DIY History | Transcribe | Hevelin Fanzines | Spaceways, v. 3, issue 5, whole no. 21, June 1941

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Spaceways, v. 3, issue 5, whole no. 21, June 1941

20                                      SPACEWAYS
      THE READERS ALWAYS WRITE

before Doc gave us a set of mags with his "Skylark III". Bridges also discovered that he had won the letter contest in Planet. we got home at 2:30 and Bridges went to work at 5:30, A. M.. I'll bet he was tired.
         Jack F Speer, 3416 Northampton, NW, Washington-on-the-Potomac confesses: By the simple device of delaying commenting on the number till the next one is out, I've dodged the responsibility of affixing numerical ratings to items in the March issue. It wasn't intentional that way, tho, honest. '' The cover, then: Nice, on the whole, with some unusual technique in it. The subject, however, is just a wee bit hackneyed, Someday some cover artist is going to draw a picture of space-ships spitting destructive rays, cutting and blowing to pieces a barn and farmhouse on the lone prairie, and I am going to quietly faint. ' ' Singleton's Moestitiae Encomium is fairly good as poetry; I am afraid that the subject matter is rather largely drawn from Edgar Allan Poe's "Silence-a Fable". ' ' .....Widner's column is OK; not quite up to the usual standard of his stuff, but worth reading. I disagree with the Cynic's dictum that Fog and the like are not science-fiction. Fog, Final Blackout, the Brothers, and so en, are all fantasy of some sort, obviously. Fog takes place in the future (and it is essential that it do take place in the future, for in no other way could we have a story of a revolution in America, and having it in America is a big factor contributing to the story's effectiveness), as does Final Blackout, and the Brothers takes place in some other time-line, sidewise somewhat from us but corresponding in date to our own 1937-38. At present the field of fantasy is omnis divisa in partes tres, science-fiction, weird, and pure fantasy is omnis divisa in partes tres, science-fiction, weird, and pure fantasy, and of these three, science-fiction obviously covers the type of fantasy should be set up-Marconette has suggested the term "political fantasy" (which for reasons too lengthy to go into now I don't consider satisfactory), and this might be conceived os as a separate branch of fantasy, but it hasn't been generally accepted yet. Therefore are Fog and FB science-fiction, and therefore are they in place in Astounding Science-Fiction. ' ' But fie and for shame on Art for falling into that so common erroe "...he is one of the (if not the) most sincerely hard-working editors...".... ' ' Ah, and now to the dissections of the Miske. I am afraid that most of the rather unfavorable analyses that have been put forward on him, such as Farsaci's and Rothman's, are swimming pretty close around the truth. It begins to appear that psychology has advanced so far toward becoming a science that one can no longer strike a pose in safety, more's the pity. Of course, Larry appears to fall into some error in his theistic bias, but that is rather beside the point. The incident with Kornbluth's buzzer that Tarr mentioned in Pluto was very interesting. I don't remember seeing it at the Chicon, but I can imagine it must have hit Jak's ego an awful blow. I know that for me one of the biggest blots on my enjoyment of the Chicago convention was that at the banquet, when everyone was saying a few words, and I'd said my say, speaking what I felt, as directly and sincerely as I knew how, and I'd said my say, speaking what I felt, as directly and sincerely as I knew how, and it was time for the usual patter of genuine applause, Tucker called "Jackie-boy!", and the applause was a wave of laughter that hurt. ' ' Now to the current issue:..... ' ' Art was really swell. At last I get some definite information on the great Swisher files. Of course, there are still matters on which I'm in doubt-frinstance, does or doesn't Sw prefix the title of the article to the designation "SpIII4"? I had no idea that I ranked up so high in prolificity among the writers; I suppose that Sustaining Program is responsible for much of it. Give l'Apres-midi a 9. dk's story was an example of very extreme single inversion that practically nowhere curled over into double-inversion humor, and hence, in my impression, was not so hot. I'd rate it 5.... ' ' Transition: Rather abundant evidence that Wollheim doens't hate himself, but worth 7.
          Eric Frank Russell says: Very many thanks for the eighteenth issue which came along safely about a week ago. I see from the contents that the famous AnnIssue came out all right in December. Evidently my copy got sunk. Ugh! ' ' Dunno who did that caricature of Fred Shroyer on the cover - but he's playing

