tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4615571722773062719.post5781609309921685801..comments2024-03-28T06:47:03.013-07:00Comments on More Red Ink: Earl Kemp's Who Killed Science Fiction?Marty Halpernhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01180395701141986711noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4615571722773062719.post-30504515024330564072011-06-15T09:57:11.688-07:002011-06-15T09:57:11.688-07:00Hi, Addy,
I obviously wasn't privy to the exc...Hi, Addy,<br /><br />I obviously wasn't privy to the exchange between Kemp and Heinlein, but I'm guessing that Kemp could have mentioned something about this anonymous person (a telling description, location, anything) that those in the know would have figured out who it was. And once one person figured it out, well, the sf telegraph didn't work as quickly in those days as it does now, but there were still telephones, cons, fan meetings, fanzines, etc.<br /><br />Cheers,<br />- martyMarty Halpernhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01180395701141986711noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4615571722773062719.post-49253917727621916652011-06-15T02:53:54.639-07:002011-06-15T02:53:54.639-07:00Er, how exactly could Heinlein insist that his nam...Er, how exactly could Heinlein insist that his name should not be inferred from the questionnaire?Addynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4615571722773062719.post-76658230629574677102011-06-13T13:18:21.509-07:002011-06-13T13:18:21.509-07:00Hi, Earl,
I appreciate you taking the time to res...Hi, Earl,<br /><br />I appreciate you taking the time to respond. <br /><br />Reading <i>WKSF?</i> -- through all of the responses you received from the original questionnaire -- was like a window into the past, a snapshot of the science fictional attitude at the time. Great stuff. Thank you.<br /><br />Cheers,<br />- martyMarty Halpernhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01180395701141986711noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4615571722773062719.post-61615996011804261412011-06-13T12:37:25.442-07:002011-06-13T12:37:25.442-07:00Thanks for all the time and attention you've p...Thanks for all the time and attention you've paid my project WKSF? It is fascinating reading about who/what I once was.<br /><br />Earl KempEarl Kemphttp://efanzines.com/EK/index.htmlnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4615571722773062719.post-35407198196342509932011-03-11T15:05:01.405-08:002011-03-11T15:05:01.405-08:00Hi, Bud,
Your history lesson is/was most welcome....Hi, Bud,<br /><br />Your history lesson is/was most welcome. Thank you. It's interesting, too, that I chose to draft a blog about Kemp's book at around the same time that you were writing your review of the book for OSC's <em>IGMS.</em><br /><br />Again, thanks for sharing your expertise with us.<br />Cheers,<br />- martyMarty Halpernhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01180395701141986711noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4615571722773062719.post-36760972244014700932011-03-11T14:53:32.948-08:002011-03-11T14:53:32.948-08:00COF, first of all, "Astounding/Analog" h...COF, first of all, "Astounding/Analog" hadn't been a pulp since it went to digest format in 1943. It briefly returned to bed-sheet in March of '63, but then went back to digest almost two years later. At the time that Earl Kemp began his project, there were no pulps left - everything had gone to digest format. Robert Weinberg did revive "Weird Tales" briefly in the '70s as a pulp-sized magazine, but the circulation was quite low and it didn't last.<br /><br />Secondly, there was a single circumstance that occurred in the late '50s that had a significant affect on the publishing world. I'll quote from my review of _Who Killed Science Fiction?_ which will run in the May issue of "Orson Scott Card's Interglalctic Medicine Show":<br /><br />"At the end of the 1950s, the science fiction magazine was in big trouble. American News Company, the dominant magazine supplier in the US, had folded in 1957, and that one event affected almost every newsstand magazine being published. Major periodicals continued, finding independent distribution with smaller companies, but the impact on the more marginal titles was catastrophic. Over the next few years, both new and long-running titles dropped like flies, including many of the magazines which featured fiction. The ones that survived either had strong backing from publishers like Dell or strong subscription rosters.