Sunday, August 16, 2015
Saturday, August 15, 2015
2nd Galaxy Book Reviews Rough Draft
The Dispossessed by Ursula K. LeGuin
This was an attempt at creating a novel based on social science. This is contrast to most sci-fi that is based on the hard sciences. That is if sci-fi is really even science based at all. This is an interesting experiment, albeit a failed one.
This was an attempt at creating a novel based on social science. This is contrast to most sci-fi that is based on the hard sciences. That is if sci-fi is really even science based at all. This is an interesting experiment, albeit a failed one.
Monday, August 10, 2015
Preliminary LOC to The Reluctant Famulus #106
Charles Rector
524 Lake Avenue Apartment #3
Woodstock, IL
60098
crector@myway.com
Dear Mr. Sadler:
Its getting late, so I don't have time to write a full LOC for the entirety of TRF #106. However, I feel that I need to protest that abomination (I refuse to call it an article) by Mr. Matt Howard.
Where to begin? Mr. Howard claims that the Saturday Evening Post was founded by Benjamin Franklin in 1897. This is pretty interesting since Franklin passed away in 1790. It gets even more interesting when you consider that the Post was founded by Franklin in 1728 as the Pennsylvania Gazette newspaper. In 1821, its owners changed the name to the Saturday Evening Post. In 1897, the Curtis Publishing Company took it over.
It gets even worse. Throughout most of its existence, the Saturday Evening Post had a hard line conservative editorial policy that was arguably to the right of Barry Goldwater. Around 1962, there was an editorial shuffle at the Post that resulted in a more liberal editorial team taking over. In 1964, the Post attacked Goldwater, a move that alienated many readers and old time staffers alike.
To be sure, there were other problems afflicting the Post. It was a general interest magazine at a time when advertisers searching for a mass audience were deserting general interest magazines in favor of TV. The Post had a circulation of about 6 Mil., but since its perceived demographics were farmers and other rural citizens, advertisers did not have any real interest in them. Advertising rates for the Post and other general interest magazines were actually higher on a cost per 1,000 basis than TV. In a desperation move, the Post cancelled many of those subscriptions, a move so egregious that the Federal Trade Commission ordered the Post's publishers to reimburse their readers for the unfulfilled portions of those subscriptions. The magazine was shut down in 1969. As for the idea that Jack and Jill was the reason why the current owners bought the Post, the Post came with a great many companions. It is highly doubtful that the people who bought the Post did so solely to acquire Jack and Jill. In 1972, the magazine was reborn as a nostalgia zine that continues today that has nothing to do with the original other than the fact that has the same name.
The downfall of the Saturday Evening Post was significant in that it prompted one of the most memorable exchanges in the history of sci-fi prozine history. In the November 1971 issue of Amazing, there was a LOC by Richard S. Shaver who wrote about how humanity was being subjected to dumbing down by "dero sabotage of our mental life." Shaver went on to claim that "...all publishing of all kinds went down 60% to 90%. That is, old standbys like the Sat. Eve. Post went to the wall with a 60% drop in circulation." Shaver's babble was contradicted in the March 1972 issue of Amazing in a LOC by Gary L. Engler. Quoth Engler: "Mr. Shaver apparently wasn't reading the Saturday Evening Post before and during its skid from popularity. Its death was earned. The loss of quality during its last few years was dramatic and mercifully, for the readers, fatal. "
As for Dale Carnegie's supposed influence on Joseph Goebbels, i Googled that and found nothing. In any event, Goebbels was the Propaganda Minister some time before Carnegie's book was published in 1936, 3 years after the Nazis took over in Germany.
As for the idea that some guy named "Charles Mason" was responsible for a series of grisly murders, after reading a book by Dale Carnegie, it should be pointed out that Charles Manson learned about that book by taking classes in a California prison. There is no evidence that he actually read that book. In their 600+ page book, Helter Skelter, which is generally considered as being the definitive account of the Manson "family" case, there is no mention of Charles Manson reading that book or that Carnegie's ideas had any influence on Manson's behavior. Given that his name was given as "Mason" three different times, its hard to see how that could have been a mere typo. BTW, Mr. Sadler, you have indicated that you are about 70 years old. The Manson family murders happened in 1969. Should you not have remembered those events to prevent those errors from getting in your zine in the first place? Ditto for the reasons for the downfall of the Saturday Evening Post.
