Transcribe
Translate
Acolyte, v. 4, issue 1, whole no. 13, Winter 1946
More information
digital collection
archival collection guide
transcription tips
"The Adaptive Ultimate" under the pseudonym of John Jessel so that Tremaine might not get the impression he was overstocking the magazine with Weinbaum. When Wonder Stories asked for a sequel to "Martian Odyssey", Weinbaum submitted "Valley of Dreams" which was actually written before "Martian Odyssey", but which had been set aside for an elaborate re-writing. With a few hasty changes to make it appear to be a sequel, "Valley of Dreams" received a very favorable response from the readers, most of whom were not sufficiently discerning to realise that they had actually read the same story twice. Under the "new story policy" of the 1934 Wonder each tale was expected to have either a new idea or an original twist of an old one. Since "Flight on Titan" was a straight adventure story with seemingly trite perils and situations, it was rejected. F. Orlin Tremaine, editor of the fast-rising Astounding Stories, picked it up on the bounce. Between the favorable response of Astounding's readers and the much higher word rate being paid by Street and Smith, Wonder lost what might have been an exclusive option on Weinbaum. He started a new series for Astounding, the "Ham" Hammond-Pat Burlingame trilogy. "Parasite Planet", the first of the group, is not dissimilar to "Flight on Titan"; boy-meets-girl against a non-terrestrial background, with incidental forms of weird life: Jack Ketch trees with their lassoes, mindless protoplasmic masses sloughing their way through the jungle digesting all with which they came in contact, and others. "The Lotus Eaters", the second in the Ham-Pat series, is considered by many to be Weinbaum's finest. Its chief claim to fame is another of Weinbaum's beasties, Oscar, an inverted bushel basket affair with wellnigh omnipotent intelligence who had no objection to being eaten by other beasts. He also dispensed narcotic, well-arresting spores. Here is an almost perfect science-fiction story, with no plots or counterplots, but with ideas and writing that charm the reader with the potency of Oscar's own spores. The concluding tale of the trilogy is the poorest, "The Planet of Doubt"; Weinbaum is straining too hard to concoct new biological oddities, and the romance of Ham and Pat has lost what glamor it might have had. The outstanding character is a creature composed of segments attached together like a train of cars and rushing past very much like one. "Pygmalion's Spectacles" is of little stature, a story of a new type of motion picture in which the hero is hypnotized into believing himself a character on the screen and experiencing all the sensations and emotions of that character. A likeable tale, perhaps, but badly marred by overstrained coincidences and other flaws. In order to sell to Wonder Weinbaum had to produce a new idea in each story; as a vehicle for these, he created an eccentric scientist, Van Manderpootz, around whom he wrote a trilogy. I cannot be convinced that these are fine stories. The first of the group, "The Worlds of If", deals with a machine which will show graphically what would have happened if the subject had not missed a plane, quit his job, been seen lunching with a blonde, and so on. Hitherto, Weinbaum's forte had been sly humor and ludicrous but likeable characters. In this series, the humor was forced, little more than crude slapstick, and in none of the series does he allow himself enough wordage to tell the story properly. His humor, scientific explanation, and love interest is no longer a carefully blended product but presented as lumps and chunks ineffectively pieced together. Never adept at formulating a strong plot, he proves entirely incapable of exploiting the infinite possibilities inherent in his "Worlds of If" idea. The garnering of his first cover for the second in the Van Manderpootz group in no way improved the story. "The Ideal" concerns a machine which will assemble a man's likes and dislikes and show on a screen the depiction of his -- 25 --
Saving...
prev
next
"The Adaptive Ultimate" under the pseudonym of John Jessel so that Tremaine might not get the impression he was overstocking the magazine with Weinbaum. When Wonder Stories asked for a sequel to "Martian Odyssey", Weinbaum submitted "Valley of Dreams" which was actually written before "Martian Odyssey", but which had been set aside for an elaborate re-writing. With a few hasty changes to make it appear to be a sequel, "Valley of Dreams" received a very favorable response from the readers, most of whom were not sufficiently discerning to realise that they had actually read the same story twice. Under the "new story policy" of the 1934 Wonder each tale was expected to have either a new idea or an original twist of an old one. Since "Flight on Titan" was a straight adventure story with seemingly trite perils and situations, it was rejected. F. Orlin Tremaine, editor of the fast-rising Astounding Stories, picked it up on the bounce. Between the favorable response of Astounding's readers and the much higher word rate being paid by Street and Smith, Wonder lost what might have been an exclusive option on Weinbaum. He started a new series for Astounding, the "Ham" Hammond-Pat Burlingame trilogy. "Parasite Planet", the first of the group, is not dissimilar to "Flight on Titan"; boy-meets-girl against a non-terrestrial background, with incidental forms of weird life: Jack Ketch trees with their lassoes, mindless protoplasmic masses sloughing their way through the jungle digesting all with which they came in contact, and others. "The Lotus Eaters", the second in the Ham-Pat series, is considered by many to be Weinbaum's finest. Its chief claim to fame is another of Weinbaum's beasties, Oscar, an inverted bushel basket affair with wellnigh omnipotent intelligence who had no objection to being eaten by other beasts. He also dispensed narcotic, well-arresting spores. Here is an almost perfect science-fiction story, with no plots or counterplots, but with ideas and writing that charm the reader with the potency of Oscar's own spores. The concluding tale of the trilogy is the poorest, "The Planet of Doubt"; Weinbaum is straining too hard to concoct new biological oddities, and the romance of Ham and Pat has lost what glamor it might have had. The outstanding character is a creature composed of segments attached together like a train of cars and rushing past very much like one. "Pygmalion's Spectacles" is of little stature, a story of a new type of motion picture in which the hero is hypnotized into believing himself a character on the screen and experiencing all the sensations and emotions of that character. A likeable tale, perhaps, but badly marred by overstrained coincidences and other flaws. In order to sell to Wonder Weinbaum had to produce a new idea in each story; as a vehicle for these, he created an eccentric scientist, Van Manderpootz, around whom he wrote a trilogy. I cannot be convinced that these are fine stories. The first of the group, "The Worlds of If", deals with a machine which will show graphically what would have happened if the subject had not missed a plane, quit his job, been seen lunching with a blonde, and so on. Hitherto, Weinbaum's forte had been sly humor and ludicrous but likeable characters. In this series, the humor was forced, little more than crude slapstick, and in none of the series does he allow himself enough wordage to tell the story properly. His humor, scientific explanation, and love interest is no longer a carefully blended product but presented as lumps and chunks ineffectively pieced together. Never adept at formulating a strong plot, he proves entirely incapable of exploiting the infinite possibilities inherent in his "Worlds of If" idea. The garnering of his first cover for the second in the Van Manderpootz group in no way improved the story. "The Ideal" concerns a machine which will assemble a man's likes and dislikes and show on a screen the depiction of his -- 25 --
Hevelin Fanzines
sidebar
