DIY History | Transcribe | Hevelin Fanzines | Kay-Mar Trader, v. 2, issue 4, June-July 1947

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Kay-Mar Trader, v. 2, issue 4, June-July 1947

Page 4

***** BEN INDICK COMMENTS ON APRIL K-M-T *****

Mr Vernon Cook's article was very fine this issue( April KMT) He gives a personal,informal tone that can be very pleasing at times. He gives his own opinion and admits it. His comments re TIME STREAM are quite good. The book is certainly not a classis; it has in it fine elements of imagination, but it is o loosely constructed, and with so many loose ends, that it is difficult for the author- let alone the reader! - to reconcile the shreds and tangled ends of the plot. In addition, after struggling through a whole book to show the ill-planned marriage of two incompatibles, as Taine himself demonstrates- (witness the corruption of the world ensueing upon their "disastrous" love) he pops up with a strange ending indicating that the unfortunate love was, after all, very good in the long run.Throw in the snide, smug comments anent[[?]] a "Hebrew philosophy" - philosophy, or psychology, being Freud's and not the entire Hebrew peoples' (and, for that matter being agreed upon by many other-than-Jewish psychologists). So I for one cannot see justification in praising or reprinting TIME STREAM. Mr Cook didn't bring in for panning,THE SKYLARK OF SPACE. This infantile, juvenile and hack-style adventure lasked any merit at all until the hero and his violin-playing, met some alien creatures on other worlds. Cook's comments about STARTLING STORIES' editor, Sam Merwin,and his disdain of HPL are right in line too; when Merwin gets even one story the quality of DUNWICH HORROR, SHADOW OVER INNSMOUTH, he can lean back and rest on his laurels. Even his oft-praise ( mainly by himself) DIVILS'FIDDLE, while good, isn't of the originality, quality or power of DUNWICH HORROR, etc.
Redd Bogg's article about the lazy fan editors is well taken. Fortunately Mr Kay-Mar is not one of these(( Thanks, Ben )).
Now I come to the section about which I desire to comment. This is C.H. Spauldings letter. This fellow and many others show a typical reaction to the troubles of the world today. The turmoil and ever-present fears tend to make them look for some goal or point of comfort or security upon which to fix. Too often this is some superficially satisfing cult, such as that which is led by Richard Shaver. A pseudo-comfort is derived from believing that all evil in the world and in ourselves is not due to us, but to some evil agent, "dero" for Shaver, and some other name for a different cult. Likewise, to know that the evil is being counteracted by good agents, teros, or Shaver himself ( the St. George defeating the dragon! is comforting. Alright, the individual allays his fears by telling himself (1) he is not responsible for any of the evil in the world; and (2) he could not do anything about it anyway, so why try.
But is this enough? Are we only pawns in some supernatural struggle; really, Mr Spaulding, do you believe that all of nature is designed to make life difficult for man? Or is it rather that man is a part, an intrisic part, of the whole who is affected by his environment - and affects it. Man must learn to live with his environment, not imagine himself the victim of an evil design. Therefore,Mr Spaulding's first paragraph comes in for criticism; indeed, yesterday sis gone forever, and possibly tomorrow may never come; but the less of yesterday remains. We learn from the past! To say such a platitude as he offers; "Now is the real time (to exist) individually and collectively forever", is to sy, simply; "We live". That is all. Naturally we cannot live in any other time than the present. The next statement is an astonishing one - and which shows the confused idea that most people have of the words "Knowledge is Power". It is true that scientific research is advancing and the complexity of life increasing; this is only natural in an industrial-scientific civiliz-

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***** BEN INDICK COMMENTS ON APRIL K-M-T ***** Mr Vernon Cook's article was very fine this issue( April KMT) He gives a personal,informal tone that can be very pleasing at times. He gives his own opinion and admits it. His comments re TIME STREAM are quite good. The book is certainly not a classis; it has in it fine elements of imagination, but it is o loosely constructed, and with so many loose ends, that it is difficult for the author- let alone the reader! - to reconcile the shreds and tangled ends of the plot. In addition, after struggling through a whole book to show the ill-planned marriage of two incompatibles, as Taine himself demonstrates- (witness the corruption of the world ensueing upon their "disastrous" love) he pops up with a strange ending indicating that the unfortunate love was, after all, very good in the long run.Throw in the snide, smug comments anent[[?]] a "Hebrew philosophy" - philosophy, or psychology, being Freud's and not the entire Hebrew peoples' (and, for that matter being agreed upon by many other-than-Jewish psychologists). So I for one cannot see justification in praising or reprinting TIME STREAM. Mr Cook didn't bring in for panning,THE SKYLARK OF SPACE. This infantile, juvenile and hack-style adventure lasked any merit at all until the hero and his violin-playing, met some alien creatures on other worlds. Cook's comments about STARTLING STORIES' editor, Sam Merwin,and his disdain of HPL are right in line too; when Merwin gets even one story the quality of DUNWICH HORROR, SHADOW OVER INNSMOUTH, he can lean back and rest on his laurels. Even his oft-praise ( mainly by himself) DIVILS'FIDDLE, while good, isn't of the originality, quality or power of DUNWICH HORROR, etc. Redd Bogg's article about the lazy fan editors is well taken. Fortunately Mr Kay-Mar is not one of these(( Thanks, Ben )). Now I come to the section about which I desire to comment. This is C.H. Spauldings letter. This fellow and many others show a typical reaction to the troubles of the world today. The turmoil and ever-present fears tend to make them look for some goal or point of comfort or security upon which to fix. Too often this is some superficially satisfing cult, such as that which is led by Richard Shaver. A pseudo-comfort is derived from believing that all evil in the world and in ourselves is not due to us, but to some evil agent, "dero" for Shaver, and some other name for a different cult. Likewise, to know that the evil is being counteracted by good agents, teros, or Shaver himself ( the St. George defeating the dragon! is comforting. Alright, the individual allays his fears by telling himself (1) he is not responsible for any of the evil in the world; and (2) he could not do anything about it anyway, so why try. But is this enough? Are we only pawns in some supernatural struggle; really, Mr Spaulding, do you believe that all of nature is designed to make life difficult for man? Or is it rather that man is a part, an intrisic part, of the whole who is affected by his environment - and affects it. Man must learn to live with his environment, not imagine himself the victim of an evil design. Therefore,Mr Spaulding's first paragraph comes in for criticism; indeed, yesterday sis gone forever, and possibly tomorrow may never come; but the less of yesterday remains. We learn from the past! To say such a platitude as he offers; "Now is the real time (to exist) individually and collectively forever", is to sy, simply; "We live". That is all. Naturally we cannot live in any other time than the present. The next statement is an astonishing one - and which shows the confused idea that most people have of the words "Knowledge is Power". It is true that scientific research is advancing and the complexity of life increasing; this is only natural in an industrial-scientific civiliz-