FANTASY REVIEW V2's Throw from the Chicago Trlbune
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FANI TASY RTVITVV ONE SHILLING IIEB.-MAR.'49 THE BACKGROUND STORY OF sNEW WORLDS' ARTHUR C. CLARKE defends SCIENCE FICTION'S .LACKEY' WRITERS THOMAS SHERIDAN recalls THE R'SE OF THE ,NTERPTANETARY STORY WALTER GILLINGS on Mad Scientistsr Tin lvten and Pterodactyls BOOK REVIEWS by John K. Aiken, Arthur F. Hillmon, Geoffrey Giles, Forrest J. Ackermon, etc. 2 FA NTASV ARTHUR C. CLARKE defends 6THE LACKEYS of WALL STREET' Tho Soviet acousation, made in an article in the 'Literaturnayar Gazyeta; reprinted in the last issue of, FANTASY R,EVIEW. that American science fiction is no more than illdisguised capita"lisf propaganda-with d,ecided Fascist lea,nings-has caused a, v€ritable sensa- tion among fantasy readers here and abroad, One of our best-known authors now takes up the cudgels on behalf of science ffction writers in general, and shows that they are not hatrf as black as they are painted. The ail-out attack on American sci- lecLion they have attempted to show ence flction by Messrs. Viktor Bolkho- that "the lackey of Wall Sfreet, in the vitnov and Vassilij Zakhartchenko will, livery of a science fiction writer, car- if we know them, have filled fantasy ries out the order of his bosses: to per- readers with a mixture of indignation, suade the reader of the invulnerabllity incredulous amazement and hysterical of the capitalist system." This will cer- laughter, in proportions varying accord- tainly come as a great surprise to read- ing fo their political outlooks. It is ers of Astounding, who have long couched in the elegant language devel- grown accusbomed to seeing the capi- oped by the late Herr Goebbels for the talist system, and frequently the Solar castigation of the decadent demo- System, destroyed a.t least once per cracies; and the writers would appear issue-and often two or three times for to have read widely before flring their good measure. broadside, their quotations ranging That science-fantasy has a political from Russell to Shaver, from Binder to bias is quite true; but most of us, in our del Rey. FYom this miscellaneous col- ignorance, had thought it was a bias to the left, and we have come across dark references to "pinkie science fiction" in certain mid-Western circles not a FANTASY REVIEW V2's throw from the Chicago Trlbune. Indeed, in a recent issue of the A Journal for Readers, Wrlters and Coliectors of Imaginative Fiction American Rocket Society's Journal it was hinted that the s-f magazines have BI-MONTHLY: ONE SIIILLING been toeing the party (i.e., left wing) line, and for some time we have been Editorial, Advertising and Pub- expecting Committee Un - lishing Offlce: 115 Wanstead Park the on Road. Ilford. Essex. American Activities to come rampaging up 42nd Streef. Subscription rates: fn Great This just shows how our bourgeois Britain and Dominions (except prejudices have per blinded us to the truth. Canada) 6/- year. Single copies 'We never suspected, for instance, that 1/-, post free. In Canada and the U.S.A., $1.50 per yes,r. Single Raymond F. Jones' "Rebirth" was, as copies, 25c., post free. Comrades B. and Z. maintain, "mon- strous in its openly fascistic tendency." Vol. 3, No. 13 Feb.-Mar. '49 Nor had we ima,gined, Trotskyite devia- Editor: Walter Gillings. tionists that we are, ttrat our "shame- A$ooiatc Editors: John Carnell. Iess" auLhors had revealed capitalism's J. Michr€l Rosenblum, D. R,. Smith, innermost secret, which serious litera- Arthur F. Ilillman, fbed C. Brown, dares we FYank Edward Arnold, J. O. New- ture only to hint at; though man, A. Vincent Clarke. always thought frankness was a good thing in literature-can it be that Mrs. A tneri c an Correspcndonts: Grundy has taken refuge in Russia? David Kishi (New York). Forrest J. Ackerman (Hollywood), Sam As one of Wall Street's long-distance Moskowitz (Newark, N.J.) lackeys, our views on ttre matter may, of course, be suspect. But we had REVIEW 3 been foolish enough to suppose (to All too clearly, it is Comrades B. and 2., take a recent example) that no one of not the readers of science fiction, who goodwill could possibly object to Theo- Iive in "a fearful world , . a world of dore Sturgeon's "Thunder and Roses." nightmare fantasies." To such "sick in which an American survivor of an minds," even L. R.on Hubbard's flno atomic war deliberately refrains from "The End is Not Yet," which had an launching the retribution intended for American big business man as villain, his country's attackers, since if he does would ire merely one of the subtler there will be none left to rebuild human wiles of a capitalist dupe. civilisation. We had thought that such We have no particular love of Ameri- stories-and there have been several can ca.pitalism, which we do not sup- of fhe kind recently-were