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EFNAC April 2002 (er, May) But the present state of words – that is to say, typing - really does reduce how much I can Done by John Foyster, PO Box 3086, Rundle think and write. I hope that by the middle of Mall, South Australia, AUSTRALIA 5000 (or June things have improved, but this depends [email protected]). upon medication. When I have the full set then it is difficult to write at all. With my present slight Cover: Two Old Geezers in Adelaide reduction, I can write for about six lines before I become confuses! with brain tumours: Peter But in mid-June I will be checking on MacNamara & John Foyster whether I can have another cut-back that would make everything “easy”. You can’t predict everything! Just after Easter I This did get so difficult that I took time off had another of my fortnightly seizures and this quite a bit of it - until my capacity improved. It time the hospital decided that something else has, so I can get this thing off the ground. had to be done! After the week’s rest, I was But now – end of June – things are looking moved to a different drug regime. Much better, better (how do I explain this to my oncologist??) they said. and so I have even got a long way into the next Oh yeah? I found myself able to do almost eFNAC. Don’t expect a gap like the previous, nothing. But after five weeks I was able to type although there is still a lot of SF stuff there. But two or three lines – and now after a day’s work, I at last some of the previous contributors are can type and type an entire page! allowed to now, well, contribute.. As you can tell from the cover, I look more John Foyster, 30 June 2002 or less normal (I am leaning over only to fit into the photo, or so I thought). eFNAC April/May 2002 Screen 3

