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Fantascience Digest, v. 1, issue 1, November-December 1937
Page 9
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FANTASCIENCE DIGEST Page 9 were just good adventure tales at a fantastic stage: we disagree - they were a great deal more than that. A very great quality in Weinbaum was one of scientific appreciation. He approached science without blindfolds, without sentimentality; he did not fall into the error, as so many others, of thinking science either a god or a demon, looking upon science as something which would save humanity or doom it. He realized that science, in itself, was incapable of being either benevolent or malignant, that knowledge was neither partial to human beings nor adverse to them, that science was [[?]]. Science could merely show a multiplicity of courses man was able to follow; it could not choose among them. Not science, but man is responsible for the machine[[?]] age. Science showed man how to build metal monsters, but man chose the building thereof, science showed man how to construct horrific engines of wholesale demolition, but science did not choose man's use of them or decree that they should be used for the benefit of a few at the cost of billions. Weinbaum had, again, imaginative appreciation. He did not invest Mars,for example, with lovely humans, gorgeous heroines for earthmen to conquer; he used appreciation of Mars' alienage and evolved thereon a logical form of life and a logical psychology for that life to follow,Whether or not his basic factors were absolutely sound is irrelevant. Science fiction is imaginative, creative literature of escape. It is based[[?]], true, upon what we believe to be exact science, but if an author takes a few liberties, that is permissible. Because we know very little and of what we know, much is indubitably false. It is very doubtful that if any of the science fictionists can ever give an accurate picture on what man will find on
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FANTASCIENCE DIGEST Page 9 were just good adventure tales at a fantastic stage: we disagree - they were a great deal more than that. A very great quality in Weinbaum was one of scientific appreciation. He approached science without blindfolds, without sentimentality; he did not fall into the error, as so many others, of thinking science either a god or a demon, looking upon science as something which would save humanity or doom it. He realized that science, in itself, was incapable of being either benevolent or malignant, that knowledge was neither partial to human beings nor adverse to them, that science was [[?]]. Science could merely show a multiplicity of courses man was able to follow; it could not choose among them. Not science, but man is responsible for the machine[[?]] age. Science showed man how to build metal monsters, but man chose the building thereof, science showed man how to construct horrific engines of wholesale demolition, but science did not choose man's use of them or decree that they should be used for the benefit of a few at the cost of billions. Weinbaum had, again, imaginative appreciation. He did not invest Mars,for example, with lovely humans, gorgeous heroines for earthmen to conquer; he used appreciation of Mars' alienage and evolved thereon a logical form of life and a logical psychology for that life to follow,Whether or not his basic factors were absolutely sound is irrelevant. Science fiction is imaginative, creative literature of escape. It is based[[?]], true, upon what we believe to be exact science, but if an author takes a few liberties, that is permissible. Because we know very little and of what we know, much is indubitably false. It is very doubtful that if any of the science fictionists can ever give an accurate picture on what man will find on
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