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FMS Digest, v. 1, issues 1-5, February - July 1941
v.1:no.1: Page 5
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F M Z DIGEST Page 5 SCIENCE FICTION AND DICTATORSHIP By j. Harvey Haggard Condensed from STELLAR TALES Winter Issue, 1941 If the menace from overseas has become so great that our country has taken active cognizance of its mounting threat there is no reason why science fiction should not analyze its own position as regards this same threat. The very existence of science fiction may well hang in the balance! As direct proof it is only necessary to consider the fact that since the advent of the military regimes in Europe, absolutely no science fiction of any merit has been produced by them, if we disregard Mein Kampf, by the well-known science fictionist, Adolph Hitler. Even before the advent of totalitarian government, little sympathy has ever been offered from these countries for the modern trend of science fiction. But the attempt to reach the stars had to be subjugated to the desires of the power-hungry dictator... Willy Ley, of course, is a notable example of a German who produces excellent science fiction, but this is produced right here in our own country. Do you suppose that he would be allow4ed to follow such a pursuit under the present conditions of his native homeland? The answer is very obviously and emphatically NO. Naturally, there is the consideration that Germany is now at war, and that under the stress of such circumstances all of the arts and sciences must suffer. We want to be fair. Suppose that the Third Reich were at peace. Suppose that the common people were allowed the luxury of science fiction. A popular writer writes a story depicting the future. In this narrative he moves thousands of years into the future, and in the development of his plot it is necessary to show an entirely different world with vast changes. Do you think that those in control would allow the Third Reich to be wiped out even momentarily by a writer's imagination or pen, even as the United States is now being obliterated on the news - stands many times each month? No, it would have to show the Aryan race triumphant over all, even as the interplanetary, inter-dimensional etc. stories must show their superiority. The possibilities for plotting would be so hampered that really original ideas would be smothered. Resultant stories would follow a strait-jacket plot, told and retold. Its very sameness would spell its doom. In our present world, only one country exists in which science fiction flourishes. That is the United States. When Democracy goes, it may well sound the death-knell of science fiction. From the STARPORT By Fred W. Fischer Condensed from THE SOUTHERN STAR Volume I, Number 1 Gugliemo Marconi, the Italian inventor, never ceased to believe that someday a machine would be invented which would capture and broadcast all the sounds ever made. He contended that sound was electrical in character and of such physical consistence as to be solid and permanent--although unheard after initial emission, the waves continued to circle the world and be inherently of the world. So far the machine hasn't been invented, but imagine its possibilities. History would have to be rewritten.
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F M Z DIGEST Page 5 SCIENCE FICTION AND DICTATORSHIP By j. Harvey Haggard Condensed from STELLAR TALES Winter Issue, 1941 If the menace from overseas has become so great that our country has taken active cognizance of its mounting threat there is no reason why science fiction should not analyze its own position as regards this same threat. The very existence of science fiction may well hang in the balance! As direct proof it is only necessary to consider the fact that since the advent of the military regimes in Europe, absolutely no science fiction of any merit has been produced by them, if we disregard Mein Kampf, by the well-known science fictionist, Adolph Hitler. Even before the advent of totalitarian government, little sympathy has ever been offered from these countries for the modern trend of science fiction. But the attempt to reach the stars had to be subjugated to the desires of the power-hungry dictator... Willy Ley, of course, is a notable example of a German who produces excellent science fiction, but this is produced right here in our own country. Do you suppose that he would be allow4ed to follow such a pursuit under the present conditions of his native homeland? The answer is very obviously and emphatically NO. Naturally, there is the consideration that Germany is now at war, and that under the stress of such circumstances all of the arts and sciences must suffer. We want to be fair. Suppose that the Third Reich were at peace. Suppose that the common people were allowed the luxury of science fiction. A popular writer writes a story depicting the future. In this narrative he moves thousands of years into the future, and in the development of his plot it is necessary to show an entirely different world with vast changes. Do you think that those in control would allow the Third Reich to be wiped out even momentarily by a writer's imagination or pen, even as the United States is now being obliterated on the news - stands many times each month? No, it would have to show the Aryan race triumphant over all, even as the interplanetary, inter-dimensional etc. stories must show their superiority. The possibilities for plotting would be so hampered that really original ideas would be smothered. Resultant stories would follow a strait-jacket plot, told and retold. Its very sameness would spell its doom. In our present world, only one country exists in which science fiction flourishes. That is the United States. When Democracy goes, it may well sound the death-knell of science fiction. From the STARPORT By Fred W. Fischer Condensed from THE SOUTHERN STAR Volume I, Number 1 Gugliemo Marconi, the Italian inventor, never ceased to believe that someday a machine would be invented which would capture and broadcast all the sounds ever made. He contended that sound was electrical in character and of such physical consistence as to be solid and permanent--although unheard after initial emission, the waves continued to circle the world and be inherently of the world. So far the machine hasn't been invented, but imagine its possibilities. History would have to be rewritten.
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