<br /><br />"Science fiction magazines, along with the Western and Mystery magazines, were perhaps hit hardest and never really recovered; by the time things had settled down, the paperback book had taken over as the primary source for the casual reader, and it was no longer possible to sustain low-circulation magazines. As author and critic Barry Malzberg said in his invaluable book of critical essays, _Engines of the Night_, 'For most of science fiction, the Fifties ended dismally. There is no way to argue this.' Here endeth the lesson."<br /><br />To this day, the genre magazines have never quite recovered from this. Yeah, there have been new magazines popping up, but far more of them have failed than have continued. Even the few who had major corporate backing folded.<br /><br />The point of Kemp's revival of this important fan-work (and it does manage to transcend its faanishness quite handily) is that the primary question - is the science fiction magazine dead - is still being debated online now. <br /><br />Believe me, the difference between the titles on the stands in 1956 and 1960 was night and day. By the time Damon Knight founded the Science Fiction Writers of America in 1965, those few members who made an actual living from writing sf/fantasy were doing so because of book publication, not from short-story sales to the periodicals, something that was possible to do in the 1930s-50s.Bud Websternoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4615571722773062719.post-41763551589947982522011-03-08T09:54:41.763-08:002011-03-08T09:54:41.763-08:00Charles,
Since I did expressly quote Vonnegut in ...Charles,<br /><br />Since I did expressly quote Vonnegut in my blog post, I'll leave your comment for those readers who have a particular interest in learning more about the man. Best wishes with your project.<br /><br />Cheers,<br />- martyMarty Halpernhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01180395701141986711noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4615571722773062719.post-22248666164981985052011-03-08T09:52:07.681-08:002011-03-08T09:52:07.681-08:00COF --
Yes, I would say that classifying ROF maga...COF --<br /><br />Yes, I would say that classifying <i>ROF</i> magazine as strictly "fantasy" as opposed to the more generic "science fiction" is indeed nit-picking. Have no fantasy novels and stories ever won the Hugo, which is awarded by the World Science Fiction Convention? 'Nuff said.<br /><br />As to your second comment, I stand corrected in one sense, that pre-'60s SF magazines still existed in the '60s and beyond. But my rhetorical question would be: Were they still considered "pulps" by that point in time? I think not.<br /><br />Regardless, we can agree to disagree, and your comment is welcomed.<br />Cheers,<br />- martyMarty Halpernhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01180395701141986711noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4615571722773062719.post-67918738941173069102011-03-08T09:15:34.306-08:002011-03-08T09:15:34.306-08:00Just a note to let you know about a book blog I’ve...Just a note to let you know about a book blog I’ve started with a different twist: “Writing Kurt Vonnegut.” Every Saturday, I post another excerpt from my notebook as Vonnegut’s biographer— profiles of the people I met, the difficulties encountered, and the surprises, such as finding 1,500 letters he thought he had lost forever. It’s a blog written in episodes about being a literary detective.<br /><br />“Writing Kurt Vonnegut” is only three weeks old but has already been linked to from GalleyCat, 3 Quarks Daily, the Book Bench, the Rumpus, Identity Theory, Maud Newton, and Litopia. It’s receiving several hundred hits a day.<br /><br />Perhaps you’d like to give it a look at http://www.writingkurtvonnegut.com<br /><br />All the best,<br /><br />Charles J. Shields<br />And So It Goes: Kurt Vonnegut, A Life (Holt, November 2011)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4615571722773062719.post-17336649799675184222011-03-08T03:44:25.796-08:002011-03-08T03:44:25.796-08:00a couple of nitpicky points:
RoF is a fantasy mag...a couple of nitpicky points:<br /><br />RoF is a fantasy magazine, not a science fiction magazine (pedantic? yes!)<br /><br />and<br /><br />"keep in mind that by 1960 the earlier, prolific pulp magazines had all ceased to exist" is not true. Several of the pulps were still going in the 60's, including the FIRST SF pulp and arguably the most famous pulp: Astounding, which changed its name to Analog that year, Amazing which was at that time a reprint magazine, Fantastic (the same), If and a couple of others. (There were 6 SF/F rags in publication in 1960 and as many as 13 during that decade).Crotchety Old Fanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02092745636011711266noreply@blogger.com