Gordon Van Gelder was the editor of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction for 18 years. He has been the magazine’s publisher since 2000. He has also edited several anthologies, including Welcome to Dystopia and Go Forth and Multiply. He lives in New Jersey.
Now, the questions:
If you could time travel to any point in history, which era would you choose, and why?
If I had to pick a time period in which I’d live, I’d aim for the late 1950s or early 1960s. I’ve long suspected that I was meant to work in publishing during that era and it’s just a fluke that I wound up in the tail end of the twentieth century and the early part of the twenty-first.
If I’m picking a time to visit, jeez, I’m not sure. One thought is that it would probably be fun to go to the Villa Deodati in the summer of 1816.
If you could have any fictional pet as a companion, what would it be and why?
I was thinking I’d pick the hamster from Laird Koenig’s THE LITTLE GIRL WHO LIVES DOWN THE LANE, but if I could really have a companion, I’d probably choose the cat from Heinlein’s THE DOOR INTO SUMMER. That’s one good pet.
If you could travel to any alternate universe where a different version of yourself exists, what do you think your other self would be like?
An obnoxious git. Unlike the me in this universe.
What Pre-1960s SF television show or movie would you like to see get a big-budget remake, and why?
I’m not sure any movie should have a big-budget remake inflicted on it, but one movie that might be interesting to remake is FOUR-SIDED TRIANGLE from 1953. It was an early Hammer film and it might be worthwhile to revise and update it for the 2020s.
If you were secretly an alien visitor to the Earth, why are you here?
Just looking to find a restroom, then I’ll be on my way.
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