1973, 1983. The first year is chosen because in a It takes time to remember the old sense it marks the beginning of modern science days –this is actually the first fiction - so far as outward appearance is part of this serial, written so long concerned - by the transformation of ago. Hope you can understand it, Astounding Science Fiction to a digest-sized and the earlier pieces… magazine. Particular magazines will be examined for This study is a longitudinal investigation of the each year in the study, so that comparisons may nature of modern science fiction as revealed by be made across the years; in addition, the its popular magazines. For the first thirty or forty different magazines may be compared for a given years of its incarnation in mass media most year, indicating the varying nature of science fiction was published in the magazines. manifestations of science fiction at that epoch. Those magazines, by their continuity, allow us to What will be considered? Naturally the investigate changes which are less obviously published fiction will receive close attention - visible when discontinuous publication - such as although more for comparative or collective in book form - is studied. interest than individual investigation. But there The study will focus on five periods at ten- will also be a consideration of as many of the year intervals - approximately 1943, 1953, 1963, circumstances surrounding the production of the eFNAC April/May 2002 Screen 4 magazine as is possible. Such an investigation which are not perhaps so widely recognized. can be, to some extent, quite objective, and this Here, as later in the study, the first section is will provide strong support for cross-magazine or given over to consideration of the mundane cross-year comparisons. The details of how this aspects of the magazine, and the published will be done are given as each datum point is stories are considered later. introduced. Astounding Science Fiction began the When a method is introduced it is year as a bed-sheet-sized (approximately 22 cm explained fully - or as fully as seems appropriate. by 29 cm) publication consisting of four Different magazines and different times require signatures of 32 pages (eight sheets) held different techniques, and these techniques can together by a single staple (a consequence of the only be appreciated in context. In general, war effort, according to Campbell) with a semi- techniques will not be re-explained, and so the glossy cover. The painting on the cover was explanations given in this first installment for actually only about 16.5 cm square, with the what comparative techniques are used will not be magazine title above, publisher identification repeated; the reader will have to refer back to below, and with the lead story/cover-copper this point in the study. being announced in a box about 4 cm by 5 cm at the lower right corner of the painting. Inside, the ASTOUNDING SCIENCE FICTION 1943 material was laid out in two generous columns John W. Campbell, editor of Astounding (January was the last month in which an old Science Fiction for most of the period being layout, which involved having some pages at the considered, did not hesitate to make changes to back laid out in three columns, was used). his magazine, and 1943 illustrates this very In May Astounding shifted to pulp-size clearly. The changes in format of the magazine - (about 16.5 cm by 23 cm) and five signatures of bed-sheet to pulp to digest - are well-known, but 32 pages, still bound by that one weak staple. there were several other changes in that year The cover design was changed so that the eFNAC April/May 2002 Screen 5 painting on the cover remained about the same that six issues may be considered for each trend. size as before, the box announcing the lead story At the beginning of the year, about 7% of was reduced to about 4 cm square, and the the magazine was given over to non-fiction interior layout remained essentially the same as articles of a “scientific” kind - and of that space for the larger size. about one-fifth consisted of illustrative diagrams. The November 1943 issue was the first of The addition of the rotogravure section was the digest-sized Astoundings. The digest intended to allow the publication of photographs, Astounding of this period is about 14 cm by 20 so it is no surprise to learn that by the end of the cm, the cover painting is about 14 cm square, and year the proportion of the magazine given over to the box announcing the lead story is about 4 cm these “scientific” articles had just about doubled by 3 cm. The five 32-page signatures are joined to 14%, of which about 30% was drawing or by a 16-page rotogravure signature, and the photograph. This means that the proportion of magazine is glued rather than stapled. The two- “scientific” illustration increased about 300% column format is retained. (from about 1.4% of the magazine as a whole to The reasons for these changes are more about 4.2%). than just a matter of responding to the claims of In the same period the proportion of the the war effort. John Campbell took the magazine given over to illustrating the fiction opportunity to make other changes, and some dropped from around 7% to around 5%. By the changes were forced upon him. end of the year fiction and non-fiction was given In considering these changes this division the same illustration space, and if one disallows of the year into three parts, as marked by the the space given to fiction on the cover (the changes in bulk, has been preserved. This results normal pattern) then artwork was, by the in samples of four, six, and two issues so, where beginning of 1944, more for non-fiction than for trends are believed to have existed, additional fiction. This contrasts strongly with the situation issues from 1942 and 1944 have been added so at the beginning of 1943 where, again disallowing eFNAC April/May 2002 Screen 6 the cover, the ratio of fiction to non-fiction art appears. was about four to one. Early in 1943 it was obviously company In parallel with the changes in size, policy to allocate about 3.25 pages per issue to Campbell seems to have been trying to make the in-house advertising, and this remained steady magazine more respectable and, to the casual through the pulp period. There was a drop of reader flipping through the pages, more about a page an issue in the digest size, scientific, both in terms of the amount of space exaggerated somewhat in the first issue which given to scientific articles and the kind of impact had no advertising at all, no doubt because the illustrations would have. (In 1983 Omni things were a little rushed and no one had time gave slightly more space to fiction, on a to prepare copy to a suitable size! proportional basis, than Astounding gave to But there is no question that outside non-fiction in 1943.) advertising did drop substantially, both in Where did the space come from for the absolute number of pages and as a proportion of additional non-fiction? Space given to fiction the magazine. Although this meant a loss of remained constant at about 77% throughout the revenue to Street and Smith, the magazine's year. While a couple of per cent came from the publishers, it gave Campbell a little more space drop in fiction art, the bulk had to come from to play with, and what he did with that space was elsewhere else. publish more non-fiction: that, presumably, was Most of it came from paid advertising. At the direction he thought science fiction the beginning of the year about 7.5% of the (magazines) ought to go. magazine was devoted to paid advertising, with As for the fiction, there were changes in 2.5% to unpaid, in-house advertising. By the policy there as well. From January to September beginning of 1944 these percentages had each issue had an episode of at least one serial; dropped to about 3 and 1.25 respectively. This is from October onwards (and into 1944) there slightly more complicated than immediately were no serials. We may infer that this was not eFNAC April/May 2002 Screen 7 by Campbell's choice, since serials always Astounding in 1943 (and these will be (repeat, always) topped the readers” poll during calculated for each magazine/year in the study) 1943 (further discussion of the readers” poll, are given in Table 1. THE ANALYTICAL LABORATORY, will follow shortly). We must assume that Campbell wanted TABLE 1 serials but could not get them; here is a forced ------change in policy. Feature Percentage given to feature But there does appear to have been one ------deliberate and unforced change in publishing ------Advertising 7.5 policy during the year; Campbell increasingly Editorials/announcements 1.1 favoured longer stories. At the beginning of the Readers 2.3 year about 30% of the space devoted to fiction Non-fiction articles 7.3 was given to stories classified as “short stories”, Art for above 1.8 but by year's end this had dropped to around Serial/short novel 28.2 23%. (Throughout the year the section given to Novelette 28.2 “readers” stories', PROBABILITY ZERO, has Short story 20.3 been included in the “short stories” Art for fiction 6.0 classification.) Since longer stories generally (distributed between above) fared better in THE ANALYTICAL ------Note: only two book reviews were published in 1943, so LABORATORY such a change is not difficult to this item has been ignored. understand. There was also a slight drop in the amount One more matter is to be dealt with before we of space given to readers” letters, BRASS TACKS, move on to consider the stories and articles but this feature has a large variance anyway. themselves. What can we learn about the The basic data for the contents of eFNAC April/May 2002 Screen 8 readers? The evidence is that readers were widely Astounding usually published the distributed across the United States. addresses of contributors to BRASS TACKS, the In dealing with the fiction appearing in letter column. From this we can describe the Astounding we have invaluable information geographic distribution of articulate(?) readers. about readers” opinions not available for any In 1943 the distribution of readers was as follows other magazine. Each month readers were asked in Table 2. to rank the stories appearing in that issue. The TABLE 2 average rank of a story in readers” letters was ------then computed and the results for all stories Location Number of letters were published as THE ANALYTICAL ------LABORATORY. John Campbell professed to take California 3 great notice of the AnLab results, and later used Idaho 1 them to identify stories for which bonuses should Illinois 2 Kansas 1 be paid. Louisiana 1 In the January 1980 Analog William Sims Massachusetts 3 Bainbridge published the results of his analysis Michigan 3 of all the published AnLab results. One outcome Minnesota 3 of that study is a series of formulas for estimating Montana 1 the absolute ranking of a story. There are some New Mexico 1 difficulties, however. New York 6 In a longitudinal study such as this one, Ohio 4 comparisons across time would be extremely Washington DC 1 important. Readers” opinions, as revealed by the Wisconsin 2 United Kingdom 3 AnLab, apply only for one point in time, but an absolute scale would give readers” opinions eFNAC April/May 2002 Screen 9 across time. Campbell himself wrestled with this in fact preferring the mathematically-sensible problem of an absolute scale for stories from path - taking the average ranking, which is time to time, but no adequate solution ever obtained by dividing the story total by the arose. number of voters who ranked that story. In the What readers do is simply rank the stories January 1959 Astounding Campbell gave the within a given issue on an optional preferential following different - and I believe correct - system, and the point score is the average rank. explanation: “The votes for each story are Bainbridge has been misled by Campbell on this. totalled, and divided by the number voting on In the September 1957 Astounding, for that story - not all readers vote on all stories - to example, Campbell explains the system as yield the`point score’". Provided this is what was follows: “Readers” votes for the stories are actually done, Bainbridge's “missing data” tabulated, a vote for story A as best-in-the-issue problem vanishes and those of us slaving over gives it a 1, while a fifth-place vote gives it a 5. calculators, computers, and musty pulps can The story-vote total is added up at the time this sleep a little easier. department is made up, and divided by the Bainbridge provides two formulas for number of voters to yield the point-score”. obtaining comparative ranks. Bainbridge's Bainbridge read this to mean that the number of Formula I, which merely assigns a new rank points was divided by the total number of voters which is independent of the number of stories in - a possible interpretation - and correctly points the issue, rescaled to 1000, is not particularly out that if this is so then stories so bad that they helpful. Bainbridge's Formula II, which takes the are not rated by a particular reader are effectively average point score for stories of each rank as an given the high rating of 0, resulting overall in a estimate of time-independent worth, and by falsely-low point-score. regression analysis gives an estimate of absolute But I believe that Bainbridge is unduly rank for all stories (on a scale of 1000), is useful alarmed, and that Campbell didn't do that at all, not so much because it is accurate - which no one eFNAC April/May 2002 Screen 10 would claim - but because, having been based The third statistic is calculated in order to upon an analysis of all AnLab results, it at least get an idea of what proportion of readers rated operates from the largest possible data base and every story. This is obtained by dividing the produces results which, on the face of them, mean point score by the mean point score which make sense. would have been obtained if every reader had This is not to say that there are not serious rated every story. For the November issue, as you deficiencies - such as the difficulties which arise will see from Table 3, this figure - the with polarization of opinion on the stories in a participation index - is 0.99, indicating that given issue as a whole, for example - but when almost every reader did rate every story (and any comparisons are useful, those produced by allowing for rounding errors, probably everyone Bainbridge Formula II are as good as anything did rate every story). On the other hand, for the else (and probably better). Accordingly, in March issue the participation index is only 0.90, discussing the stories in Astounding, the indicating a substantial dropout. AnLab point scores will be given, but so will The standard deviation, divided by the Bainbridge Formula II ranks. These may provide mean, gives the coefficient of variation. For the some useful guidance about reader opinion. fourth statistic I introduce the idea of an index of As noted above, we need also to consider agreement, which is the result of dividing the the overall reactions of readers to an issue. Some coefficient of variation by the maximum possible further information is provided in Table 3, which coefficient of variation (assuming a participation gives four statistics for each of the 1943 issues. index of 1). For the April issue the index of The first two statistics are easily derived agreement is 0.89, and readers agreed about the from the published rankings - the mean point ranking of stories in that issue far more than they score for the issue and the standard deviation did about the stories in the December issue, for (i.e. the average deviation from the mean) of the which the index of agreement was only 0.40. point scores. Issues for which data are incomplete (i.e. eFNAC April/May 2002 Screen 11 the AnLab point scores were not published for all stories) are indicated in the table by asterisks indicating the amount of missing data. Both the participation index and the index of agreement are severely distorted when data are missing, but reasonable comparisons can probably be made between issues with similar amounts of missing data. TABLE 3

