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Vanguard Variorum, May 1946

14           VANGUARD VARIORUM

where. Why waste Danny's talents..on Geo. O. Smith? I am allergic to how-to-do-it articles, and anyhow highly technical instruction is not practicably imparted in bimonthly seminars. I wouldn't study an article on Electronics any more than I would study the fine points of performing an appendectomy - I neither expect nor desire to have an opportunity to put either sort of pseudo-knowledge to the Gimbel's advertisement for flame guns at $24.98 (or some equally casual sum)  the which appeared at about the time Science*Fiction as being made up; it had me in a tizzy for weeks. Icidentally, the mimeography on the magazine ain't good; nor is the format outstanding. ... No one seems to have noticed this blooper in "The Halls and the Heights": 
"Monday, August 5th, 1945: something exploded in Japan..Haroshima, to be precise. Seismographs all over the world recorded the disturbance, and scientists wondered mildly what it might be.
"Monday, August 6th, and the whole world knew."
Monday, August 7th, theFuturians realized it. Monday, August 8th, Catonsville, Md., declared war upon the axis. Monday--TIME MARCHES ON, but as has been noted, you have to run like hell just to stay in the same place. ... Much as I hate to note the fact, I found this first issue of Science*Fiction to be rather poor.  I hope it improves rapidly, and steps up its publishing schedule. "Galatea" I like very much - if not as absolute poetry (which is to say music) as science-fictional poetry; in this specialized and practically uncontested field, it ranks very high.
I disagree with Blish on what he claims to be the unmasking of damon's title through a slip of d-zissman's stencil technique --namely, to wit, viz., ibid, Q.E.D.: "The watt is the electrical unit of 'work' or
      ." That word in single quotes is a dirty word, and should not be mentioned in the knight's presence. Actually, I think, in searching my memory I have found the clue.  "This is Shhh---" is a worthy successor to "This is --It" and I feel that damon is to be congratulated. A fine publication, and one of the biggest shocks I have sustained since I descended on Futuria something over a year ago. The customs of Time are indeed reprehensivible, and as has been mentioned in several reviews [it's hell to be several mailings behind in making my comments - everybody who is everybody has already said everything.] Decline and Fall is much better than the Blish treatment of the same subject. I don't know about the authenticity of the story of the seduction of the iron dog, but do you remember what Lyons did to that bench in Abingdon Square? Him and those little slats he picks up! ... with regard to your About-Face, I wonder if it wasn't perhaps also a desire to show us how it should be done that made you return to amateur publishing? Beautiful beautiful mimeography.
Tumbrils, quarrelsome little Tumbrils, I have always liked. I was about to say that it is no longer the august publication it was at its inception, but as a matter of fact the first issue carried the two delightful satirical poems by M. Lyons, which would indicate that from the very first Jim has had his tongue in his cheek, just as he has in "The Feeble of the Who's and the Guilden Yeggs." It is hard, I think, for a lot of Vanguardifs to recognize the fact that Jim has a sense of humor that is out of this world. (Perhaps that's why.) I've seen disgusted complaints about The Feeble from those who found it incomprehensible. Too bad. "Stammpunct's Revolution" is pleasing, and hearty endorsements on "The Wilderness of Mirrors"; I don't agree with every line of it, but it's good stuff. Blurb on "Heirs-Presumptive" says it exactly; that's about the only trouble with a Blish publication for me -- Jim says everything their is to say, and says it curtly, clearly and concisely, leaving nothing for the writer of reviews to do but bob the head rapidly up and down and, if he says anything, simply echo Jim.
January Amateur notable for very interesting letter from Sostman, and a sort of apa history by RWL which I for one found biased and

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14 VANGUARD VARIORUM where. Why waste Danny's talents..on Geo. O. Smith? I am allergic to how-to-do-it articles, and anyhow highly technical instruction is not practicably imparted in bimonthly seminars. I wouldn't study an article on Electronics any more than I would study the fine points of performing an appendectomy - I neither expect nor desire to have an opportunity to put either sort of pseudo-knowledge to the Gimbel's advertisement for flame guns at $24.98 (or some equally casual sum) the which appeared at about the time Science*Fiction as being made up; it had me in a tizzy for weeks. Icidentally, the mimeography on the magazine ain't good; nor is the format outstanding. ... No one seems to have noticed this blooper in "The Halls and the Heights": "Monday, August 5th, 1945: something exploded in Japan..Haroshima, to be precise. Seismographs all over the world recorded the disturbance, and scientists wondered mildly what it might be. "Monday, August 6th, and the whole world knew." Monday, August 7th, theFuturians realized it. Monday, August 8th, Catonsville, Md., declared war upon the axis. Monday--TIME MARCHES ON, but as has been noted, you have to run like hell just to stay in the same place. ... Much as I hate to note the fact, I found this first issue of Science*Fiction to be rather poor. I hope it improves rapidly, and steps up its publishing schedule. "Galatea" I like very much - if not as absolute poetry (which is to say music) as science-fictional poetry; in this specialized and practically uncontested field, it ranks very high. I disagree with Blish on what he claims to be the unmasking of damon's title through a slip of d-zissman's stencil technique --namely, to wit, viz., ibid, Q.E.D.: "The watt is the electrical unit of 'work' or ." That word in single quotes is a dirty word, and should not be mentioned in the knight's presence. Actually, I think, in searching my memory I have found the clue. "This is Shhh---" is a worthy successor to "This is --It" and I feel that damon is to be congratulated. A fine publication, and one of the biggest shocks I have sustained since I descended on Futuria something over a year ago. The customs of Time are indeed reprehensivible, and as has been mentioned in several reviews [it's hell to be several mailings behind in making my comments - everybody who is everybody has already said everything.] Decline and Fall is much better than the Blish treatment of the same subject. I don't know about the authenticity of the story of the seduction of the iron dog, but do you remember what Lyons did to that bench in Abingdon Square? Him and those little slats he picks up! ... with regard to your About-Face, I wonder if it wasn't perhaps also a desire to show us how it should be done that made you return to amateur publishing? Beautiful beautiful mimeography. Tumbrils, quarrelsome little Tumbrils, I have always liked. I was about to say that it is no longer the august publication it was at its inception, but as a matter of fact the first issue carried the two delightful satirical poems by M. Lyons, which would indicate that from the very first Jim has had his tongue in his cheek, just as he has in "The Feeble of the Who's and the Guilden Yeggs." It is hard, I think, for a lot of Vanguardifs to recognize the fact that Jim has a sense of humor that is out of this world. (Perhaps that's why.) I've seen disgusted complaints about The Feeble from those who found it incomprehensible. Too bad. "Stammpunct's Revolution" is pleasing, and hearty endorsements on "The Wilderness of Mirrors"; I don't agree with every line of it, but it's good stuff. Blurb on "Heirs-Presumptive" says it exactly; that's about the only trouble with a Blish publication for me -- Jim says everything their is to say, and says it curtly, clearly and concisely, leaving nothing for the writer of reviews to do but bob the head rapidly up and down and, if he says anything, simply echo Jim. January Amateur notable for very interesting letter from Sostman, and a sort of apa history by RWL which I for one found biased and