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Acolyte, v. 4, issue 1, whole no. 13, Winter 1946
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ing emotions into the story. The doubts that plague Carver as to whether or not the girl can bear normal children provide elements for a strong story, but Weinbaum seemed incapable of lifting it above average. "One of the last stories written by Stanley G. Weinbaum" was "The Circle of Zero". It resembles the Van Manderpootz series, but the humor is not quite so deliberate and so is occasionally effective. The yarn deals with the attempts of Prof. de Ne'ant to bring through hypnotism memories of the past, past lives, and the future; and, like the Van Manderpootz series, is top-heavy with new ideas and their explanations, and the story is tacked on almost incidentally. It is more of a synopsis than a complete story, and it is easy to understand why it was originally rejected. "Brink of Infinity", the second "last story by Stanley G. Weinbaum", was obviously not intended for publication, for the entire point of the story revolves about a problem in mathematics. A chemist who was crippled because a mathematician displaced a single decimal point in a formula decides to revenge himself by capturing a mathematician and telling him he will be released only if he can guess the mathematical quantity in the chemist's mind. The victim is allowed ten questions to gain clues and estimate the quantity. The story should have been as dry as dust, but the manner in which Weinbaum describes the cogitations of the mathematician makes a story of simple mathematics genuinely interesting. The name of Weinbaum had by now acquired a certain sales value, so Mort Weisinger and Julius Schwartz induced Stanley's sister Helen to complete and publish as a collaboration a story of which he had written a few hundred words. In this yarn, "Tidal Moon", Helen Weinbaum, using "A Martian Odyssey" as a model, introduced enough crazy "gadzooks" to shame her inspiration--it was not genuine Weinbaum and not too good. Helen Weinbaum had never really believed she could equal her brother's style, but had simply responded gracefully to the urging of Stanley's agents. Helen Weinbaum as a science-fiction writer was mediocre, and did far better in other fields. The only Weinbaum story ever to appear in the Teck Amazing was "Shifting Seas", a tale of volcanic action creating a 400 mile channel between North and South America and thus deflecting the Gulf Stream upon which Europe depended for warmth. The plot is hoary with age, but Weinbaum made an interesting and in places spectacular yarn of it. Shortly after Weinbaum's death, his friends, led by Raymond A. Palmer, Conrad H. Ruppert, Julius Schwartz, and the Milwaukee Fictioneers, published a hard-cover anthology under the title Dawn of Flame, and Other Stories. It contained the previously unpublished "Dawn of Flame", "The Mad Moon", A Martian Odyssey", The World of If", "The Adaptive Ultimate", "The Lotus Eaters", and "The Red Peri". As it appeared in the book, "Dawn of Flame" was dull and tedious, but when published three years later in TWS it had been condensed by Mort Weisinger It is the greatest justification of editorial cutting I have ever seen. The magazine version is swift-paced and beautifully written, with scarcely an unnecessary word. It gives the historical background of the Black Flame, an immortal woman, and contains some of the best writing Weinbaum ever did. "The Black Flame", a sequel to "Dawn of Flame", tells an enthralling tale of a man of the presnt who awakes in the future and after an unusual series of adventures lives to marry the Black Fame and gain immortality for himself. "The Black Flame" paints a vast canvas of Weinbaum's world of the future, and is nicely done, eminently readable and enjoyable. "The Revolution of 1950", an incompleted tale which was finished by Ralph Milne Farley, gives several clever twists but the overall effect is not outstanding. This tale was set so close in the immediate -- 27 --
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ing emotions into the story. The doubts that plague Carver as to whether or not the girl can bear normal children provide elements for a strong story, but Weinbaum seemed incapable of lifting it above average. "One of the last stories written by Stanley G. Weinbaum" was "The Circle of Zero". It resembles the Van Manderpootz series, but the humor is not quite so deliberate and so is occasionally effective. The yarn deals with the attempts of Prof. de Ne'ant to bring through hypnotism memories of the past, past lives, and the future; and, like the Van Manderpootz series, is top-heavy with new ideas and their explanations, and the story is tacked on almost incidentally. It is more of a synopsis than a complete story, and it is easy to understand why it was originally rejected. "Brink of Infinity", the second "last story by Stanley G. Weinbaum", was obviously not intended for publication, for the entire point of the story revolves about a problem in mathematics. A chemist who was crippled because a mathematician displaced a single decimal point in a formula decides to revenge himself by capturing a mathematician and telling him he will be released only if he can guess the mathematical quantity in the chemist's mind. The victim is allowed ten questions to gain clues and estimate the quantity. The story should have been as dry as dust, but the manner in which Weinbaum describes the cogitations of the mathematician makes a story of simple mathematics genuinely interesting. The name of Weinbaum had by now acquired a certain sales value, so Mort Weisinger and Julius Schwartz induced Stanley's sister Helen to complete and publish as a collaboration a story of which he had written a few hundred words. In this yarn, "Tidal Moon", Helen Weinbaum, using "A Martian Odyssey" as a model, introduced enough crazy "gadzooks" to shame her inspiration--it was not genuine Weinbaum and not too good. Helen Weinbaum had never really believed she could equal her brother's style, but had simply responded gracefully to the urging of Stanley's agents. Helen Weinbaum as a science-fiction writer was mediocre, and did far better in other fields. The only Weinbaum story ever to appear in the Teck Amazing was "Shifting Seas", a tale of volcanic action creating a 400 mile channel between North and South America and thus deflecting the Gulf Stream upon which Europe depended for warmth. The plot is hoary with age, but Weinbaum made an interesting and in places spectacular yarn of it. Shortly after Weinbaum's death, his friends, led by Raymond A. Palmer, Conrad H. Ruppert, Julius Schwartz, and the Milwaukee Fictioneers, published a hard-cover anthology under the title Dawn of Flame, and Other Stories. It contained the previously unpublished "Dawn of Flame", "The Mad Moon", A Martian Odyssey", The World of If", "The Adaptive Ultimate", "The Lotus Eaters", and "The Red Peri". As it appeared in the book, "Dawn of Flame" was dull and tedious, but when published three years later in TWS it had been condensed by Mort Weisinger It is the greatest justification of editorial cutting I have ever seen. The magazine version is swift-paced and beautifully written, with scarcely an unnecessary word. It gives the historical background of the Black Flame, an immortal woman, and contains some of the best writing Weinbaum ever did. "The Black Flame", a sequel to "Dawn of Flame", tells an enthralling tale of a man of the presnt who awakes in the future and after an unusual series of adventures lives to marry the Black Fame and gain immortality for himself. "The Black Flame" paints a vast canvas of Weinbaum's world of the future, and is nicely done, eminently readable and enjoyable. "The Revolution of 1950", an incompleted tale which was finished by Ralph Milne Farley, gives several clever twists but the overall effect is not outstanding. This tale was set so close in the immediate -- 27 --
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