From your reasoning, I take it, your profession of media purveyor has no effect at all on the direction society takes or the behavior of individuals within it? Interesting.
On to the stories in the September issue. I was shocked with "The Whale God." As far as I can tell, it isn't science fiction. It is concerned with saving beached whales and the pleasing of some nebulous entity which we never meet and are given no idea as to exactly what it is. This story might have belonged in Fantasy and Science Fiction, although even that magazine might not have seen it as either fantasy or science fiction.
The second story, "Full Fathom Five," gives absolutely no explanation of the discovery of a male penis on the bottom of a Europan ocean, or any reason whatsoever for the fact that it manufactures chemicals that are needed by the protagonist. We are left, presumably, with a "sense of wonder" and nothing else, and a vain hope that her coming rescuers will be able to figure out (a) where it came from, (b) what it is, (c) why it looks disgustingly like a male penis, (d) why it makes chemicals we want, (e) what the heck it is doing there, and (f) why there aren't any others like it. You know, I definitely would like to see a return of a "sense of wonder" to modern science fiction, but as an Analog reader I also like to see questions answered and problems solved... especially if they leave me with an even greater sense of wonder. It seems the author needed to read the special feature "Why High Concept Is Only The Beginning"—assuming a male penis at the bottom of a Europan ocean is indeed a "high concept."
You mentioned when you announced that you would be the new editor that you were going to take us in new directions. I really hope these two stories are not examples of the "new directions" you are going, because, like one of your predecessors, Ben Bova, you will find you can only take your readership so far.
We just aren't going to go in the direction of science fiction stories that aren't science fiction, or "sense of wonder" stories that are unfulfilling and leave us more with a sense of disgust.
The rest of the stories in the issue redeemed it, and hopefully, if they were your choices and not Stanley Schmidts', are an indication that at least you know what good Analog genre Science Fiction is.
Sincerely, John Young
Mr. Young,
Thanks for the congratulations.
I won't rehash my case from the editorials, but you're conflating quite a few disparate things—I've never heard a definition of "media" that included shouting "fire" in a crowded theater. Bottom line: there's simply no evidence that games or any other kind of media have the sort of insidious effect some would like to believe they do. Some people have a gut feeling that it should work that way, but disre-garding evidence in favor of a gut feeling is akin to trusting one's gut on the question of whether a bowling ball or a marble will hit the ground first when dropped from the same height. Guts can be wrong; evidence is what should guide us.
Anyway, I'm sorry you didn't like those pieces in the September issue. I did indeed pick all of the stories that month, so make of that what you will. I can tell, though, that you didn't finish "The Whale God," because you'd most certainly have understood it to be science fiction of the most realistic sort if you had. As much as I'd love to lay claim to being the first to publish Alec, he's had a number of stories with a similarly realistic science fictional bent appear in Analog over the years, and I'd be curious to know why this one, in particular, seems to exemplify a "new direction."
Dear Mr. Quachri,
I'm writing in hopes that something can be done about a major irritation every time I read the "Brass Tacks" section (for the last 55 years or so). I enjoy readers' comments on stories, but by the time I'm reading Brass Tacks, the stories being referred to are usually several months in the past, and I'll be darned if I can remember what the story was about, especially if the writer doesn't include the title of the story being commented on. I know you have to keep the issues to a certain number of pages to keep down printing costs, but if there were any way to insert the title of the story and a very brief plot description of some kind ("recently arrived colonists have to learn how to cope with mycorrhizoid spores that periodically rain down on the planet") it would greatly help my appreciation of the ideas expressed in the letters.
John C. Fortelka
Mr. Fortelka,
It's pretty unlikely that we'll be able to run a short synopsis every time someone refers to a story in Brass Tacks, but we'll do our best to make sure that the story's title, author, and issue of appearance is inserted in the letter that's discussing it.
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UPCOMING EVENTS
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