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Fantascience Digest, v. 3, issue 3, whole no. 15, November-December 1941

Page 13

gaining in strength and agility, increasing steadily both as to quantity and quality. When the hiatus occurs, this flow is blocked, but not abrogated: sheer inertia causes it to spread out, to flow back upon itself, to create eddies and whirlpools. For a time, this spreading out creates great brilliance, and not until the flow has finally halted and the stream become to stagnate does "decadence" become death.
   In magazine science fiction, we saw a classical period, although whether or not there really was anything resembling a "golden age" is very questionable. Had the world not been plunged into chaos by economic crisis of unprecedented order, had the flow of science not been halted thus, then magazine science fiction could correspondingly have reached the peak of its development. But with the breakdown of scientific progress, the forcible retrogression of progress in many parts of the world, and the mad divergence of all aims to military objectives, science fiction, which was so vitally connected with the free and unhampered flow of scientific thought, progress, and experiment  along constructive, peaceful lines, struck an impassable barrier. So far had it gone; no farther could it go. It could, true, look into the immediate future, build upon what knowledge there was and extrapolate upon such building blocks of the future as the scientists had made or described, but no longer was there a ever-progressing base for it. For five years there have been little or no new basis for any science fiction: there have only been modifications and improvements upon such basis as had been and rejection of a few which had seemed sound at that time. The proof of this is indicated in that outstanding science fiction stories of five years ago are hardly distinguishable, from the scientific basis thereof, from outstanding scientifiction tales of today. Yet, compare the best stf tales of five years ago with the best of ten years ago. It will become painfully apparent, then, how complete the haitus has been.
   It is not enough to shrug the matter off by suggesting commercialism on the part of editors and publishers. Not that this has no effect, but that is cannot be accepted as the prime factor. Editors and publishers have always been commercial. the ARGOSY fantastic tales would not have been continued if from the first, they had not proven drawing cards, immensely popular with the readers.
   As a matter of fact, when we speak of "basis" for stf tales, the rejection of this principle by so many authors and editors, and the widespread doubt as to whether or not such exists can be taken as a symptom of decadence. Science fiction has long ceased to be explorative: it is now decorative. At its best it is smooth entertainment, brilliant fantasy with an undertone pleasing to "streamlined" moderns. It aids in the mythology that scientists have invented for themselves: it shows every sign of becoming the mythology of the Neurotic Age (with thanks to Stanton A. Coblentz for a very apt non-political definition of out times).
   When did the decadent age in magazine science fiction begin? It seems to have started markedly with Weinbaum, the great decorative romanticist. Ironically enough, he brought into stf something it needed after it was too late for any innovation to be of any use to it. The river had already been damned. Weinbaum brought the realist-romantic touch, the light realism which, during the classical period could (Cont. on Page 29)

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gaining in strength and agility, increasing steadily both as to quantity and quality. When the hiatus occurs, this flow is blocked, but not abrogated: sheer inertia causes it to spread out, to flow back upon itself, to create eddies and whirlpools. For a time, this spreading out creates great brilliance, and not until the flow has finally halted and the stream become to stagnate does "decadence" become death. In magazine science fiction, we saw a classical period, although whether or not there really was anything resembling a "golden age" is very questionable. Had the world not been plunged into chaos by economic crisis of unprecedented order, had the flow of science not been halted thus, then magazine science fiction could correspondingly have reached the peak of its development. But with the breakdown of scientific progress, the forcible retrogression of progress in many parts of the world, and the mad divergence of all aims to military objectives, science fiction, which was so vitally connected with the free and unhampered flow of scientific thought, progress, and experiment along constructive, peaceful lines, struck an impassable barrier. So far had it gone; no farther could it go. It could, true, look into the immediate future, build upon what knowledge there was and extrapolate upon such building blocks of the future as the scientists had made or described, but no longer was there a ever-progressing base for it. For five years there have been little or no new basis for any science fiction: there have only been modifications and improvements upon such basis as had been and rejection of a few which had seemed sound at that time. The proof of this is indicated in that outstanding science fiction stories of five years ago are hardly distinguishable, from the scientific basis thereof, from outstanding scientifiction tales of today. Yet, compare the best stf tales of five years ago with the best of ten years ago. It will become painfully apparent, then, how complete the haitus has been. It is not enough to shrug the matter off by suggesting commercialism on the part of editors and publishers. Not that this has no effect, but that is cannot be accepted as the prime factor. Editors and publishers have always been commercial. the ARGOSY fantastic tales would not have been continued if from the first, they had not proven drawing cards, immensely popular with the readers. As a matter of fact, when we speak of "basis" for stf tales, the rejection of this principle by so many authors and editors, and the widespread doubt as to whether or not such exists can be taken as a symptom of decadence. Science fiction has long ceased to be explorative: it is now decorative. At its best it is smooth entertainment, brilliant fantasy with an undertone pleasing to "streamlined" moderns. It aids in the mythology that scientists have invented for themselves: it shows every sign of becoming the mythology of the Neurotic Age (with thanks to Stanton A. Coblentz for a very apt non-political definition of out times). When did the decadent age in magazine science fiction begin? It seems to have started markedly with Weinbaum, the great decorative romanticist. Ironically enough, he brought into stf something it needed after it was too late for any innovation to be of any use to it. The river had already been damned. Weinbaum brought the realist-romantic touch, the light realism which, during the classical period could (Cont. on Page 29)