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Spaceways, v. 3 issue 3, whole no. 19, March 1941
Page 12
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12 SPACEWAYS FANTASY---1919 STYLE [[handwritten number "6"]] by WALTER SULLIVAN While in the midst of an exasperating search for out of the way articles dealing directly or indirectly with fantasy, I came upon one which I am sure will be of more than usual interest to most fans. I, like many fans, was under the impression that the collecting of fantasy was a fairly recent innovation. This I learned to be untrue. It seems that someone has beaten us to it by a few years. The article I refer to was first published in The New Statesman, and was reprinted in The Living Age for March 8, 1919. It was written by Edward Shanks, and is entitled "Novels about the Future". Since many fans will not get a chance to read it, I will give a summary of it here. Mr. Shanks believed that the new fantasies were descendents of the old Utopian ideas. Before his time, an author could take his hero to some distant and unknown place, where he could find or set up a Utopia. Recent geographic discoveries had put an end to that (bear in mind that this was written in 1919). Since everyone now knows that these places do not exist, the authors are naturally thrown forward into the future. No amateur (at that time) had taken to collecting and examining these works. Even at that time it included a large field for the student and collector. He believed that many of the fantastic novels that he had read were written by cranks, and were of no literary or speculative value. And because of this, they were of most interest to the collector. These he did not add to his collection and could remember only a few tantalizing scraps about them. By that time they had become extremely difficult to trace. He recommended fantasy as a theme for anyone seeking an academic essay in which to combine literature, sociological speculation and the psychology of the "mildly insane". He said that he would give such a person as much help as possible. The author then gives a summary of Victor Rousseau's "The Apostle of the Cylinder", and says that since there are people who hold convictions much like these expressed int his work, that Mr. Rousseau's work cannot be dismissed as pure fantasy. There were some books like "Food of the Gods", which he was not sure could be put under this heading. In giving his definition of fantasy, he states "that the desired phenomenon may be defined as novel, the action of which may be placed at some date later than the present, and which reveals the social order substantially changed, either by evolution or by a sudden catastrophe". Mr. Shanks then discusses at some length time travel and the descriptions used by authors to show the social changes that take place in the future. He goes on to show that the nearer an author gets to the end of the world the more poetic he becomes, as in "The Time Machine" and "When the Sleeper Awakes". In addition, he mentions Flecken's "Last Generation", and M. P. Shiel's "The Purple Cloud", which he says appeared in a magazine many years ago (prior to 1919) and which he considers one of the best of its kind. He also mentions one of M. Rosny's books about the end of the world and W. H. Hudson's "Crystal Age". He describes "the middle future" (the not too far distant future) as the "happy hunting ground of the crank who imagines the most marvelous inventions and improvements". In relation to this, he mentions "The War in the Air", Jack London's "The Red Plague", and Richard Jefferies' "After London". He closes by saying that he would like to see someone write a story of the slow decay of the civilization of today, which he is too lazy to write. I recommend this article to all fans who can obtain it. It is undoubtedly the most interesting article I have ever read on the subject. If the word "expired appears in the space to the left, you can probably guess what it means. Won't you hurry up and renew your subscription at once? Articles, stories, and poems are on hand which you won't want to miss--so send your renewal before you forget!
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12 SPACEWAYS FANTASY---1919 STYLE [[handwritten number "6"]] by WALTER SULLIVAN While in the midst of an exasperating search for out of the way articles dealing directly or indirectly with fantasy, I came upon one which I am sure will be of more than usual interest to most fans. I, like many fans, was under the impression that the collecting of fantasy was a fairly recent innovation. This I learned to be untrue. It seems that someone has beaten us to it by a few years. The article I refer to was first published in The New Statesman, and was reprinted in The Living Age for March 8, 1919. It was written by Edward Shanks, and is entitled "Novels about the Future". Since many fans will not get a chance to read it, I will give a summary of it here. Mr. Shanks believed that the new fantasies were descendents of the old Utopian ideas. Before his time, an author could take his hero to some distant and unknown place, where he could find or set up a Utopia. Recent geographic discoveries had put an end to that (bear in mind that this was written in 1919). Since everyone now knows that these places do not exist, the authors are naturally thrown forward into the future. No amateur (at that time) had taken to collecting and examining these works. Even at that time it included a large field for the student and collector. He believed that many of the fantastic novels that he had read were written by cranks, and were of no literary or speculative value. And because of this, they were of most interest to the collector. These he did not add to his collection and could remember only a few tantalizing scraps about them. By that time they had become extremely difficult to trace. He recommended fantasy as a theme for anyone seeking an academic essay in which to combine literature, sociological speculation and the psychology of the "mildly insane". He said that he would give such a person as much help as possible. The author then gives a summary of Victor Rousseau's "The Apostle of the Cylinder", and says that since there are people who hold convictions much like these expressed int his work, that Mr. Rousseau's work cannot be dismissed as pure fantasy. There were some books like "Food of the Gods", which he was not sure could be put under this heading. In giving his definition of fantasy, he states "that the desired phenomenon may be defined as novel, the action of which may be placed at some date later than the present, and which reveals the social order substantially changed, either by evolution or by a sudden catastrophe". Mr. Shanks then discusses at some length time travel and the descriptions used by authors to show the social changes that take place in the future. He goes on to show that the nearer an author gets to the end of the world the more poetic he becomes, as in "The Time Machine" and "When the Sleeper Awakes". In addition, he mentions Flecken's "Last Generation", and M. P. Shiel's "The Purple Cloud", which he says appeared in a magazine many years ago (prior to 1919) and which he considers one of the best of its kind. He also mentions one of M. Rosny's books about the end of the world and W. H. Hudson's "Crystal Age". He describes "the middle future" (the not too far distant future) as the "happy hunting ground of the crank who imagines the most marvelous inventions and improvements". In relation to this, he mentions "The War in the Air", Jack London's "The Red Plague", and Richard Jefferies' "After London". He closes by saying that he would like to see someone write a story of the slow decay of the civilization of today, which he is too lazy to write. I recommend this article to all fans who can obtain it. It is undoubtedly the most interesting article I have ever read on the subject. If the word "expired appears in the space to the left, you can probably guess what it means. Won't you hurry up and renew your subscription at once? Articles, stories, and poems are on hand which you won't want to miss--so send your renewal before you forget!
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