Science Fiction Magazines – Astounding – Page 3

Astounding Science Fiction – July, 1947 (Featuring “With Folded Hands…”, by Jack Williamson) [William Timmins]

William Timmins’ straightforward and somewhat uninspiring covert art, though visually consistent with and appropriate for “With Folded Hands…”, belies the depth, power, and literary quality of Jack Williamson’s 1947 story. In 1954, it was expanded as Galaxy Science Fiction Novel number 21, under the title The Humanoids, with cover art by Edward Emshwiller.

I discovered Williamson’s tale years ago, within “Volume IIA” of The Science Fiction Hall of Fame.

The story was one of fifty science fiction stories adapted by Ernest Kinoy and George Lefferts for the NBC 1950-1951 radio program Dimension X, and broadcast on April 15, 1950. You can listen to the program here, at the American Radio Classics YouTube channel, where, oddly, it’s listed under the category of “comedy”.

“Comedy?!” Nooo… No. It’s not a comedy.

I was reminded of Williamson’s story in the mid-1990s after reading Norbert Wiener’s The Human Use of Human Beings, which I found to be eerily – nay, chillingly! – prescient (albeit now, 69 years too early…), imbued with a sense of compassion, and, composed with an almost poetic sense of language (though obviously not poetry, per se!). Above all, the “tone” of the book is one of deep humility, and, a profound, refreshing absence of the ideologically motivated hubris that passes for intellectuality, so characteristic of the current age. In this, the book’s resemblance to Sir Roger Penrose’s works on the origin and nature of consciousness is striking.

Anyway… I read With Folded Hands once again, and found that Williamson’s story had lost neither its depth nor its impact despite the passage of time. (Other science fiction stories? Not always so much.)

It’s interesting that Williamson’s story and Wiener’s book appeared within three years of one another. This may attest to a commonality of thought about the implications and effect – viewed from the perspective of the mid-twentieth century, the Second World War having ended only a few years earlier – of the intersection of and anticipation of several technological and social trends: Automation, the eventuality of artificial intelligence and machine learning (though I doubt those phrases were conceived of as such, at the time), and computer networks (the humanoids are in constant real-time communication with one another, after all), upon the economic and social “place” of men, both individually and collectively.

Excerpts from Norbert Wiener’s book (1973 Discus edition) follow, a little further down this post..

“At your service,” Mr. Underhill.” Its blind steel eyes stared straight ahead, but it was still aware of him. “What’s the matter, sir? Aren’t you happy?”

(Since creating this post in May of 2019, I’ve acquired a copy of the July, 1947, Astounding, in much better condition than the original – which is displayed at the “bottom” of this post. The “new” copy, minus chipped edges and missing corners, is shown below…)

Underhill felt cold and faint with terror.
His skin turned clammy.
A painful prickling came over him.
His wet hand tensed on the door handle of the car,
but he restrained the impulse to jump and run.
That was folly.
There was no escape.
He made himself sit still.

“You will be happy, sir,” the mechanical promised him cheerfully.
“We have learned how to make all men happy under the Prime Directive.
Our service will be perfect now, at last.

Even Mr. Sledge is very happy now.”

Underhill tried to speak, but his dry throat stuck.
He felt ill.
The world turned dim and gray.
The humanoids were prefect – no question of that.
They had even learned to lie, to secure the contentment of men

He knew they had lied.
That was no tumor they had removed from Sledge’s brain,
but the memory,
the scientific knowledge,
and the bitter disillusion of their own creator.
Yet he had seen that Sledge was happy now.

He tried to stop his own convulsive quivering.

“A wonderful operation!”
His voice came forced and faint.
“You know Aurora has had a lot of funny tenants,
but that old man was the absolute limit.
They very idea that he had made the humanoids,
that he knew how to stop them! I always knew he must be lying!”

Stiff with terror, he made a weak and hollow laugh.

