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Fantascience Digest, v. 2, issue 5, July-September, 1939

Page 11

FANTASCIENCE DIGEST Page 11

their efforts to write science fiction, and some license should be taken - it stimulates the imagination. But there is no need to take the thing to excess; many stimulants, taken in overdoses, become drugs.

It is absurd to suppose that, because we today can look at the Moon through a telescope, we know all about it. It is the fault of every generation of mankind to imagine that it represents the pinnacle of human achievement, an attitude which science fiction fans are often inclined to decry. This is where science fiction serves its purpose - it can, by a slight exaggeration, knock some of the cocksureness out of many people, and persuade them, however gradually, that they are NOT the apotheosis of human endeavor, that there's plenty left to be discovered yet. But science fiction must not take the thing to absurd lengths, and insist on men from Earth conquering every galaxy, and going cut to the edge of space to stop it from bursting, or something like that.

One of the thousands of voices that cry in the wilderness, I say -- "more plausibility". But don't make it too plausible -- leave a little room for us to dream.

"World-losers and world-forsakers,
On whom the pale moon gleans;
Yet we are the movers and shakers
Of the world for ever, it seems."

Right! Let's be dreamers, and visualise things we know to be impossible -- for it's the dreamers who really achieve things, whatever big business men and hack writers may say. But let our dreams be pleasant ones, then we'll shake the world, because we'll prove the reality that is the foundation of those dreams. Nightmares of super-science, space-warps, and such-like, won't convince the public that we have anything worth looking at. The simplicity of "The First Men in the Moon" won more adherents for science fiction than all the nonsense we were treated to in the "Skylark" trilogy.

Plausibility, please
-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

AUTHOR'S DREAM (5)

"Space"

The darkness of death and its icy breath
Are nought to what waits for us here.
No earth is near and all men fear
A sense of utter depth.

The brilliant stare are prison bars
To men who want their land
A homesick band, yet we are grand
For what we see is ours.
-----Helen Cloukey
-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

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FANTASCIENCE DIGEST Page 11 their efforts to write science fiction, and some license should be taken - it stimulates the imagination. But there is no need to take the thing to excess; many stimulants, taken in overdoses, become drugs. It is absurd to suppose that, because we today can look at the Moon through a telescope, we know all about it. It is the fault of every generation of mankind to imagine that it represents the pinnacle of human achievement, an attitude which science fiction fans are often inclined to decry. This is where science fiction serves its purpose - it can, by a slight exaggeration, knock some of the cocksureness out of many people, and persuade them, however gradually, that they are NOT the apotheosis of human endeavor, that there's plenty left to be discovered yet. But science fiction must not take the thing to absurd lengths, and insist on men from Earth conquering every galaxy, and going cut to the edge of space to stop it from bursting, or something like that. One of the thousands of voices that cry in the wilderness, I say -- "more plausibility". But don't make it too plausible -- leave a little room for us to dream. "World-losers and world-forsakers, On whom the pale moon gleans; Yet we are the movers and shakers Of the world for ever, it seems." Right! Let's be dreamers, and visualise things we know to be impossible -- for it's the dreamers who really achieve things, whatever big business men and hack writers may say. But let our dreams be pleasant ones, then we'll shake the world, because we'll prove the reality that is the foundation of those dreams. Nightmares of super-science, space-warps, and such-like, won't convince the public that we have anything worth looking at. The simplicity of "The First Men in the Moon" won more adherents for science fiction than all the nonsense we were treated to in the "Skylark" trilogy. Plausibility, please -o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o AUTHOR'S DREAM (5) "Space" The darkness of death and its icy breath Are nought to what waits for us here. No earth is near and all men fear A sense of utter depth. The brilliant stare are prison bars To men who want their land A homesick band, yet we are grand For what we see is ours. -----Helen Cloukey -o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o