The Thing From -- "Outside" E-Book

George Allan England

• Herausgeber: WS
• Kategorie: Fantasy und Science-Fiction
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2015

Seitenzahl: 37

Beschreibung

This was one of the 6 science fiction stories published in the first issue (April 1926) of the first magazine devoted to science fiction, Amazing Stories, edited and published by Hugo Gernsback, now considered to be the father of the science fiction genre. He described this story:

"Here is an extraordinary story by the well-known magazine writer, George Allan England. This story should be read quite carefully, and it is necessary to use one's imagination in reading it.
"The theme of Mr. England's Story is unusual and extraordinary. If we can take insects and put them upon the dissecting table in order to study their anatomy, is there a good reason why some super-Intelligence cannot do the same thing with us humans?
"It may be taken as a certainty that Intelligence, as we understand it, is not only of our earth. It is also not necessary to presume that Intelligence may have its setting only in a body of flesh and blood.
"There is no reason for disbelieving that a Super-Intelligence might not reside in gases or Invisible structures, something which we of today cannot even imagine."

The copyrights of the magazine and of the individual authors were not renewed. Therefore, this work is in the public domain in the United States.

Leseprobe

The Thing From -- "Outside"

George Allan England

Booklassic 2015 ISBN 978-963-526-701-9

Introduction

This story was one of 6 short stories that appeared in the first issue of the first magazine devoted to science fiction, Amazing Stories: The Magazine of Scientifiction, volume 1, number 1, April 1926, edited by Hugo Gernsback and published by his company, Experimenter Publishing Company.

Before Amazing, science fiction stories had made regular appearances in other magazines, including some published by Gernsback, but Amazing helped define and launch the new genre we call "science fiction." Amazing was published, with some interruptions and changes of ownership, for almost eighty years.  

Gernsback's editorial in the first issue asserted that "Not only do these amazing tales make tremendously interesting reading—they are also always instructive". He had always believed that "scientifiction", as he called these stories, had educational power, but he now understood that the fiction had to entertain as well as to instruct. His continued belief in the instructional value of science fiction was not in keeping with the general attitude of the public towards "pulp" magazines, which was that they were "trash."  Pulp magazines, such as Amazing Stories, were printed on the cheapest kind of paper available, called "pulp" paper, which kept the price low so the magazine could reach the mass of people rather than the elite at whom the expensive glossy magazines were targeted. Here exactly is his introduction of the new magazine:

ANOTHER fiction magazine! At first thought it does seem impossible that there could be room for another fiction magazine in this country. The reader may well wonder, "Aren't there enough already, with the several hundreds now being published?" True. But this is not "another fiction magazine," AMAZING STORIES is a new kind of fiction magazine! It is entirely new — entirely different — something that has never been done before in this country. Therefore, AMAZING STORIES deserves your attention and interest. 

There is the usual fiction magazine, the love story and the sex-appeal type of magazine, the adventure type, and so on, but a magazine of "Scientifiction" is a pioneer in its field in America.

By "scientifiction" I mean the Jules Verne, H. G. Wells, and Edgar Allan Poe type of story— a charming romance intermingled with scientific fact and prophetic vision. For many years stories of this nature were published in the sister magazines of AMAZING STORIES — "Science & Invention" and "Radio News."

But with the ever increasing demands on us for this sort of story, and more of it, there was only one thing to do — publish a magazine in which the scientific fiction type of story will hold forth exclusively. Toward that end we have laid elaborate plans, sparing neither time nor money.

Edgar Allan Poe may well be called the father of "scientifiction." It was he who really originated the romance, cleverly weaving into and around the story, a scientific thread. Jules Verne, with his amazing romances, also cleverly interwoven with a scientific thread, came next. A little later came H. G. Wells, whose scientifiction stories, like those of his forerunners, have become famous and immortal.

It must be remembered that we live in an entirely new world. Two hundred years ago, stories of this kind were not possible. Science, through its various branches of mechanics, electricity, astronomy, etc., enters so intimately into all our lives today, and we are so much immersed in this science, that we have become rather prone to take new inventions and discoveries for granted. Our entire mode of living has changed with the present progress, and it is little wonder, therefore, that many fantastic situations — impossible 100 years ago — are brought about today. It is in these situations that the new romancers find their great inspiration.

Not only do these amazing tales make tremendously interesting reading — they are also always instructive. They supply knowledge that we might not otherwise obtain — and they supply it in a very palatable form. For the best of these modern writers of scientifiction have the knack of imparting knowledge, and even inspiration, without once making us aware that we are being taught.

And not only that! Poe, Verne, Wells, Bellamy, and many others have proved themselves real prophets. Prophesies made in many of their most amazing stories are being realized — and have been realized. Take the fantastic submarine of Jules Verne's most famous story, "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea" for instance. He predicted the present day submarine almost down to the last bolt! New inventions pictured for us in the scientifiction of today are not at all impossible of realization tomorrow. Many great science stories destined to be of an historical interest are still to be written, and AMAZING STORIES magazine will be the medium through which such stories will come to you. Posterity will point to them as having blazed a new trail, not only in literature and fiction, but in progress as well.