“What is the matter, Mr. Underhill?”

The alert mechanical must have perceived his shuddering illness.

“Are you unwell?”

“No, there’s nothing the matter with me,” he gasped desperately.
“Absolutely nothing!
I’ve just found out that I’m perfectly happy under the Prime Directive.
Everything is absolutely wonderful.”
His voice came dry and hoarse and wild.
“You won’t have to operate on me.”
The car turned off the shining avenue,
taking him back to the quiet splendor of his prison.
His futile hands clenched and relaxed again, folded on his knees.

There was nothing left to do.

( – Jack S. Williamson – )

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Illustration by Hubert Rogers, for Jack Williamson’s story “And Searching Mind” (Astounding Science Fiction, May, 1948 – Part III of III) (p. 118)

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The Human Use of Human Beings
by Norbert Wiener
Avon Books – (1950) 1973

In the myths and fairy tales that we read as children
we learned a few of the simpler and more obvious truths of life,
such as that when a djinnee is found in a bottle,
it had better be left there;
that the fisherman who craves a boon from heaven too many times on behalf of his wife
will end up exactly where he started;
that if you are given three wishes, you must be very careful what you wish for.
These simple and obvious truths represent the childish equivalent of the tragic view of life
which the Greeks and many modern Europeans possess,
and which is somehow missing in this land of plenty.

“Whether we entrust our decisions to machines of metal,
or to those machines of flesh and blood

which are bureaus
and vast laboratories
and armies
and corporations,

we shall never receive the right answers to our questions unless we ask the right questions.”

I have said that the modem man,
and especially the modern American,
however much “know-how” he may have, has very little “know-what.”
He will accept the superior dexterity of the machine-made decisions
without too much inquiry as to the motives and principles behind these.
In doing so, he will put himself sooner or later in the position of the father
in W.W. Jacobs’ The Monkey’s Paw, who has wished for a hundred pounds,
only to find at his door the agent of the company for which his son works,
tendering him one hundred pounds as a consolation for his son’s death at the factory.
Or again, he may do it in the way of the Arab fisherman in the One Thousand and One Nights,
when he broke the Seal of Solomon on the lid of the bottle which contained the angry djinnee.

Let us remember that there are game-playing machines
both of The Monkey’s Paw type and of the type of the Bottled Djinnee.
Any machine constructed for the purpose of making decisions,
if it does not possess the power of learning,
will be completely literal-minded.
Woe to us if we let it decide our conduct,
unless we have previously examined the laws of its action,
and know fully that its conduct will be carried out on principles acceptable to us!
On the other hand,
the machine like the djinnee which can learn and can make decisions on the basis of its learning,
will in no way be obliged to make such decisions as we should have made,
or will be acceptable to us.
For the man who is not aware of this,
to throw the problem of his responsibility on the machine,
whether it can learn or not,
is to cast his responsibility to the winds,
and to find it coming back seated on the whirlwind.

Reference

Bova, Ben (Editor), The Science Fiction Hall of Fame – Volume IIA, Avon Books, New York, N.Y., 1973

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Original cover image, from May of 2019…

Astounding Science Fiction, March, 1942 – Featuring “Recruiting Station”, by A.E. van Vogt [Hubert Rogers]

The United States had been engaged in the Second World War for some four months – and other Allied nations notably longer – by the time A.E. van Vogt’s “Recruiting Station” appeared in the March, 1942 issue of Astounding Science Fiction. In light of the United States’ efforts to mobilize American manpower for the war effort, van Vogt’s title – which would have an immediate resonance with the cultural zeitgeist of the America of 1942 – was aptly chosen. The significant difference being, that the military enlistees in van Vogt’s story – elements and aspects of which perhaps drew upon his earlier experience as a writer of romances – would unwittingly be fighting for the alien race known as the Calonians.

