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Dream Quest, v. 1, issue 1, July 1947

Page 26

26             DREAM QUEST

Pity us in our stupidity, but we utterly fail to see the relation between the title and the story...which concerns a rather peculiar city. The powers-that-be decided that civilization was in danger of annihilation due to atomic wars and such, so they established the City inside a five-mile-in-diameter impenetrable energy-barrier, to preserve the teachings, works, and brain of Man. Trouble was -- when they got the city built, as efficient a unit as possible, they discovered that it was absulutely [sic] uninhabitable! It is a known fact that nothing -- including a city -- can live in its own waste products. So they had to include all kinds of machinery to make sure that the waste was taken care of and food, air, etc was supplied to the inhabitants. The machinery for doing this gave off such a discharge of screaming sound, unbearable radiation, blinding light, etc., that no human could live in the city without something to protect him. The powers-that-be selected hypnosis as a method of protecting the common men from reality, while the Directors were made blind, deaf, dumb, and "lacking certain other senses," and were given telepathy. Well, to make a short story still shorter, Padgett proceeds to tell what happens when one of the young inhabitants of the City begins to see flashes of reality -- his hypnosis wears off in snatches. L. P. relates how the Directors had to struggle to save the poor guy from his insanity, and what their answer--though it wasn't too conclusive--was. He relates it in the usual Padgett short story manner -- and the short is an effective one. If you like Padgett stories, you'll like this.

The other short is called "The Journey and the Goal," a rather poorly written narrative by Chan Davis. Its theme is that two young Titanians -- second generation, we believe, descendants of Terran colonizers -- want to see Earth. However, they have forgotten that their environment has made them different -- a couple of feet taller than the tallest earthman, much weaker, susceptible to diseases to which the normal earthmen are immune, and so on. They hence do not meet with much happiness on their arrival. However, they regard their "escape" as successful -- they reason that the journey was more important than the goal, and their real dream wasn't really to get to Earth at all, but merel[y] to get off of Titan. Altogether a rather unconvincing story; we wonder why JWC accepted it. Maybe Davis has a contract.
Last, and best, in the month's lineup is one of this year's classics, sure to rank in the Top Ten if anybody publishes KoKe's Fantasy Review next year, which we firmly trust somebody will. The yarn is called "E for Effort," and is bylined as by one T.L. Sherred. Personally, we can't see how a brand-new author can do such a bangup job. It MUST be a pename. You never can tell, tho.....the subject is the political and social consequences of a time-viewer when used by two very intelligent men. And with that our ability to describe ceases. We don't believe we are stepping too far when we tell you that any fan who doesn't read this yarn is nuts. We also don't think we're overly radical when we say that T. L. Sherred, whoever he is, ought to make one of coming times' tiptop writers. Wait and see.
***
We apologize humbly for the thinness of the paper used in this issue--

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26 DREAM QUEST Pity us in our stupidity, but we utterly fail to see the relation between the title and the story...which concerns a rather peculiar city. The powers-that-be decided that civilization was in danger of annihilation due to atomic wars and such, so they established the City inside a five-mile-in-diameter impenetrable energy-barrier, to preserve the teachings, works, and brain of Man. Trouble was -- when they got the city built, as efficient a unit as possible, they discovered that it was absulutely [sic] uninhabitable! It is a known fact that nothing -- including a city -- can live in its own waste products. So they had to include all kinds of machinery to make sure that the waste was taken care of and food, air, etc was supplied to the inhabitants. The machinery for doing this gave off such a discharge of screaming sound, unbearable radiation, blinding light, etc., that no human could live in the city without something to protect him. The powers-that-be selected hypnosis as a method of protecting the common men from reality, while the Directors were made blind, deaf, dumb, and "lacking certain other senses," and were given telepathy. Well, to make a short story still shorter, Padgett proceeds to tell what happens when one of the young inhabitants of the City begins to see flashes of reality -- his hypnosis wears off in snatches. L. P. relates how the Directors had to struggle to save the poor guy from his insanity, and what their answer--though it wasn't too conclusive--was. He relates it in the usual Padgett short story manner -- and the short is an effective one. If you like Padgett stories, you'll like this. The other short is called "The Journey and the Goal," a rather poorly written narrative by Chan Davis. Its theme is that two young Titanians -- second generation, we believe, descendants of Terran colonizers -- want to see Earth. However, they have forgotten that their environment has made them different -- a couple of feet taller than the tallest earthman, much weaker, susceptible to diseases to which the normal earthmen are immune, and so on. They hence do not meet with much happiness on their arrival. However, they regard their "escape" as successful -- they reason that the journey was more important than the goal, and their real dream wasn't really to get to Earth at all, but merel[y] to get off of Titan. Altogether a rather unconvincing story; we wonder why JWC accepted it. Maybe Davis has a contract. Last, and best, in the month's lineup is one of this year's classics, sure to rank in the Top Ten if anybody publishes KoKe's Fantasy Review next year, which we firmly trust somebody will. The yarn is called "E for Effort," and is bylined as by one T.L. Sherred. Personally, we can't see how a brand-new author can do such a bangup job. It MUST be a pename. You never can tell, tho.....the subject is the political and social consequences of a time-viewer when used by two very intelligent men. And with that our ability to describe ceases. We don't believe we are stepping too far when we tell you that any fan who doesn't read this yarn is nuts. We also don't think we're overly radical when we say that T. L. Sherred, whoever he is, ought to make one of coming times' tiptop writers. Wait and see. *** We apologize humbly for the thinness of the paper used in this issue--