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Acolyte, v. 1, issue 4, Summer 1943
Page 2
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WITHIN THE CIRCLE by Franklin Lee Baldwin -oOo- (Editor's note: Due to our shortage of space this issue, Lee's regular column will also have to serve as our editorial page.) -oOo- A sad thing indeed is the manner in which so many fanzine editors introduce their first issue to the gang. Many adopt so apologetic an attitude in their maiden editorial that even when the mag is quite good, the reader is on the alert for something at which to turn up his nose. There is a definite difference between likeable modesty and mere self-abasement, so don't beg anyone's pardon---if you think the mag needs apologising for, don't send it out. On the other hand, if you sincerely believe that the message contained will be of interest to fans in general, distribute it even if it is written on scratch paper. Don't ever be backward in endorsing your own work---if you don't appear to believe in what you've created, how can you expect anyone else will like it? -oOo- Richard Sale comes through with a dandy yarn about that well-known thing called resurrection. In spite of its somewhat torrid moments and cosmopolitan setting, it has some good scenes where those who thrive on the morbid side of things can have their innings. There's one in particular...but get it and read for yourself. Title is [[underline]]Lazarus #7[[end underline]]. Another Handi-book publication that will really smite you with its beautiful yet dreadful sense of stealthily creeping horror is Cornell Woolrich's neatly constructed [[underline]]Black Alibi[[end underline]]. This is one author who knows the art of combining the right words to make you feel you are actually on the spot. A must. -oOo- The book [[underline]]An Old Captivity[[end underline]] by Nevil Shute has been out since 1940 and should still be procurable. It starts in a very matter-of-fact fashion relating the story of a commercial aviator who gets a job flying the proverbial professor and beautiful daughter on an archaeological expedition to Greenland. Up to the point of arrival it's a yarn of pioneering in the aviation field---after that, fantasy is so smoothly incorporated that the reader is just aware of its existence. The dream sequences and parts following are simply, yet effectively, told and comprise some of the best fantastic writing that has been produced. -oOo- I'd like to quote part of a letter I recently received: "I intend to go into fantasy fiction when the time permits, but I don't want to ape[?] anyone, not even HPL. He's been done to death in that respect already; practically every amateur has at one time or another given his ponderous style a going over. He himself was the only master of it. He looked up to Poe, perhaps using him as model; some say he even excelled Poe, but I think no one ever will. Edgar Allan had the knack of combining beauty and horror in such a way that the superlative qualities of each were brought into juxtaposition. Merritt comes closest of anyone I know today. He can create a thing of sheer beauty, then give it a touch of horror to set it off. And vice-versa, a thing of dark evil can have a touch of unearthly and angelic lovliness that makes one sad and sick at heart--yet somewhere in the background will still lurk a shadow of intangible dread and madness unparalleled. If ever I need a model for anything I write it will surely be Meritt..." I myself am all for beauty in fantastic literature---we've been terrorized and sickened enough. The end of the war will bring on a new era in weird literature, an era of weird BEAUTY. Wait and see. F.L.B. -- 2 --
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WITHIN THE CIRCLE by Franklin Lee Baldwin -oOo- (Editor's note: Due to our shortage of space this issue, Lee's regular column will also have to serve as our editorial page.) -oOo- A sad thing indeed is the manner in which so many fanzine editors introduce their first issue to the gang. Many adopt so apologetic an attitude in their maiden editorial that even when the mag is quite good, the reader is on the alert for something at which to turn up his nose. There is a definite difference between likeable modesty and mere self-abasement, so don't beg anyone's pardon---if you think the mag needs apologising for, don't send it out. On the other hand, if you sincerely believe that the message contained will be of interest to fans in general, distribute it even if it is written on scratch paper. Don't ever be backward in endorsing your own work---if you don't appear to believe in what you've created, how can you expect anyone else will like it? -oOo- Richard Sale comes through with a dandy yarn about that well-known thing called resurrection. In spite of its somewhat torrid moments and cosmopolitan setting, it has some good scenes where those who thrive on the morbid side of things can have their innings. There's one in particular...but get it and read for yourself. Title is [[underline]]Lazarus #7[[end underline]]. Another Handi-book publication that will really smite you with its beautiful yet dreadful sense of stealthily creeping horror is Cornell Woolrich's neatly constructed [[underline]]Black Alibi[[end underline]]. This is one author who knows the art of combining the right words to make you feel you are actually on the spot. A must. -oOo- The book [[underline]]An Old Captivity[[end underline]] by Nevil Shute has been out since 1940 and should still be procurable. It starts in a very matter-of-fact fashion relating the story of a commercial aviator who gets a job flying the proverbial professor and beautiful daughter on an archaeological expedition to Greenland. Up to the point of arrival it's a yarn of pioneering in the aviation field---after that, fantasy is so smoothly incorporated that the reader is just aware of its existence. The dream sequences and parts following are simply, yet effectively, told and comprise some of the best fantastic writing that has been produced. -oOo- I'd like to quote part of a letter I recently received: "I intend to go into fantasy fiction when the time permits, but I don't want to ape[?] anyone, not even HPL. He's been done to death in that respect already; practically every amateur has at one time or another given his ponderous style a going over. He himself was the only master of it. He looked up to Poe, perhaps using him as model; some say he even excelled Poe, but I think no one ever will. Edgar Allan had the knack of combining beauty and horror in such a way that the superlative qualities of each were brought into juxtaposition. Merritt comes closest of anyone I know today. He can create a thing of sheer beauty, then give it a touch of horror to set it off. And vice-versa, a thing of dark evil can have a touch of unearthly and angelic lovliness that makes one sad and sick at heart--yet somewhere in the background will still lurk a shadow of intangible dread and madness unparalleled. If ever I need a model for anything I write it will surely be Meritt..." I myself am all for beauty in fantastic literature---we've been terrorized and sickened enough. The end of the war will bring on a new era in weird literature, an era of weird BEAUTY. Wait and see. F.L.B. -- 2 --
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