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20 SPACEWAYS THE READERS ALWAYS WRITE before Doc gave us a set of mags with his "Skylark III". Bridges also discovered that he had won the letter contest in Planet. we got home at 2:30 and Bridges went to work at 5:30, A. M.. I'll bet he was tired. Jack F Speer, 3416 Northampton, NW, Washington-on-the-Potomac confesses: By the simple device of delaying commenting on the number till the next one is out, I've dodged the responsibility of affixing numerical ratings to items in the March issue. It wasn't intentional that way, tho, honest. '' The cover, then: Nice, on the whole, with some unusual technique in it. The subject, however, is just a wee bit hackneyed, Someday some cover artist is going to draw a picture of space-ships spitting destructive rays, cutting and blowing to pieces a barn and farmhouse on the lone prairie, and I am going to quietly faint. ' ' Singleton's Moestitiae Encomium is fairly good as poetry; I am afraid that the subject matter is rather largely drawn from Edgar Allan Poe's "Silence-a Fable". ' ' .....Widner's column is OK; not quite up to the usual standard of his stuff, but worth reading. I disagree with the Cynic's dictum that Fog and the like are not science-fiction. Fog, Final Blackout, the Brothers, and so en, are all fantasy of some sort, obviously. Fog takes place in the future (and it is essential that it do take place in the future, for in no other way could we have a story of a revolution in America, and having it in America is a big factor contributing to the story's effectiveness), as does Final Blackout, and the Brothers takes place in some other time-line, sidewise somewhat from us but corresponding in date to our own 1937-38. At present the field of fantasy is omnis divisa in partes tres, science-fiction, weird, and pure fantasy is omnis divisa in partes tres, science-fiction, weird, and pure fantasy, and of these three, science-fiction obviously covers the type of fantasy should be set up-Marconette has suggested the term "political fantasy" (which for reasons too lengthy to go into now I don't consider satisfactory), and this might be conceived os as a separate branch of fantasy, but it hasn't been generally accepted yet. Therefore are Fog and FB science-fiction, and therefore are they in place in Astounding Science-Fiction. ' ' But fie and for shame on Art for falling into that so common erroe "...he is one of the (if not the) most sincerely hard-working editors...".... ' ' Ah, and now to the dissections of the Miske. I am afraid that most of the rather unfavorable analyses that have been put forward on him, such as Farsaci's and Rothman's, are swimming pretty close around the truth. It begins to appear that psychology has advanced so far toward becoming a science that one can no longer strike a pose in safety, more's the pity. Of course, Larry appears to fall into some error in his theistic bias, but that is rather beside the point. The incident with Kornbluth's buzzer that Tarr mentioned in Pluto was very interesting. I don't remember seeing it at the Chicon, but I can imagine it must have hit Jak's ego an awful blow. I know that for me one of the biggest blots on my enjoyment of the Chicago convention was that at the banquet, when everyone was saying a few words, and I'd said my say, speaking what I felt, as directly and sincerely as I knew how, and I'd said my say, speaking what I felt, as directly and sincerely as I knew how, and it was time for the usual patter of genuine applause, Tucker called "Jackie-boy!", and the applause was a wave of laughter that hurt. ' ' Now to the current issue:..... ' ' Art was really swell. At last I get some definite information on the great Swisher files. Of course, there are still matters on which I'm in doubt-frinstance, does or doesn't Sw prefix the title of the article to the designation "SpIII4"? I had no idea that I ranked up so high in prolificity among the writers; I suppose that Sustaining Program is responsible for much of it. Give l'Apres-midi a 9. dk's story was an example of very extreme single inversion that practically nowhere curled over into double-inversion humor, and hence, in my impression, was not so hot. I'd rate it 5.... ' ' Transition: Rather abundant evidence that Wollheim doens't hate himself, but worth 7. Eric Frank Russell says: Very many thanks for the eighteenth issue which came along safely about a week ago. I see from the contents that the famous AnnIssue came out all right in December. Evidently my copy got sunk. Ugh! ' ' Dunno who did that caricature of Fred Shroyer on the cover - but he's playing