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Spaceways, v. 4, issue 6, whole no. 29, 1942
Page 21
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SPACEWAYS 21 THE READERS ALWAYS WRITE that slaps in a reprint as the feature novel and backs it with a few trivial new shorts. (Guess what mags I'm referring to.) Sometimes reprints are used; sometimes they are not. A subscriber who starts his sub after seeing an "are not" issue, is quite likely to feel he has been gypped when the first "are" number arrives. And whether or not reprints are used, the price of the mag remains exactly the same....I think Doc mentioned in one of his mags that he uses reprints only when he can't obtain a good new novel. This sounds like a rather thin excuse, but maybe the Futurians are too busy these days to help fill RLW's needs. (Now that Doc's editing seven Western mags, does it mean that the FSNY has to pound out cowboy tales? Ghosh!) " .....In order to make it easy for one to compare his ratings with everybody else's, why not place the Poll Results in index form, using double columns for this purpose?.....(It would consume quite a bit of room; would the figures be interesting enough to justify the expenditure of space? HW) " The front cover is well-conceived but not so well executed. I've a vague hunch that it is supposed to look somewhat crudely done in order to put over some by-me-unknown effect, but even so, I don't care much for it. Schultz, however, seems to have talent--as his March cover proves. Let's have more like it...... " "Look Before You Leap, Cynic!".....gets 9 points, plus admiration. Anyone who has energy to comb over those three gigantic sagas for a few obscure quotations gets my praise any day. By the way, didn't Gray Lensman have any quotable quotes? None were given....The question of Mac refusing to remove her clothes to adhere to Lyranian custom certainly didn't prove one thing about her inherent brain capacities, but it did show her brain wasn't disciplined enuf to conquer her modesty to that extent. This article proved once and for all that SSL was no hoax, but that story will undoubtedly receive more criticism because it wasn't quite up to GP and GL. Yet how much better it was than most of today's scientifiction. Victor King, 722 South Arch St., Aberdeen, South Dakota, says: Not having had the benefit of having read the original matter on reprints, I shall have to draw from "The Readers Always Write". The important thing, in no one's eyes but my own, is that I wish to express my opinion on the problem, whether it's worth anything or not. " Many of the younger fans have found that the early classics are now unavailable in any form whatsoever. Accordingly, they must, of necessity, forego the pleasure of reading these stories unless they can find some collector who is willing to lend out a part of his collection to said younger fan. Such animals are rare. " (Those stories which appeared in other than fantasy and stf mags are particularly unavailable, I might add.) " The solution, in my eyes, is reprints. To some, reprints are obviously a blight up on stfandom--why, I cannot see. " Now FFM is an example of the heights to which a reprint magazine can rise. Such outstanding stories as The Blind Spot, The Moon Pool, the other Merrittales, and innumerable others, have been made available at nominal prices. Since these stories appeared before I was a stfan--a few before I was born--and because I live so far from civilization, I fear very much that I might have missed these immortals had not FFM brought them to me. As it is, I owe Munsey a vote of thanx. Nor do I think I am alone in this. " However, I hold that if a magazine intends using reprints, it should confine itself to reprints. Why should the work of newer authors be put into competition with stories which have long been acclaimed by fandom? There. Now you have my stand. " .....Aside from that, I have some more comments to make. When reprints are intermingled with newer stories (they shouldn't be, but try telling it to an editor), they should be only of the best. Try comparing the so-called classics of Future, Startling, and Captain Future with even some of the poorer stories of today. Not so hot, huh? If there is any crusade, it should be against the reprinting of early-day hack and the intermingling of reprints with modern stuff. " Another idea for a crusade is one against the reprints of cummings stories (yes, common noun--it's an affectation with me). We get enough of his damned hack without having to drag it out of the past. " What's the
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SPACEWAYS 21 THE READERS ALWAYS WRITE that slaps in a reprint as the feature novel and backs it with a few trivial new shorts. (Guess what mags I'm referring to.) Sometimes reprints are used; sometimes they are not. A subscriber who starts his sub after seeing an "are not" issue, is quite likely to feel he has been gypped when the first "are" number arrives. And whether or not reprints are used, the price of the mag remains exactly the same....I think Doc mentioned in one of his mags that he uses reprints only when he can't obtain a good new novel. This sounds like a rather thin excuse, but maybe the Futurians are too busy these days to help fill RLW's needs. (Now that Doc's editing seven Western mags, does it mean that the FSNY has to pound out cowboy tales? Ghosh!) " .....In order to make it easy for one to compare his ratings with everybody else's, why not place the Poll Results in index form, using double columns for this purpose?.....(It would consume quite a bit of room; would the figures be interesting enough to justify the expenditure of space? HW) " The front cover is well-conceived but not so well executed. I've a vague hunch that it is supposed to look somewhat crudely done in order to put over some by-me-unknown effect, but even so, I don't care much for it. Schultz, however, seems to have talent--as his March cover proves. Let's have more like it...... " "Look Before You Leap, Cynic!".....gets 9 points, plus admiration. Anyone who has energy to comb over those three gigantic sagas for a few obscure quotations gets my praise any day. By the way, didn't Gray Lensman have any quotable quotes? None were given....The question of Mac refusing to remove her clothes to adhere to Lyranian custom certainly didn't prove one thing about her inherent brain capacities, but it did show her brain wasn't disciplined enuf to conquer her modesty to that extent. This article proved once and for all that SSL was no hoax, but that story will undoubtedly receive more criticism because it wasn't quite up to GP and GL. Yet how much better it was than most of today's scientifiction. Victor King, 722 South Arch St., Aberdeen, South Dakota, says: Not having had the benefit of having read the original matter on reprints, I shall have to draw from "The Readers Always Write". The important thing, in no one's eyes but my own, is that I wish to express my opinion on the problem, whether it's worth anything or not. " Many of the younger fans have found that the early classics are now unavailable in any form whatsoever. Accordingly, they must, of necessity, forego the pleasure of reading these stories unless they can find some collector who is willing to lend out a part of his collection to said younger fan. Such animals are rare. " (Those stories which appeared in other than fantasy and stf mags are particularly unavailable, I might add.) " The solution, in my eyes, is reprints. To some, reprints are obviously a blight up on stfandom--why, I cannot see. " Now FFM is an example of the heights to which a reprint magazine can rise. Such outstanding stories as The Blind Spot, The Moon Pool, the other Merrittales, and innumerable others, have been made available at nominal prices. Since these stories appeared before I was a stfan--a few before I was born--and because I live so far from civilization, I fear very much that I might have missed these immortals had not FFM brought them to me. As it is, I owe Munsey a vote of thanx. Nor do I think I am alone in this. " However, I hold that if a magazine intends using reprints, it should confine itself to reprints. Why should the work of newer authors be put into competition with stories which have long been acclaimed by fandom? There. Now you have my stand. " .....Aside from that, I have some more comments to make. When reprints are intermingled with newer stories (they shouldn't be, but try telling it to an editor), they should be only of the best. Try comparing the so-called classics of Future, Startling, and Captain Future with even some of the poorer stories of today. Not so hot, huh? If there is any crusade, it should be against the reprinting of early-day hack and the intermingling of reprints with modern stuff. " Another idea for a crusade is one against the reprints of cummings stories (yes, common noun--it's an affectation with me). We get enough of his damned hack without having to drag it out of the past. " What's the
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