DIY History | Transcribe | Hevelin Fanzines | Fanfare, v. 2, issue 2, whole no.8, February 1942

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Fanfare, v. 2, issue 2, whole no.8, February 1942

Page 9

slan!der  9

this small and all essential group of writers.

Now. DeCamp is due, thank foo, to hit the slicks soon, as is R.M.Williams, and that really excellent Campbell discovery Sturgeon.  Bond has turned from stf to more lucrative fields late-ly; so, apparently, has Campbell's best author, L.Ron Hubbard. Van Vogt's production has dropped considerably, as has Jameson's and Miller's. Campbell is going to have to send out a hurry call for high-powered hacks, and what will be towed in from the western, detective, and adventure pulps is best left to the imagination. 

The sad fact where both UNKNOWN and ASTOUNDING are concerned, s that a total of ten or twelve people with highly individualized and carefully developed styles cannot continue writing to an insanely limited and narrow policy without going stale.  Which would not be so bad, but both the policy and the magazine go stale with them.

The really sad thing about it is that the world is going around crying out loud for fantasy that is fantasy, and would line up at six o'clock in the morning to get a magazine that would give them what they want. 

With a war going on, and a future so unsettled as to have most of the unappealing qualities of a nightmare - the United States has become a nation of escapists.  In their search for tales that will take them away from Earth and the mess it's in, these escapists want those tales to be of space and time, of such imagination-stretching significance, such inconceivable distances and places and events, that they will lose themselves in cosmic reaches, and forget for an hour or two the war into which we are being pushed so enthusiastically by our nation's leaders.

Do they get it? They do not.  The leading stf magazine, ASTOUNDING, is not a fantasy magazine. It is a fiction magazine. It features stories of the future, but except that those stories are laid in the future, they are simply adventure, detective, and western stories and nothing more. Certainly, they're well-written, occasionally splendidly so, excellently characterized, and good fiction. But they're not science-fiction. And since these stories are not different, any more, and the readers can get just as well-written stories in COLLIER'S and THE SATURDAY EVENING POST, w h y bother with ASTOUNDING?

A  And that's another reason why ASTOUNDING is a type almost alone in the pro stfield today. Unable to find anything but adventurized stories of the no-at-all astonishing future in ASTOUNDING, the readers turn to AMAZING and THRILLING WONDER STORIES, and similar magazines featuring what Mr. Waldoyer so quaintly and aptly terms "Bazzlezigging", or bang-bang pulp writing. Naturally. They're unable to appreciate good writing, want something that ASF doesn't have, and forced to accept adventure in lieu of imagination, the turn to the mags that feature said adventure.

Saving...

slan!der 9 this small and all essential group of writers. Now. DeCamp is due, thank foo, to hit the slicks soon, as is R.M.Williams, and that really excellent Campbell discovery Sturgeon. Bond has turned from stf to more lucrative fields late-ly; so, apparently, has Campbell's best author, L.Ron Hubbard. Van Vogt's production has dropped considerably, as has Jameson's and Miller's. Campbell is going to have to send out a hurry call for high-powered hacks, and what will be towed in from the western, detective, and adventure pulps is best left to the imagination. The sad fact where both UNKNOWN and ASTOUNDING are concerned, s that a total of ten or twelve people with highly individualized and carefully developed styles cannot continue writing to an insanely limited and narrow policy without going stale. Which would not be so bad, but both the policy and the magazine go stale with them. The really sad thing about it is that the world is going around crying out loud for fantasy that is fantasy, and would line up at six o'clock in the morning to get a magazine that would give them what they want. With a war going on, and a future so unsettled as to have most of the unappealing qualities of a nightmare - the United States has become a nation of escapists. In their search for tales that will take them away from Earth and the mess it's in, these escapists want those tales to be of space and time, of such imagination-stretching significance, such inconceivable distances and places and events, that they will lose themselves in cosmic reaches, and forget for an hour or two the war into which we are being pushed so enthusiastically by our nation's leaders. Do they get it? They do not. The leading stf magazine, ASTOUNDING, is not a fantasy magazine. It is a fiction magazine. It features stories of the future, but except that those stories are laid in the future, they are simply adventure, detective, and western stories and nothing more. Certainly, they're well-written, occasionally splendidly so, excellently characterized, and good fiction. But they're not science-fiction. And since these stories are not different, any more, and the readers can get just as well-written stories in COLLIER'S and THE SATURDAY EVENING POST, w h y bother with ASTOUNDING? A And that's another reason why ASTOUNDING is a type almost alone in the pro stfield today. Unable to find anything but adventurized stories of the no-at-all astonishing future in ASTOUNDING, the readers turn to AMAZING and THRILLING WONDER STORIES, and similar magazines featuring what Mr. Waldoyer so quaintly and aptly terms "Bazzlezigging", or bang-bang pulp writing. Naturally. They're unable to appreciate good writing, want something that ASF doesn't have, and forced to accept adventure in lieu of imagination, the turn to the mags that feature said adventure.