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Fantasy Commentator, v. 1, issue 3, September 1944
Page 39
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FANTASY COMMENTATOR 39 Have modern readers forgotten "Rex," that story of a magnificent robot of unequalled intellect, who had the mastery of the world within his power---until he realized that human beings experienced something he lacked: emotions? His mighty brain and those of human scientists as well projected one experiment after another, but to no avail. Finally the mighty Rex, goaded on by his failure, destroyed himself---never realizing that the emotions of hope, disgust, rage and finally despair had prompted his suicide. Nor should we forget the tender story of another strange robot, inhuman in form, yet not so in feeling, who remembered that he had been created to serve man and no other, and though man had long ago forgotten and all power was indeed his, he must not deviate one whit from his duty of nurturing, protecting, and uplifting his human creators. This great story, "Derelict", was written by Raymond Z. Gallun, who has such masterpieces to his credit as "Old Faithful," "A Beast of the Void," "Son of Old Faithful," "The World Wreckers," "Davy Jones' Ambassador," "Space Flotsam," "Mind over Matter," "N'Goc," "Avalanche," and many, many others... The last man and woman in the entire world stand beside the last body of water in existence, a small lake. And as they scan the bright cloudless sky their eyes do not despair, but rather fill with hope. They are male and female. Hero is water. All the mighty science that man ever conceived lies at their beck and call. They will start the race anew. Giant heads, scrawny bodies---perhaps they would seem freakish to us, but human they are nevertheless. But out of the water before them springs a monster such as earth has not seen since prehistoric ages---the last mindless reptile, which has somehow survived and which zealously guards this bit of water. And a battle for possession of it ends in defeat for man, for the monster succeeds in killing the woman. Yet the last man continues a hopeless battle alone. In his laboratory he calls upon all the resources at his command and, in the end, creates artificial life in man's image. But it is not man. Lowell Howard Morrow, in his truly classic "Omega: the Man," depicts one of the greatest tragedies of worlds, as he pictures the last mind, the great reptile, the semi-moronic test-tube entity, and the final epic concept of a waterless world---with the last man gazing up into an eternally cloudless sky. An example of literature in science-fiction! In science-fiction magazines there are dozens of stories by self-admitted style-copiest, Jack Williamson. Inspired by A. Merritt, Williamson imitated the former's style as best he could, and became noted and popular because of it. Fans admitted, however, that he could never quite compete with the original. But once---and only once---Jack Williamson rose above his master with the story "The Moon Era," which is certainly in the Merritt tradition, but which introduces an added simplicity and humane touch that the master never possessed. The touching conception of "The Mother," is here introduced---that beautiful, intelligent, kindly creature of the all-but-extinct Moon race, within her resting the seeds of generations yet to be born. Her enemies are the ants of the moon, who have constructed great mechanical robots, and who block all that the Mother dreams of for her descendants. Together, an Earthman and the Mother fight for the hope of a more-than-human race to be---only to taste defeat in the end. But the memory of the beauty and tenderness of this alien being lives with him for the rest of his days---as indeed it must with all who read this tale. In the same issue of Wonder Stories appeared another powerful tale by an author who excels on occasion: Edmund Hamilton. The story, "A Conquest of Two Worlds," deals with that phase of science-fiction that only Williamson, in his "Crucible of Power," ever presented as nearly successfully. Here is found a picture of Earth's ruthlessness, of its systematic, cold-blooded colonization of the planets in the future. The treatment of those planets' inhabitants by the exploiters makes the treatment of our native Indians seem like coddling. Here we
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FANTASY COMMENTATOR 39 Have modern readers forgotten "Rex," that story of a magnificent robot of unequalled intellect, who had the mastery of the world within his power---until he realized that human beings experienced something he lacked: emotions? His mighty brain and those of human scientists as well projected one experiment after another, but to no avail. Finally the mighty Rex, goaded on by his failure, destroyed himself---never realizing that the emotions of hope, disgust, rage and finally despair had prompted his suicide. Nor should we forget the tender story of another strange robot, inhuman in form, yet not so in feeling, who remembered that he had been created to serve man and no other, and though man had long ago forgotten and all power was indeed his, he must not deviate one whit from his duty of nurturing, protecting, and uplifting his human creators. This great story, "Derelict", was written by Raymond Z. Gallun, who has such masterpieces to his credit as "Old Faithful," "A Beast of the Void," "Son of Old Faithful," "The World Wreckers," "Davy Jones' Ambassador," "Space Flotsam," "Mind over Matter," "N'Goc," "Avalanche," and many, many others... The last man and woman in the entire world stand beside the last body of water in existence, a small lake. And as they scan the bright cloudless sky their eyes do not despair, but rather fill with hope. They are male and female. Hero is water. All the mighty science that man ever conceived lies at their beck and call. They will start the race anew. Giant heads, scrawny bodies---perhaps they would seem freakish to us, but human they are nevertheless. But out of the water before them springs a monster such as earth has not seen since prehistoric ages---the last mindless reptile, which has somehow survived and which zealously guards this bit of water. And a battle for possession of it ends in defeat for man, for the monster succeeds in killing the woman. Yet the last man continues a hopeless battle alone. In his laboratory he calls upon all the resources at his command and, in the end, creates artificial life in man's image. But it is not man. Lowell Howard Morrow, in his truly classic "Omega: the Man," depicts one of the greatest tragedies of worlds, as he pictures the last mind, the great reptile, the semi-moronic test-tube entity, and the final epic concept of a waterless world---with the last man gazing up into an eternally cloudless sky. An example of literature in science-fiction! In science-fiction magazines there are dozens of stories by self-admitted style-copiest, Jack Williamson. Inspired by A. Merritt, Williamson imitated the former's style as best he could, and became noted and popular because of it. Fans admitted, however, that he could never quite compete with the original. But once---and only once---Jack Williamson rose above his master with the story "The Moon Era," which is certainly in the Merritt tradition, but which introduces an added simplicity and humane touch that the master never possessed. The touching conception of "The Mother," is here introduced---that beautiful, intelligent, kindly creature of the all-but-extinct Moon race, within her resting the seeds of generations yet to be born. Her enemies are the ants of the moon, who have constructed great mechanical robots, and who block all that the Mother dreams of for her descendants. Together, an Earthman and the Mother fight for the hope of a more-than-human race to be---only to taste defeat in the end. But the memory of the beauty and tenderness of this alien being lives with him for the rest of his days---as indeed it must with all who read this tale. In the same issue of Wonder Stories appeared another powerful tale by an author who excels on occasion: Edmund Hamilton. The story, "A Conquest of Two Worlds," deals with that phase of science-fiction that only Williamson, in his "Crucible of Power," ever presented as nearly successfully. Here is found a picture of Earth's ruthlessness, of its systematic, cold-blooded colonization of the planets in the future. The treatment of those planets' inhabitants by the exploiters makes the treatment of our native Indians seem like coddling. Here we
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