published in the "Rants and Raves" section of Wired Magazine Issue 3.02.
Computer programming
Platt acquired an early desktop computer, an Ohio ScientificOhio Scientific
Ohio Scientific Inc. was a United States computer company that built and marketed computers from the late 1970s to the early 1980s...
C4P, and learned to write game programs for it which were distributed as shareware. Subsequently he wrote educational software published by Trillium Press, and participated in the first conference on cellular automata at MIT, where he demonstrated MS-DOS
MS-DOS
MS-DOS is an operating system for x86-based personal computers. It was the most commonly used member of the DOS family of operating systems, and was the main operating system for IBM PC compatible personal computers during the 1980s to the mid 1990s, until it was gradually superseded by operating...
software that he wrote himself and sold subsequently by mail order. His program to generate the Mandelbrot Set
Mandelbrot set
The Mandelbrot set is a particular mathematical set of points, whose boundary generates a distinctive and easily recognisable two-dimensional fractal shape...
was also self-published and sold primary to university mathematical departments. He is the author of six computer books, from the satirical Micro-Mania to the instructional Graphics Guide to the Commodore 64. For many years he taught computer graphics classes in Adobe Illustrator
Adobe Illustrator
Adobe Illustrator is a vector graphics editor developed and marketed by Adobe Systems. Illustrator is similar in scope, intended market, and functionality to its competitors, CorelDraw, Xara Designer Pro and Macromedia FreeHand....
and Photoshop at The New School for Social Research in New York City.
Editing and publishing
In the 1960s, Platt joined Michael MoorcockMichael Moorcock
Michael John Moorcock is an English writer, primarily of science fiction and fantasy, who has also published a number of literary novels....
's team at New Worlds
New Worlds (magazine)
New Worlds was a British science fiction magazine which was first published professionally in 1946. For 25 years it was widely considered the leading science fiction magazine in Britain, publishing 201 issues up to 1971...
as de facto art director and graphic designer from 1967 to 1971. Although completely untrained in the field, he was largely responsible for the collage-oriented look of the magazine at the time, matching the style of much of the fiction published therein.
In 1970 Charles Platt became a consulting editor for Avon Books, acquiring work for their science-fiction list. Subsequently he performed a similar role for the short-lived paperback imprint Condor Publishing, and was science-fiction editor for Franklin Watts, Inc.
During the 1980s Platt self-published The Patchin Review, a little magazine of literary criticism and commentary centered on the science-fiction field. Although each issue sold only 1,000 copies, the venture acquired notoriety for its edgy attitude and attracted contributions from many then-well-known editors and authors in the field, including Philip K. Dick
Philip K. Dick
Philip Kindred Dick was an American novelist, short story writer and essayist whose published work is almost entirely in the science fiction genre. Dick explored sociological, political and metaphysical themes in novels dominated by monopolistic corporations, authoritarian governments and altered...
, Gregory Benford
Gregory Benford
Gregory Benford is an American science fiction author and astrophysicist who is on the faculty of the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of California, Irvine...
, Brian W. Aldiss, David Hartwell, and others.
In 2007 Platt became a section editor for Make magazine
Make (magazine)
Make is an American quarterly magazine published by O'Reilly Media which focuses on do it yourself and/or DIWO projects involving computers, electronics, robotics, metalworking, woodworking and other disciplines...
, for which he had already been a frequent contributor.
Cryonics
Platt became interested in cryonicsCryonics
Cryonics is the low-temperature preservation of humans and animals who can no longer be sustained by contemporary medicine, with the hope that healing and resuscitation may be possible in the future. Cryopreservation of people or large animals is not reversible with current technology...
in 1990 after visiting the Alcor Life Extension Foundation
Alcor Life Extension Foundation
The Alcor Life Extension Foundation, most often referred to as Alcor, is a Scottsdale, Arizona, USA-based nonprofit company that researches, advocates for and performs cryonics, the preservation of humans in liquid nitrogen after legal death, with hopes of restoring them to full health when new...