------Issue Number Mean Standard Participation Index of of point deviation index agreement stories score ------January** 8 3.3 0.47 0.73 0.26 February* 5 2.8 1.38 0.93 0.93 March 5 2.7 1.00 0.90 0.72 April 5 2.9 1.36 0.97 0.89 May 5 2.7 0.99 0.90 0.70 June** 7 3.4 1.73 0.85 0.94 July* 6 2.9 1.22 0.83 0.79 August* 6 2.7 1.02 0.77 0.71 September 5 3.0 1.17 0.99 0.74 October* 6 3.0 1.04 0.85 0.65 November 5 3.0 1.05 0.99 0.66 December 5 2.9 0.58 0.98 0.40 ------

This table will prove useful in selecting stories story's rating, far greater than any other winner for discussion. If the April issue were being in 1943, reflects the differences of opinion which discussed, for example, one could choose the existed about it. highest- and lowest-scoring stories and be In considering stories which appeared in reasonably certain that the responsive readers of 1943 several different questions will be the time would agree that those were the best addressed. What kinds of people are found in and worst stories. One could not have the same them, and how do they interact? What kind of confidence with, for example, the January and world is it in which the action takes place - and December issues. for that matter, what actually happens? Are Other information about how readers felt there any transformations in the elements of the may occasionally be deduced, especially for the story? top-rated story. In May, for example, the rating The main character is Captain Paul Anders. for the top story was 1.10, which means that at His most obvious characteristic is a speech defect least 90% of readers ranked it “1”. This which leads him to omit vowels in all sorts of information is not always useful. interesting places - “s'pose', “'stounding', “'fraid', “'zactly', “ex'lent', “p'raps” and so on. (This is all January 1943 produced by someone for whom “But thanks for your solicitude” trips lightly from the tongue.) Opposites - React! by “Will Stewart” (Jack There are a couple of other speech oddities - a Williamson) was the lead story for this issue; the Japanese and a Scandinavian speak with stock second and final installment appeared in racial slang or phrasing. One other character is February. This first episode was the leading always referred to as “Cap'n Rob', although there point-scorer in the AnLab (2.45) and its absolute is not the slightest clue given as to why he should rank (Bainbridge Formula II) is 46. have a contracted nickname. However, this was one of the issues about Now for the plot. Anders is supposed to which reader opinion was divided, and this “get” contraterrene matter for his employer. eFNAC April/May 2002 Screen 14

Since this stuff seems to be floating freely “Anders sat straighter, lean and ready in the through the solar system it is not at all clear at black ... "Consider my application withdrawn"', first what all the fuss is about. Careful reading he wimps. reveals that the real problem is handling the If this constitutes a trying interview, then stuff. In the course of this episode Anders has the level of argument seems likely to be various interactions with people - soon to be undersophisticated. And we might be in for some investigated - and at the end of the episode undersophisticated relationships. We are. Anders is in his spaceship, closing on McGee, Two women cross Anders” path in this who has mysterious access to “seetee” story: Karen Hood, the commander's niece, and (contraterrene matter). Ann O'Banion. Anders had been attracted to The opening is intended to let us know Karen Hood in an earlier story in this series, but immediately what sort of man Anders is, and he had lost. In the short scene with Karen (`Kay') what sort of environment he is in: “curt, there is great emphasis on physical movement: impersonal voice', “hollow echo', “enormous “Karen's fine nostrils widened as she caught her metal room', “lean and spare', “black', “straight breath”, “her marmoreal shoulders made a attention', “trying interview', “crisp salute” - flowing shrug of surrender”, “Karen gracefully which is responded to with “a genial, unmilitary stirred her tea”, “she looked expectantly toward smile”. But this last turns out to be an illusion, the door”, “Karen looked hopefully at the door, for we have “small eyes', “shrewd and cold”. presenting a breathtaking profile...”, “her red Anders wants to resign from the High head nodded approvingly”, “the girl merely Space Guard and Interplanet (whatever they smiled gayly up at him”, “he resisted the impulse are). But his commander opposes this. Anders to slap her”, “she tossed her bright hair”, “her persists. The tension mounts as his commander eyes turned grave”, “that infuriating sweetness gets tough: “things are getting tough” he says. left her smile”. This physical dance is a Anders responds to these words by surrendering: counterbalance to the plot development in which eFNAC April/May 2002 Screen 15

Karen outsmarts Anders. We already know, from in a long section of the story, the narrator is what we have read, that Anders is not hard to strangely silent about him. Anders, although outsmart. saved by Drake, shows little or no gratitude. Nor The relationship with Ann O'Banion is does the author bring forward any characteristic more complex and, one dares to hope halfway which might endear him to Hood. Indeed, the through this first episode, heart a-flutter, only tie to Hood in the story is that back on destined for Development. When he first sees Pallasport she runs an expensive office; and by her, Ann is “boyish', but Anders is anxious to this time the average reader of Astounding help a lady in distress; why is he willing to help, must have been beginning to ask questions such Ann asks, and Anders suavely replies: “Maybe as “Where does all the money come from?” since 'cause I like the freckles on your nose”. (Ann it is hard to see that it could come out of the decides not to be offended.) But things quickly seemingly unsuccessful CT operation on get physical – “her pale tongue wet her full, Freedonia (the asteroid on which the paintless lips”, “her fine shoulders, in the trim Drake/McGee/Hood engineering activities take blue sweater, made an eloquent shrug of defeat”. place). But just as we saw Anders outsmarted by Aside from those human characteristics Karen, now we are presented with an Anders which have some significance for the plot, there who - at least for a time - doesn't quite follow are those which appear to be little more than what Ann is up to. (She steers his ship to safety contemporary references. through a “field of automatic mines”.) But as the Anders’’ most dangerous opponent is the story develops, Ann and Paul spend more and Martian-German agent, Franz von Falkenberg - more time in one another's company. who has not yet appeared on the stage of the The other person who might be considered story, but who lurks in every shadow. The crew in this context is the man Karen Hood chose over aboard Anders” ship are the already-mentioned Paul Anders - Rick Drake. Although he appears Japanese (Venusian-Japanese, to be precise), a eFNAC April/May 2002 Screen 16

