"09 - Afterwords by Roger Zelazny" - читать интересную книгу автора (Nebula Awards)

AFTERWORD

Roger Zelazny

tfatike many aficionados, I do not read every science fiction
story published. Ergo, I've probably missed some good things,
as well as some real dogs. Because of this. I'm in no position
to comment on the year 1967 in. science fiction, as I do not
know everything that happened in it. Therefore, let me talk
of other matters.
It is a Good Thing, as I see it, that Chip Delany has
within the past two yearsreceived the Papal blessing. He
deserves recognition, and now he's got plenty of it.
Good Thing #2: I am pleased to have the opportunity to
publish, here something of Gary Wright's. He is a newcomer
who I think will do many a goodly thing as time wears on. I
eagerly await his first novel. I tip my hat to him on the eve
of what I think will be a grand career.
Last year, the editors of Nebula 2 spoke of the problems
that were or were not getting into science fiction. Vietnam
seems to be ever with us. And all the big problems of all the
big cities. And progressive bureaucratization, computerization
of life as we know it. And the outflow of gold. Race rela-
tions. I could use a full page just listing them. They are still
with us and we don't have any handy answers. We can only
guess at possible outcomes.
Science fiction, as I see it, though, isn't here to provide
handy answers. We may comment upon or extrapolate a
particular thing, but it doesn't provide a solution, it simply
points a finger. This is what I believe Theodore Sturgeon
meant when he referred to a class of stories as being of the
"If this goes on" type.
So maybe it's a Good Thing that most people do not pay
much attention to their Friday-before-Monday-morning quar-
terbacks. We are not that much different from the medicine
men predicting fire, famine, plague and war. They're always
safe bets.
As for the year in science fiction, God knows, there's more
of it with us as a result thereof. Some of it is good and some
isn't. That which is good shall prevail.
So what am I to say, here and now? I am going to tell you
that our special form of literature is an invitation, an in-
dication, a pastime. Sometimes we push the right buttons and
sometimes we don't. You're looking at literature, not social
commentary. If some of the latter gets mixed inwell, good.
It was probably not intentional, though. Some future histo-
rian will chuckle at all our mistakes. Like the man who
crashes the party, we just want to be on the scene.
So here are our words, impure and unsimple. We enjoyed
putting them together in the order in which they exist. Should