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Alchemist, v. 1, issue 4, December 1940
Page 23
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ALCHEMIST 23 were many -- and most uninteresting. Wonder limped along financially, and finally flared of business with a scheme for removing the magazine from the newsstands and selling it only by subscription. Weird was the same as it had been for years. It maintained a literary standard without being offensively highbrow, and its table of contents was nicely balanced with the usual assortment of planetary, ghost, eery, and horror stories. Astounding, too, had promise. Its stories were full of action and adventure and imaginative twists. The illustrations were bold and black; the covers gaudy but intriguing. It might have striven from real literature, but it achieved instead a virile display of wandering imagination. For years it kept up the pace -- and one day changed editors. For a while all was well. Then there appeared a distinct trend toward the heavy-science stories -- a trend still in existence. The stories are loaded down with technical intricacies, and yet are well-written. That's why it's rather hard to criticize Astounding -- because of its literary standards. The magazine's policy also indicated a trend toward psychological stories. Just as modern fiction must play up personalities of the characters to seem natural, so does Astounding take the totally unnatural subject of SUPERSCIENCE or FUTURE-SCIENCE and try to fit into these frames a few characters who act entirely natural according to present-day standards. In other words, Astounding stories are taking the marvels and the wonders for granted and are concentrating on making the characters most important. To me, that's wrong. I read fantasy for
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ALCHEMIST 23 were many -- and most uninteresting. Wonder limped along financially, and finally flared of business with a scheme for removing the magazine from the newsstands and selling it only by subscription. Weird was the same as it had been for years. It maintained a literary standard without being offensively highbrow, and its table of contents was nicely balanced with the usual assortment of planetary, ghost, eery, and horror stories. Astounding, too, had promise. Its stories were full of action and adventure and imaginative twists. The illustrations were bold and black; the covers gaudy but intriguing. It might have striven from real literature, but it achieved instead a virile display of wandering imagination. For years it kept up the pace -- and one day changed editors. For a while all was well. Then there appeared a distinct trend toward the heavy-science stories -- a trend still in existence. The stories are loaded down with technical intricacies, and yet are well-written. That's why it's rather hard to criticize Astounding -- because of its literary standards. The magazine's policy also indicated a trend toward psychological stories. Just as modern fiction must play up personalities of the characters to seem natural, so does Astounding take the totally unnatural subject of SUPERSCIENCE or FUTURE-SCIENCE and try to fit into these frames a few characters who act entirely natural according to present-day standards. In other words, Astounding stories are taking the marvels and the wonders for granted and are concentrating on making the characters most important. To me, that's wrong. I read fantasy for
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