. He wrote a book on the subject, Life Unlimited, for which a contract was issued by Wired Books; the publisher ceased doing business, and the text remains unpublished. Platt became President of CryoCare Foundation, which he co-founded in 1993. He worked for Alcor, a company which may be best known for cryopreserving
Cryopreservation
Cryopreservation is a process where cells or whole tissues are preserved by cooling to low sub-zero temperatures, such as 77 K or −196 °C . At these low temperatures, any biological activity, including the biochemical reactions that would lead to cell death, is effectively stopped...
Ted Williams
Ted Williams
Theodore Samuel "Ted" Williams was an American professional baseball player and manager. He played his entire 21-year Major League Baseball career as the left fielder for the Boston Red Sox...
' head and body after he died. In 2004 Platt became a director of Suspended Animation, Inc., based in Boynton Beach, Florida
Boynton Beach, Florida
Boynton Beach is a city in Palm Beach County, Florida, United States. The population was 60,389 at the 2000 census. As of 2006, the city had a population of 66,714 according to the University of Florida, Bureau of Economic and Business Research...
. Suspended Animation pursues R&D to develop equipment and procedures for use in mitigating ischemic injury immediately after cardiac arrest in terminal patients who have made arrangements for cryopreservation
Cryopreservation
Cryopreservation is a process where cells or whole tissues are preserved by cooling to low sub-zero temperatures, such as 77 K or −196 °C . At these low temperatures, any biological activity, including the biochemical reactions that would lead to cell death, is effectively stopped...
. Platt resigned his positions at the company at the end of 2006 but continues to design equipment for it as an independent contractor.
Novels and novellas
- Garbage World (1967)
- The Gas (1970)
- The City Dwellers (1970)
- Planets of the Voles (1971)
- Twilight of the City (1978)
- Less Than Human (1986)
- Aton/Worlds of Chthon series (continuation of the series originally by Piers AnthonyPiers AnthonyPiers Anthony Dillingham Jacob is an English American writer in the science fiction and fantasy genres, publishing under the name Piers Anthony. He is most famous for his long-running novel series set in the fictional realm of Xanth.Many of his books have appeared on the New York Times Best...
)- 3 Plasm (1987)
- 4 Soma (1988)
- Free Zone (1988)
- The Silicon Man (1991)
- Protektor (1996)
Short stories
- One of Those Days (1964)
- Lone Zone (1965)
- The Disaster Story (1966)
- The Failures (1966)
- The Rodent Laboratory (1966)
- Direction (1969)
- A Cleansing of the System (1972)
- The Coldness (1973)
- New York Times (1973)
Anthologies edited
- New Worlds Quarterly an anthology series related to New Worlds magazineNew Worlds (magazine)New Worlds was a British science fiction magazine which was first published professionally in 1946. For 25 years it was widely considered the leading science fiction magazine in Britain, publishing 201 issues up to 1971...
- New Worlds 6 (UK, 1973) with Michael MoorcockMichael MoorcockMichael John Moorcock is an English writer, primarily of science fiction and fantasy, who has also published a number of literary novels....
- This also appeared as New Worlds #5 (US, 1974) with Michael Moorcock
- New Worlds 7 (UK, 1974) with Hilary BaileyHilary BaileyHilary Bailey is a British writer and editor, born in 1936. She is the former wife of Michael Moorcock.She edited volumes 7-10 of the New Worlds Quarterly series....
- This also appeared as New Worlds #6 (US, 1975) with Hilary Bailey
- New Worlds 6 (UK, 1973) with Michael Moorcock
Nonfiction
- Dream Makers series
- 1 Dream Makers: The Uncommon People Who Write Science Fiction (1980)
- 2 Dream Makers, Volume II: The Uncommon Men & Women Who Write Science Fiction (1983)
- Dream Makers: Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers at Work (1987)
- Micromania: The Whole-Truth Home Computer Handbook (1984)
- How to be a Happy Cat (1986) with Gray Joliffe
- Loose Canon (2001)
- MAKE: Electronics: Learning by Discovery (2009)