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Fanfare, v. 2, issue 2, whole no.8, February 1942
Page 18
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18 fantasy footnotes the theory that he just wants to help the boys out in this way. That, of course, is wrong; if he felt that way about it, he would have bought their work exclusively for the past three years. Since, as I understand things, most of the Milwaukee Fictioneers live around Milwaukee, and that's quite a distance from Chicago, it can't be that he's doing it for convenience in discussing plots and such. (Chicago is only 86 miles from Milwaukee, about equal to the distance I drove to and from Stranger Club meetings, and of which I think little, and people out that way thing less - yhos) Then there's another faint possibility - mind, now, I'm not saying this is so - that circulation is not holding up so well, and he's using home talent at a slightly lower word rate and promising to favor them when things get better. But that seems far-fetched; regardless of what you think of them, RAP's magazines are almost certainly selling exceedingly well. He could hardly have paid Burroughs the high rate ERB demands if there were financial troubles. So I'm going to go on thinking it's just more talk, until about the middle of 1943 at the very earliest. If it then proves he means what he's saying, I'll go nuts wondering why someone like him would deliberately cut out all other authors in the country from selling. I hope you're all convinced now, by the way, that the comic strip stuff in Amazing is not "educating" readers of stf. to enjoy magazines like Astounding. It hasn't for three years, isn't now, and never will. Some will read Amazing now and then switch to Astounding, but that means nothing. They would do it without Amazing. They did it before Amazing became the trash it now is, without the "helping step." If someone is going to appreciate eventually the srt of thing Astounding prints, he will, whether he finds Amazing at a lower state of mental maturity or not. If someone isn't ever going to grow up to the mental age of Astounding's readers, he can read Palmer's magazines until he grows a beard (did you see Widner at Denver? That's what happened to him!) and still never read Astounding. As I pointed out elsewhere, several million people buy magazines like the Saturday Evening Post and Liberty, but don't become educated to enjoying The Atlantic Monthly or Harpers Magazine. Liking of jazz doesn't mean one will in the future love symphony; he may or may not, and jazz has nothing to do with it. The success of a book like "Van Loon's Geography" didn't cause the National Geographic Society to triple its membership. Books on Napoleon are just as dust-covered now as they were before Hitler arose to power. And so it goes. Pshaw. Why, incidentally, hasn't someone pointed out the real reason for the violent way fans like me pick on Palmer rather than other editors of bad prozines? It's quite simple: Palmer is the only one who antagonizes fandom. He's the only one who tries to kid us into thinking he thinks his magazines are good; we know they're bad, he knows they're bad, and that's what causes trouble. Other ginks either keep quiet or admit they're not so good and promise to try to improve. Rather than Palmer, I'll take Weisinger or Louisa May Alcott. (In the ectoplasm? - lrc)
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18 fantasy footnotes the theory that he just wants to help the boys out in this way. That, of course, is wrong; if he felt that way about it, he would have bought their work exclusively for the past three years. Since, as I understand things, most of the Milwaukee Fictioneers live around Milwaukee, and that's quite a distance from Chicago, it can't be that he's doing it for convenience in discussing plots and such. (Chicago is only 86 miles from Milwaukee, about equal to the distance I drove to and from Stranger Club meetings, and of which I think little, and people out that way thing less - yhos) Then there's another faint possibility - mind, now, I'm not saying this is so - that circulation is not holding up so well, and he's using home talent at a slightly lower word rate and promising to favor them when things get better. But that seems far-fetched; regardless of what you think of them, RAP's magazines are almost certainly selling exceedingly well. He could hardly have paid Burroughs the high rate ERB demands if there were financial troubles. So I'm going to go on thinking it's just more talk, until about the middle of 1943 at the very earliest. If it then proves he means what he's saying, I'll go nuts wondering why someone like him would deliberately cut out all other authors in the country from selling. I hope you're all convinced now, by the way, that the comic strip stuff in Amazing is not "educating" readers of stf. to enjoy magazines like Astounding. It hasn't for three years, isn't now, and never will. Some will read Amazing now and then switch to Astounding, but that means nothing. They would do it without Amazing. They did it before Amazing became the trash it now is, without the "helping step." If someone is going to appreciate eventually the srt of thing Astounding prints, he will, whether he finds Amazing at a lower state of mental maturity or not. If someone isn't ever going to grow up to the mental age of Astounding's readers, he can read Palmer's magazines until he grows a beard (did you see Widner at Denver? That's what happened to him!) and still never read Astounding. As I pointed out elsewhere, several million people buy magazines like the Saturday Evening Post and Liberty, but don't become educated to enjoying The Atlantic Monthly or Harpers Magazine. Liking of jazz doesn't mean one will in the future love symphony; he may or may not, and jazz has nothing to do with it. The success of a book like "Van Loon's Geography" didn't cause the National Geographic Society to triple its membership. Books on Napoleon are just as dust-covered now as they were before Hitler arose to power. And so it goes. Pshaw. Why, incidentally, hasn't someone pointed out the real reason for the violent way fans like me pick on Palmer rather than other editors of bad prozines? It's quite simple: Palmer is the only one who antagonizes fandom. He's the only one who tries to kid us into thinking he thinks his magazines are good; we know they're bad, he knows they're bad, and that's what causes trouble. Other ginks either keep quiet or admit they're not so good and promise to try to improve. Rather than Palmer, I'll take Weisinger or Louisa May Alcott. (In the ectoplasm? - lrc)
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