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Fantasy Digest, v. 1, issue 2, February 1939
Page 15
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FANTASY DIGEST 15 ----------- IN THEIR COURSES by Sam Moskowitz -------------- (A review of the professional fantasy publications for the year 1938.) ---------- Here and there I have come across various fans versions of a review of science-fiction magazines. Invariangly I found that fully fifty per cent of their accounts were written without any knowledge of what they were writing of, or partially composed from hearsay, and other peoples opinions. How then, do such writers expect to arrive at a just opinion when they have only one view to work with? Either their own, or somebody else's. Where is their basis for unprejudiced opinion? The answer is that it just does not exist. Most reviews depend upon to sustain interest merely the mention of names. They are almost utterly useless from almost anyone's viewpoint. To be honest, I wrote no review of professional magazines last year because I did not read half of the material they contained. The few I read were so unutterably putrid that it would have been a sad waste of good time, and of eyesight to do more than look at the pretty pictures. To the contrary, 1938 has been so full of changes and improvements, that as the end of the year rolls by I find to my unutterable amazement that I have read virtually every story, in every science-fiction magazine, with extremely few exceptions. Taking my opinion as one side, and comparing it with the opinions of the letters in the readers columns, and those of my personal friends, I have arrived at some fairly just conclusions. Some, I think, which will be of interest to the fan magazine reader. Invariangly the first question asked by enthusiastic readers is to the effect of "What magazine did you think best during 1938?". I might have
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FANTASY DIGEST 15 ----------- IN THEIR COURSES by Sam Moskowitz -------------- (A review of the professional fantasy publications for the year 1938.) ---------- Here and there I have come across various fans versions of a review of science-fiction magazines. Invariangly I found that fully fifty per cent of their accounts were written without any knowledge of what they were writing of, or partially composed from hearsay, and other peoples opinions. How then, do such writers expect to arrive at a just opinion when they have only one view to work with? Either their own, or somebody else's. Where is their basis for unprejudiced opinion? The answer is that it just does not exist. Most reviews depend upon to sustain interest merely the mention of names. They are almost utterly useless from almost anyone's viewpoint. To be honest, I wrote no review of professional magazines last year because I did not read half of the material they contained. The few I read were so unutterably putrid that it would have been a sad waste of good time, and of eyesight to do more than look at the pretty pictures. To the contrary, 1938 has been so full of changes and improvements, that as the end of the year rolls by I find to my unutterable amazement that I have read virtually every story, in every science-fiction magazine, with extremely few exceptions. Taking my opinion as one side, and comparing it with the opinions of the letters in the readers columns, and those of my personal friends, I have arrived at some fairly just conclusions. Some, I think, which will be of interest to the fan magazine reader. Invariangly the first question asked by enthusiastic readers is to the effect of "What magazine did you think best during 1938?". I might have
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