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

future editors of this series (the editor of the A.D. 2000
volume is probably yet unborn, but his responsibility is
waiting for him!); those temptations lie between performing a
proper job of work as critics and uttering publicity matter on
behalf of Good Old SF.
Both the present editors have devoted and do devote the
adolescent and adult years of their lives to science fiction;
they contend that this demonstrates sufficiently their love for
the medium. They also edit a small irregular journal of
criticism, SF Horizons. In this journal, they came to a
conclusion that they happily pass on here to future Nebula
story editors: that the general welfare and good of science
fiction is succored only by good science fiction stories. They
have long since believedhaving reached that mellow age
where they are as apt to discuss their waistlines as sexthat
high-powered ballyhoo does nothing for an inferior product.
The few beautiful stories garnered and be-laurelled here
were retrieved from a decidedly non-vintage year. A danger
in any art medium is that it will become victim of its conven-
tions; this danger seems to threaten science fiction. Once-
daring assumptions that man might travel through interplane-
tary space in machines built for the purpose, or visit distant
stars powered by a faster-than-light drive, or even step into
the past and future in time-machines, are daring no longer.
They are cliches. Originally, they had bold and imaginative
thinking behind them; now, they merely annihilate thinking.
An example. In one of this year's more popular stories, we
came across this passage: "The Antoranite hove close, a
Comet class with wicked-looking guns. Her probelight flashed
the command to halt. He obeyed. The other went sublight
likewise, matched kinetic velocities, and lay at a cautious
distance. The radio buzzed."
Such a passageand there are too many similar passages
in this year's storiescan only pretend to sense in a science
fiction magazine. It suggests the magazines are living on
intellectually unearned income, cannibalising their past. The
horrible jingle of "probelight" and "sublight" emphasises the
decay of language that always goes hand-in-hand with decay
of ideas. There is no science here, no imagination, only a
meaningless rehash of what might once have had scientific
and imaginative meaning. This trend was all too evident in
most of the material we read.
Too many of this year's crop of tales deal in these old
clothes. Space ship tales, robot tales, invasion tales ... these
old themes roll forth, clad in dead language. We found
carelessnesses like "Xanten presently found a bin containing a
number of containers" to downright idiocies like "Three
minutes can seem an everlasting half hour." We found old
plots; guys still fight over the last oxygen cylinder on Mars.
We found endless thick-headed toughies as heroes, but little