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Fanfare, issue 9, 1942
Page 31
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strange interludes 31 better than the usual Amazing.... As for CRYSTAL, er...stuff. it's [[?]] I'm not giving ratings, that's all. DETOURS gets - no, it doesn't - TEN. Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful. I like the suggestion that Heinlein will be next ed of ASF & UNK, if any. Of course, that may all be changed by the war. Of course. NEW YORK - 4000 A. D. was nice, but I think I'll get in line and quit rating poetry, too. Except when it's outstanding like WEREWOLF, which is as close to perfect as anything could be. STRANGE INTERLUDES is grand. Rothman's epistle is most interesting. I love that "Deepurple Pooo." Not the letter, just the title. "Westwood Wevenge" is sweet. Chee, I wish I could think of things like that "farewellcruelworldfarewellgoodby." No go tho, guess I'll never be a top fan . . . (Hmm...(!)--yhos) LEE EASTMAN I liked the cover best because I didn't have to read it. The poor guy down in the lower right hand corner looks too much like me tho. I liked the contents page second best because it didn't have to be read with any attention. I liked SLAN!DER 3rd best, because I had already read it. (Joe, over my shoulder, says it stinks and please observe that goddam margin is doing absolutely without any encouragement from me.) And it seems that Joe, who is anything but a historian, is trying to tell us a bit about current and recent history. We quote. "...the United States has become a nation of escapists."Apparently, this conversion to escapism is supposed to be a relatively recent thing which is now going on progressively. But the truth is that we have passed the peak of our natural escapism and are now headed rapidly in the other direction. The war is Europe simply speeded up this return to realism and our own entry has given it another big boost. The history of this country and the history of the world, is composed of a series of swings from the unwholesome extremes of the opposed qualities of aggressiveness and paasiveness - what Roy Helton called the "male" and "female" qualities for rather obvious reasons. (See THE INNER THREAT - OUR OWN SOFTNESS, Roy Helton, Sept 1940 Harper's Magazine) History also records another series of seesawing from one state of mind to another; from realism to romanticism and back: from realism to escapism, to put it another way. Science fiction has no monopoly on escape writing. I am not well enough acquainted with the facts to say what or why,but these two series do show certain definite relations in their meanderings. But judging from American history only, I would hazard a guess, subject to correction , That realism and the "aggressive" periods, and romanticism and the "passive" periods, roughly correspond. The decade from 1919 to the big bust of '29 was as completely effeminate as any in our history, except possibly one other memorable decade, of which more later. And this decade was the period of the "hot house world of the future" philosophy, which completely absorbed the fancies of no end of poor dopes. Literature may have been a little slow to follow but the period was the ultimate in escapism, none the less. The decade that vies with the 1920's for "most effeminate" honors (?) is the "Mauve decade" from 1890 to 1900. (Thomas Bear-- THE MAUVE DECADE) Ah, that was effeminacy carried to the heights of art and the depths of stupididty.- mostly to the depts of stupidity. And this period gives
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strange interludes 31 better than the usual Amazing.... As for CRYSTAL, er...stuff. it's [[?]] I'm not giving ratings, that's all. DETOURS gets - no, it doesn't - TEN. Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful. I like the suggestion that Heinlein will be next ed of ASF & UNK, if any. Of course, that may all be changed by the war. Of course. NEW YORK - 4000 A. D. was nice, but I think I'll get in line and quit rating poetry, too. Except when it's outstanding like WEREWOLF, which is as close to perfect as anything could be. STRANGE INTERLUDES is grand. Rothman's epistle is most interesting. I love that "Deepurple Pooo." Not the letter, just the title. "Westwood Wevenge" is sweet. Chee, I wish I could think of things like that "farewellcruelworldfarewellgoodby." No go tho, guess I'll never be a top fan . . . (Hmm...(!)--yhos) LEE EASTMAN I liked the cover best because I didn't have to read it. The poor guy down in the lower right hand corner looks too much like me tho. I liked the contents page second best because it didn't have to be read with any attention. I liked SLAN!DER 3rd best, because I had already read it. (Joe, over my shoulder, says it stinks and please observe that goddam margin is doing absolutely without any encouragement from me.) And it seems that Joe, who is anything but a historian, is trying to tell us a bit about current and recent history. We quote. "...the United States has become a nation of escapists."Apparently, this conversion to escapism is supposed to be a relatively recent thing which is now going on progressively. But the truth is that we have passed the peak of our natural escapism and are now headed rapidly in the other direction. The war is Europe simply speeded up this return to realism and our own entry has given it another big boost. The history of this country and the history of the world, is composed of a series of swings from the unwholesome extremes of the opposed qualities of aggressiveness and paasiveness - what Roy Helton called the "male" and "female" qualities for rather obvious reasons. (See THE INNER THREAT - OUR OWN SOFTNESS, Roy Helton, Sept 1940 Harper's Magazine) History also records another series of seesawing from one state of mind to another; from realism to romanticism and back: from realism to escapism, to put it another way. Science fiction has no monopoly on escape writing. I am not well enough acquainted with the facts to say what or why,but these two series do show certain definite relations in their meanderings. But judging from American history only, I would hazard a guess, subject to correction , That realism and the "aggressive" periods, and romanticism and the "passive" periods, roughly correspond. The decade from 1919 to the big bust of '29 was as completely effeminate as any in our history, except possibly one other memorable decade, of which more later. And this decade was the period of the "hot house world of the future" philosophy, which completely absorbed the fancies of no end of poor dopes. Literature may have been a little slow to follow but the period was the ultimate in escapism, none the less. The decade that vies with the 1920's for "most effeminate" honors (?) is the "Mauve decade" from 1890 to 1900. (Thomas Bear-- THE MAUVE DECADE) Ah, that was effeminacy carried to the heights of art and the depths of stupididty.- mostly to the depts of stupidity. And this period gives
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