Transcribe
Translate
Fantasia, v. 1, issue 3, July 1941
Page 15
More information
digital collection
archival collection guide
transcription tips
FANTASIA 15 BLACKOUTS AND BRASS MONKEYS By LOU GOLDSTONE Like many other good things, L. Ron Hubbard's Final Blackout will probably be better remembered for the sensations it provoked than for its intrinsic merit as a story. The sensations were various. They included praise that was nothing short of ecstatic, and the angry cries of disgruntled Bolsheviks. But the best of all was the sensation which sprang full-blown out of the mouths of fans suckled on blazing ray-guns and invading Martians. This sensation was a simple and uncomplicated one. Final Blackout, the fans protested, was a good story -- but -- it was not scientifiction! It was a good sensation, and it had great possibilities. In fact, it was a natural. Final Blackout, they said, was not scientifiction. Ah...but what is scientifiction? Somehow or other, this most promising controversy failed to develop. Having expressed their displeasure with the march of events, the indignant ones retired in good order, without ever having come to grips with the major issue involved. In so doing, these orthodox fans displayed either an inability or an indisposition to get down to fundamentals. In this case, the core of the apple they nibbled was a matter of definition. Definition is a weary and distasteful routine, and the parties concerned evidently decided it had better be left to Plato and the village idiot. They were probably glad to drop the potato before it got too hot. But the problem they shamefully abandoned is so vital that it needs some sort of examination. Just what is scientifiction? The boys have rendered judgement of Final Blackout as being un-scientifictional, but they haven't defined their terms. They haven't pointed out just what essential ingredient it was that Hubbard's tale lacked. Chances are most of the dissenters would disqualify Final Blackout on the grounds it contained no science. I feel reasonably certain that a careful re-exploration of the story would disclose a few stray grains of what might be construed as science in a literal sense, although the presence of such matter would certainly not satisfy the fans to whom science means not the sum total of human knowledge, but chemical equations and ephemeris tables. I don't think that anyone will insist that a scientifiction story must contain a scientific lesson or moral. This seems to have been the original idea promoted by Papa Gernsback in the infancy of pulp-scientifiction. While it is true that scienti-fiction at first stood squarely on a basis of known -- if exaggerated and distorted -- scientific fact, just as weird fiction stood on the traditional ghosties and mediaeval superstitions, evolution has produced great changes in both types of fiction. Scientifiction was evidently first popularized with the idea that it existed for the sole purpose of serving science. This, in spite of the fact that the classical pre-pulp stories -- those of Bellamy and H.G. Wells for instance -- presented no real scientific fact, and, indeed, used their pseudo-scientific atmospheres only as vehicles to parade the authors' political and economic and social theories before the reader in the most easily digested form.
Saving...
prev
next
FANTASIA 15 BLACKOUTS AND BRASS MONKEYS By LOU GOLDSTONE Like many other good things, L. Ron Hubbard's Final Blackout will probably be better remembered for the sensations it provoked than for its intrinsic merit as a story. The sensations were various. They included praise that was nothing short of ecstatic, and the angry cries of disgruntled Bolsheviks. But the best of all was the sensation which sprang full-blown out of the mouths of fans suckled on blazing ray-guns and invading Martians. This sensation was a simple and uncomplicated one. Final Blackout, the fans protested, was a good story -- but -- it was not scientifiction! It was a good sensation, and it had great possibilities. In fact, it was a natural. Final Blackout, they said, was not scientifiction. Ah...but what is scientifiction? Somehow or other, this most promising controversy failed to develop. Having expressed their displeasure with the march of events, the indignant ones retired in good order, without ever having come to grips with the major issue involved. In so doing, these orthodox fans displayed either an inability or an indisposition to get down to fundamentals. In this case, the core of the apple they nibbled was a matter of definition. Definition is a weary and distasteful routine, and the parties concerned evidently decided it had better be left to Plato and the village idiot. They were probably glad to drop the potato before it got too hot. But the problem they shamefully abandoned is so vital that it needs some sort of examination. Just what is scientifiction? The boys have rendered judgement of Final Blackout as being un-scientifictional, but they haven't defined their terms. They haven't pointed out just what essential ingredient it was that Hubbard's tale lacked. Chances are most of the dissenters would disqualify Final Blackout on the grounds it contained no science. I feel reasonably certain that a careful re-exploration of the story would disclose a few stray grains of what might be construed as science in a literal sense, although the presence of such matter would certainly not satisfy the fans to whom science means not the sum total of human knowledge, but chemical equations and ephemeris tables. I don't think that anyone will insist that a scientifiction story must contain a scientific lesson or moral. This seems to have been the original idea promoted by Papa Gernsback in the infancy of pulp-scientifiction. While it is true that scienti-fiction at first stood squarely on a basis of known -- if exaggerated and distorted -- scientific fact, just as weird fiction stood on the traditional ghosties and mediaeval superstitions, evolution has produced great changes in both types of fiction. Scientifiction was evidently first popularized with the idea that it existed for the sole purpose of serving science. This, in spite of the fact that the classical pre-pulp stories -- those of Bellamy and H.G. Wells for instance -- presented no real scientific fact, and, indeed, used their pseudo-scientific atmospheres only as vehicles to parade the authors' political and economic and social theories before the reader in the most easily digested form.
Hevelin Fanzines
sidebar
