Which deceased SF&F Authors would you like to talk to?

Harlan Ellison
Jack Williamson
J R R Tolkien
C. S .Lewis
Stanton Coblentz
Karl Edward Wagner
James Branch Cabell
Clark Ashton Smith
Robert E Howard
H P Lovecraft
Abram Merritt
 
Robert. E. Howard, because he's my favorite author.

Mike Resnick, because he seemed like a cool guy that helped beginner authors.
 
HG Wells - he had some interesting ideas and unusual points of view for his time. And he was supposed to be a bit of a "lady's man" in his youth. I'd like to see how charismatic he was. Also I think he might be up for a chat by a fire with a glass or two of good whiskey.
David Gemmell and Sir Terry Pratchett - I'd like to thank them for writing stories that I have gone back to many, many times...
 
Wells, Peake, Orwell and Banks for me, although I'm not sure how much fun some of them would be. I once met Banks at a convention: he was very polite as I spouted gibberish at him, but had to go and have a curry and thus escaped.
 
I'll go with:

Clifford D. Simak
Cordwainer Smith (Paul Linebarger)
Charles G. Finney
I've read every single one of their published stories, long and short, and I'd love to meet them. They've tended to fly under the radar so there's not that much information available about them.

I'll add Robert Anton Wilson to the list as he' d be great company and really interesting.

I'm tempted to include R.A. Lafferty but I'm not sure he'd be that forthcoming in conversation.
 
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Toby Frost said:
I think it's assumed that they're alive and functional, otherwise "Jeremy Bentham" would be the safest answer.
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Yes, but: his head is made of wax, which is a bit disconcerting when you look him in the eye, and would be more so if he was reanimated.
 
C. S. Lewis and Colin Wilson, together. They would have much to say to each other about the affirmative experiences of life. They even both married women named Joy!

If I were their host, I might prompt the conversation a bit by introducing J. W. Dunne's Experiment with Time, a book that interested both men -- haven't got the Colin Wilson reference right now, but Lewis's heroine in That Hideous Strength has precognitive dreams a la Dunne, and Daniel Morris's "Encounter in a Two-Bit Pub" describes his conversation, I think in 1959, with Lewis in which they talked for 75 minutes or so, and Dunne was one of the authorities discussed. So I think referring to Dunne etc. could get the ball rolling, and, incidentally, get the two men feeling they were, in this at least, on the same side, had some common ground of interest. But Colin's Poetry and Mysticism etc. and CSL's Surprised by Joy show that interest in affirmative moments of profound meaning and I can't think that they wouldn't have each had much to say of value and of interest to the other (and to the third man there, namely me). I wonder if they'd have thought there was some common ground too between Wilson's "mind parasites" and Lewis's Screwtapean devils, etc.

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They'd have known what to do with a pint or two of bitter, too.
 
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Octavia Butler because I just hear a podcast about her life and she sounds like she would have been insanely interesting to have a deep discussion with.

Octavia Butler
 
David Gemmell. So I could apologise to him for being a dick and criticising Lion of Macedon at a book signing as it's now one of my favourites. Also, thank him for the personal letter he wrote when I wrote asking for writing advice. And thank him also for writing some of the most enjoyable fantasy on the market.
 
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