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FMS Digest, v. 1, issues 1-5, February - July 1941
v.1:no.2: Page 4
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Page 4 F M Z DIGEST "Remove that lipstick! It makes you look like one of those disgusting Earthlings!" Cartoon by BRONSON. SUN SPOTS, April '41. TYING UP LOOSE ENDS Department By Milton A. Rothman Just thought of something today that makes me somewhat proud of sf fans, for it shows their healthy skepticism toward ideas that others try to foist upon them. Of course, you might call this dumb stubbornness. And some of the ideas might have a grain of good in them, pity tis. But notice how the history of fandom represents one person after another trying to make the fans sit up and take a pet idea seriously-- and how those people inevitably came to grief. There was Wollheim and Michelism. Van Hooten is being trampled under the ruins of pro - scientism. Miske is being submerged. Someday, though, somebody is going to come along with a really good idea and will know how to put it across. Someday somebody will learn that you can't make a large group of people interested in you by stampeding them, by knocking them down with a big rush. To sway a people a long program of one step after another must be gone through. One tiny detail following one tiny detail. For further details read your newspapers and see how the gov't is doing it. New Thoughts for Science Fiction By F. Orlin Tremaine Condensed from SUN SPOTS April, 1941 Science fiction is fascinating only as long as those who write it continue to inject new thoughts into its bloodstream of stories. In 1940 we faced a field which had expanded tremendously in the number of magazines offering each its own interpretation of what science fiction should be. But the great stories were strangely few Quantity production had stretched the few ideas so thin that we were fortunate if we were able to hit upon a particular magazine which carried the outstanding stories of the month. I believe the first five issues of COMET will illustrate exactly what I mean. There were good stories in the first issue, and there were also good stories in a number of other magazines. The second issue was better in that it began to show the stirrings of imaginative effort. One thing is vitally important, and which you can depend on as COMET progresses, is the fact that each issue will present new thoughts, new styles, surprises, and growing excellence. This, to my mind, is the essence of what had made science fiction a living type of literature. It has produced support such as no other type of magazine can boast. I have on my desk nearly 45 fan papers and magazines produced by painstaking effort by those who will, in the next few years, become the core of the new crop of writers. It is our job to encourage their efforts in every direction. Now because this is our first mention of fan journalism, we intend to establish an annual award for the outstanding effort by a fan paper or magazine, or[[?]] by a member of the staff of a magazine. I have outlined for you something of the editorial policy which will make for continued interest in COMET, because of its interest in every single reader and supporter of S-F.
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Page 4 F M Z DIGEST "Remove that lipstick! It makes you look like one of those disgusting Earthlings!" Cartoon by BRONSON. SUN SPOTS, April '41. TYING UP LOOSE ENDS Department By Milton A. Rothman Just thought of something today that makes me somewhat proud of sf fans, for it shows their healthy skepticism toward ideas that others try to foist upon them. Of course, you might call this dumb stubbornness. And some of the ideas might have a grain of good in them, pity tis. But notice how the history of fandom represents one person after another trying to make the fans sit up and take a pet idea seriously-- and how those people inevitably came to grief. There was Wollheim and Michelism. Van Hooten is being trampled under the ruins of pro - scientism. Miske is being submerged. Someday, though, somebody is going to come along with a really good idea and will know how to put it across. Someday somebody will learn that you can't make a large group of people interested in you by stampeding them, by knocking them down with a big rush. To sway a people a long program of one step after another must be gone through. One tiny detail following one tiny detail. For further details read your newspapers and see how the gov't is doing it. New Thoughts for Science Fiction By F. Orlin Tremaine Condensed from SUN SPOTS April, 1941 Science fiction is fascinating only as long as those who write it continue to inject new thoughts into its bloodstream of stories. In 1940 we faced a field which had expanded tremendously in the number of magazines offering each its own interpretation of what science fiction should be. But the great stories were strangely few Quantity production had stretched the few ideas so thin that we were fortunate if we were able to hit upon a particular magazine which carried the outstanding stories of the month. I believe the first five issues of COMET will illustrate exactly what I mean. There were good stories in the first issue, and there were also good stories in a number of other magazines. The second issue was better in that it began to show the stirrings of imaginative effort. One thing is vitally important, and which you can depend on as COMET progresses, is the fact that each issue will present new thoughts, new styles, surprises, and growing excellence. This, to my mind, is the essence of what had made science fiction a living type of literature. It has produced support such as no other type of magazine can boast. I have on my desk nearly 45 fan papers and magazines produced by painstaking effort by those who will, in the next few years, become the core of the new crop of writers. It is our job to encourage their efforts in every direction. Now because this is our first mention of fan journalism, we intend to establish an annual award for the outstanding effort by a fan paper or magazine, or[[?]] by a member of the staff of a magazine. I have outlined for you something of the editorial policy which will make for continued interest in COMET, because of its interest in every single reader and supporter of S-F.
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