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Parnassus, v.1, issue 1, 1940s
Page 2
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WE'D BETTER FACE IT by [cursive signature] Jimmy Kepner Steffans, Communists, Rotarians and other hopefuls have recently been getting into the rut of closing their eyes blissfully and repeating sans end that all things are all going to be wonderful after the war. The Communists have recently awakened to the fact that they were engaging in a marvelous bit of self-delusion. The Rotarians have continued to be aware that they were deluding nearly everyone except themselves. Science fiction fans, however, have remained pretty much in their state of bliss. The fact that science fiction has called the cards on the future a few times up to now doesn't make Sibyls of us. Of course Verne came close to prediction with quite a few of his stories. But its a far cry from Verne to the stef writers of today, and considering even the laws of chance, I think the thousands of stories that have appeared in the pros in the last two decades have done damned poorly as far as prediction goes. What if a few authors did predict we'd have a war with Japan sooner or later? How many thoughtful people were there who thought we wouldn't? (By thoughtful people, I don't mean "wishful thinkers".) Now that the end of the war seems more or less in sight, the steffans can do little more than to gloat pukingly over the "science-fictional" advertisements in the latest issue of SATEVEPOST or COLLIERS. "Geeboywowogosh, look! They got pikchurs of streamlined telephones, helicopters and plastic eggbeaters in here! And just think: they have been using rockets in this war, just like we said they would all the time! So Palmer decides the world's caught up with science fiction and decides to go into the more lucrative field of metaphysical true confessions... Horsechesnuts! So what if we are going to have a few extra doo-dads after the war? There were more doo-dads and thingumbobs in 1932 than there had been in 1929 -- but not even the Rotarians claimed things were better off (although they were, for a few of them.) The gadgets are secondary. That's what was wrong with science fiction its infancy. They wrote stories by the carload about getting a bullet shaped piece of hollow metal to the moon -- ignoring the human element completely. That's why ASF has grown up now, and why AS has slipped back into a muling and puking second childhood. Campbell realized that he future was just a bit more than so many streamlined gadgets, and Palmer didn't. What good is it going to do us if General Electric turns out a lot of futuristic looking combination-radio-and-refrigerators-with-can-openers-built-in, if you and I and John Doe won't have the wherewithal to buy them? Our society has gone far enough that continued technical advance is more or less insured. I'm not underestimating its value either. But the thing that is not insured is that we as individuals will reap any benefit from it. So its the job for all (except those few actually engaged in research work) to see to the latter point. That brand new world of the future isn't going to be very bright if the plastic buildings and streamlined thingumbobs aren't very well distributed around. Talk about the people who are downtrodden and underprivileged may sound very corny to some of the sophisticates, but I could find plenty of people in the United States who wouldn't think it the least bit corny. A hungry mouth has a harder time laughing.
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WE'D BETTER FACE IT by [cursive signature] Jimmy Kepner Steffans, Communists, Rotarians and other hopefuls have recently been getting into the rut of closing their eyes blissfully and repeating sans end that all things are all going to be wonderful after the war. The Communists have recently awakened to the fact that they were engaging in a marvelous bit of self-delusion. The Rotarians have continued to be aware that they were deluding nearly everyone except themselves. Science fiction fans, however, have remained pretty much in their state of bliss. The fact that science fiction has called the cards on the future a few times up to now doesn't make Sibyls of us. Of course Verne came close to prediction with quite a few of his stories. But its a far cry from Verne to the stef writers of today, and considering even the laws of chance, I think the thousands of stories that have appeared in the pros in the last two decades have done damned poorly as far as prediction goes. What if a few authors did predict we'd have a war with Japan sooner or later? How many thoughtful people were there who thought we wouldn't? (By thoughtful people, I don't mean "wishful thinkers".) Now that the end of the war seems more or less in sight, the steffans can do little more than to gloat pukingly over the "science-fictional" advertisements in the latest issue of SATEVEPOST or COLLIERS. "Geeboywowogosh, look! They got pikchurs of streamlined telephones, helicopters and plastic eggbeaters in here! And just think: they have been using rockets in this war, just like we said they would all the time! So Palmer decides the world's caught up with science fiction and decides to go into the more lucrative field of metaphysical true confessions... Horsechesnuts! So what if we are going to have a few extra doo-dads after the war? There were more doo-dads and thingumbobs in 1932 than there had been in 1929 -- but not even the Rotarians claimed things were better off (although they were, for a few of them.) The gadgets are secondary. That's what was wrong with science fiction its infancy. They wrote stories by the carload about getting a bullet shaped piece of hollow metal to the moon -- ignoring the human element completely. That's why ASF has grown up now, and why AS has slipped back into a muling and puking second childhood. Campbell realized that he future was just a bit more than so many streamlined gadgets, and Palmer didn't. What good is it going to do us if General Electric turns out a lot of futuristic looking combination-radio-and-refrigerators-with-can-openers-built-in, if you and I and John Doe won't have the wherewithal to buy them? Our society has gone far enough that continued technical advance is more or less insured. I'm not underestimating its value either. But the thing that is not insured is that we as individuals will reap any benefit from it. So its the job for all (except those few actually engaged in research work) to see to the latter point. That brand new world of the future isn't going to be very bright if the plastic buildings and streamlined thingumbobs aren't very well distributed around. Talk about the people who are downtrodden and underprivileged may sound very corny to some of the sophisticates, but I could find plenty of people in the United States who wouldn't think it the least bit corny. A hungry mouth has a harder time laughing.
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