Callistonian-Ukrainian, and a Martian-Italian. invented. He is often in conflict with others, but These characters, all of them, are suspect, there is no subtlety in him: open misère is the although the Ukrainian somewhat less so. Here only bidding gambit he knows. Yet he seems to is how Williamson describes them: have few if any human responses himself. For Protopopov: “huge, shambling, bearlike', example, when he is outwitted by Karen Hood “broad, puttylike face seemed...both sly and and Rob McGee, the following is the report of his stupid', “peculiar, blubbery, moronic-sounding reaction. laugh', “small, opaque, stupid-seeming eyes', “heavy, clumsy shamble', “flat, cunning eyes', Her blue-eyed wonderment turned “his puttylike face held a moronic stare, and he suspicion into certainty. Choking he found made an awkward, shambling salute.” (I should no words. point out, by the way, that these words and phrases are used to describe Commander “Bright boy, Paul!” Her red head nodded Protopopov.) approvingly. “Knew you'd catch on.” Muratori: “shifty, black, embittered eyes', “a silent limp”. He gripped the edges of the little table, Suzuki: “toothy, spectacled, efficient', trembling with wrath. The girl merely “smiling and over-polite', “in a hissing, smiled gayly up at him. Slowly he became conspiritorial whisper, he pledged the support of aware of the uneasy waiter and the his ambitious but unfortunate race”. staring diners across the long room. His One suspects that Protopopov rates the brown face flushed. lengthy characterization because he is, after all, a representative of the friendly Jovian Soviet. Still he found nothing to say, for the most Anders himself is a character for whom the of his anger was directed at his own words “bluff” and “direct” might have been stupidity. The trap had been so simple and eFNAC April/May 2002 Screen 17

transparent, and he had fallen so has a lurking suspicion that he may have begun completely. Savagely, he thought he to understand why Karen Hood chose Rick should have arrested McGee on the field. Drake. Characters aside, how does Williamson's “Be a sport, Paul!” Karen was laughing at imagined world differ from our own? There are him. “Sit down and eat your lunch. Cap'n some of the standard trappings of science fiction Rob must be fifty thousand kilometers at - uranium-powered spaceships, interplanetary space by now, and there's nothing much travel, terraforming of planets or asteroids, that you can do about it.” hand-sized viewers. The CT content may be all that is new, but the problem of how to handle CT Grinning, he let the relieved waiter set up matter has not been, as it were, successfully his chair. grappled with. Politically, of course, the then- current world situation has been stereotyped. It This passage reflects many of the points about isn't clear why this should have been necessary, the story which have already been made. But the but perhaps it helped sell the story. essence here is the illustration of the role of Of this novel, Alva Rogers wrote, on page characters and conversation - only to carry the 113 of A Requiem for Astounding: “This was plot forward. Who, in the real world, would a very good story, in which Stewart combines the recover so quickly from the kind of anger which sociological theme with high space adventure leads to a chair crashing over (just before the and more or less down-to-Earth engineering quotation begins)? Surely a cortico-thalamic problems.” pause, at least, is needed? Yet in this instalment the By the time this episode has ended, Anders scientific/engineering problems appear to be has moved a little closer to his goal - though handled rather indirectly. It is certainly true that scarcely through his own efforts. And the reader there is the almost obligatory lecture to the eFNAC April/May 2002 Screen 18 reader on page 24, but otherwise the problems been no significant technological development relate to one character understanding a situation apart from the inventions of the tale's hero, (from an engineering point of view) while the Galloway (later Gallegher), which are produced other does not - and this is where the tension only when Galloway is drunk. By using such an lies. inventor Kuttner is able to avoid providing The illustrations don't fit well with the rational explanations for the devices invented, story. The first appears to make reference to Paul which must have been handy when working to a Anders” thoughts, while the second, an accurate deadline - Kuttner had another story, “Nothing reflection of what is going on in the story, is But Gingerbread Left', in the same issue. printed on the page following the action it The protagonist is Horace Vanning, a represents. The third illustration, intended to crooked lawyer who is Galloway's self- show the technological might of CT systems, is proclaimed friend. Vanning is introduced to the printed some four pages after the scene it reader through a recitation of his criminal illustrates, but in this case the scene is illustrated methods, including advice to other criminals on poorly; there are precise descriptions of the CT how to carry out undetectable murders using machine in the text, and the illustration does not Galloway's inventions. On the second page of the match the description. story, with almost heavy-handed irony, Vanning This was an issue with a low index of thinks of Galloway as “amoral”. agreement, so a second story will be discussed. This story deals with one of Galloway's “Time Locker” by ‘Lewis Padgett” (Henry inventions - the eponymous time locker - and the Kuttner in this case) was a short story which way in which it is used to save and then kill finished fifth in the ratings, with a point score of Vanning: Galloway may be amoral, but the 3.71 and an absolute rank of 458, yet was the first universe does not tolerate immorality... of a famous series. Vanning is constantly in need of devices to “Time Locker” is set in 1970. There has help his criminal friends, and so hangs about in eFNAC April/May 2002 Screen 19

Galloway's laboratory, a room filled with the transport things into the future - or so Galloway inventor's peculiar brainchildren - such as the believes. Using the kind of muddled argument liquor organ which provides for all of Galloway's such a character can get away with, Galloway basic needs. On the first visit described in the explains that the universe is getting both larger story Vanning uncovers a locker which, as and smaller at the same time: it is because of this Galloway believes, makes things small and that objects appear to shrink when placed in the distorted: when you take them out they get big time locker. again. Vanning buys it because it will provide for The resolution is that objects are not him the perfect safe. transported quite so far into the future as Vanning places some valuable but Galloway thinks - just a few days - and the dangerous merchandise in the locker. A small creature Vanning crushed when he saw it trying creature appears and tries to move it, so Vanning to move the suitcase is Vanning himself, about a reaches in and crushes the creature. Somewhat week in the future. Hearing what has happened, later Vanning notices that the suitcase has Galloway works out what has gone on. And gets vanished. drunk. He desperately seeks Galloway's advice, The only character who emerges from the but Galloway says that it will take some time. page to achieve substance is Vanning. While Galloway is working on the problem, Unlikeable, he has no satisfactory relationship Vanning is confronted with his concerned and with anyone - except perhaps the parasitic one somewhat violent client, who wants the suitcase with Galloway, from which he has derived and its contents back. Vanning stalls and, with considerable benefit in the past. One can almost some unemphasized irony, explains that he has understand why the story should have received a put it in a safe with a time lock. low rating from readers since there is barely time Galloway's advice, when it is finally for anything to grasp our attention other than produced, is unwelcome: the locker does in fact the plot gimmick. Yet as the first of Kuttner's eFNAC April/May 2002 Screen 20

