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Acolyte, v. 3, issue 2, whole no. 11, Summer 1945
Page 7
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If used in the more conventional way, as by Wells in The Time Machine, it is no more than a narrative device to carry the reader into some other time to follow the events of some pseudo-history. If, however, the time travel becomes an end in itself, we find a peculiar type of story which bears the same relation to ordinary scientifiction as the typical modern detective story bears to a study in murder such as Mrs. Lowndes' The Lodger. A time-travel tale such as Anson MacDonald's By His Bootstraps is nothing more nor less than an intellectual puzzle in narrative form. Many of the stories written for Astounding Science-Fiction under the aegis of John W. Campbell, Jr. are no more than puzzles, pure and simple--many of them unsolvable. While this is as yet an experimental form of fantasy, it is a type of secondary motivation which should probably be mentioned here. Utopia stories are of course a narrow form of future history, and probably are by far the oldest. This is a type of scientifiction that leaves a great deal to be desired unless one is an out-and-out escapist. By the very definition of the word, a Utopia story can be little else than a roseate and improbable day dream, and makes pretty wishy-washy reading for the realist who likes to peruse a plausible and logically developed piece of fiction. Another characteristic flaw of the Utopia story is the frequency with which the author abuses his non-entertainment residue, as contrasted with other forms of fantasy. The Utopia theme seems to be the chief one to occur to the crackpot and reformer who has some "social message" to deliver and decides to do so fictionally. Of Utopia stories written during the past century Edward Bellamy's Looking Backward is probably the most famous, but it suffers exceedingly both from its extreme lack of realism and from the author's lamentable ignorance of so many of the topics he discusses. In order to formulate a satisfactory extrapolation, it is necessary to have a working knowledge of the subject at hand, so as to keep the results reasonably unified and logical. The contempt for cold facts which so often moves hand in hand with lofty idealism is an insufficient qualification for acceptable prophetic writing. The broad field of future fiction contains many semi-Utopian stories, but careful analysis of most of them will show that these apparently ideal future civilizations have their good and bad points just the same as does our actual one. Any such tale would scarcely classify as a Utopia story. The superman theme may well be considered as a separate secondary motivation for writing fantasy. An attempt to depict the biological future of the race, the evolution or mutation of Homo Sapiens, is perhaps the most lofty of all scientifictional aims. At least four outstanding pieces of literature based on this theme have appeared: J. D. Beresford's The Hampdenshire Wonder (in some editions titled simply, The Wonder), W. Olaf Stapledon's Odd John, Stanley G. Weinbaum's The New Adam, and A. E. van Vogt's Slan. Though these four are all well-nigh above criticism, it seems likely that the superman story has not yet been written. The portions of biology and psychology upon which such stories depend are so relatively new and undeveloped, and their general public acceptence is so much more hampered by the prejudices stemming from disproved and out-moded religions and theologies than is the case of the physical sciences that one can logically expect much greater advances in these fields in the future, with a corresponding advance in fiction based upon them. Definitely acceptable as a writer's secondary motivation is the desire to hold up to ridicule some phase or phases of our civilization. Much of the most exciting fantasy written is of a satiric nature, for the possibility of presenting a warped, exaggerated, sarcastic, yet recognizeable picture or allegory of ordinary life is fascinatingly irresistable. Acceptable stories in this group may range from -- 7 --
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If used in the more conventional way, as by Wells in The Time Machine, it is no more than a narrative device to carry the reader into some other time to follow the events of some pseudo-history. If, however, the time travel becomes an end in itself, we find a peculiar type of story which bears the same relation to ordinary scientifiction as the typical modern detective story bears to a study in murder such as Mrs. Lowndes' The Lodger. A time-travel tale such as Anson MacDonald's By His Bootstraps is nothing more nor less than an intellectual puzzle in narrative form. Many of the stories written for Astounding Science-Fiction under the aegis of John W. Campbell, Jr. are no more than puzzles, pure and simple--many of them unsolvable. While this is as yet an experimental form of fantasy, it is a type of secondary motivation which should probably be mentioned here. Utopia stories are of course a narrow form of future history, and probably are by far the oldest. This is a type of scientifiction that leaves a great deal to be desired unless one is an out-and-out escapist. By the very definition of the word, a Utopia story can be little else than a roseate and improbable day dream, and makes pretty wishy-washy reading for the realist who likes to peruse a plausible and logically developed piece of fiction. Another characteristic flaw of the Utopia story is the frequency with which the author abuses his non-entertainment residue, as contrasted with other forms of fantasy. The Utopia theme seems to be the chief one to occur to the crackpot and reformer who has some "social message" to deliver and decides to do so fictionally. Of Utopia stories written during the past century Edward Bellamy's Looking Backward is probably the most famous, but it suffers exceedingly both from its extreme lack of realism and from the author's lamentable ignorance of so many of the topics he discusses. In order to formulate a satisfactory extrapolation, it is necessary to have a working knowledge of the subject at hand, so as to keep the results reasonably unified and logical. The contempt for cold facts which so often moves hand in hand with lofty idealism is an insufficient qualification for acceptable prophetic writing. The broad field of future fiction contains many semi-Utopian stories, but careful analysis of most of them will show that these apparently ideal future civilizations have their good and bad points just the same as does our actual one. Any such tale would scarcely classify as a Utopia story. The superman theme may well be considered as a separate secondary motivation for writing fantasy. An attempt to depict the biological future of the race, the evolution or mutation of Homo Sapiens, is perhaps the most lofty of all scientifictional aims. At least four outstanding pieces of literature based on this theme have appeared: J. D. Beresford's The Hampdenshire Wonder (in some editions titled simply, The Wonder), W. Olaf Stapledon's Odd John, Stanley G. Weinbaum's The New Adam, and A. E. van Vogt's Slan. Though these four are all well-nigh above criticism, it seems likely that the superman story has not yet been written. The portions of biology and psychology upon which such stories depend are so relatively new and undeveloped, and their general public acceptence is so much more hampered by the prejudices stemming from disproved and out-moded religions and theologies than is the case of the physical sciences that one can logically expect much greater advances in these fields in the future, with a corresponding advance in fiction based upon them. Definitely acceptable as a writer's secondary motivation is the desire to hold up to ridicule some phase or phases of our civilization. Much of the most exciting fantasy written is of a satiric nature, for the possibility of presenting a warped, exaggerated, sarcastic, yet recognizeable picture or allegory of ordinary life is fascinatingly irresistable. Acceptable stories in this group may range from -- 7 --
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