Given all these facts are accessible from sources other than the unreliable Wikipedia, it is absolutely unacceptable that this thing was published in an otherwise classy zine as TRF.
P.S.: I suppose that you could protest that someone like myself who spent the years 1987-1995 as a graduate student in History at the University of Arkansas and has a Master of Arts degree complete with a 199 page master's thesis to show for it has an unfair advantage over someone like Mr. Howard. However, as far as I can tell, Mr. Alfred D. Byrd does not have any sort of degree in History, but instead, a B. S. in Medical Technology at Michigan State University and an M. S. in Microbiology at the University of Kentucky. Mr. Byrd gets his facts straight.
Mr. Howard should too.
P.P.S: Is this guy the Matt Howard who is from Carmel, IN, and who is now a pro basketball player? If so, then guys like him should not wonder just why people think of athletes like him as being "dumb jocks." If you can't get your facts straight, then you shouldn't wonder just why folks think you're stupid.
524 Lake Avenue Apartment #3
Woodstock, IL
60098
crector@myway.com
Dear Mr. Sadler:
Its getting late, so I don't have time to write a full LOC for the entirety of TRF #106. However, I feel that I need to protest that abomination (I refuse to call it an article) by Mr. Matt Howard.
Where to begin? Mr. Howard claims that the Saturday Evening Post was founded by Benjamin Franklin in 1897. This is pretty interesting since Franklin passed away in 1790. It gets even more interesting when you consider that the Post was founded by Franklin in 1728 as the Pennsylvania Gazette newspaper. In 1821, its owners changed the name to the Saturday Evening Post. In 1897, the Curtis Publishing Company took it over.
It gets even worse. Throughout most of its existence, the Saturday Evening Post had a hard line conservative editorial policy that was arguably to the right of Barry Goldwater. Around 1962, there was an editorial shuffle at the Post that resulted in a more liberal editorial team taking over. In 1964, the Post attacked Goldwater, a move that alienated many readers and old time staffers alike.
To be sure, there were other problems afflicting the Post. It was a general interest magazine at a time when advertisers searching for a mass audience were deserting general interest magazines in favor of TV. The Post had a circulation of about 6 Mil., but since its perceived demographics were farmers and other rural citizens, advertisers did not have any real interest in them. Advertising rates for the Post and other general interest magazines were actually higher on a cost per 1,000 basis than TV. In a desperation move, the Post cancelled many of those subscriptions, a move so egregious that the Federal Trade Commission ordered the Post's publishers to reimburse their readers for the unfulfilled portions of those subscriptions. The magazine was shut down in 1969. As for the idea that Jack and Jill was the reason why the current owners bought the Post, the Post came with a great many companions. It is highly doubtful that the people who bought the Post did so solely to acquire Jack and Jill. In 1972, the magazine was reborn as a nostalgia zine that continues today that has nothing to do with the original other than the fact that has the same name.
The downfall of the Saturday Evening Post was significant in that it prompted one of the most memorable exchanges in the history of sci-fi prozine history. In the November 1971 issue of Amazing, there was a LOC by Richard S. Shaver who wrote about how humanity was being subjected to dumbing down by "dero sabotage of our mental life." Shaver went on to claim that "...all publishing of all kinds went down 60% to 90%. That is, old standbys like the Sat. Eve. Post went to the wall with a 60% drop in circulation." Shaver's babble was contradicted in the March 1972 issue of Amazing in a LOC by Gary L. Engler. Quoth Engler: "Mr. Shaver apparently wasn't reading the Saturday Evening Post before and during its skid from popularity. Its death was earned. The loss of quality during its last few years was dramatic and mercifully, for the readers, fatal. "
As for Dale Carnegie's supposed influence on Joseph Goebbels, i Googled that and found nothing. In any event, Goebbels was the Propaganda Minister some time before Carnegie's book was published in 1936, 3 years after the Nazis took over in Germany.
As for the idea that some guy named "Charles Mason" was responsible for a series of grisly murders, after reading a book by Dale Carnegie, it should be pointed out that Charles Manson learned about that book by taking classes in a California prison. There is no evidence that he actually read that book. In their 600+ page book, Helter Skelter, which is generally considered as being the definitive account of the Manson "family" case, there is no mention of Charles Manson reading that book or that Carnegie's ideas had any influence on Manson's behavior. Given that his name was given as "Mason" three different times, its hard to see how that could have been a mere typo. BTW, Mr. Sadler, you have indicated that you are about 70 years old. The Manson family murders happened in 1969. Should you not have remembered those events to prevent those errors from getting in your zine in the first place? Ditto for the reasons for the downfall of the Saturday Evening Post.