Gallegher stories it probably has historical signif- way, renumbering the ratings to exclude “Mimsy icance. (In passing we might note that the Were The Borogoves”. So the first episode of van illustration on page 101 is drawn on a scale which Vogt's “The Weapon Makers” emerges at the top does not match the story.) with a point score of 1.2, followed by the concluding half of “Opposites - React!” with a February 1943 point score of 2.1. The absolute ranks are -40 and 238 respectively. This issue of Astounding is difficult to deal But what to do about “Mimsy Were The with. The index of agreement, 0.93, is sufficiently Borogoves” here? Rather than deal with it now, high that discussing the highest-ranking story in the hurly-burly of issue-by-issue analysis, I would be dealing with what the readers generally will consider it at the end of the treatment of agreed was the “best” science fiction in that 1943, in a short reflection on the whole of the issue. year. But now, in treating the February 1943 But the reaction to Padgett's “Mimsy Were edition of Astounding, after some brief notes The Borogoves” was so strong that Campbell felt on the concluding half of the serial, the focus will he had to adjust the operation of the AnLab for be upon “The Weapon Makers”. that month. As he explained it in the April 1943 There is little that is new in the second half Astounding, many readers wrote in only about of “Opposites - React!” The nature of the fictive the Padgett story, so that the normal AnLab world has already been described. The procedure would have resulted in the Padgett puttyfaced Protopopov turns out to be von story being rated (usually ‘1') by many more Falkenberg, but it proves to be easy to dispose of readers than the other stories in the issue. him. Campbell's solution was to put the Padgett story at the top of the list, without a point-score, and then treat the remaining stories in the normal eFNAC April/May 2002 Screen 21

But surprisingly little is resolved, although there is a great deal of handwaving to make the JACK WILLIAMSON TO JOHN plot work. Admittedly some of this is pretty fast FOYSTER stuff. Halfway down the left-hand column of page 127 Anders expects to hear “the hoarse Dear John Thank you for the issues of ASFR with the moronic croak of von Falkenberg'” but by a comments on “Opposites - React!' similar point in the right-hand column I was glad to see it. Glad, I suppose, to have everything has turned out quite otherwise, yet the story recalled. But this sort of thing Anders “planned it that way”. always makes me wince. We never learn why Anders keeps thinking (I recall the 20 000 word hatchet job of McGee as “little Rob McGee” or “poor little done by Brian Aldiss on The Legion of Time in McGee” when McGee appears to have been, SF Horizons.)* throughout the story, the one person in control The stories of that time were written by of his environment. Indeed, early in the story writers of the time for readers of the time McGee has manifested some quite unearthly living in the culture of the time and published mental powers, and throughout the story always in pulp magazines that we felt to be nearly as ephemeral as radio broadcasts - all with no seems to be able to work out what the CT aliens real expectation of the heady delights of book had been up to: it is surprising that McGee is not publication and the flattering attention of unveiled as an alien superman before the end of critics in the next half century. Looked at from “Opposites - React!' here and now, a lot of things fail to fit the . AN INSERT (from a later issue of ASFR…) current norms. But at least - at least in a way - it's nice to be remembered. * (I should add that I have come to terms with the way I felt about that, and Brian is still a very firm friend. eFNAC April/May 2002 Screen 22

