Astounding Stories of Super-Science January 1931 Part 50

I was glad to see that the cover has finally been changed from the conventional blue background, and I hope we will have a little variation from now on. Concerning ill.u.s.trations, Wesso is a great artist, and aside from a few scientific errors his covers are excellent. The inside drawings could be improved, however.

I hope for your continued success--Wayne D. Bray, Campbell, Mo.

_Are We All "Morons?"_

Dear Editor:

Having perused three issues of your magazine, I must agree that its t.i.tle is well chosen. The stories are nearly all "astounding"; astounding in that they utterly ignore every scientific fact and discovery of the past ten centuries.

The cold of inter-stellar s.p.a.ce; its lack of oxygen; the interplanetary effects of gravitation--all are pa.s.sed over as if non-existent.

An "anti-gravity ovoid"--of which no description is given--if worn in a man's hat, makes his whole body weightless.

Men, buildings and cities float through the air or become invisible, yet not the least semi-scientific explanation is made as to the how of it all.

In other words, the pattern of your stories appears to have been taken from the Arabian Nights and from Grimm's Fairy Tales--but with not a millionth part of the interest.

How anyone, save a young child or a moron, can read and enjoy such futile nonsense is incredible.

If your writers would (like Jules Verne) only invent some pseudo-scientific explanation for their marvels, your publication might then be read with pleasure--but why do so when trash is acceptable without thought behind it!--M. Clifford Johnston, 451 Central Avenue, Newark, N. J.

_A Wesso Fan_

Dear Editor:

Let me congratulate you on the September issue of Astounding Stories.

It is the best issue you have published yet. I noticed in this issue that you had four ill.u.s.trations by Wesso. Though that is the most you have ever had, I think it would be much better if all the ill.u.s.trations were by him.

However, getting down to bra.s.s tacks, the reason I'm typing this letter is to ask you to publish an Astounding Stories Quarterly. You could have it contain twice as much reading material as in the monthly and charge forty cents a copy for it. It would be much better than a semi-monthly and I am quite sure it would "go over" big.--Thomas L.

Kratzer, 3593 Tullamore Rd., University Heights, Ohio.

_Bang--Bang--Bang_

Dear Editor:

I have read the August Astounding Stories and greatly enjoyed the fiction, but "The Readers' Corner" gave me a good deal of amus.e.m.e.nt.

Some of your readers take their fiction so seriously!

Take the "Brick or Two" from George L. Williams and Harry Heillisan, for instance. They want Astounding Stories filled with material from authors that appear in other magazines--because your readers "are used to the standards set by those publications," etc. And again, "you should have some one who is well qualified to pa.s.s upon the science in the stories." For the love of Pete, if people want scientific treatises, why don't they buy books and magazines dealing with the subject? There are many on the market--serious and dull enough for anyone. But for our fiction magazines, let's have it pure and unadulterated, the more improbably the better.

What possible difference does it make if, in a story, the moon has a crater every ten feet, or the black sky of outer s.p.a.ce were blazing with moons and aurora borealises, or the sun were in a double eclipse!

We read stories to be amused, not for technical information, so we certainly don't want "a scientific editorial in each issue by some 'eminent scientist.'"

As for a department in which readers could write their opinions of the stories and suggest improvements in the conduct of the magazine, what else is "The Readers' Corner?"

Why not adopt a tolerant att.i.tude, and instead of howling about petty faults and mistakes get a good laugh over them? As for telling writers and editors "how to do it," we would only expose our ignorance and inability and make ourselves ridiculous.

If we think we could do so much better, let's try it. Write a story ourselves or start running a magazine!

Astounding Stories is all right as is. We like it "different." We want different authors from those of other magazines. What is the use of having various publications if they must all be conducted along identical lines?

Now for your writers: Mr. R.F. Starzl is easily the best. His story, "The Planet of Dread," is full of thrills and imagination and clever situations that are well developed and surmounted. One thing that is rather remarkable in this cla.s.s of story, the hero gets himself and his companion out of every difficulty by his own ingenuity. The story moves along with interest and thrills in every paragraph, and is really my ideal of a "super-scientific" yarn; i.e., not stuffed with tiresome technical data. Let's have more from this interesting author.--C.E. Bush, Decatur, Ark.

_a.s.sorted Bouquets_

Dear Editor:

Before commenting upon the September issue of your wonderful magazine, I would like to personally thank Mr. Bates for the kind reply to my former letter. It shows that at least one editor glanced over my literary ramblings.

Now for comments on the September issue. I placed the stories in the following order, which is based upon their merit:

"Marooned Under the Sea"; "Terrible Tentacles of L-472"; "Jetta of the Lowlands"; "The Attack from s.p.a.ce"; "A Problem in Communication"; "Earth the Marauder," and "The Murder Machine."

Your serials are the best I have ever read in any magazine; your latest one, "Jetta of the Lowlands," promises to be an A-1 top-notcher.

Your artists, H.W. Wessolowski and J. Fleming Gould, draw the finest ill.u.s.trations I have ever seen anywhere.

"The Readers' Corner" is a fine corner which can only be improved by making it larger.

The stories scheduled for the October issue look good to me. Am glad to see that Dr. Bird is returning. Will sign off now wis.h.i.+ng Astounding Stories all the luck it deserves.--Edwin Anderson, 1765 Southern Boulevard, Bronx, N.Y.C., N.Y.

_A Request_

Dear Editor:

I thought I would drop you just a line to comment on the authors now writing for "our" magazine.

Among the best are: R. F. Starzl, Edmond Hamilton, Harl Vincent, Ray c.u.mmings and Captain S. P. Meek. However, there is one brilliant author whose fascinating stories have, to date, failed to appear in our magazine. The man I am referring to is Ed Earl Repp. Please have a story by him in our magazine as soon as possible.

I am sure other readers will agree with me when I say that Mr. Repp writes exceedingly thrilling and exciting Science Fiction tales. Let's see many stories by him in the forthcoming issues of Astounding Stories.--Forrest J. Ackerman, 530 Staples Avenue, San Francisco, California.

_Thank You, Mr. Lorenzo_

Dear Editor:

Several Science Fiction magazines will have to struggle along without my patronage. Why? Because they flew (literally speaking) over my head with all kinds of science. I want some science, but mostly fiction. I couldn't understand what they were writing about, so I lost interest.

I can read a single copy of a good magazine from cover to cover in one day, but let me lose interest in it by having too much dry matter and I just don't buy that book again.

Your magazine is the best of all Science Fiction magazines, which means that I can read and understand the tales in Astounding Stories.

So you get my trade. You're trying your best to supply me with interesting stories so if there is an occasional dry story (to me), I just remember one thing: you, as Editor, are a human being like myself; so, neither one of us being perfect, I just forgive and go on buying.--Jas Lorenzo, 644 Hanover St., San Francisco, Cal.