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Scientifictionist, issue 2, 1945
Page 2
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DON'T BE A PULPIST by Francis T. Laney The sciencefictionist who allows himself to bog down in a morass of pulp magazines is walking down a dead end road whose only possible end is a choice between mental stultification and disgust with the entire fantasy field. It is an easy road to get on, particularly for the small town fan whose only dependable source of reading material is often the newsstand; and it is a road occupied by a large number of well known fans. One can scarcely blame the small town boy for getting off thus on the wrong foot. In the first [place?], he has that "different" outlook on life which naturally leads him into offtrail literature and if he is a newsstand addict this means pulp fantasy. Supposing he does wish to get the non-pulp stuff, his local library, if any, will probably have little obviously recognizable scientifiction except perhaps for a couple of Jules Verne. The he gets into fandom and begins hearing about the Wonderful Stories by the Great Masters. in the back issue Stfzines. It is certainly natural for him to try and locate them, since he is already a reader of the same type of periodical; and between the joys of the chase and ordinary mundane activity it is not easy for him to find either time or money to investigate book scientifiction. He also has before him the example of many fans whose scientifictional background is strictly from the pulp. Nor is this train of actions limited to the rustic. Particularly in the pre-rationing days, the current output of magazine Stf is about as much as the ordinary person will have the time to cope with. If the imagined postwar boom materializes, the flood of fantasy pulps will pass all reason. Twenty-five different titles does not seem an extreme estimate. (We have had nearly that many in one year before.) Very well. If the fan is trying to keep up with all this material, he is likely to grow tired of it. One need not be a veteran fan to note the triteness and hackney inherent in most magazine fiction. If this composite scientifictionist we're discussing has not taken enough time from the magazine to read the better material in the genre, his interest will die away. About the time he stumbles onto some good writing (which is not likely to be fantasy-- a simple matter of averages) he is going to be sent. He is going to react away from Stf. Or, if for some good reason he stays on the pulp diet too long, he will eventually find himself incapable of reading anything else. Such stagnation can be called by no other name than mental suicide. Scientifiction, fortunately, is not limited to the cheap magazines. An amazingly large number of books-- serious, adult novels-- are scientifiction. A prominent bibliographer once estimated that a complete list of fantasy books would comprise some 10,000 titles. Many of them are as trashy as the magazines, but what magazine story can be mentioned in the same breath with works by such men as S. Fowler Wright, W. Olaf Stapledon, H.G. Wells, Hal P. Trevarthen, D.E. Stevenson, Edward Shanks, Karel Capek, Jack London, or Herbert Best-- to name a mere handful. Or if one's tastes run to the lighter, more artificial stuff-- such well-known pulp writers as Balmer and Wylie, George Allan England, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Ray Cummings, or John Russell Fearn are well represented in hard covers. The innate nature of a pulp magazine precludes any great amount of writing of a quality acceptable to an intelligent adult. The type of persons catered to may be well judged by the advertisements. "Do you want to stop tobacco?", "Genuine Diamonds at Out-of-Pawn Low Prices", "Psoriasis-Excema Stuff. Just brush liquid.... over affected skin", "Stammer?", "Used Correspondence Courses", "Appear slimmer, look younger, feel better, instantly", "If ruptured try this
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DON'T BE A PULPIST by Francis T. Laney The sciencefictionist who allows himself to bog down in a morass of pulp magazines is walking down a dead end road whose only possible end is a choice between mental stultification and disgust with the entire fantasy field. It is an easy road to get on, particularly for the small town fan whose only dependable source of reading material is often the newsstand; and it is a road occupied by a large number of well known fans. One can scarcely blame the small town boy for getting off thus on the wrong foot. In the first [place?], he has that "different" outlook on life which naturally leads him into offtrail literature and if he is a newsstand addict this means pulp fantasy. Supposing he does wish to get the non-pulp stuff, his local library, if any, will probably have little obviously recognizable scientifiction except perhaps for a couple of Jules Verne. The he gets into fandom and begins hearing about the Wonderful Stories by the Great Masters. in the back issue Stfzines. It is certainly natural for him to try and locate them, since he is already a reader of the same type of periodical; and between the joys of the chase and ordinary mundane activity it is not easy for him to find either time or money to investigate book scientifiction. He also has before him the example of many fans whose scientifictional background is strictly from the pulp. Nor is this train of actions limited to the rustic. Particularly in the pre-rationing days, the current output of magazine Stf is about as much as the ordinary person will have the time to cope with. If the imagined postwar boom materializes, the flood of fantasy pulps will pass all reason. Twenty-five different titles does not seem an extreme estimate. (We have had nearly that many in one year before.) Very well. If the fan is trying to keep up with all this material, he is likely to grow tired of it. One need not be a veteran fan to note the triteness and hackney inherent in most magazine fiction. If this composite scientifictionist we're discussing has not taken enough time from the magazine to read the better material in the genre, his interest will die away. About the time he stumbles onto some good writing (which is not likely to be fantasy-- a simple matter of averages) he is going to be sent. He is going to react away from Stf. Or, if for some good reason he stays on the pulp diet too long, he will eventually find himself incapable of reading anything else. Such stagnation can be called by no other name than mental suicide. Scientifiction, fortunately, is not limited to the cheap magazines. An amazingly large number of books-- serious, adult novels-- are scientifiction. A prominent bibliographer once estimated that a complete list of fantasy books would comprise some 10,000 titles. Many of them are as trashy as the magazines, but what magazine story can be mentioned in the same breath with works by such men as S. Fowler Wright, W. Olaf Stapledon, H.G. Wells, Hal P. Trevarthen, D.E. Stevenson, Edward Shanks, Karel Capek, Jack London, or Herbert Best-- to name a mere handful. Or if one's tastes run to the lighter, more artificial stuff-- such well-known pulp writers as Balmer and Wylie, George Allan England, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Ray Cummings, or John Russell Fearn are well represented in hard covers. The innate nature of a pulp magazine precludes any great amount of writing of a quality acceptable to an intelligent adult. The type of persons catered to may be well judged by the advertisements. "Do you want to stop tobacco?", "Genuine Diamonds at Out-of-Pawn Low Prices", "Psoriasis-Excema Stuff. Just brush liquid.... over affected skin", "Stammer?", "Used Correspondence Courses", "Appear slimmer, look younger, feel better, instantly", "If ruptured try this
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