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179 lines
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$0$0$0$0$0$0$0$0 CHEAP TRUTH 7 $0$0$0$0$0$0$0$0
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EDITORIAL. Magazines have an immediacy and recklessness unmatched by any
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other SF medium. Cheap, disposable, instantly gratifying, SF magazines are
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the thin edge of the genre's cultural wedge. And non-fiction magazines can
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help the SF writer and reader escape genre stereotypes and come to grips with
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the real social and technical issues of the human future. Welcome, then, to
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this special issue of CHEAP TRUTH On-Line, with the first installment of a
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new review section, "Squirming Mags."
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** State of the Field **
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THE MAGAZINE OF FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION, Box 56, Cornwall, Conn.
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06753. $17.50/yr. This splendid periodical, reputedly edited on Ed Ferman's
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kitchen table, shows the long-standing primacy of small-scale craftsmanship
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in the SF genre. Its standards are high, its overhead low, its distribution
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excellent. The genre offers no better arena for young writers. The pay is
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modest to the point of penury, but a well-placed F&SF story can attract more
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attention than a novel.
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F&SF is sometimes troubled by fantasies of a peculiarly matronly and
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suburban air. But F&SF is unafraid of relatively harsh language and radical
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concepts; and these often come to the rescue just as the reader is begging
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for insulin. A lively Books column struggles manfully for credibility and
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standards, and the Science column, though burdened by the increasing
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flakiness of Isaac Asimov, serves as a useful ideological anchor. F&SF's
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layout combines dignity and elegance. The covers excel, and the cartoons are
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funny. And at $6.50 the long-advertised F&SF T-shirts are a real bargain.
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They come in a vivid punk red and look great with the sleeves ripped out.
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ISAAC ASIMOV'S SCIENCE FICTION MAGAZINE, P. O. Box 1933, Marion, Ohio
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43305. $19.50/yr. Hard-working editrix Shawna McCarthy now luxuriates in
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the well-deserved ambience of her first Hugo. With Herculean effort, she has
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diverted a river of new writers through the Augean stables of IASFM; and
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while there is still plenty of crap around, it no longer actually chokes the
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doorways. It is now possible to buy and read ASIMOV'S and find as many as
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three decent stories in a single issue.
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IASFM has always suffered from faanitis; it often cringingly
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genuflects to Neanderthal fan-letters. It also suffers from Dr. Asimov's own
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prolixity, for his prolificacy has now reached the terminal stage and he can
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write any amount of anything about nothing. IASFM still does not take its
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audience seriously, but at least it has stopped actively insulting it, and
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things are looking up.
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ANALOG SCIENCE FICTION/SCIENCE FACT, P. O. Box 1936, Marion Ohio
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43306. $12/yr. ANALOG suffers from advanced hardening of the arteries; it
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has become old, dull, and drivelling. In an era of unparallelled
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sociotechnical ferment, ANALOG exudes the stale, mummylike odor of attitudes
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preserved too long. ANALOG's brain and heart are in canopic jars somewhere,
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while its contributors' word-processors spit out copy on automatic pilot. It
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is a situation screaming for reform. ANALOG no longer permits itself to be
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read.
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AMAZING SCIENCE FICTION STORIES, P. O. Box 72089-BL, Chicago, Ill
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60609 $9/yr. The venerable AMAZING declines precipitously under the smug
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and tactless editorship of George Scithers. In late years it has steadily
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lost money, circulation, and influence, and it is currently surrounded by
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rumors of collapse. Only a complete change in editorial outlook, plus a
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sudden resurgence of intensity and quality throughout the genre, could save
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it now.
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INTERZONE, 370 Avocado Street, Apt. 1, Costa Mesa CA 92627 $10/yr.
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This British SF quarterly is rife with puzzling self-contradiction. It has
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the finest editorial ideology in the English-speaking world, bound
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cheek-by-jowl with stories often riddled with conceit and void of substance.
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Yet INTERZONE sustains hope with unpredictable bursts of appalling brilliance
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and a consistent improvement in design and layout. It is the only truly
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experimental SF magazine in the Anglophone market. Its ingenuously sincere
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editorial cadre have done what they can; INTERZONE's problems are
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symptomatic of much larger difficulties within the genre itself. INTERZONE's
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success depends on a general reform, which INTERZONE is bravely attempting to
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lead. It offers readers a unique sense of openness and risk. It truly
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deserves support.
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THE LAST WAVE, P. O. Box 3206, Grand Central Station, New York, NY
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10163. $8/yr. This sad and awful effort, self-billed as "The Last Best Hope
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of Speculative Fiction," demonstrates with ghastly clarity the utter
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artistic bankruptcy of the '60's idiom. Its antiquarian writers hit
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unerringly on the worst of both worlds, combining the intellectual
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sluggishness of coda sci-fi with the self-satisfied pretension of would-be
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literateurs. THE LAST WAVE is dead in the water.
