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Southern Star, v. 1, issue 2, June 1941

Page 16

Article     SOUTHERN STAR     Page 1

the person, and science fiction was only the goal post[[?]] for there was another guy who had long been a scientist and science fiction was only escape literature for him. He must have been tired. He must have realized that he could never learn anything so he had given up the job. He had no more push left, so science fiction was merely pleasant relaxation to him. Something in which to forget his science for perhaps his science was merely a job by now. The guy to whom science fiction was not escape literature could never forget his science. He had to push, push, push, never letting up the struggle, or else he would be finished. To relax, he played the piano or went to the movies, but he certainly did not read science fiction to relax. That only made him jealous, and forced him back to his books so that he could discover atomic energy.
There was another guy who found that he could never be a scientist for various reasons, but he had a push in him and that push came out in a curious way. It was the second and third dreams.The [[?]] of a better world and the dream of the struggle to obtain that better world. And he grew out of dreaming and studied what a better world should be like and how to get it. Science fiction was not escape literaturefor him. It kept sticking this dream of a better world before his eyes and the push within him kept him on the job of trying to get a better world despite the hopelessness of the task.
Because there was another guy who said, gee the world will be nice in the future and still another who said the world is going to be lousy in the future, but they didn't have the push to do anything about it. And there was the guy who was intellectually superior so that he despised all the stupid people in the world, and said the world deserved every bit of the doom it got. But the guy in the paragraph just above said, listen bud, don't forget you are a part of this world. You are so superior and despite the ugly way the world is run, and you hate the ugly of architecture of the house you live in, but you wouldn't think of soiling your hands by learning to be an engineer so that you could build the kind of house you like. You would prefer to be superior.
So of the last two guys one had a push and the other didn't. Both hated the way of the world, but one was pushed to do somehting about it. The other just hated and was unhealthy.
What was that push? Under a mechanistic psychology there are no abstract qualities such as intelligence and ambition. There are merely patterns of behavior, combinations of synapses, which the individual has acquired or inherited.
The Gernsback Theory said that science fiction itself was the push.That is not true, for lost of guys who read science fiction don't have that push. In the guy who was going to be a scientist the push was an inferiority complex because he didn't have a girl friend and didn't know how to dance so he said he was going to learn more science than anybody else. The Gernsback theory apparently applied to him because he already had the push, and science fiction made him jealous so that his push had something to work on.
Maybe the push was something different in the other guys who had it, but whatever it was, science fiction was escape literature to the guys without the push, and it was stimulation literature, like Horatio Alger to the guys with the push.
Liebig said: "To one man science is a sacred goddess to whose service he is happy to devote his life; to another she is a cow who provides him with butter."

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Article SOUTHERN STAR Page 1 the person, and science fiction was only the goal post[[?]] for there was another guy who had long been a scientist and science fiction was only escape literature for him. He must have been tired. He must have realized that he could never learn anything so he had given up the job. He had no more push left, so science fiction was merely pleasant relaxation to him. Something in which to forget his science for perhaps his science was merely a job by now. The guy to whom science fiction was not escape literature could never forget his science. He had to push, push, push, never letting up the struggle, or else he would be finished. To relax, he played the piano or went to the movies, but he certainly did not read science fiction to relax. That only made him jealous, and forced him back to his books so that he could discover atomic energy. There was another guy who found that he could never be a scientist for various reasons, but he had a push in him and that push came out in a curious way. It was the second and third dreams.The [[?]] of a better world and the dream of the struggle to obtain that better world. And he grew out of dreaming and studied what a better world should be like and how to get it. Science fiction was not escape literaturefor him. It kept sticking this dream of a better world before his eyes and the push within him kept him on the job of trying to get a better world despite the hopelessness of the task. Because there was another guy who said, gee the world will be nice in the future and still another who said the world is going to be lousy in the future, but they didn't have the push to do anything about it. And there was the guy who was intellectually superior so that he despised all the stupid people in the world, and said the world deserved every bit of the doom it got. But the guy in the paragraph just above said, listen bud, don't forget you are a part of this world. You are so superior and despite the ugly way the world is run, and you hate the ugly of architecture of the house you live in, but you wouldn't think of soiling your hands by learning to be an engineer so that you could build the kind of house you like. You would prefer to be superior. So of the last two guys one had a push and the other didn't. Both hated the way of the world, but one was pushed to do somehting about it. The other just hated and was unhealthy. What was that push? Under a mechanistic psychology there are no abstract qualities such as intelligence and ambition. There are merely patterns of behavior, combinations of synapses, which the individual has acquired or inherited. The Gernsback Theory said that science fiction itself was the push.That is not true, for lost of guys who read science fiction don't have that push. In the guy who was going to be a scientist the push was an inferiority complex because he didn't have a girl friend and didn't know how to dance so he said he was going to learn more science than anybody else. The Gernsback theory apparently applied to him because he already had the push, and science fiction made him jealous so that his push had something to work on. Maybe the push was something different in the other guys who had it, but whatever it was, science fiction was escape literature to the guys without the push, and it was stimulation literature, like Horatio Alger to the guys with the push. Liebig said: "To one man science is a sacred goddess to whose service he is happy to devote his life; to another she is a cow who provides him with butter."