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Fantasy Commentator, v. 1, issue 3, September 1944
Page 37
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FANTASY COMMENTATOR 37 and that it could be authentic, too. And so it is that through the years certain stories stand out in the mind because of the nuclear idea alone---so starting, so original that they cannot be forgotten. Clare Winger Harris' "Miracle of the Lily" is one of these. In this example, the scientists of Earth, after years of painstaking labor, have succeeded in communicating with the planet Venus. Their respective languages having been decided, the two worlds exchange ideas. Both work together to complete two television sets which will enable the peoples to see one another. As these projects are being completed, Venus sends word that the world is defiled by millions of little insects that have wrought ruinous damage on previous occasions. Could the inhabitants of Earth suggest a means of extirmination? But Earth radios its answer: it, too, is plagued by locusts, termites, boll-weevils and similar vermin, which are kept under control only with great difficulty... Then the great day is at hand: the television sets are complete. Venus will broadcast first to show a sample of the Venusian insects. Earth scientists crowd about the screen. It flickers once, twice---then clearly defined, appears a huge grasshopper holding a tiny, squirming man! Then there is "Dream's End", by A. Connell. In kaleidoscope, Connell presents pictures of the world as we know it breaking apart. Upside-down battleships appear over the Empire State Building. Objects suddenly crumble and disappear. Every natural law breaks down, and as the entire world collapses into complete chaos, the author pictures a super-being awakening from his slumber, to lose the last fragments of his dream, which is our universe, from his great walking brain... In "The World Wreckers" Raymond Z. Gallun again presents the theme of interplanetary communication. This time Pluto is the planet reached, and both worlds develop a device for transmuting material objects into energy, sending it thus through space, and reintegrating it on arrival at its destination into the original form. It is planned to exchange objects between the two planets, using this means. The Earth scientists send the nearest thing at hand, a lighted candle. They wait. Then---abruptly there is a giant flare in the sky---and Pluto is no more! "Set Your Course by the Stars." That is what Eando Binder's hero did in a short story of that title. Space navigation was planned to perfection. All that one needed to do was to set one's course by means of the major stars, plot the trajectory, and take off. Jason took off---and came back. Came back because beyond the protecting blanket of the atmosphere so many stars were visible that all space was white---a brilliant, glaring white, and you couldn't set your course by the stars... In "Exiles on Asperus," in the Winter 1933 Wonder Stories Quarterly, a vivid picture of the extrapolated adaptability of human beings is painted by the author, John Beynon Harris. A damaged spaceship lands on the asteroid Asperus. Although the entire solar system had supposedly been colonized by proud Earthmen here on the asteroid the voyagers find thousands of human beings existing as abject slaves of a bat-like race of creatures known as Betrachs. The issue never is in doubt: these enslaved descendants of spacewrecked Earthmen must be freed from bondage. A terrific struggle ensues between the Betrachs and the newly-arrived Earthmen. After bitter fighting the latter faction is victorious---but in the fighting only. For the Betrachs' control is still in evidence; the formerly enslaved men turn on their liberators in an effort to drive them away. And the Earthmen leave, defeated by the doctrines the Betrachs have insidiously instilled into the minds of their captives. The story concludes, "And so, though it is colonized, you will fail to find the Asperus on Earth's proud colonial lists."
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FANTASY COMMENTATOR 37 and that it could be authentic, too. And so it is that through the years certain stories stand out in the mind because of the nuclear idea alone---so starting, so original that they cannot be forgotten. Clare Winger Harris' "Miracle of the Lily" is one of these. In this example, the scientists of Earth, after years of painstaking labor, have succeeded in communicating with the planet Venus. Their respective languages having been decided, the two worlds exchange ideas. Both work together to complete two television sets which will enable the peoples to see one another. As these projects are being completed, Venus sends word that the world is defiled by millions of little insects that have wrought ruinous damage on previous occasions. Could the inhabitants of Earth suggest a means of extirmination? But Earth radios its answer: it, too, is plagued by locusts, termites, boll-weevils and similar vermin, which are kept under control only with great difficulty... Then the great day is at hand: the television sets are complete. Venus will broadcast first to show a sample of the Venusian insects. Earth scientists crowd about the screen. It flickers once, twice---then clearly defined, appears a huge grasshopper holding a tiny, squirming man! Then there is "Dream's End", by A. Connell. In kaleidoscope, Connell presents pictures of the world as we know it breaking apart. Upside-down battleships appear over the Empire State Building. Objects suddenly crumble and disappear. Every natural law breaks down, and as the entire world collapses into complete chaos, the author pictures a super-being awakening from his slumber, to lose the last fragments of his dream, which is our universe, from his great walking brain... In "The World Wreckers" Raymond Z. Gallun again presents the theme of interplanetary communication. This time Pluto is the planet reached, and both worlds develop a device for transmuting material objects into energy, sending it thus through space, and reintegrating it on arrival at its destination into the original form. It is planned to exchange objects between the two planets, using this means. The Earth scientists send the nearest thing at hand, a lighted candle. They wait. Then---abruptly there is a giant flare in the sky---and Pluto is no more! "Set Your Course by the Stars." That is what Eando Binder's hero did in a short story of that title. Space navigation was planned to perfection. All that one needed to do was to set one's course by means of the major stars, plot the trajectory, and take off. Jason took off---and came back. Came back because beyond the protecting blanket of the atmosphere so many stars were visible that all space was white---a brilliant, glaring white, and you couldn't set your course by the stars... In "Exiles on Asperus," in the Winter 1933 Wonder Stories Quarterly, a vivid picture of the extrapolated adaptability of human beings is painted by the author, John Beynon Harris. A damaged spaceship lands on the asteroid Asperus. Although the entire solar system had supposedly been colonized by proud Earthmen here on the asteroid the voyagers find thousands of human beings existing as abject slaves of a bat-like race of creatures known as Betrachs. The issue never is in doubt: these enslaved descendants of spacewrecked Earthmen must be freed from bondage. A terrific struggle ensues between the Betrachs and the newly-arrived Earthmen. After bitter fighting the latter faction is victorious---but in the fighting only. For the Betrachs' control is still in evidence; the formerly enslaved men turn on their liberators in an effort to drive them away. And the Earthmen leave, defeated by the doctrines the Betrachs have insidiously instilled into the minds of their captives. The story concludes, "And so, though it is colonized, you will fail to find the Asperus on Earth's proud colonial lists."
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