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Acolyte, v. 3, issue 4, whole no. 12, Fall 1945
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FANTASY FORUM FRITZ LEIBER, JR. DISCUSSES PERDUE'S HISTORY: I hesitate to vote on the future of the Perdue history. The present section was entertaining, but I wonder about the effect of a steady diet, especially ten years of it. Here are some points which occur to me: (1) "Dated" science-fiction comprises how much of the total? One half? One-third? Less? ((Not over 20%. ftl)) A survey as extensive as this one would be more interesting if it took in the whole field. This is more of a literary curiosity. Some of the most prophetic stf would be excluded because undated. (2) The list is swollen by the inclusion of all dates, apparently, in each story. This hardly seems necessary, especially since some of the dated events are of no great importance--"No war" repeated several times, for example. Stories with many dates are thereby overemphasized. (3) The total effect of the first section is rather chaotic to me. All I can see is that, very obviously, science-fiction writers have naturally had to tack on dates in a somewhat haphazard way, and there seem to be no interesting agreements--as one might expect. On the whole, I think some principle of selection or organization is called for--maybe discussing the dated stories of one writer and then another, or dated stories pertaining to the same events, such as first rocket trip to the moon--different predictions about it; start of World War II, etc. (4) On the other hand, the list might have a very stimulating effect, especially on science-fiction writers--if only in encouraging more thoughtful dating in the future. On the whole I'd be inclined to vote against more of the list in its present form, but would rather see the second section before making it definite. Perhaps you could continue the list in issues when the other contributions are scanty. ----ooo0ooo---- JACK SPEER, A NEWCOMER TO OUR COLUMNS, THOUGH AN OLD-TIME FAN, GAVE US A LENGTHY CRITIQUE OF THE LAST ISSUE WHICH LACK OFF SPACE FORCES US TO CUT DRASTICALLY: My vote is enthusiastically in favor of continuing the History of the Future. And the fact that one man did this colossal job of rereading and compiling makes it seem not too much to hope that one or several could compile an alphabetical list of stories, classifying all and telling something about the more important ones. I'm told the project has been projected several times, but never got far. ...in your article: I wonder if the propaganda in a sociological story is lapped up subconsciously, or if it isn't rather the entertainment in any story that goes directly into what we call the subconscious, while the consciousness is actually concentrated on the ideas set forth, the non-entertainment residue. ((Speer also takes exception to my statement that no modern master of weird or pure fantasy has put non-entertainment residue into his stories, citing de Camp as an example; and points out that Tony Boucher also used a history of the future (involving a German victory) to tie together a series of otherwise unrelated stories. ---FTL)) ----ooo0ooo---- ROBERT BLOCH DOES A SPOT OF SELF-ANALYSIS: "Criteria for Criticism" is a stimulating job, and extremely sound--as far as it goes. but it doesn't go quite far enough. When you discuss writer motivations, for example, you confine -- 29 --
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FANTASY FORUM FRITZ LEIBER, JR. DISCUSSES PERDUE'S HISTORY: I hesitate to vote on the future of the Perdue history. The present section was entertaining, but I wonder about the effect of a steady diet, especially ten years of it. Here are some points which occur to me: (1) "Dated" science-fiction comprises how much of the total? One half? One-third? Less? ((Not over 20%. ftl)) A survey as extensive as this one would be more interesting if it took in the whole field. This is more of a literary curiosity. Some of the most prophetic stf would be excluded because undated. (2) The list is swollen by the inclusion of all dates, apparently, in each story. This hardly seems necessary, especially since some of the dated events are of no great importance--"No war" repeated several times, for example. Stories with many dates are thereby overemphasized. (3) The total effect of the first section is rather chaotic to me. All I can see is that, very obviously, science-fiction writers have naturally had to tack on dates in a somewhat haphazard way, and there seem to be no interesting agreements--as one might expect. On the whole, I think some principle of selection or organization is called for--maybe discussing the dated stories of one writer and then another, or dated stories pertaining to the same events, such as first rocket trip to the moon--different predictions about it; start of World War II, etc. (4) On the other hand, the list might have a very stimulating effect, especially on science-fiction writers--if only in encouraging more thoughtful dating in the future. On the whole I'd be inclined to vote against more of the list in its present form, but would rather see the second section before making it definite. Perhaps you could continue the list in issues when the other contributions are scanty. ----ooo0ooo---- JACK SPEER, A NEWCOMER TO OUR COLUMNS, THOUGH AN OLD-TIME FAN, GAVE US A LENGTHY CRITIQUE OF THE LAST ISSUE WHICH LACK OFF SPACE FORCES US TO CUT DRASTICALLY: My vote is enthusiastically in favor of continuing the History of the Future. And the fact that one man did this colossal job of rereading and compiling makes it seem not too much to hope that one or several could compile an alphabetical list of stories, classifying all and telling something about the more important ones. I'm told the project has been projected several times, but never got far. ...in your article: I wonder if the propaganda in a sociological story is lapped up subconsciously, or if it isn't rather the entertainment in any story that goes directly into what we call the subconscious, while the consciousness is actually concentrated on the ideas set forth, the non-entertainment residue. ((Speer also takes exception to my statement that no modern master of weird or pure fantasy has put non-entertainment residue into his stories, citing de Camp as an example; and points out that Tony Boucher also used a history of the future (involving a German victory) to tie together a series of otherwise unrelated stories. ---FTL)) ----ooo0ooo---- ROBERT BLOCH DOES A SPOT OF SELF-ANALYSIS: "Criteria for Criticism" is a stimulating job, and extremely sound--as far as it goes. but it doesn't go quite far enough. When you discuss writer motivations, for example, you confine -- 29 --
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