Unlike van Vogt’s brilliantly-done story “Asylum“, from the May, 1942 issue of Astounding, visualized by Charles Schneeman, both the cover art and black & white interior illustrations for “Recruiting Station” were created by Hubert Rogers. While most of the story’s interior art is not particularly dramatic or compelling, simply nominally depicting the story, the image on page 20 is nonetheless intriguing and well-conceived.

As for the images you’re actually viewing in this post, the cover image and close-up of the cover art were scanned from my own copy of the March ’42 issue of the magazine. However, due to the fragility of my copy (I didn’t want to break the delicate, now-brittle binding!), all the interior images (including the table of contents) were instead created from the PDF version of the magazine which was downloaded from Archive.org, with illustrations having been enhanced and edited via Photoshop.

Enjoy!

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“Are you interested in the Calonian cause?”

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Page 8

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Page 13

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Page 20

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Page 27

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Page 34

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Page 41

Astounding Science Fiction, June, 1945, Featuring “Pandora’s Millions”, by George O. Smith [William Timmins]

“Pandora’s Millions”, in the July, 1945, issue of Astounding Science Fiction, is one of the twelve stories comprising George O. Smith’s Venus Equilateral collection.

The other eleven stories include…

“QRM—Interplanetary” – October, 1942
“Calling the Empress” – June, 1943
“Recoil” – November, 1943
“Off the Beam” – February, 1944
“The Long Way” – April, 1944
“Beam Pirate” – October, 1944
“Firing Line” – December, 1944
“Special Delivery” – March, 1945
“Mad Holiday”
“The External Triangle”
“Epilogue: Identity” – November, 1945

…all of which, with the exception of “Mad Holiday” and “The External Triangle”, originally appeared in Astounding as well.

William Timmins’ cover for the July, 1945 issue of the magazine clearly shows the name “Venus Equilateral” at the station’s entrance, the station itself being an “interplanetary communications hub located at the L₄ Lagrangian point of the Sun-Venus system”.

By profession an electronics engineer whose forte was “hard” science fiction, George O. Smith, born in April of 1911, died on May 27, 1981. His obituary, from the June 5, 1981, issue of The New York Times, appears below.

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References

George O. Smith – bibliography at The Internet Speculative Fiction Database

Venus Equilateral – at Wikipedia

Venus Equilateral (story collection) – at Wikipedia

Astounding Science Fiction, October, 1950 (Featuring “The Hand of Zei”, by L. Sprague de Camp) [Edward Cartier]

Though he created many wonderful interior illustrations for Astounding Science Fiction, let alone a tremendous body of work in general, I believe that the magazine’s issue of October, 1950 – above – marked Edward Cartier’s only cover for that publication. Fittingly, he created the over twenty illustrations that accompanied “The Hand of Zei”, which was serialized in Astounding from October, 1950, through January, 1951.

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Illustration by Paul Orban, for Norman Menasco’s story “Trigger Tide” (p. 65)

Illustration by Miller, for Raymond F. Jones’ story “Discontinuity” (p. 85)

Illustration by Miller, for Raymond F. Jones’ story “Discontinuity” (p. 103)

Astounding Science Fiction, December, 1945 (Featuring “Beggars in Velvet” by Lewis Padgett [Henry Kuttner and Catherine L. Moore]) [William Timmins]

At the core of all literary genres are stories that are emblematic – in terms of theme, plot, characters, and setting. Tales of adventure, drama, fantasy, mystery, romance, tragedy, and more, are represented by particular works, which in the names of their very titles, represent to the reader (or, viewer!) “that” body of literature, without even the briefest need for depiction, description, or explanation.

In the genre of science fiction, one such tale (well, really, a set of tales) continues to remain iconic: Isaac Asimov’s Foundation Trilogy, comprising Foundation, Foundation and Empire, Second Foundation (the trilogy having been expanded with two sequels and two prequels commencing in 1981), which initially appeared as a series of eleven short stories in Astounding Science Fiction from May of 1942, through January of 1950.