JOHN FOYSTER’S REPLY TO JACK me too good to be lost. And so, when I came to WILLIAMSON think about writing about the history of magazine sf, the interval structure I'm imposing Dear Jack in The Long View came quickly to mind as one Thank you for your kind note. I guess that I way in which I could pay a tribute to the earliest am trying to make a large number of points in writers. The Long View, and you have brought a special In the case of Astounding in 1943, I would emphasis to one of them. be choosing a starting point which was generally When I started reading science fiction, highly acclaimed - it comes right in the middle of thirty years ago, I thought the stuff I was reading “The Golden Age” as defined by Alva Rogers in A then was pretty good. But everywhere I read Requiem for Astounding. But there was an about “The Golden Age”. As I found and read additional advantage to starting with Astounding earlier copies of Astounding (and Startling) - those AnLab ratings which provided much of this made sense to me. Certainly the contemporary opinion about the relative merits magazines of the late 1940s had a lot more of the stories. oomph than those of the 'fifties. But the real Now when I turned to the 1943 issues I Golden Age was supposed to have started much found some surprising things. In the first earlier than that. instalment I indicated some of my surprise at The magazines of the early 1940s were not things like the way advertising was handled - in a all that easy to find, but over the years I have great rush, and sometimes not well. As I have managed to build up a collection; I've no doubt moved through the year I was immediately that, like me, you buy more than you read, and struck by the problem of the misplaced artwork, somehow one regrets that pile of unread paper. which I've now mentioned a couple of times. The opportunity to read for a purpose seemed to What surprised me most about artwork being eFNAC April/May 2002 Screen 23 put on the wrong pages was that no one seems to from that information we can learn something have mentioned it previously; at the same time, about the science-fiction reading population of it does seem a fault which could easily have been the day. What cannot be overlooked or forgotten avoided. The implication of the latter point is is that “Opposites - React!” was very popular in that the art editor also saw the magazine as those days. However you may feel about it now, ephemeral and didn't take the care that might at the time you were plainly writing the sort of reasonably be expected. stuff readers wanted. It seems to me that this Writers, by contrast, in my view did take gives you a unique and valuable perspective of more care. For example, when you re-wrote the growth of science fiction, as it does to all the “Opposites - React!” as Seetee Ship you did a other fellas who were writing then and are still major re-write, obviously taking care of some of around now. the objections I raised in my review. In just the I'm therefore very grateful to you for taking same way, when van Vogt re-wrote The Weapon the time to write to me about my pieces. I'm Makers for book publication he made major worried that you might tempt me to go into even changes - so major that in that case the book greater depth about what I read into the science version is scarcely recognizable in the serial fiction of the day - and fortunately “The Long version. At least you and van Vogt took the View” has been squeezed out of the September trouble to re-write, and science fiction is better ASFR - but I shall try to resist: I must mention because you did give so much care to improving one regret, however, and that is that my present the original (possibly hastily-written) versions. schedule doesn't call for me to write about “The Yet from an historical viewpoint - which is Equalizer', which I regard as one of the finest of the one I'm taking - major interest must lie with science fiction stories. the original version. In the case of stories in Astounding we know, for example, just which stories were most popular with the readers, and The relationship between Ann O'Banion Were The Borogoves” and “The Weapon and Paul Anders is resolved, along the lines we Makers”!! might have suspected. We don't find out about But to this modern reader this first episode Karen Hood, or where all the money for the fancy of “The Weapon Makers” is incomparably office at Pallasport came from. And, to add to the superior to the other fiction read for this year. confusion about illustrations and their (This is, after all, one of the major reasons for placement which has already been noted, there's writing this present work: to make it possible to an illustration on page 114 which refers to a plot see works of science fiction in the context in incident on page 125 - by which time it is quite which they were produced, and so to observe possible to have forgotten the illustration them not only on their own terms but in an The novel Seetee Ship, which is a fix-up appropriate, time-bound, sense. Looking at of this story, “Collision Orbit” and “Minus Sign”, isolated novels or collections of stories does not is substantially revised, with the World War II allow this. At the same time, by looking at the references omitted and a bit of time-travel - and opinions of contemporary readers about the much, much more - mixed in. quality of a story, we can get some feel for the And there’s The Weapon Makers. “The state of science fiction at the time.) Weapon Makers” is another kettle of fish. It is The first point to be made is that the novel scarcely fashionable to praise A. E. van Vogt serialized in Astounding is not much like the nowadays, but to read this work in the context of revised version published in hardcover. This is its original appearance is a shock. With “Mimsy not the place to enter into a consideration of the Were The Borogoves” in the same issue, it would later version, but the passing remark should have been good to have had access to an perhaps be made that it is by no means so expanded letter column with reactions from confusing as the magazine version. readers, but unfortunately readers’ comments What kind of world is it that the players of were quite short. (And Chan Davis, in his letter, “The Weapon Makers” inhabit? It is - despite prefers “Opposites - React!” to both `Mimsy some superficial resemblance to monarchies eFNAC April/May 2002 Screen 25 which has been noted, to some extent my task is only to report the reader's reaction. erroneously, by Damon Knight - a world very “The Weapon Makers” is a work of fiction different from our own. Now, the worlds found qualitatively different from the stories previously in the January Astounding stories were easily considered. It is not appropriate to consider it on recognizable as our own, albeit distorted by the an episode-by-episode basis, and accordingly all requirements of pulp fiction. These distortions three episodes, which appeared February-April we recognize most readily in the vast 1943 in Astounding, will be described together. oversimplification of characters, to the extent The carelessness with which issues of that if they exist at all they can be said to be Astounding were put together has been determined in a few trite catchphrases (amply referred to previously. In the February 1943 illustrated for “Opposites - React!”). The world of edition the interchange of two illustrations by “The Weapon Makers”, perhaps because of the Kramer - those appearing on pages 14 and 30 - chaotic approach followed by the author, is very restores sanity to the layout in that the alien to us. That's an important point. Van Vogt illustrations are then adjacent to the text they has been clever enough to see that what one illustrate. Over the years I suppose it is fair to say experiences in an alien environment is surprise that Campbell acquired quite a reputation for and an inability to understand what is going on: careless use of illustrations, although it must also he ensures that we know we are undergoing an be said that at other times the illustrations in alien encounter by throwing information at us in Astounding were powerfully used - but this a deliberately chaotic way. mismanagement may be significant when later This is not done in the “oh, I remember, we come to look at the text: how “authentic” is it? the hero has a knife to cut himself free” way We shall see that the text is flawed, yet be unable which was used by Williamson in “Opposites - to locate the origin of the flaw. React!”. Now van Vogt has described his method As has already been remarked, the book - from the technical point of view - several times; version bears little resemblance to the original eFNAC April/May 2002 Screen 26 serial. For the most part there will be little became - “But precisely because all the reference to the book version, but from time to archetypes are here, precisely because time this will be useful, since most readers will Casablanca cites countless other films, and each have access only to the book version. actor repeats a part played on other occasions, Another question aroused by the text is the resonance of intertextuality plays upon the that of its status; when we write about science spectator”. The difference, for Van Vogt, is that fiction we are, generally, aware that our subject although in many senses he does cite the clichés is an ephemeral one. We do not, as a rule, make of the past, his inventiveness drives the reader's claims about the eternal significance of pulp thinking through a range of new situations - ones novels. Why then is so much time to be devoted which could become, in his own later work or the to a single work of this genre? work of others, archetypes. This is unfamiliar, Umberto Eco in “Casablanca, or the and imposes a need for careful technique. Clichés Are Having a Ball” (now available in The reader coming to “The Weapon English in Marshall Blonsky's On Signs) points Makers” brought with him (the pronoun may out that “Casablanca is a very mediocre film. It safely be chosen) probably some recollection of is a comic strip, a hotch-potch, low on the earlier pieces which were to compose, along psychological credibility, and with little with the eponymous novelette in the February continuity in its dramatic effects. And we know 1948 Thrilling Wonder Stories, “The the reason for this: the film was made up as the Weapon Shops of Isher', but possibly more shooting went along.” We know that these importantly substantial recollections of Van general statements may also be made about “The Vogt's archetypal superman novel Slan. Weapon Makers”. But the makers of Casablanca Passing reference has already been made, had an advantage over A. E. Van Vogt: Eco by way of introduction, to the kind of society describes the way the clichés or archetypal within which “The Weapon Makers” takes place. situations permeate the film, making it what it But it is as generous to describe “The Weapon eFNAC April/May 2002 Screen 27

Makers” as being set in a society as it would have reader. Van Vogt is deceptive here, for of course been to describe “Opposites - React!” in that way. this passage has been written as a bridge The society is essentially a magical one, in which between our world and Neelan's; the reader is events are driven externally, not from within; the not returning to a familiar and loved world but puppet master's hands are, moreover, often rather is venturing into a new one. Van Vogt visible. But what of the show? strikes swiftly now, and in two paragraphs Even before the novel begins Campbell establishes that this is an alien world - the tells us that the novel is the scene for a struggle Empire of Isher - and that he, Neelan, has between one man - Robert Hedrock - and two limited telepathic powers. empires, that of Isher (mostly bad guys) and that This limitation - to contact with his now- of the Weapon Shops (mostly good guys). But the dead brother, whose death was the reason for novel does not start there nor does it finish there Dan Neelan's return to Earth - Van Vogt uses to (in fact its structure matches that of the full tell us about Neelan's past, for as he gazes down length version of “The Weapon Shops of Isher'). on the green Earth below him he muses about his It begins with a man named Dan Neelan - though earlier life and his brother. A potted biography is the reader waits pages to find out his given name interrupted as he thinks about Gil's death. - who is returning from mining an asteroid “Reverie ended” is what Van Vogt writes. And (whoops, a) meteorite with only a couple of now he shifts the focus to what Neelan can see; weeks’ wages in his pocket. all the tension built up by the stressful Neelan is in a plane flying over the surface recollection of his brother's death is dissipated as of an Earth he has not seen for a decade. As he “Neelan's tautness faded before the spectacle gazes down he asks himself why he moved away that was unfolding below - the beginning of from the familiar and beautiful to the strange Imperial City”. This is clever, for it is tension - and inhospitable worlds of Mars and Jupiter - “neural pressure” - which had linked him with the very worlds which attract the science fiction his brother. eFNAC April/May 2002 Screen 28

