"Aldiss, Brian W - Afterward - This Year in SF 1966" - читать интересную книгу автора (Aldiss Brian W)

here-and-now. That bothersome and endless war in Vietnam
may be having its effect.
Would it not be a relief if we had a few stories dealing
imaginatively with that situation? It should attract science
fiction writers and readers. Robert Heinlein taught us years
ago that the old saw about force solving nothing was all
nonsense, but here seems to be an interesting exception to his
law. Force, in this science fictional case, seems to be solving
very little, judging by the military in the de-militarized zone
over there.
Sure, there's plenty of force in this year's stories! More
violence than you could shake an electronic whip at! All too
often, when ideas run out, violence is brought in, jaws are
broken, mandibles crushed, planets blasted right out of exist-
ence, just to round off the plot. Friends, we're getting as bad
as television! Vision has always been the electric charge we
needed from science fiction. Let's hear it for the imagination,
eh?
Science fiction appears to be the last viable, exciting and
commercially successful market for the short story. While the
rewards, on average, are not grand, they are at least fair
payment for work done and a showcase for writers. We do
not think it right that this showcase has been filled with
nothing better than splintered chips from the true cross and
machine-made copies of original models. The showcase is not
good nor is it bad. It is just there. We writers, and we alone,
are responsible for what is placed inside it.
Brian W. Aldiss
Harry Harrison