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Fantasite, v. 1, issue 2, February 1941
Page 6
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THE FANTASITE.... THE FUTURE OF SCIENCE FICTION by CLIFFORD D. SIMAK For a long time science fiction was formula. Then, suddenly, something happened. Stanley Weinbaum wrote "Martian Odyssey". Jack Williamson wrote "Born of the Sun". Nat Schachner wrote "Ancestral Voices". Murray Leinster wrote "Sidewise in Time". Don Wandrei strolled onto the scene. Other things happened, too. But those few examples give you an idea. Science fiction shook off the old belief that the saga of a man going to another planet and making the acquaintance of the three-legged, seven-eyed, 18-fingered residents of that planet constituted a story. Science fiction started to go places. It's been going places ever since. Just where it is going is hard, perhaps impossible to say. I know that after reading the first paragraph of this article a bunch of you fellows are going to rear up on your hind legs and let out a few bellows: "What about the early Skylark stories? What about Wade and More? What about some of Lovecraft's first work? What, above all, about Hawk Carse?" I'll admit you have something there. I would be the first to deny that all of the pre-Weinbaum stories were lousy. I wasn't even trying to say that. What was meant is that they all followed pretty much the same pattern ..... and that doesn't mean they weren't good. But they were pretty much the same. But in trying to trace the trends of any type of literature, one must generalize. Comparisons and deductions must be made on a broad basis, ignoring the occasional exceptions which arise in almost every phase under consideration. From necessarily crude beginnings, when the pioneers of science fiction were laying what has proven to be a firm and solid basis for a new type of literature, we have advanced up to the present day science fiction story which is well rounded in almost every respect. We have achieved realism, an elusive sort of modern-day fantasy, humor, characterization, in some cases satire .. and when satire arrives one may be fairly certain that type of literature is out of its swaddling clothes. We have even come to regard psychology as a legitimate field upon which a science fictioneer may base a thrilling, thought-provocative story. No more do wooden men stalk through wooden plots. Your typical science fiction character of today seems to be alive. Plot is given equal consideration with the scientific basis of the story. Some stories are frankly ( and actually ) humorous. In many of the tales the science does not arise unshriven and smack you in the face ... you have to sit and think about it. Seldom do heroes gallop around teh red sands of Mars without oxygen helmets or protective armor ... seldom do they rescue Martian princesses. Because science fiction writers now know that Mars is mighty cold and has little atmosphere and that a Martian princess probably would look like something that skittered out from under a rock ... only more so. Just what science fiction is going to do next is harder to say today than it would have been a few months ago. The advent of new magazines, all of which show heartening promise of making real contributions to science fiction, and a resultant flurry of story types, serve to confuse any analysis of the situation. A few months ago I would have guessed the trend would be toward ever increasing realism. Now it appears there may be a decided swing back to the modern-day fantasy. The best solution to the whole problem is to say one doesn't know. The editors themselves probably don't worry a great deal about trends. They are in the market for good stories. A sudden outpouring of certain types of stor-
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THE FANTASITE.... THE FUTURE OF SCIENCE FICTION by CLIFFORD D. SIMAK For a long time science fiction was formula. Then, suddenly, something happened. Stanley Weinbaum wrote "Martian Odyssey". Jack Williamson wrote "Born of the Sun". Nat Schachner wrote "Ancestral Voices". Murray Leinster wrote "Sidewise in Time". Don Wandrei strolled onto the scene. Other things happened, too. But those few examples give you an idea. Science fiction shook off the old belief that the saga of a man going to another planet and making the acquaintance of the three-legged, seven-eyed, 18-fingered residents of that planet constituted a story. Science fiction started to go places. It's been going places ever since. Just where it is going is hard, perhaps impossible to say. I know that after reading the first paragraph of this article a bunch of you fellows are going to rear up on your hind legs and let out a few bellows: "What about the early Skylark stories? What about Wade and More? What about some of Lovecraft's first work? What, above all, about Hawk Carse?" I'll admit you have something there. I would be the first to deny that all of the pre-Weinbaum stories were lousy. I wasn't even trying to say that. What was meant is that they all followed pretty much the same pattern ..... and that doesn't mean they weren't good. But they were pretty much the same. But in trying to trace the trends of any type of literature, one must generalize. Comparisons and deductions must be made on a broad basis, ignoring the occasional exceptions which arise in almost every phase under consideration. From necessarily crude beginnings, when the pioneers of science fiction were laying what has proven to be a firm and solid basis for a new type of literature, we have advanced up to the present day science fiction story which is well rounded in almost every respect. We have achieved realism, an elusive sort of modern-day fantasy, humor, characterization, in some cases satire .. and when satire arrives one may be fairly certain that type of literature is out of its swaddling clothes. We have even come to regard psychology as a legitimate field upon which a science fictioneer may base a thrilling, thought-provocative story. No more do wooden men stalk through wooden plots. Your typical science fiction character of today seems to be alive. Plot is given equal consideration with the scientific basis of the story. Some stories are frankly ( and actually ) humorous. In many of the tales the science does not arise unshriven and smack you in the face ... you have to sit and think about it. Seldom do heroes gallop around teh red sands of Mars without oxygen helmets or protective armor ... seldom do they rescue Martian princesses. Because science fiction writers now know that Mars is mighty cold and has little atmosphere and that a Martian princess probably would look like something that skittered out from under a rock ... only more so. Just what science fiction is going to do next is harder to say today than it would have been a few months ago. The advent of new magazines, all of which show heartening promise of making real contributions to science fiction, and a resultant flurry of story types, serve to confuse any analysis of the situation. A few months ago I would have guessed the trend would be toward ever increasing realism. Now it appears there may be a decided swing back to the modern-day fantasy. The best solution to the whole problem is to say one doesn't know. The editors themselves probably don't worry a great deal about trends. They are in the market for good stories. A sudden outpouring of certain types of stor-
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