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FMS Digest, v. 1, issues 1-5, February - July 1941
v.1:no.3: Page 6
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Page 6 F M Z DIGEST EARTH'S RENAISSANCE By Leigh Brackett Condensed from STFETTE Issue Number 2 I hope I may live to see the first successful flight into space. This seems a doubtful possibility. But since the discovery of U-235, the conquering of space has ceased to be merely a wild dream. Some day, it will be done. When it is, this old Earth will see the greatest days it has known since the discovery of the New World. Everything today tends to standardization. Cities, customs, all are losing their individuality. Humanity wants adventure, newness, thrills--at least, in its thinking. Where is it to go for them? Outward, of course. Into space. Our world is growing small. What will the space ship bring us from across the void--the rusty, meteor-pitted ships roaring down on jets of flame, first conquerors of space? If Mars is the barren, uninhabited world our scientists would have us believe, the most we can hope for will be specimens of alien plants, perhaps a few insects. But even that would fire the world's imagination. And suppose there are living beings on Mars and Venus? There would be a fire lit, as there was in 1492. The earth will rise and shake itself. Ships will go out, manned by young men with the vision of empire in their hearts. The earth will be young again--young and growing. Other culture streams will refresh ours. We'll find new words, new fabrics, new customs. I think the Renaissance that will come after the spacelanes are opened will be the greatest the human race has ever known. The vast splendid sweep of the idea alone is enough. There'll be trouble, probably, but there will be growth. And when this force has spent itself, we slide back into complacent decay-- There are always the stars. THE ETERNAL TRIANGLE By Vol Molesworth Condensed from ZEUS March, 1941 What might be termed the eternal triangle is the Frankensteinian plot in which a scientist (preferably, but not necessarily, insane) makes a monster (if it is intelligent substitute "superman") who kills creator, and hero (most likely a reporter) kills or traps monster and subsequently saves humanity. Take the original pattern--the Frankensteinian trilogy. The Baron shocks his audience by doing a spot of grave-robbing and body-snatching, and after sewing together the most tasty morsels, motivates it with a bath of cosmic radiation. The Monster (Karloff) deserves a quick, merciful death. But Boris has other ideas--he tries to destroy his creator who is also the hero. See "Marvel Tales" for "the Test-Tube Monster" by George C. Clarke. Superman kills creator is tricked into flying to Mars by the hero. Story ends in a different tone--"God help the Martians!" "Rex," the super-robot in Astounding July '34 operates on human brains to remove all man's emotions; science is the creator, Rex the monster, believe-it-or-not, is also the hero. To find out exactly what he is dealing with, Rex samples emotions and in a fit of despair the unemotional robot committs suicide. There are many angles to this "eternal fantasy triangle," and another is "Slan!" A.E. van Vogt's latest in Astounding. The Adam Link series is another of this type. The monster befriends his creator, and shakes hands with hero (yes--a reporter!) Jack Black and it is mankind that is in the wrong. Take Asimov's "Half-Breed." Humanity is the creator, and it is the human race which turns on the creation (alias "monster," alias "superman") and the hero is a doctor. There are dozens of stories that can be twisted to fit. Which suggests that 90% of science-fiction fits into stf's eternal triangle.
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Page 6 F M Z DIGEST EARTH'S RENAISSANCE By Leigh Brackett Condensed from STFETTE Issue Number 2 I hope I may live to see the first successful flight into space. This seems a doubtful possibility. But since the discovery of U-235, the conquering of space has ceased to be merely a wild dream. Some day, it will be done. When it is, this old Earth will see the greatest days it has known since the discovery of the New World. Everything today tends to standardization. Cities, customs, all are losing their individuality. Humanity wants adventure, newness, thrills--at least, in its thinking. Where is it to go for them? Outward, of course. Into space. Our world is growing small. What will the space ship bring us from across the void--the rusty, meteor-pitted ships roaring down on jets of flame, first conquerors of space? If Mars is the barren, uninhabited world our scientists would have us believe, the most we can hope for will be specimens of alien plants, perhaps a few insects. But even that would fire the world's imagination. And suppose there are living beings on Mars and Venus? There would be a fire lit, as there was in 1492. The earth will rise and shake itself. Ships will go out, manned by young men with the vision of empire in their hearts. The earth will be young again--young and growing. Other culture streams will refresh ours. We'll find new words, new fabrics, new customs. I think the Renaissance that will come after the spacelanes are opened will be the greatest the human race has ever known. The vast splendid sweep of the idea alone is enough. There'll be trouble, probably, but there will be growth. And when this force has spent itself, we slide back into complacent decay-- There are always the stars. THE ETERNAL TRIANGLE By Vol Molesworth Condensed from ZEUS March, 1941 What might be termed the eternal triangle is the Frankensteinian plot in which a scientist (preferably, but not necessarily, insane) makes a monster (if it is intelligent substitute "superman") who kills creator, and hero (most likely a reporter) kills or traps monster and subsequently saves humanity. Take the original pattern--the Frankensteinian trilogy. The Baron shocks his audience by doing a spot of grave-robbing and body-snatching, and after sewing together the most tasty morsels, motivates it with a bath of cosmic radiation. The Monster (Karloff) deserves a quick, merciful death. But Boris has other ideas--he tries to destroy his creator who is also the hero. See "Marvel Tales" for "the Test-Tube Monster" by George C. Clarke. Superman kills creator is tricked into flying to Mars by the hero. Story ends in a different tone--"God help the Martians!" "Rex," the super-robot in Astounding July '34 operates on human brains to remove all man's emotions; science is the creator, Rex the monster, believe-it-or-not, is also the hero. To find out exactly what he is dealing with, Rex samples emotions and in a fit of despair the unemotional robot committs suicide. There are many angles to this "eternal fantasy triangle," and another is "Slan!" A.E. van Vogt's latest in Astounding. The Adam Link series is another of this type. The monster befriends his creator, and shakes hands with hero (yes--a reporter!) Jack Black and it is mankind that is in the wrong. Take Asimov's "Half-Breed." Humanity is the creator, and it is the human race which turns on the creation (alias "monster," alias "superman") and the hero is a doctor. There are dozens of stories that can be twisted to fit. Which suggests that 90% of science-fiction fits into stf's eternal triangle.
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