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Le Zombie, v. 5, issue 1, whole no. 48, July-August 1942

Page 10

All of which doesn't alter the fact that there are hacks, whose stuff is printed only because the work of aspiring young geniuses who would supplant them too often has glaring faults of its own; so glaring that it is inferior to that of the accomplished hack, who may, like Scott, have some bills to pay.

What is your pet peeve in the line of flaws in stories? We have two. Particularly obnoxious ---- and this normally appears, we are glad to say, only in stories which are generally inadequate almost throughout -- is the survival of the hero or villain, or both, without adequate justification. It is necessary that the hero survive; otherwise there is no story. It is also necessary that the villain survive until the end of the story. It is up to the author to justify their continued existence in this life. Yet, how many times have you read a story in which the hero is completely helpless, only to have the villain let him live long enough to escape without any real reason for doing so? The villain simply says "You will die in two hours. I could shoot you now, but I prefer to let you live a little while.: Can you imagine a reasonably intelligent villain doing that?

The better writer provides some interruption, or some previously-planted reason, which makes it necessary for the villain to let the sympathetic character live a little longer. Perhaps he can't kill the hero at that moment, without attracting attention from another quarter, and has to leave, although that is pretty thin, since it would take only a second to shoot his man.

The  second is the business of letting a single statement creep into a story, and by this statement, completely destroying a whole sequence of events. An example of this occurred in "Blood On The Sun," a rather good action story in the May issue of Startling. The Giants, who were the villains in the piece, did their stuff by controlling the actions of a few individuals. They did this by means of a mechanical device which replace the victims' brains. The defeat of the Giants, at the last moment, depended completely on keeping them in ignorance of an impending attack. The attack succeeded. Then, after everything was over, the author said that the king of the country which had made the successful attack was one of the victims. Yet, the government official who organised the successful attack, had been in constant contact with this king, who was in reality but an automaton, whose every act and thought was dictated by one of the giants. Moreover, it wan't necessary, in any sense, to make the king one of the victims, although his earlier actions became more reasonable in that event. I call that a bad slip; but it was certainly an easy one to make. DBT. 

Lez-ettes

chapter 1:
 Microscope
chapter 2:
 Microcosm
chapter 3:
 There's Yngvie!

chapter 1:
 Archaeologist
chapter 2: 
 Bones
chapter 3:
 Snake-eyes!

chapter 1:
 Amoeba
chapter 2: 
 No fission
chapter 3:
 Grue-some

chapter 1:
 Proton
chapter 2:
 Cyclotron
chapter 3:
 Wheeeee!

REPRINT DEPT: (culled from "Pocketbook of Boners", Science section:) 
"A circle is a line of no depth running around a dot forever."
"Glycerine is a vicious liquid, miserable in water of all proportions."
"The moon is a planet just like the earth only deader."

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All of which doesn't alter the fact that there are hacks, whose stuff is printed only because the work of aspiring young geniuses who would supplant them too often has glaring faults of its own; so glaring that it is inferior to that of the accomplished hack, who may, like Scott, have some bills to pay. What is your pet peeve in the line of flaws in stories? We have two. Particularly obnoxious ---- and this normally appears, we are glad to say, only in stories which are generally inadequate almost throughout -- is the survival of the hero or villain, or both, without adequate justification. It is necessary that the hero survive; otherwise there is no story. It is also necessary that the villain survive until the end of the story. It is up to the author to justify their continued existence in this life. Yet, how many times have you read a story in which the hero is completely helpless, only to have the villain let him live long enough to escape without any real reason for doing so? The villain simply says "You will die in two hours. I could shoot you now, but I prefer to let you live a little while.: Can you imagine a reasonably intelligent villain doing that? The better writer provides some interruption, or some previously-planted reason, which makes it necessary for the villain to let the sympathetic character live a little longer. Perhaps he can't kill the hero at that moment, without attracting attention from another quarter, and has to leave, although that is pretty thin, since it would take only a second to shoot his man. The second is the business of letting a single statement creep into a story, and by this statement, completely destroying a whole sequence of events. An example of this occurred in "Blood On The Sun," a rather good action story in the May issue of Startling. The Giants, who were the villains in the piece, did their stuff by controlling the actions of a few individuals. They did this by means of a mechanical device which replace the victims' brains. The defeat of the Giants, at the last moment, depended completely on keeping them in ignorance of an impending attack. The attack succeeded. Then, after everything was over, the author said that the king of the country which had made the successful attack was one of the victims. Yet, the government official who organised the successful attack, had been in constant contact with this king, who was in reality but an automaton, whose every act and thought was dictated by one of the giants. Moreover, it wan't necessary, in any sense, to make the king one of the victims, although his earlier actions became more reasonable in that event. I call that a bad slip; but it was certainly an easy one to make. DBT. Lez-ettes chapter 1: Microscope chapter 2: Microcosm chapter 3: There's Yngvie! chapter 1: Archaeologist chapter 2: Bones chapter 3: Snake-eyes! chapter 1: Amoeba chapter 2: No fission chapter 3: Grue-some chapter 1: Proton chapter 2: Cyclotron chapter 3: Wheeeee! REPRINT DEPT: (culled from "Pocketbook of Boners", Science section:) "A circle is a line of no depth running around a dot forever." "Glycerine is a vicious liquid, miserable in water of all proportions." "The moon is a planet just like the earth only deader."