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Science Fiction Critic, v. 1, issue 6, December 1936
Page 6
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THE SCIENCE FICTION CRITIC 6 IN GLANCING THROUGH THE MAGAZINES (The reviews offered here are selected fro the opinions of a group. The stories dealt with have been considered interesting, either for their merit, or for the possibility of errors having appeared in them.) Where is international pride? The English civilization is several hundred years older than the American and it would seem that a product of such a mature land would have more decency than to disgrace his native home by swindling the reading public of a younger land. If personal good taste would not prevent the fraud, the other occupants of the same country should rise up in righteous wrath and banish the miscreant from their midst. I refer, of course, to John Russell Fearn and the latest product of his pen, The Dynasty of the Small, foisted upon us in the November issue of ASTOUNDING STORIES. Maybe my reference books are wrong, but in reading his so-called metamorphosis of bacteriological evolution I learned of several astounding facts: 1. According to Fearn bacteria are far more difficult to destroy from the scientific point of view than are protozoa. They can withstand extremes of temperature from the cold of interstellar space to the heat of molten metals. If that is the case, why, later in the story, does Fearn use one of the simplest preventatives of modern medical practice, sterilization by boiling water, to destroy those same bacteria which he has just finished telling us are indestructible? Knowing that human life would be impossible without the presence of bacteria, Fearn contradicts himself in the last page of the story and admits the possibility of some species of bacteria surviving. 2. Protozoa. Fearn lists them as multicellular. My reference books list them, with few exceptions, as unicellular; their prefix proto designating them as such and distinguishing them from multicellular animals, or metazoa. They are the simplest forms of animal life, one of their commonest forums being the amoeba, which the author breeds with other lowly cells to destroy themselves. But again, after once destroying all protozoa, Fearn decides in the last few pages to allow a few of them to survive. As a story, The Dynasty of the Small ranks as one of the poorest examples of science fiction, if it can be classified as science fiction at all. The germ of an idea is there, but but is so hidden by maze of fallacies and contradictions that it had no chance of developing. If some of some of the energy used in the growth of the bacteria could have been used for developing the story itself, this criticism might not have been written.
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THE SCIENCE FICTION CRITIC 6 IN GLANCING THROUGH THE MAGAZINES (The reviews offered here are selected fro the opinions of a group. The stories dealt with have been considered interesting, either for their merit, or for the possibility of errors having appeared in them.) Where is international pride? The English civilization is several hundred years older than the American and it would seem that a product of such a mature land would have more decency than to disgrace his native home by swindling the reading public of a younger land. If personal good taste would not prevent the fraud, the other occupants of the same country should rise up in righteous wrath and banish the miscreant from their midst. I refer, of course, to John Russell Fearn and the latest product of his pen, The Dynasty of the Small, foisted upon us in the November issue of ASTOUNDING STORIES. Maybe my reference books are wrong, but in reading his so-called metamorphosis of bacteriological evolution I learned of several astounding facts: 1. According to Fearn bacteria are far more difficult to destroy from the scientific point of view than are protozoa. They can withstand extremes of temperature from the cold of interstellar space to the heat of molten metals. If that is the case, why, later in the story, does Fearn use one of the simplest preventatives of modern medical practice, sterilization by boiling water, to destroy those same bacteria which he has just finished telling us are indestructible? Knowing that human life would be impossible without the presence of bacteria, Fearn contradicts himself in the last page of the story and admits the possibility of some species of bacteria surviving. 2. Protozoa. Fearn lists them as multicellular. My reference books list them, with few exceptions, as unicellular; their prefix proto designating them as such and distinguishing them from multicellular animals, or metazoa. They are the simplest forms of animal life, one of their commonest forums being the amoeba, which the author breeds with other lowly cells to destroy themselves. But again, after once destroying all protozoa, Fearn decides in the last few pages to allow a few of them to survive. As a story, The Dynasty of the Small ranks as one of the poorest examples of science fiction, if it can be classified as science fiction at all. The germ of an idea is there, but but is so hidden by maze of fallacies and contradictions that it had no chance of developing. If some of some of the energy used in the growth of the bacteria could have been used for developing the story itself, this criticism might not have been written.
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