above party pose is any more permanent than anY and above nationaliby; yet lre are told other social system; nor do we wish to that "American science flction in its defend the vast amount of rubbish unbridled racial propaganda reaches which appears disguised as scienco flc- heights which might have made Goeb" tion, some of which undoubtedly merits bels envious." It looks, after all, as if the description of a "screamingly Mr. Sturgeon is one of the more cun- shameless mess." We will grant that ning of wall Street's minions; so cun- in the whole of thelr tirade the Rus- ning, in fact, that he had us com- sians make one valid criticism: that plefely fooled. Or perhaps he is one of far too many stories of the future "de- capita,lism's famous inherent coniradic- scribe worlds constructed according to tions? the American system." But the reason But let us see if we can get a clearer for this, as should be obvious to any picture of the party line, before we _dis- sane mind, is nothing more diabolical cuss any further examples. According than laziness or lack of imagination on to the Comrades, there are numerous the part of our s-f authors. instances of "fascist revelations" in American s-f, but unfortunately they do Every writer is conditioned, con- quote convincing case. We sciously or unconsciously, by his en- not a single genius imagine cannot for the life of us see why a story vironment. OnIy a can by RusseU containing "an ecstatic de- and describe a culture compietely alien scription of the adventures of a spy to thaf in which he lives; and some s-f from Mars" should be parficularly fas- authors have made partially successful cist. Rather, in view of recent Cana- attempts to do so-witness Heinlein's dian revelations, it seems positively "Beyond This Horizon" and van Vogt's communistic. Then: "To forbify the "NutI-A" stories with their sociological machine, implications Unfortunately, though, power of the imperialist war geniuses. the science fantasts of America unre- few s-f authors are creative strainedly threaten with the atomic But llecause they describe societies bomb." They did-but in a rather dif- which are reflections of their own, it ferent, way. We seem to remember does not follow bhat they approve of that it was usually their own country them. After all, few writers resemble they btew up first in the bomb-happy the people they create, or necessarily posb-Hiroshima period. Even poor Adam condone the behaviour of tlreir charac- Link appears a sinister reactionary ters. from the other side of the Iron Cur- One of the themes that has run tain; and although we go ninety Per ttrough science-fantasy since the be- cent of the way with the criLics as far ginning has been the ideo that eventu- as Mr. Shaver is concerned, we still ally all races wiII be united in a Worid think his stories are as innocent of State, in which all will have equal politics as of good writing. rights. This theme has become more The concluding paragraph of their urgent since Lhe advent of atomic article, which in ik substitution of in- power. For every sLory with a "fascist" vective for reasoning is indistinguish- tendency (meaningless catchphrase!) able from the sort of thing that Strei- one can find dozens that have preached cher was hanged for printing, gives us tolerance, the equality of men and the cause to wonder at the standard of enrichment of life by the applicabion of literary criticism in modertr Russia, let science, But perhaps it is only appro- alone anyttring else. What is one to priate that now such charlatans as make of this paranoic rubbish? Is it Lysenko are turning Russia against worth bothering about at all? We think science itself, its poor relation science it is; for it flts so perfectly into the flction should come under the same pattern of current FLussian behaviour. interdict. I FA NTASY IHE NOYA YENIURE THURSDAY'S CHILD Wed,nesdaE's cbild is lull ol woe, is still early in the evening. Later, the Thursdau's cfuild' has fd'r to go . two editors may well be arguing with The casual visitor to the "White each other in the adjacent bar, where Horse" hostelry in Fetter Lane, London, a meeting of the directors of Nova Pub- of a Thursday evening, is somewhat Iications is in progress. Woe betide nonplussed to flnd that a horde of liter- the stranger who has sought refuge ary maniacs has apparently taken an there ! oplion on the premises. The saloon bar These Thursday evening gatherings is fiUed with a noisy crowd which seems of Lhe so-called London Circle of fan- to derive its high spirits as much from tasy fans have been, and still are, the the gaudy-covered magazines and books focal point of all the post-war activity littering the tables as from the glasses in the field of British fantasy-flction- and bottles that barely flnd room be- at least, as it is accepted by the fantasy tween them.