Transcribe
Translate
Vanguard Variorum, May 1946
6
More information
digital collection
archival collection guide
transcription tips
6 VANGUARD VARIORUM James Blish: ( . . .) JOE'S JOTTINGS: I cannot but agree that my sponsoring of PETULANT was an error. Apparently so serious-minded a group as Vanguard finds mockery the hardest kind of criticism to take...My rating of Joe deserves an addendum this trip: as Judy has noted, he is a master of the south...To Vanguardifs interested in Fantasy, I add also a recommendation of Fantasy Review, a thorough and equal-minded survey even more neatly mimeo'd than JOTTINGS. AGENBITE OF INWIT: My criticisms of SCIENCE*FICTION brought both Judy and Dan'l down upon my dwelling machine with yelps of protest and threats of murder and worse. After taking notes on their complaints and checking carefully with what I had written, I find three corrections or retractions which I am glad to make for whatever balm they may offer: 1. The phrase "atheistically-minded publisher" on p. 11 is a misprint; please read "atheistically-minded reader." 2. On p. 12, the phrase "science fiction's most illiterate author" refers to George O. Smith, as the reader may confirm by consulting the blurb on S*F's contents page. This seems to me to be obvious from the text, but Judy says it might be taken to mean Dan, which I certainly did not intend. 3. My substitution of "electricity" for "electronics" was based upon the assumption that this word, as a title, applied specifically to the article under discussion. Since the word Dan used is plainly stated to be the title, not of one article, but of a series, my cavil is invalid. The attribution of the "Lyric" to the Oldes, one of the most non-yrical ethnic groups in history, is a common error. The Oldes lived under an agrarian communal system and had nothing to sing about. The Lyric is actually a folk tune of the Whorie, whose policy of "serf-effacement" it celebrates. Sometimes I quall, myself. Cerifs delightful. Mailing comments: Lyons knows little Greek, himself, and did not expect the churls to learn it in order to read his poem. The point was that those who did not recognize the title in Greek would not be likely to learn much from a glossary; as stated in TUMBRILS No. 6, the thing required is a thorough knowledge of Thersetes' position in the Odyssey. Doc's definition of "thorough" differs from the poet's - no information derivable from a gloss would be anything more than misleading in getting to the bottom of the poem.* It is, after all, written for an audience which knows Homer, not one which has been told about him at second hand. Is it your opinion that the one hundred thousand lives extinguished in the bombing of Hiroshima, plus the even greater number extinguished at Nagasaki, were any less valuable per se than the problematical number of American lives saved by these atrocities? I can see no reason for such an evaluation. What is there about an American which makes him less deserving of death in uniform than a Japanee out of it?...and what is there about Japanese imperialism which makes it more evil than American imperialism? What has been gained by American resistance to Japan's "rival imperialism"? What in the salvaging of English imperialism at Singapore and Shanghai, or the salvaging of Dutch imperialism at Indonesia, justifies the thousands of American lives which were sacrificed? Can it be, Doc, that after all your self-righteousness on the subject of facism in FAPA and VAPA * I refer, of course, to secondary elaboration alone, since on the level of primary elaboration poetic symbology is always availble by Freudian procedure.
Saving...
prev
next
6 VANGUARD VARIORUM James Blish: ( . . .) JOE'S JOTTINGS: I cannot but agree that my sponsoring of PETULANT was an error. Apparently so serious-minded a group as Vanguard finds mockery the hardest kind of criticism to take...My rating of Joe deserves an addendum this trip: as Judy has noted, he is a master of the south...To Vanguardifs interested in Fantasy, I add also a recommendation of Fantasy Review, a thorough and equal-minded survey even more neatly mimeo'd than JOTTINGS. AGENBITE OF INWIT: My criticisms of SCIENCE*FICTION brought both Judy and Dan'l down upon my dwelling machine with yelps of protest and threats of murder and worse. After taking notes on their complaints and checking carefully with what I had written, I find three corrections or retractions which I am glad to make for whatever balm they may offer: 1. The phrase "atheistically-minded publisher" on p. 11 is a misprint; please read "atheistically-minded reader." 2. On p. 12, the phrase "science fiction's most illiterate author" refers to George O. Smith, as the reader may confirm by consulting the blurb on S*F's contents page. This seems to me to be obvious from the text, but Judy says it might be taken to mean Dan, which I certainly did not intend. 3. My substitution of "electricity" for "electronics" was based upon the assumption that this word, as a title, applied specifically to the article under discussion. Since the word Dan used is plainly stated to be the title, not of one article, but of a series, my cavil is invalid. The attribution of the "Lyric" to the Oldes, one of the most non-yrical ethnic groups in history, is a common error. The Oldes lived under an agrarian communal system and had nothing to sing about. The Lyric is actually a folk tune of the Whorie, whose policy of "serf-effacement" it celebrates. Sometimes I quall, myself. Cerifs delightful. Mailing comments: Lyons knows little Greek, himself, and did not expect the churls to learn it in order to read his poem. The point was that those who did not recognize the title in Greek would not be likely to learn much from a glossary; as stated in TUMBRILS No. 6, the thing required is a thorough knowledge of Thersetes' position in the Odyssey. Doc's definition of "thorough" differs from the poet's - no information derivable from a gloss would be anything more than misleading in getting to the bottom of the poem.* It is, after all, written for an audience which knows Homer, not one which has been told about him at second hand. Is it your opinion that the one hundred thousand lives extinguished in the bombing of Hiroshima, plus the even greater number extinguished at Nagasaki, were any less valuable per se than the problematical number of American lives saved by these atrocities? I can see no reason for such an evaluation. What is there about an American which makes him less deserving of death in uniform than a Japanee out of it?...and what is there about Japanese imperialism which makes it more evil than American imperialism? What has been gained by American resistance to Japan's "rival imperialism"? What in the salvaging of English imperialism at Singapore and Shanghai, or the salvaging of Dutch imperialism at Indonesia, justifies the thousands of American lives which were sacrificed? Can it be, Doc, that after all your self-righteousness on the subject of facism in FAPA and VAPA * I refer, of course, to secondary elaboration alone, since on the level of primary elaboration poetic symbology is always availble by Freudian procedure.
Hevelin Fanzines
sidebar