Van Vogt describes the city - miles of too rich, too wonderful to spend it in mourning. suburbs set in parks (but with a total area of only She liked change, variety –“. 600 square miles as we later learn) - and then, Neelan does not understand this merry suddenly, Neelan's disembarkation and rapid widow's invitation (one speculates that John W. contact with the commerce of the city as he seeks Campbell didn't either), dismissing her as “a and finds his brother's last known address bring vague-minded creature to whom every boarder the first chapter to a close. was a person dimly seen, important only in that None of this appears in the book version of such and such a room paid its way”. Yet the “The Weapon Makers”. Some of the sentences separation between Dan and his brother Gil was, are recycled as part of a conversation, but the we have been told (more explicitly in the book book version begins with what is, in the serial version), partly precipitated by Dan's version, the third chapter. sophistication with women! The second chapter, like the first, follows Dan Neelan does not hear her words - once the actions of Dan Neelan. Its sentences, like again he is musing about Gil and his death - but those of the first, are subject to exhumation and he is brought back from the speculative world by revision in the book version. But the first section the widow's talking. She now remembers his of the chapter vanishes. brother, who used this address as a blind, to Dan Neelan goes to the address he has for meet the Empire's “home-address regulations”. his brother; there he meets the landlady: “a fine- Gil left, it seems, on the day Dan felt him die. looking, buxom young woman of about thirty- And we have learned something more about life five”. He asks for information about his brother - in the Empire. she suggests that he should take a room himself: Now, in rapid succession, Van Vogt “He'd enjoy staying there. There was a constant introduces us to some of the institutions of the coming and going of new roomers; had been ever Empire: the Eugenics Institute, where Dan was since she was widowed three years ago. Life was raised with his brother, which cannot help him eFNAC April/May 2002 Screen 29 quickly; the police, who have a publicity agent operated personal systems for jobhunting; whose unfeeling reaction is “Forget it!”; a bank computers have no role in this society. Neelan account exists in an out-of-town bank, in Gil's describes his experience but does not want a name, to which he cannot have access for six regular job. The clerk points out that contracts months; Gil's former employer, the Atomic are contracts, and are difficult to avoid: “Besides, Research Corporation, has no record of what the powerful Engineer's Guild would not permit happened to him after he left two years before. employment except under such terms”. (The Some of these institutions are familiar to clerk is speaking to us, not to Dan Neelan, when the reader, but Van Vogt now wrenches us from he uses the word “powerful”.) the familiar with great speed. Up to this point we By chance there is a job which exactly fits have been moving along inside Dan Neelan's his needs (and by chance it is the job from which mind, more or less in real time, but three weeks his brother vanished). His visit to the Eugenics pass in the course of the next paragraph, in Institute brings only the advice that he should which Dan spends most of his money in visit the Weapon Shops. Dan carries a Weapon advertising for the lost brother. Shop (defensive) gun, so he knows all about THE At this point Dan Neelan begins to interact RIGHT TO BUY WEAPONS IS THE RIGHT TO with the world around him; up to this point he BE FREE, but he has never realized previously has been almost entirely a spectator, and the that the Weapon Shops did more than supply change is surprising. By coincidence after these weapons. three weeks Neelan suddenly starts to seek work In the Weapon Shop Dan is given an on the day he receives a call from the Eugenics address via pre-typewriter technology; as Dan Institute. When he seeks work we learn more walks back to Mrs Dendley's lodging-house Van about Isher society. Vogt is given an opportunity to describe more of Public Ad machines (see illustration on the ways of Imperial City and its Empress. The page 30 while reading text on page 14) are coin- city is lit at night by energy absorbed by the eFNAC April/May 2002 Screen 30 pavements during the day, and from his lodgings lucklessly - to gain more information about his Dan can see both the Palace and the bright lights brother) and here he discovers that a spaceship of “downtown”. has been constructed inside the building. He On the next day he visits the address given finally confronts the man behind the voice, and is at which the “likely” job is. It turns out to be a disarmed. The action now shifts to the Imperial blind, and Dan is redirected via picturephone to Palace and Robert Hedrock: all which has been another address which is - and here “it seemed to described above is almost completely expunged him that there was a fatal flaw in the physical from the book version of “The Weapon Makers”. structure of his brain; and that flaw was now I have given many pages to the cracking under pressure” - the address is the one consideration of about ten pages of “The Weapon given him by the Weapon Shop. Makers” as it appeared in the magazine. This Dan now understands why, during the seems worthwhile because the section I have interview, his interrogator hesitated at times; he dealt with does not appear in the hardcover recognized Dan (who is, after all, his brother's version. But most of the remainder of the serial twin) and did not know what to make of him. appears in that version and a survey such as this He travels to the new address (pausing at which purports to cover a whole year in the life of the Weapon Shop where he hoped - lucklessly - magazine science fiction is not the place to to gain more information about his brother) and consider at great length and in depth so complex here he discovers that a spaceship has been a work as “The Weapon Makers”. Perhaps the constructed inside the building. He finally situation can be adequately summarized by confronts the man behind the voice, and is suggesting that “The Weapon Makers” deserves disarmed. The action now shifts to the Imperial careful reading as an exemplar of popular and Palace and Robert Hedrock. successful science fiction of 1943 - but in the Dan Neelan travels to the new address magazine version rather than the book version. (pausing at the Weapon Shop where he hoped - eFNAC April/May 2002 Screen 31

Impresarios in Toronto would like to bring Letters more operas to Toronto, and we have our share, Janice Gelb but we don't have a dedicated opera house. In response to my letter last time around, you There's been talk of building one, but the various ask "And what makes you think that it wouldn't levels of government here always seen to be be churlish of me to question your bona fides as a having spats with each other, and their personal person over 50?" I have to admit I'm confused -- pettinesses have resulted in such an opera house was the phrase "under 50" in the previous issue a being postponed time and time again. Next door typo, or is this response one of those examples of to the west, in the city of Mississauga, there is a Irony from British Dominion citizens that we thriving opera house, containing Opera literal Americans never get? Mississauga, which stages classic operas such as I was interested to read the comparison in Aida, Tosca and the Barber of Seville. (I am not numbers of pulps to digests in the 50s. I hadn't much for opera, but I know about Opera realized what a pivotal year 1953 was (aside from Mississauga because I work for the printing my parents getting married in that year :-> ) company that produces their advertising and programmes. They are busy, and attract the best jf: Churlish? Me? artistes from Canada, the United States and Italy.