Given all these facts are accessible from sources other than the unreliable Wikipedia, it is absolutely unacceptable that this thing was published in an otherwise classy zine as TRF.
P.S.: I suppose that you could protest that someone like myself who spent the years 1987-1995 as a graduate student in History at the University of Arkansas and has a Master of Arts degree complete with a 199 page master's thesis to show for it has an unfair advantage over someone like Mr. Howard. However, as far as I can tell, Mr. Alfred D. Byrd does not have any sort of degree in History, but instead, a B. S. in Medical Technology at Michigan State University and an M. S. in Microbiology at the University of Kentucky. Mr. Byrd gets his facts straight.
Mr. Howard should too.
P.P.S: Is this guy the Matt Howard who is from Carmel, IN, and who is now a pro basketball player? If so, then guys like him should not wonder just why people think of athletes like him as being "dumb jocks." If you can't get your facts straight, then you shouldn't wonder just why folks think you're stupid.
Sunday, July 19, 2015
Saturday, July 18, 2015
1st Galaxy Book Reviews Rough Draft
Past, Present and Future Perfect: A Text Anthology of Speculative and Science Fiction edited by Jack C. Wolf and Gregory Fitz Gerald.
This was a 544 page book that was edited for an audience of captive college students who were forced by their instructors to buy and read it. It is composed of excerpts from the works of authors most of whose works were even then in the public domain. These authors include Ambrose Bierce, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Mary Shelley, Mark Twain, Jules Verne & H.G. Wells. It also had excerpts from the works of more current writers including Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, Graham Greene, B.F. Skinner & Kurt Vonnegut. The book's introduction tells how it should be used in the classroom, but the teachers should have been able to figure that out for themselves.
This was a volume that was good for introducing students to science fiction and was useful even to those with some familiarity with the genre.
H.G. Wells, Critic of Progress by Jack Williamson
This was an attempt at academic scholarship in a study of H.G. Wells as social critic. Specifically, this book focused on Wells's attitude towards human freedom and whether or not it was compatible with a technology oriented society. Williamson seemed to think that Wells believed that freedom and advanced technology were incompatible. He did not present his case well and the reader is left unsatisfied.
Science Fiction Today and Tomorrow edited by Reginald Bretnor
Reginald Bretnor aka Grendel Briarton was best known as the author of short short stories about Ferdinand Feghoot. Bretnor was a decent author, however, this book of essays does not have much going for it. The best essays in this book were "Science Fiction as the Imaginary Experiment," by Thomas N. Scortia & "Science Fiction and Man's Adaptation to Change," by Alan E. Nourse. The essays by the better known writers, such as Alexei and Cory Panshin as well as James Gunn, were surprisingly flat.
This was a 544 page book that was edited for an audience of captive college students who were forced by their instructors to buy and read it. It is composed of excerpts from the works of authors most of whose works were even then in the public domain. These authors include Ambrose Bierce, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Mary Shelley, Mark Twain, Jules Verne & H.G. Wells. It also had excerpts from the works of more current writers including Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, Graham Greene, B.F. Skinner & Kurt Vonnegut. The book's introduction tells how it should be used in the classroom, but the teachers should have been able to figure that out for themselves.
This was a volume that was good for introducing students to science fiction and was useful even to those with some familiarity with the genre.
H.G. Wells, Critic of Progress by Jack Williamson
This was an attempt at academic scholarship in a study of H.G. Wells as social critic. Specifically, this book focused on Wells's attitude towards human freedom and whether or not it was compatible with a technology oriented society. Williamson seemed to think that Wells believed that freedom and advanced technology were incompatible. He did not present his case well and the reader is left unsatisfied.
Science Fiction Today and Tomorrow edited by Reginald Bretnor
Reginald Bretnor aka Grendel Briarton was best known as the author of short short stories about Ferdinand Feghoot. Bretnor was a decent author, however, this book of essays does not have much going for it. The best essays in this book were "Science Fiction as the Imaginary Experiment," by Thomas N. Scortia & "Science Fiction and Man's Adaptation to Change," by Alan E. Nourse. The essays by the better known writers, such as Alexei and Cory Panshin as well as James Gunn, were surprisingly flat.
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