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Scientifictionist, v. 1, issue 1, September 1945
Page 8
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A WORD ABOUT THE PROS. . . by Slanry Nowadays, one seldom hears anything about the prozine field in the scientifiction fan publications. The professional Stf magazines and their followers are truly the "forgotten fandom" of 1945. In the fanzines of today there is scarcely a mention of a current prozine, unless it is confined to a routine, boring "review" merely listing the contents and authors of each mag in turn. The excuse is given that the fanzines of today have "outgrown" such stuff. Yet the fanzines of the past, for the most part nothing but memories, consisted mainly of such material. In spite of all that has been said pro and con, my main interest still lies in scientifiction; and I feel that the interest of others does too. If you think the pros stink, this column is not for you -- go back to your Vomaidens and other inanities. But if you are of the type who still likes to hear an honest opinion about a story, idea, or magazine, -- bear with me for a few paragraphs. Despite the war and the paper shortage, I say that the Stf prozine field of today is on the upgrade. Those who are prone to look back at the "good old days" seem not to remember that the so-called classics of yesteryear are but a few isolated examples in nearly 20 years of pro publishing. With the exception of possibly one or two magazines, I think I am justified in saying that the pros of today are better than ever before. Let us take for an example that best-loved of all Stf magazines, ASTOUNDING. As recently as 1938, the majority of the stories in this magazine were still interplanetary adventure stories. Even the great EE Smith epics were just extremely well-written and polished adventure stories. True, the coming trend was foreseen by the old "thought-variants"; but these were few and far between. The writing was constantly improving, but the central themes remained the same. In contrast to this, the "gadget" type of short was also being published. These in most cases, were rather weak in writing and background compared to the longer "galactic adventure" type of story. These stories were the beginnings of the more modern type of story wherein the idea is the central part in the story, the action and characterization becoming subordinated. Though the change in AST was more or less gradual, I think that it became most evident with the coming of Heinlein, Van Vogt and a similar school of writers. These writers began to bring into their stories questions of economic, sociological, and psychological conditions of the future, which had heretofore been more or less shoved aside. Personally, I believe that this change is for the better, but there are others who disagree with me. I think that those old stories were good, and that the majority of them make enjoyable reading, even today. However, even the most ardent of Stf enthusiasts would become bored with a magazine that remained constantly the same The spirit of Stf is to look to the future; not to the past, and I personally think that ASTOUNDING is improving with every issue. While ASTOUNDING has been changing, the field of quality adventure fiction has not been neglected. This branch of Stf was taken up by the early STARTLING and is now being slowly turned over to PLANET. I venture to say that in the back issues of STARTLING there have been quite a few stories that would have been proclaimed classics had they been published in the old Gernsback WONDER. Lately, however, STARTLING seems to have gone in for the more juvenile type of story, due mainly, I think to the loss of the best authors to the services. However, even now stories pop up that I think would compare favorably with the stories in the old WONDER. I most certainly believe that the style of writing in all of SS's stories is above that of the old WS. I mentioned before that I --(page 8)--
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A WORD ABOUT THE PROS. . . by Slanry Nowadays, one seldom hears anything about the prozine field in the scientifiction fan publications. The professional Stf magazines and their followers are truly the "forgotten fandom" of 1945. In the fanzines of today there is scarcely a mention of a current prozine, unless it is confined to a routine, boring "review" merely listing the contents and authors of each mag in turn. The excuse is given that the fanzines of today have "outgrown" such stuff. Yet the fanzines of the past, for the most part nothing but memories, consisted mainly of such material. In spite of all that has been said pro and con, my main interest still lies in scientifiction; and I feel that the interest of others does too. If you think the pros stink, this column is not for you -- go back to your Vomaidens and other inanities. But if you are of the type who still likes to hear an honest opinion about a story, idea, or magazine, -- bear with me for a few paragraphs. Despite the war and the paper shortage, I say that the Stf prozine field of today is on the upgrade. Those who are prone to look back at the "good old days" seem not to remember that the so-called classics of yesteryear are but a few isolated examples in nearly 20 years of pro publishing. With the exception of possibly one or two magazines, I think I am justified in saying that the pros of today are better than ever before. Let us take for an example that best-loved of all Stf magazines, ASTOUNDING. As recently as 1938, the majority of the stories in this magazine were still interplanetary adventure stories. Even the great EE Smith epics were just extremely well-written and polished adventure stories. True, the coming trend was foreseen by the old "thought-variants"; but these were few and far between. The writing was constantly improving, but the central themes remained the same. In contrast to this, the "gadget" type of short was also being published. These in most cases, were rather weak in writing and background compared to the longer "galactic adventure" type of story. These stories were the beginnings of the more modern type of story wherein the idea is the central part in the story, the action and characterization becoming subordinated. Though the change in AST was more or less gradual, I think that it became most evident with the coming of Heinlein, Van Vogt and a similar school of writers. These writers began to bring into their stories questions of economic, sociological, and psychological conditions of the future, which had heretofore been more or less shoved aside. Personally, I believe that this change is for the better, but there are others who disagree with me. I think that those old stories were good, and that the majority of them make enjoyable reading, even today. However, even the most ardent of Stf enthusiasts would become bored with a magazine that remained constantly the same The spirit of Stf is to look to the future; not to the past, and I personally think that ASTOUNDING is improving with every issue. While ASTOUNDING has been changing, the field of quality adventure fiction has not been neglected. This branch of Stf was taken up by the early STARTLING and is now being slowly turned over to PLANET. I venture to say that in the back issues of STARTLING there have been quite a few stories that would have been proclaimed classics had they been published in the old Gernsback WONDER. Lately, however, STARTLING seems to have gone in for the more juvenile type of story, due mainly, I think to the loss of the best authors to the services. However, even now stories pop up that I think would compare favorably with the stories in the old WONDER. I most certainly believe that the style of writing in all of SS's stories is above that of the old WS. I mentioned before that I --(page 8)--
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