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Fantasite, v. 1, issue 3, April 1941
Page 7
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The Science Weird Controversy by Carl Jacobi Science fiction is science fiction and weird fiction is weird fiction, and never the twain shall meet. That may not be exactly a platitude, but fundamentally, considering the viewpoint of many fans, there's a lot of truth in those words. For close to two decades now readers have been divided into two camps, the science enthusiasts and the supporters of the weird tale, each refusing to read the other's favorite authors, each criticizing the other's plots and stories. I'm quite aware that I'm treading dynamite in opening the door of this old conflict. During recent years the tendency has been to compromise between the two and quietly sidestep the differences of opinion. Let sleeping dogs lie, some one has said. But if a writer did that he'd run out of plots in no time. I recall a conversation I overheard between a couple of fans a while ago. Each was a staunch representative of one of the two factions. Said "A"; "I see HPL has a new story on the stands. Have you read it?" Said "B"; "I don't believe I have. Who is he a new writer?" "A new writer! He's the master of the weird tale!" "Oh that stuff. Ghosts and vampires. I never read it. Now you take science fiction..." "Machines and rocket ships!" Well, they quieted down eventually, but not before several dark looks had been cast across the table. But they were fair examples of the rivalry that's buried beneath the surface, cloaked perhaps in recent times by the broad use of the word, fantasy, which is now used in the titles of many fan magazines and societies. It is a curious fact that this rivalry finds little support among the writers. Most of the men who pound a typewriter for publication and who have written one of these two types of fiction have tried their hands at the other. Usually they have a preference, but other than that I personally have never detected any rabid partisanship. At the extreme end of the fence is a fictioneer who claims that almost any story could be re-written into a different background without harm. In other words, an adventure tale having as its locale Saigon, French Indo-China could be changed to a western yarn taking place somewhere in Arizona. The characters would be the same, the plot would be the same; all that would be different would be the stage upon which these characters move. To prove his contention, this writer did change an adventure story into a western story and then altered the same tale into a detective yarn. In each case it was sold without difficulty. But when I suggested making it into fantasy, he shook his head. "Not a chance," he said. "You know well enough that fantasy, either science or weird is not formula material. They are types distinctly by themselves fic-
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The Science Weird Controversy by Carl Jacobi Science fiction is science fiction and weird fiction is weird fiction, and never the twain shall meet. That may not be exactly a platitude, but fundamentally, considering the viewpoint of many fans, there's a lot of truth in those words. For close to two decades now readers have been divided into two camps, the science enthusiasts and the supporters of the weird tale, each refusing to read the other's favorite authors, each criticizing the other's plots and stories. I'm quite aware that I'm treading dynamite in opening the door of this old conflict. During recent years the tendency has been to compromise between the two and quietly sidestep the differences of opinion. Let sleeping dogs lie, some one has said. But if a writer did that he'd run out of plots in no time. I recall a conversation I overheard between a couple of fans a while ago. Each was a staunch representative of one of the two factions. Said "A"; "I see HPL has a new story on the stands. Have you read it?" Said "B"; "I don't believe I have. Who is he a new writer?" "A new writer! He's the master of the weird tale!" "Oh that stuff. Ghosts and vampires. I never read it. Now you take science fiction..." "Machines and rocket ships!" Well, they quieted down eventually, but not before several dark looks had been cast across the table. But they were fair examples of the rivalry that's buried beneath the surface, cloaked perhaps in recent times by the broad use of the word, fantasy, which is now used in the titles of many fan magazines and societies. It is a curious fact that this rivalry finds little support among the writers. Most of the men who pound a typewriter for publication and who have written one of these two types of fiction have tried their hands at the other. Usually they have a preference, but other than that I personally have never detected any rabid partisanship. At the extreme end of the fence is a fictioneer who claims that almost any story could be re-written into a different background without harm. In other words, an adventure tale having as its locale Saigon, French Indo-China could be changed to a western yarn taking place somewhere in Arizona. The characters would be the same, the plot would be the same; all that would be different would be the stage upon which these characters move. To prove his contention, this writer did change an adventure story into a western story and then altered the same tale into a detective yarn. In each case it was sold without difficulty. But when I suggested making it into fantasy, he shook his head. "Not a chance," he said. "You know well enough that fantasy, either science or weird is not formula material. They are types distinctly by themselves fic-
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