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Tellus, issue 2, November 1941
Page 18
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TELLUS PAGE EIGHTEEN [ILLUSTRATION] MEET HACK No. I by G. Elvey Ray Cummings, of course. Some may nominate Ed Hamilton or perhaps Kummer, Jr., for first place. Indeed, many members of the AMAZING staff are also in a class by themselves, but in my opinion Cummings stands head, shoulder and tentacle above his numerous competitors. Besides, I rather think Hamilton eliminates himself from the growing band of hacks by his recent CAPTAIN FUTURE yarns. They may be corn but almost always they succeed in holding your interest to the end. To get back on the subject... And what a ripe, juicy subject it is, too! There is no need to raise a complaint about Cummings' habit of rewriting his "atom" stories again and again, though I recall a letter to SCIENCE FICTION which states that the writer was shocked to notice THE ATOM PRINCE by Cummings was "strangely similar to THE GIRL IN THE GOLDEN ATOM." Tsk, tsk, and tsk again.... It is a terrible indictment of stf reader mentality that they can digest, with bovine pleasure, slop from writers of Cummings' caliber. In fact, it leads to the ugly conclusion that for a large percentage of readers (I said readers, not fans) science fiction is just a handy vehicle for escapist tendencies. That is not a pleasant thought; but remember there are many more readers than fans, and Cummings is quite popular with the readers. Might as well stop there, however...before I become too depressing. What prompted this article was not another example of Cummings rehashes but a careful checking-up of certain other stories of the writer in question. It seems that Mr. Cummings does not limit himself to narrations of nitwits travelling into atoms, and winning wars by virtue of those mysterious red, blue, or purple "pellets"...Oh, no: he writes space stories, too. Perhaps some readers have not formed the habit of ripping Cummings stories out of all their magazines. If not, hark back to a copy of ASTOUNDING, the cover of which shows a spaceship full of portholes and people, with the hero and the villain struggling about the hull trying to rip holes in each other's pressure suit. (There were no boulders present, so they were forced to use knives.) In this issue, Cummings relates a more or less thrilling tale of a ghastly mutiny in space, and how our trusty hero foils the nasty old Martian who is trying to procure the "secret" cargo of Gumpfeedle X....This is titled VOYAGE 13. More checking-up, however, reveals that Cummings has rewritten the same old plot again and again in magazines that have to take the junk the hacks produce until they develop their own authors.
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TELLUS PAGE EIGHTEEN [ILLUSTRATION] MEET HACK No. I by G. Elvey Ray Cummings, of course. Some may nominate Ed Hamilton or perhaps Kummer, Jr., for first place. Indeed, many members of the AMAZING staff are also in a class by themselves, but in my opinion Cummings stands head, shoulder and tentacle above his numerous competitors. Besides, I rather think Hamilton eliminates himself from the growing band of hacks by his recent CAPTAIN FUTURE yarns. They may be corn but almost always they succeed in holding your interest to the end. To get back on the subject... And what a ripe, juicy subject it is, too! There is no need to raise a complaint about Cummings' habit of rewriting his "atom" stories again and again, though I recall a letter to SCIENCE FICTION which states that the writer was shocked to notice THE ATOM PRINCE by Cummings was "strangely similar to THE GIRL IN THE GOLDEN ATOM." Tsk, tsk, and tsk again.... It is a terrible indictment of stf reader mentality that they can digest, with bovine pleasure, slop from writers of Cummings' caliber. In fact, it leads to the ugly conclusion that for a large percentage of readers (I said readers, not fans) science fiction is just a handy vehicle for escapist tendencies. That is not a pleasant thought; but remember there are many more readers than fans, and Cummings is quite popular with the readers. Might as well stop there, however...before I become too depressing. What prompted this article was not another example of Cummings rehashes but a careful checking-up of certain other stories of the writer in question. It seems that Mr. Cummings does not limit himself to narrations of nitwits travelling into atoms, and winning wars by virtue of those mysterious red, blue, or purple "pellets"...Oh, no: he writes space stories, too. Perhaps some readers have not formed the habit of ripping Cummings stories out of all their magazines. If not, hark back to a copy of ASTOUNDING, the cover of which shows a spaceship full of portholes and people, with the hero and the villain struggling about the hull trying to rip holes in each other's pressure suit. (There were no boulders present, so they were forced to use knives.) In this issue, Cummings relates a more or less thrilling tale of a ghastly mutiny in space, and how our trusty hero foils the nasty old Martian who is trying to procure the "secret" cargo of Gumpfeedle X....This is titled VOYAGE 13. More checking-up, however, reveals that Cummings has rewritten the same old plot again and again in magazines that have to take the junk the hacks produce until they develop their own authors.
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