"Intoduction and Foreword by Poul Anderson" - читать интересную книгу автора (Nebula Awards)

Jackpotsee the obituary sectionbut for a while, political
disagreements threatened to tear us apart. Two opposing
groups were collecting signatures and contributions for two
opposing statements on the Vietnam War, to be published as
advertisements in some of the magazines.
I happened to spearhead one of these, which involved me
in a blizzard of correspondence with SFWA members as well
as officers. Practically without exception, every letter I got
from any sidemore than two sides exist, you knowwas
both patriotic in tone and humane in spirit. The statements
appeared simultaneously, and I haven't heard of any friend-
ships that they broke. The experience gives me a bit of hope
for our poor flayed world. Science fiction people obviously
can't save it by themselves. But are they perhaps representa-
tive of a larger community of people who'd rather think than
scream?
Let's turn from the writers to what they write, a subject
doubtless more interesting to readers. I don't agree with every-
thing that Will McNelly has to say about the year in novels;
neither, probably, will you; and it is obvious that a substantial
plurality of SFWA's professional writers won't, since their
votes bestowed the Nebula on a book that leaves him cool but
that they (and 1) think is a credit to the award. And so
what's wrong with a little controversy? Professor McNelly's
remarks are well worth your attention, both for their own
sake and as a strong assault on those Berlin Walls of categori-
zation which have for too long kept the various literary forms
artificially isolated from each other. The year in magazines
can be summarized quite briefly, since this whole book is
itself a commentary upon that.
Analog offered the mixture as before: stories running
heavily to ideation, interesting fact articles, and provocative
sometimes deliberately infuriatingeditorials. Or was it
really quite .the old blend? John Campbell has never stopped
pioneering. He has, however, recognized that even a science
fiction audience is basically conservative and newness must be
sneaked in. For example, you don't see much about "psi" any
more; it's simply there, as Anne McCaffrey's yarn bears wit-
ness. Analog also enjoyed a gratifying rise in circulation.
The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction continued in
its own tradition, quite a different one except for Isaac
Asimov's column. It was especially noteworthy how many
stories here bore immediate relevance to our real, mid-
twentieth-century world. Editor Edward Ferman also en-
couraged the continued development of such comparatively
new writers as Bruce McAllister, K. M. O'Donnell, and
Josephine Saxton, who rewarded him with fine contributions.
Amazing and Fantastic had their problems, including a
midstream change of editors, but nonetheless published a
good deal of fresh and worthwhile material. Under Harry