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Fantascience Digest, v. 2, issue 3, March-April 1939
Page 16
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Page 16 FANTASCIENCE DIGEST eery story which meandered along and never told the reader ANYTHING. "Sinister Barrier" approached it, but Russell gave the secret of the strange happenings away too soon. Hall's "The Infinite Vision" was a masterpiece. (Editorial note: we believe Mr. Fischer has his titles confused. Although we won't guarantee it, we think the author means "Into the Infinite" by Austin Hall.) This is my favorite story. George Witherspoon, it's villain-hero, could take on all the modern master-minds at one time and give them a sound lacing. And yet didn't know the difference between an atom and a proton. He was still a super-intelligence on the loose, and Hall didn't try to explain him by any superb hooey. He just had him get all his knowledge, all of a sudden, on a stormy night on a mountaintop. Very simple! Cummings, of course, played his part also in early science fiction. Ray was an engineer gone cuckoo. But his "The Fire People" was packed not only with science but with weird atmosphere. Nowadays the authors choose the science as vastly preferable and more saleable than the atmosphere or the imagination. I could name them all night, but don't worry,I won't. But you can have your Hamiltons, your Weinbaums, Lovecrafts, Howards,and Binders. Also your Smiths and your Campbells. I'll take Hall and give you also Henry Kuttner, and still my team can beat yours. When these up-and-coming authors can beat Merritt, Hall, Guiesy, Rousseau, and Cummings at their OLD-TIME best, they'll have to start to work awfully early. And don't let me forget to include England, either. And when these newcomers understand this: It's not the science-- it's the plot and the continuity and the characterizations! -- Why, then they may beat the old-timers handily, and fulfill their destinies of writers of fiction that will LIVE!! As an afterthought, Weinbaum, Keller, Lovecraft have threatened the throne-room upon numerous occasions. Maybe I'd better put them on my team, too! At least I might as well make my group unsurpassable. And oh, yes! Smith, and Campbell -- as they were when they BEGAN writing. but hold up a minute! If I keep this up, i'll have ALL the MODERN writers on my side, and then I won't be able to conscientiously cry out for the good old days! FINIS Jack Williamson's Valahalla By Milton A. Rothman (Continued from page 8) of you who read A. Merritt's "Creep Shadow," recall the fable of the country, Ys, which played an important part in the story. It is interesting to note that an opera, very popular in France, by the name of "The King of Ys," or "Le Roi d'Ys" by Lalo, tells the story of that very same myth. AUTHOR'S DREAM (4) "Spaceship" If a meteor can't understand A silver spot in space Or the grit and sand and effort /grand It took to reach that place, A human back home could see Against a background high In letters free the name of he Who could defeat the sky. Helen Cloukey
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Page 16 FANTASCIENCE DIGEST eery story which meandered along and never told the reader ANYTHING. "Sinister Barrier" approached it, but Russell gave the secret of the strange happenings away too soon. Hall's "The Infinite Vision" was a masterpiece. (Editorial note: we believe Mr. Fischer has his titles confused. Although we won't guarantee it, we think the author means "Into the Infinite" by Austin Hall.) This is my favorite story. George Witherspoon, it's villain-hero, could take on all the modern master-minds at one time and give them a sound lacing. And yet didn't know the difference between an atom and a proton. He was still a super-intelligence on the loose, and Hall didn't try to explain him by any superb hooey. He just had him get all his knowledge, all of a sudden, on a stormy night on a mountaintop. Very simple! Cummings, of course, played his part also in early science fiction. Ray was an engineer gone cuckoo. But his "The Fire People" was packed not only with science but with weird atmosphere. Nowadays the authors choose the science as vastly preferable and more saleable than the atmosphere or the imagination. I could name them all night, but don't worry,I won't. But you can have your Hamiltons, your Weinbaums, Lovecrafts, Howards,and Binders. Also your Smiths and your Campbells. I'll take Hall and give you also Henry Kuttner, and still my team can beat yours. When these up-and-coming authors can beat Merritt, Hall, Guiesy, Rousseau, and Cummings at their OLD-TIME best, they'll have to start to work awfully early. And don't let me forget to include England, either. And when these newcomers understand this: It's not the science-- it's the plot and the continuity and the characterizations! -- Why, then they may beat the old-timers handily, and fulfill their destinies of writers of fiction that will LIVE!! As an afterthought, Weinbaum, Keller, Lovecraft have threatened the throne-room upon numerous occasions. Maybe I'd better put them on my team, too! At least I might as well make my group unsurpassable. And oh, yes! Smith, and Campbell -- as they were when they BEGAN writing. but hold up a minute! If I keep this up, i'll have ALL the MODERN writers on my side, and then I won't be able to conscientiously cry out for the good old days! FINIS Jack Williamson's Valahalla By Milton A. Rothman (Continued from page 8) of you who read A. Merritt's "Creep Shadow," recall the fable of the country, Ys, which played an important part in the story. It is interesting to note that an opera, very popular in France, by the name of "The King of Ys," or "Le Roi d'Ys" by Lalo, tells the story of that very same myth. AUTHOR'S DREAM (4) "Spaceship" If a meteor can't understand A silver spot in space Or the grit and sand and effort /grand It took to reach that place, A human back home could see Against a background high In letters free the name of he Who could defeat the sky. Helen Cloukey
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