Page:Amazing Stories Volume 01 Number 08.djvu/4

NOVEMBER, 1926 No. 8 MAGAZINE OF SCIENTIFICTION HUGO GERNSBACK, Editor DR. T. O'CONOR SLOANE, PhJD. ; Associate Editor, WILBUR C. WHITEHEAD, Literary Editor C. A. BRANDT, Literary Editor Editorial and Genera] Offices: 53 Park Place, New York, N. Y. Extravagant Fiction Today ------- Cold Fact Tomorrow PLAUSIBILITY IN SCIENTIFICTION By HUGO GERNSBACK _ c pleased to reproduce the following letter j which was received from one of our readers : EditoT, Amazing Stories : I have just finished reading the August issue of Amazing Stohes and venture to make a few suggestions which might help to improve the magazine in the future. Although, in my opinion. Amazing Stories is one of the most interest- ing 1 fiction magazines published, some of the stories have such obvious scientific mistakes in them, that they seem more like fairy tales than scicnti fiction, and conse- quently appear to be out of place in your magazine. For example, even admitting the possibility of a "fourth dimension' as set forth in Murray Leinster's "The Runaway Skyscraper;" a little reasoning would prove that any timepiece contained in the building at the time of slipping into the fourth dimension would not run backwards, but instead would continue for- ward, as did all other machinery ; also, several other authors, in transporting their characters from one planet to another, have never considered the difference of bacterial life upon these worlds, which would speedily cause the death of any visitors who arrived on a new planet without first having acquired immunity from the ravages of its organisms. As an example of an excusable error, I might cite the one in "High Tension," by Albert B. Stuart, where the ligaments were able to stand up under the great strain exerted upon them by the highly stimulated muscles. As a closing suggestion, I think that the magazine would be greatly improved if scientific anecdotes or paragraphs containing in formation which would in- crease the plausibility of stories in past or present issues, were set between the various stories. Sincerely yours, (Signed) W. F. CRIST, 344S Clay Street, San Fransico, Calif, iters of this kind, because they intensely interested in the type of fiction which we publish, and also that the stories are given serious consideration. This is a wholesome sign, and we can only say that such correspondence is most welcome. When the magazine is enlarged, which will be very soon, there will be a special department wherein letters of this nature will be printed and discussed. Regarding the Statement contained in the above letter, permit us to say that a writer of scienlifiction is privileged to use poetic license, the same as is the writer of any other, fiction story. There is rarely a story of this type so perfect It is i pier indicate that o e to n ■ reader as to pass muster with all of its facts, the general theme, and many other points. For example, even in the best-written fiction stories you will notice the characters converse in rather extraordinary language. This is the so-called fiction language and . is not generally used in real life. Open almost any first-class magazine and, if you stop to think for a second, you will realize that human beings do not use the flowery language that the characters do in fiction. The same is true of scien- tjfiction in another respect, where authors often take poetic license, sometimes disregarding true scientific facts, although still retaining enough scientific accuracy to make the plot or story seem probable and at the same time interesting. Referring to Murray Leinster's "The Runaway Sky- - scraper" our correspondent is probably correct as to the litjiqiicces. But why pick on the timepieces? If we grant the fourth dimension, we will have to grant the rest of the — to us— queer things supposed to exist on this higher plane, and if we do not grant any, then we had better not read the story at all. Because of the assumption that a century of time can run backwards, the author naturally must make everything run backwards. As to the criticism of bacterial life on other worlds, we believe it was H. G. Wells, who first pointed out this danger in transporting living creatures from one world or planet to another, but at best this only is a theory. There is nothing known about bacterial life in other worlds, but it is certain' that if explorers ever will travel from one planet to another, this will be taken into consideration, and they will be in- uoculatcd, just as travelers now are innoculatcd when travel- ing from northern to tropical zones, and vice versa. But why stop at the bacterial danger? There may be far more deadly things experienced in travelling from one planet to another than we know of today. Prolfessof MiIIikan'3 researches recently showed, for example, that his Cosmic K;ty, which seems to abound in t.'xtrn-kTtTS trial space, is far mop.' deadly than anything we know of. He has found that the Cosmic Ray can pierce solid lead six feet in thickness, whereas the ordinary X-ray, wlu'ch is itself deadly enough, is stopped by a thin sheet of lead. The harm which these rays might do to an inter pi anetarian traveler, we are loath- "to think of. What they might be, for instance, on the moon, makes one shudder, because the moon having no atmosphere. any poor human being would probably be killed immivlinlely if he had not some sort of protection, which today has as yet not been invented or even thought of. We disagree with our correspondent as to the strength of the ligaments in "High Tension" We believe the story of the highly- stimulated muscles to be scientifically correct. A medical authority vouches for the general accuracy of the statements of the. story. Mr. Hugo Gemsback speaks every Monday at 9 P. M. from WRNY c 675 scientific and radio subjects.