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Fantasia, v. 1, issue 3, July 1941
Page 9
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FANTASIA 9 fitting background for the rippling cascade of her long golden hair. It was good to look at her, almost as good as it was to gaze at his own world far out in the void. The thought sobered him, a chill shadow on his expansive mood of complacent well-being. Was he falling in love with this daughter of an alien race?" The earnest young man with the bushy hair sat in rapture, thrilled by a stirring reading of his favorite lines. That settled that. An unexpected ally had carried the day for him. "All right. I grant you that the style is pretty fair, but the idea is too improbable." It was Red again. "Let's begin at the beginning. Right off you said 'flickering campfire'! We are dealing with a world whose atmosphere, scientists agree, has a much higher oxygen content than our own. Therefore a fire would, at the very least, burn steadily instead of flickering." Curley looked a bit crestfallen. "So he takes a few liberties. Haven't you ever heard of poetic license?" Completely unperturbed, Red continued in his role of self-appointed literary ghoul. "Then we will charge the campfire to poetic license, but we can't let all those human beings get by. That would be carrying poetic license a wee bit too far. Remember, we are dealing with an alien world. It is logical that the same forms of life would evolve on different worlds?" "Parallel evolution," Fuzzy suggested. The oldest member removed his pipe from his mouth and added the accumulated wisdom of his years to the discussion, the first time he had spoken all evening. "No, that would be impossible. Your author is dealing with a world which is much nearer the sun than our own. It sprang from the sun later and cooled down much more slowly. As a result, our evolution had a good hundred-thousand year head start before the younger planet had cooled sufficiently to sustain life." "But the story said they were primitive," insisted Fuzzy. "So it does, sonny. So it does. But you only let me get half way through my say so. Remember that we are dealing with a world much nearer the sun than our own. Radiation would make a difference, as would temperature. But they would both be minor considerations. "Environment is a major factor. Here we are dealing with a world that must be nearly covered with water. Our scientists say that judging from its high albedo it may be all water. At least, all they can see is a lot of water vapor. Now, what sort of species lives in water?" "Fish!" howled the irrespressible red-head. "I insist that that story is the worst piece of sea-food I've run across in a long time!" The old-timer looked annoyed, but he continued in his pedantic fashion. "That is what we would have -- fish. Or, if, to accept another theory, the globe is not completely covered with water, we could have a civilization of saurian swamp-dwellers. "So we have two possibilities: either an aquatic race, or a bunch of intelligent lizards. Either is possible, but not a race of warm-blooded mammals." Red triumphantly took complete possession of the floor and ended the discussion with an obnoxiously patronizing dissertation. "You see, my young friend, the whole idea is just a dressed-up adventure story. As an adventure story laid right here on the Martian Deserts I would have enjoyed it; but as a stfiction story about adventures on Earth, it is just too improbable."
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FANTASIA 9 fitting background for the rippling cascade of her long golden hair. It was good to look at her, almost as good as it was to gaze at his own world far out in the void. The thought sobered him, a chill shadow on his expansive mood of complacent well-being. Was he falling in love with this daughter of an alien race?" The earnest young man with the bushy hair sat in rapture, thrilled by a stirring reading of his favorite lines. That settled that. An unexpected ally had carried the day for him. "All right. I grant you that the style is pretty fair, but the idea is too improbable." It was Red again. "Let's begin at the beginning. Right off you said 'flickering campfire'! We are dealing with a world whose atmosphere, scientists agree, has a much higher oxygen content than our own. Therefore a fire would, at the very least, burn steadily instead of flickering." Curley looked a bit crestfallen. "So he takes a few liberties. Haven't you ever heard of poetic license?" Completely unperturbed, Red continued in his role of self-appointed literary ghoul. "Then we will charge the campfire to poetic license, but we can't let all those human beings get by. That would be carrying poetic license a wee bit too far. Remember, we are dealing with an alien world. It is logical that the same forms of life would evolve on different worlds?" "Parallel evolution," Fuzzy suggested. The oldest member removed his pipe from his mouth and added the accumulated wisdom of his years to the discussion, the first time he had spoken all evening. "No, that would be impossible. Your author is dealing with a world which is much nearer the sun than our own. It sprang from the sun later and cooled down much more slowly. As a result, our evolution had a good hundred-thousand year head start before the younger planet had cooled sufficiently to sustain life." "But the story said they were primitive," insisted Fuzzy. "So it does, sonny. So it does. But you only let me get half way through my say so. Remember that we are dealing with a world much nearer the sun than our own. Radiation would make a difference, as would temperature. But they would both be minor considerations. "Environment is a major factor. Here we are dealing with a world that must be nearly covered with water. Our scientists say that judging from its high albedo it may be all water. At least, all they can see is a lot of water vapor. Now, what sort of species lives in water?" "Fish!" howled the irrespressible red-head. "I insist that that story is the worst piece of sea-food I've run across in a long time!" The old-timer looked annoyed, but he continued in his pedantic fashion. "That is what we would have -- fish. Or, if, to accept another theory, the globe is not completely covered with water, we could have a civilization of saurian swamp-dwellers. "So we have two possibilities: either an aquatic race, or a bunch of intelligent lizards. Either is possible, but not a race of warm-blooded mammals." Red triumphantly took complete possession of the floor and ended the discussion with an obnoxiously patronizing dissertation. "You see, my young friend, the whole idea is just a dressed-up adventure story. As an adventure story laid right here on the Martian Deserts I would have enjoyed it; but as a stfiction story about adventures on Earth, it is just too improbable."
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