The New Wave liberalism is depressing — look at Generation Z, who’d “cancel” Harlan Ellison in a New York second despite his fanatical kowtowing to the far left-wing script of a bygone time. There was still some bite to these tales back in the 1980s. The pure s-f of Asimov and Clarke doesn’t need hepcat melodrama to take a reader into unknown realms. Dignified behavior counts for a lot.