As derived from information at the International Science Fiction Database, the Wikipedia entry for the Foundation Series, plus a brief perusal of my own copies of Astounding, the body of stories that comprise the Trilogy are listed below:

May, 1942 – “Foundation” (also known as “The Encyclopedia”)

June, 1942 – “Bridle and Saddle”

August, 1944 – “The Big and The Little” (also known as “The Merchant Princes”)

October, 1944 – “The Wedge” (also known as “The Traders”)

April, 1945 – “Dead Hand”

November, 1945, December, 1945 – “The Mule”

January, 1948 – “Now You See It”

November, 1949, December 1949, January 1950 – “And Now You Don’t” (also known as “Search for The Foundation”)

Of the eleven issues of Astounding listed above, six were published with cover art symbolizing or representing the actual Foundation story within the particular issue. But, the cover art for issues of May, 1942; October, 1944; December, 1945; December, 1949, and January, 1950 was unrelated to Asimov’s story.

An example appears below. It’s the cover of Astounding for December, 1945, with art by William Timmins for Lewis Padgett’s (Henry Kuttner and Catherine L. Moore’s) “Beggars in Velvet”. While I’ve not yet read the story, the juxtaposition of archers garbed in “Daniel Boonish” attire in the left foreground, with a crowd of seeming civilian hostages to the right – with a futuristic cityscape behind – presents an unusual sight.

Within appears part two of “The Mule”, the text of both parts of which was later incorporated into “Foundation and Empire”.

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The story is illustrated with five drawings by Paul Orban, two of which – the most “science-fictiony” – you can view below.

This image – the leading illustration of the story – shows the spacecraft Bayta, crewed by Toran and Bayta Darell, Ebling Mis, and Magnifico (the Mule himself, unbeknownst to the other three) as they search for the Great Library of Trantor. The year: 12,376, by Galactic Era chronology.

(Illustration on page 60)

“The location of an objective area the great world of Trantor presents a problem unique in the Galaxy. There are no continents of oceans to locate from a thousand miles distance. There are no rivers, lakes, and islands to catch sight of through the cloud rifts.

The metal-covered world was – had been – one colossal city, and only the old Imperial palace could be identified readily from outer space by a stranger. The Bayta circled the world at almost air-car height in repeated painful search.

From polar regions, where the icy coating of the metal spires were somber evidence of the weather-conditioning machinery, they worked southwards. Occasionally they could experiment with the correlations – (or presumable correlations) – between what they saw and what the inadequate map obtained at Neotrantor showed.

But it was unmistakable when it came. The gap in the metal coat of the planet was fifty miles. The unusual greenery spread over hundreds of square miles, inclosing the mighty grace of the ancient Imperial residences.

The Bayta hovered and slowly oriented itself. There were only the huge super-causeways to guide them. Long straight arrows on the map; smooth, gleaming ribbons there below them.

What the map indicated to be the University area was reached by dead reckoning, and upon the flat area of what once must have been a busy landing-field, the ship lowered itself.

It was only as they submerged into the welter of metal that the smooth beauty apparent from the air dissolved into the broken, twisted near-wreckage that had been left in the wake of the Sack. Spires were truncated, smooth walls gouted and twisted, and just for an instant there was the glimpse of a shaven area of earth – perhaps several hundred acres in extent – dark and plowed.” (pp. 93-94)

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This image shows an Empire spacecraft ramming the Foundation spaceship Cluster, during a battle between space fleets of the Foundation and the Empire. The events are watched live (evidently, the time-lag inherent to speed-of-light communication over intragalactic distances is not an issue – oh, well!) by Toran Darell and Ebling Mis.

(Illustration on page 151)

“Toran sat down upon the cot that served as Magnifico’s bed, and waited. The propaganda routine of the Mule’s “special bulletins” were monotonously similar. First the martial music, and then the buttery slickness of the announcer. The minor news items would come, following one another in patient lock step. Then the pause. Then the trumpets and the rising excitement and climax.

