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Wavelength, v. 1, issue 2, Summer 1941
Page 10
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10 Science Fiction Conscience WAVELENGTH //////////////////// Science Fiction, 1941 : : : : : : : : : : : : : : by Raymond Van Houten ----:-----:----- The past of science fiction is not something to which we fans may point with justifiable pride. Its present is a sad travesty, a melange of contradictions, a blur of chaotic, incomprehensible motion. Any hopes we may have for its future, therefore, are more apt to be fears. When science fiction began with Wells and Verne, science was settling into a soporific lethargy. Little remained to be done, thought the men of learning, except to find the next decimal point in the calculation. Then, like the harbinger of the coming scientific revolution came the first sciencefiction, with shocking questions prepared from the knowledge of these very same men of learning. Science was horrified in true Victorian style. These literary buffoons were trying to disturb the balance into which the world had easily settled! What were they thinking of!? Valiant efforts were made to squelch science fiction pioneers. To do this, heavier-than-air flight was proven impossible; it was clearly shown that speeds in excess of thirty miles per hour would kill a human being; for any other planet in the Solar System to harbor life was manifestly impossible, due to the differing conditions of temperature and atmosphere under which our sister worlds suffered. Twenty-five years saw every one of these final "truths" that were untrue flung back into the teeth of the smug scientific traitors. A repugnant conclusion, embodied and personified by science fiction was suddenly forced upon science, the conclusion that there was always something new to be discovered, something unknown to be brought to light. The spirit of science fiction began to walk the world. ----:-----:----- It was not called science fiction in those days. The term "Science" was brought into coupling with the word "fiction" by that famous and praiseworthy editor, Mr. Hugo Gernsback. He was first to realize the commercial possibilities of the imagination-gripping "scientific romance", and under his guidance the mass production of the new literature began. It was inevitable that under such circumstances that the significance with which science fiction had been born should be debased, defiled, and subsequently ignored. Science fiction, post Gernsback, no longer represented or reflected the unrest brought about by the glimpsing of vague, faraway horizons, but had become the degenerate bread-winner for a pulp publisher. Mr. Gernsback, though, really and in all honesty, cannot be blamed. It is the peculair set-up of the pulp publisher's themselves that forced him to adopt his policy. Money is the chief aim of pulp publishers. Today, all the science fiction editors ( barring one ) ignore the reader's demands and print trash science fiction so they can rake in the mazuma. Today ( Continued on P. 12)
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10 Science Fiction Conscience WAVELENGTH //////////////////// Science Fiction, 1941 : : : : : : : : : : : : : : by Raymond Van Houten ----:-----:----- The past of science fiction is not something to which we fans may point with justifiable pride. Its present is a sad travesty, a melange of contradictions, a blur of chaotic, incomprehensible motion. Any hopes we may have for its future, therefore, are more apt to be fears. When science fiction began with Wells and Verne, science was settling into a soporific lethargy. Little remained to be done, thought the men of learning, except to find the next decimal point in the calculation. Then, like the harbinger of the coming scientific revolution came the first sciencefiction, with shocking questions prepared from the knowledge of these very same men of learning. Science was horrified in true Victorian style. These literary buffoons were trying to disturb the balance into which the world had easily settled! What were they thinking of!? Valiant efforts were made to squelch science fiction pioneers. To do this, heavier-than-air flight was proven impossible; it was clearly shown that speeds in excess of thirty miles per hour would kill a human being; for any other planet in the Solar System to harbor life was manifestly impossible, due to the differing conditions of temperature and atmosphere under which our sister worlds suffered. Twenty-five years saw every one of these final "truths" that were untrue flung back into the teeth of the smug scientific traitors. A repugnant conclusion, embodied and personified by science fiction was suddenly forced upon science, the conclusion that there was always something new to be discovered, something unknown to be brought to light. The spirit of science fiction began to walk the world. ----:-----:----- It was not called science fiction in those days. The term "Science" was brought into coupling with the word "fiction" by that famous and praiseworthy editor, Mr. Hugo Gernsback. He was first to realize the commercial possibilities of the imagination-gripping "scientific romance", and under his guidance the mass production of the new literature began. It was inevitable that under such circumstances that the significance with which science fiction had been born should be debased, defiled, and subsequently ignored. Science fiction, post Gernsback, no longer represented or reflected the unrest brought about by the glimpsing of vague, faraway horizons, but had become the degenerate bread-winner for a pulp publisher. Mr. Gernsback, though, really and in all honesty, cannot be blamed. It is the peculair set-up of the pulp publisher's themselves that forced him to adopt his policy. Money is the chief aim of pulp publishers. Today, all the science fiction editors ( barring one ) ignore the reader's demands and print trash science fiction so they can rake in the mazuma. Today ( Continued on P. 12)
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