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Scientifictionist, issue 2, after 1945

Page 3

EXPLAINING A
by Don Warren Bratton

WORLD OF A, for me, came to acquire much significance, but with others it has produced a variety of reactions. Campbell says about it in his editorial blurb: "The tale of a great adventure, in an Earth remolded by the Games Machine, a philosophy -- and a terrible struggle of colossal forces working secretly from beyond the limits of Man's knowledge..." I hear that most of the LA fans failed to appreciate it, registering confusion. Some have claimed it "the stinker of the year." Most readers I've spoken to liked it. Ron Christensen's ERGERZERP #13, reporting on the Westwood Con, says that "Then came a session on Gerry's front porch, and Moskowitz revealed the hidden meaning in WORLD OF A, which ran in late ASF's." 
Now what is this hidden meaning in van Vogt's novel! I can assure you this is one, and I will try to give the clue. Given this key, I think that many of VOM's readers will go out and answer the question fully for themselves.
This is surely what van Vogt intended that we do.
Van Vogt wrote with a purpose. What at first seem fantastic imaginings, turn out to be a sugar-coated and cleverly disguised form of the serious [underlined] writings of another man! Precisely, a Polish mathematician who (as Robert A. Heinlein said) turned his capacities for careful analysis to the problems of general human behavior and as a result produced a world-shaking new 'philosophical' system.
In the past Alfred van Vogt has given us some highly exceptional stories. But in his latest he has turned to a new field, has produced something probably destined to be a unique example of its type -- unless he has more rabbits in his hat. And [underlined] that is hard to imagine.
In short, WORLD OF A is a fictionalized version of a heavily serious and revolutionary book entitled SCIENCE AND SANITY by Alfred Korzybski (1879-  ), a volume of over 700 pages now in its second edition, published by Science Press, Lancaster, Penn. The title page explains it as "an introduction to non-Aristotelian systems and general semantics."
We're all familiar with the term 'semantics'. But as it has been treated in many recent works, it doesn't seem to accomplish much. Now don't make the mistake of associating Science and Sanity with the study-of-words-alone; it isn't. Most present books on semantics which I've examined approach the problem naively as a study of common everyday words, with all their primitive unconscious fundamental assumptions. General semantics is the study of [underlined] language, the term used in a very broad sense, so that mathematics, and all other symbology [sic] Thus the term epistemology which Heinlein uses is perhaps better applied to Korzybski's work. (Heinlein gave a high reccommendation [sic] of SAS in his speech at the Denvention, [sic] of which 4e Ackerman has published an excellent transcript.) [Still available from 4e for 25c -- ed.]
Anything I might try to tell a person about SAS who hasn't read it yet would be incomprehensible, especially considering my stumble-bum type of explanations. So I won't try it. The book is unique -- there is nothing whatsoever with which to compare it; and at present it is the first and only work in its field. 
I've got a hunch that the type of person best fitted to comprehend this work of Korzybksi's is the mathematically-inclined atheist. Korzybski, having delved deeply in math, builds his system in a mathematical manner. And hard-bitten theists are apt to have strong identifications which would make it difficult for them to digest the system.
Whether WORLD OF A was written to stand on its own feet as a typical yarn of ASTOUNDING or whether it was simply the medium van Vogt chose to present 
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EXPLAINING A by Don Warren Bratton WORLD OF A, for me, came to acquire much significance, but with others it has produced a variety of reactions. Campbell says about it in his editorial blurb: "The tale of a great adventure, in an Earth remolded by the Games Machine, a philosophy -- and a terrible struggle of colossal forces working secretly from beyond the limits of Man's knowledge..." I hear that most of the LA fans failed to appreciate it, registering confusion. Some have claimed it "the stinker of the year." Most readers I've spoken to liked it. Ron Christensen's ERGERZERP #13, reporting on the Westwood Con, says that "Then came a session on Gerry's front porch, and Moskowitz revealed the hidden meaning in WORLD OF A, which ran in late ASF's." Now what is this hidden meaning in van Vogt's novel! I can assure you this is one, and I will try to give the clue. Given this key, I think that many of VOM's readers will go out and answer the question fully for themselves. This is surely what van Vogt intended that we do. Van Vogt wrote with a purpose. What at first seem fantastic imaginings, turn out to be a sugar-coated and cleverly disguised form of the serious [underlined] writings of another man! Precisely, a Polish mathematician who (as Robert A. Heinlein said) turned his capacities for careful analysis to the problems of general human behavior and as a result produced a world-shaking new 'philosophical' system. In the past Alfred van Vogt has given us some highly exceptional stories. But in his latest he has turned to a new field, has produced something probably destined to be a unique example of its type -- unless he has more rabbits in his hat. And [underlined] that is hard to imagine. In short, WORLD OF A is a fictionalized version of a heavily serious and revolutionary book entitled SCIENCE AND SANITY by Alfred Korzybski (1879- ), a volume of over 700 pages now in its second edition, published by Science Press, Lancaster, Penn. The title page explains it as "an introduction to non-Aristotelian systems and general semantics." We're all familiar with the term 'semantics'. But as it has been treated in many recent works, it doesn't seem to accomplish much. Now don't make the mistake of associating Science and Sanity with the study-of-words-alone; it isn't. Most present books on semantics which I've examined approach the problem naively as a study of common everyday words, with all their primitive unconscious fundamental assumptions. General semantics is the study of [underlined] language, the term used in a very broad sense, so that mathematics, and all other symbology [sic] Thus the term epistemology which Heinlein uses is perhaps better applied to Korzybski's work. (Heinlein gave a high reccommendation [sic] of SAS in his speech at the Denvention, [sic] of which 4e Ackerman has published an excellent transcript.) [Still available from 4e for 25c -- ed.] Anything I might try to tell a person about SAS who hasn't read it yet would be incomprehensible, especially considering my stumble-bum type of explanations. So I won't try it. The book is unique -- there is nothing whatsoever with which to compare it; and at present it is the first and only work in its field. I've got a hunch that the type of person best fitted to comprehend this work of Korzybksi's is the mathematically-inclined atheist. Korzybski, having delved deeply in math, builds his system in a mathematical manner. And hard-bitten theists are apt to have strong identifications which would make it difficult for them to digest the system. Whether WORLD OF A was written to stand on its own feet as a typical yarn of ASTOUNDING or whether it was simply the medium van Vogt chose to present [centered] (Continued on page 10) [centered, in box] page 3