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Scientifictionist, v. 1, issue 5, June-July 1946

Page 15

ing down into concrete cases all sorts of abstract questions, metaphysical, political, ethical, esthetic, etc. Lately, too, the fact that s-f trains you to try to predict has become rather important for me in deciding what part of the world I want to live in, what size of town, and what extra-curricular studies particularly deserve pursuing. Finally, long acquaintance with fantasy builds up a sentimental relationship with it so that reading a fantasy story is like gathering with friends, and you enjoy humor, humanature, rhetoric, etc, in stef stories more perhaps than you would in other dress; at any rate, you find them in good stef and since you habitually read this form of fiction more than others, fantasy is the main place that you find them, and their enjoyment is added to the peculiarly fantasy qualities.

Speaking of tBoSF, I notice that Tucker calls it The Best in Science Fiction, as I erroneously did on the ifc of Sustaining Program. I find it very hard to remember that the preposition is of, and suspect that in would have made a better title.

It was COLOSSUS ETERNAL, I thought, in which Wandrei's hero burst into the super-universe. I'm confused. There was A RACE THROUGH TIME, and then I thot there was only one sequel to that, COLOSSUS ETERNAL; but I remember a story called COLOSSUS too. Squint-eye, fetch my Imag-Index!

It seems strange to me that a fantasite who's been writing as long as Lynn Bridges should still use the word "fantasy" as ambiguously as he does. Maybe ambiguous isn't the right word. Anyway, "fantasy" has two distinct meanings, one covering the entire field of s-f, weird, etcetera, and the other meaning pure fantasy such as Unknown featured. In the names of such groups as the NFFF, it's obvious that "fantasy" is used in the other broader sense, yet Lynn goes right ahead saying that the readers of Scientifictionist are not fantasy fans, without explaining himself save by implication from his whole article.

As to slogans, methinks "Mystery - Adventure - Romance" used "romance" in the proper literary meaning of the word, rather than in the sense employed by Modern Romances, Screen Romances, etc. Street & Smith Astounding did have, for a few issues, a "largest circulation of any science-fiction magazine" streamer. And Lynn has omitted Amazing's classic "Extravagant Fiction Today - Cold Fact Tomorrow."

The Urbanate doesn't propose any housing for red-blooded Americans. What it suggests is a living-machine for a race far advanced toward the termitary, in which all living is social, people have no concern for developing their children in a particular direction (probably won't even go to the trouble of bearing them) but put them entirely in the hands of the State, have none but casual friends and these all stamped from a single mould (groupings occurring by reason of common interests rather than geographical contiguity), have nothing to do in their large free time except paint pictures and the like, or "just go around loving each other " (--Mr. Maydig); and, which is a good thing, unable to survive when any unusual conditions cause the machine to stop. Fortunately, Technocracy is so far out on the unrealistic fringe of ideologies that its blueprints are no cause for fear. That there isn't the remotest chance of the Technate's coming to pass is hard to argue. But you may have some knowledge of that commonsense judgment which tells us, for example, that a man could not be elected president in 1948 who ran on a platform of militant atheism (to make an obvious illustration), altho it would be hard to prove this with sliderule and statistical abstract. Well, the same kind of judgment will teach you the impracticality of Technocracy's approach.

Don't you think you could improve the readability of the letter section by skipping a line after each letter? As it is, for all a glance shows the headnote to one could be a footnore to the one preceding. By the way, I was surprised to find Rick Sneary's name signed to a fairly sensible letter. Maybe he's ripening.

Fout on Hemmel. His explanation of volcanoes was discarded several decades ago, when they found that volcanoes' fire-pockets don't connect with the hot layers, and heaven help us if they did.

Anthony Gilmore? The supposedly certain answer is Harry Bates and Desmond

page 15

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ing down into concrete cases all sorts of abstract questions, metaphysical, political, ethical, esthetic, etc. Lately, too, the fact that s-f trains you to try to predict has become rather important for me in deciding what part of the world I want to live in, what size of town, and what extra-curricular studies particularly deserve pursuing. Finally, long acquaintance with fantasy builds up a sentimental relationship with it so that reading a fantasy story is like gathering with friends, and you enjoy humor, humanature, rhetoric, etc, in stef stories more perhaps than you would in other dress; at any rate, you find them in good stef and since you habitually read this form of fiction more than others, fantasy is the main place that you find them, and their enjoyment is added to the peculiarly fantasy qualities. Speaking of tBoSF, I notice that Tucker calls it The Best in Science Fiction, as I erroneously did on the ifc of Sustaining Program. I find it very hard to remember that the preposition is of, and suspect that in would have made a better title. It was COLOSSUS ETERNAL, I thought, in which Wandrei's hero burst into the super-universe. I'm confused. There was A RACE THROUGH TIME, and then I thot there was only one sequel to that, COLOSSUS ETERNAL; but I remember a story called COLOSSUS too. Squint-eye, fetch my Imag-Index! It seems strange to me that a fantasite who's been writing as long as Lynn Bridges should still use the word "fantasy" as ambiguously as he does. Maybe ambiguous isn't the right word. Anyway, "fantasy" has two distinct meanings, one covering the entire field of s-f, weird, etcetera, and the other meaning pure fantasy such as Unknown featured. In the names of such groups as the NFFF, it's obvious that "fantasy" is used in the other broader sense, yet Lynn goes right ahead saying that the readers of Scientifictionist are not fantasy fans, without explaining himself save by implication from his whole article. As to slogans, methinks "Mystery - Adventure - Romance" used "romance" in the proper literary meaning of the word, rather than in the sense employed by Modern Romances, Screen Romances, etc. Street & Smith Astounding did have, for a few issues, a "largest circulation of any science-fiction magazine" streamer. And Lynn has omitted Amazing's classic "Extravagant Fiction Today - Cold Fact Tomorrow." The Urbanate doesn't propose any housing for red-blooded Americans. What it suggests is a living-machine for a race far advanced toward the termitary, in which all living is social, people have no concern for developing their children in a particular direction (probably won't even go to the trouble of bearing them) but put them entirely in the hands of the State, have none but casual friends and these all stamped from a single mould (groupings occurring by reason of common interests rather than geographical contiguity), have nothing to do in their large free time except paint pictures and the like, or "just go around loving each other " (--Mr. Maydig); and, which is a good thing, unable to survive when any unusual conditions cause the machine to stop. Fortunately, Technocracy is so far out on the unrealistic fringe of ideologies that its blueprints are no cause for fear. That there isn't the remotest chance of the Technate's coming to pass is hard to argue. But you may have some knowledge of that commonsense judgment which tells us, for example, that a man could not be elected president in 1948 who ran on a platform of militant atheism (to make an obvious illustration), altho it would be hard to prove this with sliderule and statistical abstract. Well, the same kind of judgment will teach you the impracticality of Technocracy's approach. Don't you think you could improve the readability of the letter section by skipping a line after each letter? As it is, for all a glance shows the headnote to one could be a footnore to the one preceding. By the way, I was surprised to find Rick Sneary's name signed to a fairly sensible letter. Maybe he's ripening. Fout on Hemmel. His explanation of volcanoes was discarded several decades ago, when they found that volcanoes' fire-pockets don't connect with the hot layers, and heaven help us if they did. Anthony Gilmore? The supposedly certain answer is Harry Bates and Desmond page 15