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Fantasy News, v. 3, issue 1, whole no. 53, June 25, 1939
31858063100923_020
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Famine & Flood by DALE TARR THE TITLE could have been 'How science-fiction went from bad to worse, taking the royal road to hell'. For sometimes I wonder if that isn't what is happening now. After you read this, if you do, you will know what I mean and can watch with me and all other fans of today, the sicentifictional developments of tomorrow. To begin, there was a time, not so very long ago when there was a dearth of science fiction and worse, a dearth of science fiction fans. Fans who were almost ready to shed blood in defense of their chosen literature. That was back in the pre- Poe- Verne- Wells- and Burroughs era. Graduall, tho, science fiction built up into what was considered by many fans today as the golden age of stf. That was in the days of the old Amazing and when Wonder first aroused enthusiasm. I suppose that fans of ten years or more standing are pretty much in the minotiry. I read my first stf story more than ten years ago but only intermittently until about 1934 and since then I have frown more and more into the field. Now I am confronted by a thought that strikes uneasiness into my heart. The fans of science-fiction seem to me , on the whole, to be among the finest people in the world. I am vitally interested in them. In no other field or fiction --- be it detective, western, love or sports --- is there evidenced such comradeliness, and unity, as there is among stf, fans. That, I belive is because we have been a small group of steadfast discipless of a cause. This unification has arisen on famine stricken ground. Ground where stf was all too scarce. Now we are rapidly approaching on opposite condition the flood --- if indeed it has not already been reached. Many of us are being forced to make a choice as to which of the magazines we shall buy. And how many of them. Perhaps we shall miss good stories --- and undoubtedly many bad ones. Therein lies our crisis. If our interest is divided -- divided as are the interest of the readers of those other fiction fields --- will our interest wane? Especially since there will be many por quality mags to help flag a lagging interest? And having won the battle to popularise science-fiction, will our fan interest wane? Dividedshall we fall Have we fought so long, so valiantly, that we might cut our own throats? Science-fiction and science-fiction fandom is a great thing. We are a moving force, because we have struggled to height. Shall shach a structure ---- such a human one ---- fall of itself? I think that I have detected some signs of this disintegration. Draw your answer now, and if you cherish fandom's internal relations, beware of the future.
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Famine & Flood by DALE TARR THE TITLE could have been 'How science-fiction went from bad to worse, taking the royal road to hell'. For sometimes I wonder if that isn't what is happening now. After you read this, if you do, you will know what I mean and can watch with me and all other fans of today, the sicentifictional developments of tomorrow. To begin, there was a time, not so very long ago when there was a dearth of science fiction and worse, a dearth of science fiction fans. Fans who were almost ready to shed blood in defense of their chosen literature. That was back in the pre- Poe- Verne- Wells- and Burroughs era. Graduall, tho, science fiction built up into what was considered by many fans today as the golden age of stf. That was in the days of the old Amazing and when Wonder first aroused enthusiasm. I suppose that fans of ten years or more standing are pretty much in the minotiry. I read my first stf story more than ten years ago but only intermittently until about 1934 and since then I have frown more and more into the field. Now I am confronted by a thought that strikes uneasiness into my heart. The fans of science-fiction seem to me , on the whole, to be among the finest people in the world. I am vitally interested in them. In no other field or fiction --- be it detective, western, love or sports --- is there evidenced such comradeliness, and unity, as there is among stf, fans. That, I belive is because we have been a small group of steadfast discipless of a cause. This unification has arisen on famine stricken ground. Ground where stf was all too scarce. Now we are rapidly approaching on opposite condition the flood --- if indeed it has not already been reached. Many of us are being forced to make a choice as to which of the magazines we shall buy. And how many of them. Perhaps we shall miss good stories --- and undoubtedly many bad ones. Therein lies our crisis. If our interest is divided -- divided as are the interest of the readers of those other fiction fields --- will our interest wane? Especially since there will be many por quality mags to help flag a lagging interest? And having won the battle to popularise science-fiction, will our fan interest wane? Dividedshall we fall Have we fought so long, so valiantly, that we might cut our own throats? Science-fiction and science-fiction fandom is a great thing. We are a moving force, because we have struggled to height. Shall shach a structure ---- such a human one ---- fall of itself? I think that I have detected some signs of this disintegration. Draw your answer now, and if you cherish fandom's internal relations, beware of the future.
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