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Fantasy Commentator, v. 1, issue 7, Summer 1945
Page 149
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FANTASY COMMENTATOR 149 ties of his story-idea. I have thought of many others, as have doubtless thousands of other readers. And so, too, have later fantasy writers. There was a very good yarn in Unknown Worlds magazine, as I recall, dealing with some further manifestations of the same impossible phenomenon of time-acceleration. Indeed, there is hardly any limit to the number of details an active imagination can supply. All that Wells does is to start our mental cogs whirling. None of us can know what was in Wells' mind when he wrote "The New Accelerator." I think, though, that he must have omitted many of the amusing incidents that occurred to him in the process, simply in the interest of keeping the story within the bounds of manageable length. But a working author knows what was in his own mind when he wrote, and since I am attempting a reconciliation between the authors' and fans' points of view, I shall give a slight account of what one of my own stories was meant to contain, and also some of the things I found in it later, perusing it as a reader. For a guinea-pig, I shall choose a mediocre yarn, neither outstandingly good or bad, which appeared in Astounding Science-Fiction magazine some years back, and received fifth place in the readers' rating of the issue. In "Mill of the Gods," I used the rings of the planet Saturn as a sort of super-grindstone. Essentially it is an action story with a thread of love-interest. Part of the science in it is true; part is false. Let's examine it. To begin, the entire idea was simply a stunt, a peg on which to hand a story. As far as I know, all of it is impossible---but those who enjoyed it didn't mind that. And as far as I can recall, except for a commonplace facts like the order of Saturn's satellites, the only accurate information I tried to convey graphically was that the planet's rings are composed of fine solid matter distributed in a near-vacuum. To some that might well have been instructive. But hold on! I further stated that the satellite Phoebe was composed of solid iron (which is pure surmise) and that at its core was a five-mile-thick diamond of rather special characteristics (which is utter nonsense). Yet how could a person unfamiliar with astronomy discriminate? Credulous readers would absorb as much misinformation as true fact. What about the stimulating aspects? The by-products? Those I don't know. Some readers, of course, probably found a number of them. How would it disturb the rings to encounter a dense meteoric shower? What would be the effect of the mutual perturbation of separate particles? What is the cause of the rift between the rings, and why is the inner one so thin? Why are the rings' thicknesses so uniform, and the edges so sharply defined? Those are just a few of the teasing queries that occur to me at this writing. Looking at my own conception from the writer's point of view I at once see the ideas for a dozen more variations on the same theme---though I probably won't write them. I don't want to be known as the Saturn ring specialist. But let's glance at a few anyway. Wouldn't the ring be an ideal haven for a nest of interplanetary pirates? Or escaped slaves? Wouldn't it be a grand advertising sign, with "Use Percy's Pink Pills" spelled out in colored letters? Why not use the rings as a model for a mine barrage around a planet to keep away hostile ships? Returning to the abrasion idea, could not the rings be used to decelerate a spaceship whose rockets had been disabled? I can think of still more ideas, but since I wish to reserve some for future stories of my own I shan't mention them all. But I believe that most readers would have little difficulty if they were asked to lengthen my brief list. To sum up, we writers do write to entertain, and the most conscientious and better-informed we are, the more likely is our work to contain some accurate information. But its real value lies in suggesting and opening the eyes of some readers to a great vista of possibilities. Neither an author nor an editor can (concluded on page 159)
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FANTASY COMMENTATOR 149 ties of his story-idea. I have thought of many others, as have doubtless thousands of other readers. And so, too, have later fantasy writers. There was a very good yarn in Unknown Worlds magazine, as I recall, dealing with some further manifestations of the same impossible phenomenon of time-acceleration. Indeed, there is hardly any limit to the number of details an active imagination can supply. All that Wells does is to start our mental cogs whirling. None of us can know what was in Wells' mind when he wrote "The New Accelerator." I think, though, that he must have omitted many of the amusing incidents that occurred to him in the process, simply in the interest of keeping the story within the bounds of manageable length. But a working author knows what was in his own mind when he wrote, and since I am attempting a reconciliation between the authors' and fans' points of view, I shall give a slight account of what one of my own stories was meant to contain, and also some of the things I found in it later, perusing it as a reader. For a guinea-pig, I shall choose a mediocre yarn, neither outstandingly good or bad, which appeared in Astounding Science-Fiction magazine some years back, and received fifth place in the readers' rating of the issue. In "Mill of the Gods," I used the rings of the planet Saturn as a sort of super-grindstone. Essentially it is an action story with a thread of love-interest. Part of the science in it is true; part is false. Let's examine it. To begin, the entire idea was simply a stunt, a peg on which to hand a story. As far as I know, all of it is impossible---but those who enjoyed it didn't mind that. And as far as I can recall, except for a commonplace facts like the order of Saturn's satellites, the only accurate information I tried to convey graphically was that the planet's rings are composed of fine solid matter distributed in a near-vacuum. To some that might well have been instructive. But hold on! I further stated that the satellite Phoebe was composed of solid iron (which is pure surmise) and that at its core was a five-mile-thick diamond of rather special characteristics (which is utter nonsense). Yet how could a person unfamiliar with astronomy discriminate? Credulous readers would absorb as much misinformation as true fact. What about the stimulating aspects? The by-products? Those I don't know. Some readers, of course, probably found a number of them. How would it disturb the rings to encounter a dense meteoric shower? What would be the effect of the mutual perturbation of separate particles? What is the cause of the rift between the rings, and why is the inner one so thin? Why are the rings' thicknesses so uniform, and the edges so sharply defined? Those are just a few of the teasing queries that occur to me at this writing. Looking at my own conception from the writer's point of view I at once see the ideas for a dozen more variations on the same theme---though I probably won't write them. I don't want to be known as the Saturn ring specialist. But let's glance at a few anyway. Wouldn't the ring be an ideal haven for a nest of interplanetary pirates? Or escaped slaves? Wouldn't it be a grand advertising sign, with "Use Percy's Pink Pills" spelled out in colored letters? Why not use the rings as a model for a mine barrage around a planet to keep away hostile ships? Returning to the abrasion idea, could not the rings be used to decelerate a spaceship whose rockets had been disabled? I can think of still more ideas, but since I wish to reserve some for future stories of my own I shan't mention them all. But I believe that most readers would have little difficulty if they were asked to lengthen my brief list. To sum up, we writers do write to entertain, and the most conscientious and better-informed we are, the more likely is our work to contain some accurate information. But its real value lies in suggesting and opening the eyes of some readers to a great vista of possibilities. Neither an author nor an editor can (concluded on page 159)
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