jf: Well, with Jennifer Bryce and Lloyd Penney John Millard twenty years ago I did at least go Half of my screen has Word 2000 on it, and the to an opera in Toronto. other half has eFNAC 20. Between the two, I should be able to compose a loc. It's a lot of back- According to your article When History and-forth action, but if the computer's up to the Vanishes, you said you could purchase copies of task, so am I. Etherline at a bookstore. That was the MSFC eFNAC April/May 2002 Screen 32 back then; does the MSFC do it today? Our own Quite enjoyed reading your lengthy article club-managing days were back in the 80s; there on the pulp SF magazines of 1953. If the Golden was no real interest in a literary SF club after Age means the most prolific and best of quality OSFiC (the Ontario Science Fiction Club) was age, that year was in the centre of that Golden shut down some years before. I would like to see Age. I'm not sure we could return to that Golden some kind of club here again, but I'm not going Age again. Magazines are expensive, and possible to run it myself. The old argument of clubs vs. sources for short fiction are scattered far and Internet/Web comes up again, but I won't rehash wide on the Web. I wish I could say more about it here. There are clubs enough around, but an article that takes up more than half of your they're all media-oriented; the literary types entire issue. And as always, some beautiful think that clubs are a little juvenile. In Toronto, covers from that Golden Age. the need for a club has been replaced with Time to finish up and get this across the British-style pubnights, and they allow us to world to you. Many thanks, and keep them gather, network and enjoy each other's company coming. without the club structure. Our convention- running days may be behind us as well; we're Robert Lichtman thinking of fulfilling our commitments, and eFNAC 19 and 20 to hand, then, and first off I calling it a career. However, we have created a must say I was quite intrigued at your couple of conventions in town, chaired a few description of and excerpts from the Canon Isaac more, and worked a lot more. We have some Taylor book, WORDS AND PLACES. You write pride in accomplishment, and a couple of of it, "I feel comfortable because I think that trophies to show for it, and we're satisfied. there is very little likelihood that anyone reading these pages will come across it." I'll confess I've jf: No, purchase of fanzines was done from never heard of it before, but I went promptly to a normal counter. Next to the SF, of course.. eFNAC April/May 2002 Screen 33

ABE where I found forty copies for sale at prices my collections certainly must be useful to other ranging from US$4.37 to US$95.00. Many of the collectors of fanzines as a reference as to what's sellers are in England; only eight are in the U.S. been published that's made its way into our I've inquired of the seller of the cheapest copy, a mutual repositories. There is other information 1902 edition, as to how much it would be there that's also useful. As for the e-mail list, it's including the slowest postage. a mixed bag in my view. Although Pickersgill started it with the intention that it should be a jf: And the last couple of weeks I have been place where fans discuss fanzines, fan history reading a work based upon Thomas Coryate’s and related subjects, its participants have always Crudites – not there’s an interesting book! been bad about staying on the subject -- and in these latter days, Greg having seemingly I thought it was too bad that Walt Willis abandoned it either out of disgust or lack of time, wasn't alive to read your comments on the April it's become more or less just another mixed- 1943 aSF. This was, in all, a very interesting subject forum and its uniqueness is largely gone. article, especially for the comparison of your impressions of various of the stories to those of jf: This last week Janice Gelb and I the late Alva Rogers. decided (I hope I have reported our In your article, "What is a Fanzine?" you conversation accurately) we would have to get write, "Memory Hole can be thought of as a our definition of a fanzine right (at least in an particular kind of repository of knowledge of exclusionary sense): a fanzine is not a collection fanzines. But is it the right kind? Is it the only of amateur fiction – a definition that is more kind? Does it preserve the knowledge we want to important in Australia rather than in some have preserved." I wondered if you were other places, thank heavens. referring to the e-mail list or the Web site. In the latter case, the presence of both Pickersgill's and eFNAC April/May 2002 Screen 34

As for the question you raise concerning was tiring of reading the details of what he and "what would have been the legacy of Terry Carr his family ate for dinner, and where, and of his or Walt Willis if their arena of activity had been job. Needing space in my files, I removed his rasff?" or presumably any of the fannish e-mail fanzines and delisted them from my catalogue, lists. Well, in terms of preservation of their and with some trepidation made a comment writing it's clear to me that great gobs of it that about the extent to which he carried on about ended up in our *real* timestream being such matters and suggested that he might edit preserved in the pages of printed fanzines would himself a little more. o my relief, he seemed to have been lost. A few people might have archived take it well....but he still carries on, and these it, but mostly it would have been as ephemeral as days I skip most of it. (This is not really a all the rest of what one sees in those forums. paragraph for publication, please.) In "Morals," are you referring to Robert The larger subject is to what extent one Sabella, FAPA member, in our comment about should reveal oneself in a forum as global and his having "sometimes written a little too freely searchable as the Web. When I do a google on my about his job -- and his employers." I've thought own name, I'm intermixed with a number of that, too, back when I read his diaries. When other Robert Lichtmans; and so far I haven't Robert first appeared in FAPA some years ago found anything about myself that I'd care to and began running his large fanzine through the remove from the prying eyes of search engines. mailings, I was quite intrigued with them and But I'm fortunate in having a steady job, one that spent a great deal of time poring over his will probably serve me until I retire in about 5-6 extended comments. How interesting, I thought, years, so I'm not particularly concerned about how he writes about students with names like Fei scenarios in which prospective employers might Fei and Little Ding Dong. I kept his zines out of check out the Web for information on me and my the mailings and filed them away after I'd read activities. I don't mind being known, if that's the them. But after a time it occurred to me that I right word, as a fanzine collector (although I eFNAC April/May 2002 Screen 35 certainly wouldn't want to reveal my address) Moving back to No. 19, I'm a little and someone who writes letters to fanzines on a surprised at Bob Smith's comment that "Not wide range of subjects, none of them particularly being on the Net I am, of course, unaware of harmful in the "mundane" sense. Robert's fanzines received list." Assuming there's not some other Robert he's referring to, I gather jf: Jim Caughran and others have wisely he means the ones I publish in TRAP DOOR developed these ideas gather more usefully (not which, so far at least, has not succumbed to the than like you – like me). lure of e-publication as I continue to bite the bullet of ever-increasing costs. The latest In No. 20, I enjoyed the first part of "The iteration of my fanzine received statistics appears Science Fiction Magazine in 1953," particularly in the issue I sent out in early April and adds two for the way it organized the subject matter by years to the figures in previous editions. publishing house rather than by specific Finally, let it be said once again that I truly magazine titles. It somehow made for a more enjoy the series of color reproductions of SF coherent view, to know that a specific publisher magazine covers you've been running for the past handled its publications in such and such a way. few issues and hope you keep it up. I also found entertaining the excerpts from various well-known (and mostly now deceased) jf: yes, keeping it up – having to do a fans when they were much younger and writing couple of bi-monthly issues, to the prozine letter columns. Also liked the various statistical tables. Well, that’s enough for now. Thanks for the other notes as well. Back in July. (Oh hell, it is already jf: well, there’s a little more to come – but July…) not for a little while, fortunately.

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Fifty Years Ago In Science Fiction: April 1952

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Fifty Years Ago In Science Fiction: May 1952