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OMNI, P. O. Box 5700, Bergenfield, N.J. 07621 $24/yr. This
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anomalous publication, the virginal daughter of Bob Guccione's porn empire,
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takes the prize for peculiarity. Though its rates are the best in the
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business, its stories are often ignored. Genre readers resent paying $2.50
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for one or two stories; while OMNI's "Boy Eats Own Foot" approach to science
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coverage makes its reportage highly suspect. OMNI's fiction is often
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excellent, but its power-mad art department has earned an unpleasant
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notoriety. Stories are trimmed to fit like styrofoam, occasionally withoyt
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authorial consultation; sometimes, incredibly, lines are even added. Stories
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often bristle with non sequiturs and over-edited jumpiness. OMNI's
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oppressive policies and slender output of fiction conspire to keep it out of
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the first rank.
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** The Tech-Head's Workshop **
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SCIENCE (Journal of the American Association for the Advancement of
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Science) 1515 Massachusetts Avenue, N.W., Washington DC 20005 $56/yr.
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No one actually READS all of each weekly issue of SCIENCE. Research
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articles and papers are presented baldly, in painfully specialized
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vocabularies meant to preserve intellectual turf rather than to enlighten the
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layman. But close attention to the Letters, News and Comment, Editorials,
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and above all the astonishing and wonderful ADVERTISEMENTS brings a wealth of
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insight to the patient reader. SCIENCE is the tribal tom-tom of the nation's
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scientific/technical culture, a bizarre and very human world full of odd,
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passionate feuds and byzantine power-structures. It is a world worth
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knowing, and SCIENCE, though sometimes as oblique as PRAVDA, shows it like no
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other.
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SCIENCE 85 (same address, $18/yr.) This layman's magazine is the
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sister publication of SCIENCE. Its news coverage is authoritative and
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excellent, with fine graphics. But it often displays an irritating arrogance
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and condescension, and its annoyingly up-scale ads reek of East Coast
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yuppiedom. Genial essays and awful poetry sometimes fail to disguise its
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essential nature as an organ of propaganda.
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HIGH TECHNOLOGY, P. O. Box 358, Arlington, MA 02174 $21/yr. This
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peculiar and wonderful publication is the handmaiden of yet another
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subculture, that of the corporate investor and industrial entrepreneur.
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These hard-bitten souls are impatient with academic obfuscation, which means
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that HIGH TECH's articles are miracles of clarity. You'll find no gushing
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cosmic gosh-wowism here; just cool analyses and cash-on-the-barrelhead
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pragmatism. Ominous articles on high-tech weaponry take a prominent place,
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putting the American military-industrial complex into refreshingly stark
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relief. Strident editorials, unique advertisements, international scope, and
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relentless practicality make HT an invaluable and fascinating document.
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SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, P. O. Box 5919, New York N.Y. 10164 $24/yr.
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For generations, Americans have read SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN with a vague,
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gnawing sense of duty, in the earnest hope of intellectual betterment. And
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for generations this magazine has narcotized them with its cluttered prose
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and useless graphics. It's pretentious and dull and we deserve better.
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AMERICAN SCIENTIST, P. O. Box 2889, Clinton, Ohio 52735 $24/yr.
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This is the house journal of Sigma Xi, "The Scientific Research Society."
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Sigma Xi seems to be a clubbier, more personal group than the AAAS, and its
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articles are by members, who attempt to make the significance of their own
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work clear in relatively straightforward language. The intended audience is
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fellow scientists of different disciplines, rather than potential rivals for
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priority or funding. This distinguishes AM-SCI essays from SCIENCE papers,
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which are clearly intended to baffle outsiders, indoctrinate colleagues in
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in-group terminology, and stake irrefutable claims to particular
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sub-sub-disciplines. AMERICAN SCIENTIST is consequently much easier to read.
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It's a professional journal, however, not a popularizing work, which means
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that it comes with the marvelous specialized advertising that so often
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provokes the layman's sense of wonder.
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NEW SCIENTIST, 200 Meacham Avenue, Elmont, N.Y. 11003 $95/yr. This
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intriguing British weekly has a deliberately activist point of view, replete
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with wry comments on swaggering Yankees, Third World exploitation, and
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lavishly funded military boondoggles. NEW SCIENTIST is see as somewhat
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left-of-center by American standards. (With the American federal budget
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showing a 65% increase in "defense-related" R&D, a certain chumminess with
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the right-wing has become a bread-and-butter fact of life for batallions of
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Yank scientists.)
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This is only a smattering of the smorgasboard of journals, many of
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them newly founded, which exist to feed the technical curiosity of the new
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post-industrial readership. And these are for generalists. The explosion of
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specialized technical journals has given the world a new phenomenon:
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"information pollution." This is hazardous territory, best dealt with by
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computer. Theorists warn us that information is losing its value: it is
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ATTENTION TO INFORMATION that must be rationed and conserved.
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Technological literacy is crucial, but by no means ENOUGH. With NEW
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SCIENTIST, we find ourselves edging onto the slippery slope of Social and
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Political Issues. These journals, too, bizarre, outrageous, sometimes
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blackly humorous, deserve a segment of our overloaded attention. We will
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grapple with this topic in the second installment of "Squirming Mags."
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CHEAP TRUTH On-Line 809-C West 12th Street, Austin, Texas 78701 U.S.A.
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NOT COPYRIGHTED. Vincent Omniaveritas, editing. Shiva the Destroyer,
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systems operation. "It is better to DO something than to BE someone"
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