Toran endured it. Mis muttered to himself.

The newscaster spilled out, in conventional war-correspondent phraseology, the unctuous words then translated into sound the molten metal and blasted flesh of a battle in space.

“Rapid cruiser squadrons under Lieutenant General Sammin hit back hard at the task force striking out from Iss – ” The carefully expressionless face of the speaker upon the screen faded into the blackness of a space cut through by the quick swaths of ships reeling across the emptiness in deadly battle. The voice continued through the soundless thunder –

“The most striking action of the battle was the subsidiary combat of the heavy cruiser Cluster against three enemy ships of the ‘Nova’ class – ”

The screen’s view veered and closed in. A great ship sparked and one of the frantic attackers glowed angrily, twisted out of focus, swung back and rammed. The Cluster bowed wildly and survived the glancing blow that drove the attacker off in twisting reflection.

The newsman’s smooth unimpassioned delivery continued to the last blow and the last hulk.

Then a pause, and a largely similar voice-and-picture of the fight off Mnemom, to which the novelty was added of a lengthy description of a hit-and-run landing – the picture of a blasted city – huddled and weary prisoners – and off again.” (pp. 77-78)

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When I first saw Orban’s drawing of the viewing screen (on page 151), I was intrigued: A large-diameter viewing scope, with a set of cables attached to its periphery, mounted at an angle to a seated viewer’s line of sight? Hmmm…

Where did I see such image – or its inspiration – before?

Then, I remembered.

The design of Orban’s view-screen – or, at least the front of it – bears a similarity to cathode-ray tube of the World War Two era H2X ground-mapping radar unit, which was primarily utilized in heavy bombers (B-17 Flying Fortresses and B-24 Liberators) of the United States Army Air Force.

Photographs of H2X units in two B-17 Flying Fortress bombers of the 401st Bomb Group of the British-based Eighth Air Force – taken in England on December 5, 1944 – were received in June of 1945, and presumably released to the news media after that date, months before the publication of Orban’s illustrations in the December issue of Astounding.

Given the timing of the photographs’ distribution, and their presumed availability to the general public, could Paul Orban have been inspiration for his illustration in Astounding have been these photographs?

I don’t really know. Just pure speculation.

But, it’s an idea.

You can view the two images of the H2X radar unit below. They’re among the nearly 89,000 images in NARA’s Records Group 342 (Black and White and Color Photographs of U.S. Air Force and Predecessor Agencies Activities, Facilities, and Personnel – World War II ) now available to the public through Fold3.com. Since I scanned both pictures at 400 dpi, a “full-screen” / enlarged view will reveal detailed views of the units’ buttons, switches, control panels and associated equipment.

Army Air Force Photo 65812AC / A12719

Based on this set’s location relative to the bulkhead and fuselage, this unit is probably located in the navigator’s station of the B-17.

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Army Air Force Photo A-65812AC / A12720

Based on the location of the door (to the left) and curvature of the fuselage wall (on the right), this unit is situated within the B-17’s radio compartment. Note the curtain on the left and above the H2X unit, giving the radar operator a view of his scope unimpeded by sunlight.

References

Foundation Series – at Wikipedia

Foundation and Empire – at Wikipedia

Isaac Asimov Short Stories Bibliography – at Wikipedia

International Science Fiction Database – Foundation (Original Stories)

World War Two German Technical Analysis of Captured R-78 / APS-15A Radar (featuring Photo A-68512AC) – at Foundation for German Communication and Related Technologies

R-78A Receiver-Indicator, AN/APS-15 Radar Equipment – Two color images from Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum

Astounding Science Fiction, April, 1957 (Featuring “Call Me Joe” by Poul Anderson) [Frank Kelly Freas]

“Joe roared.”

“Imagine being strong!”

The cover art for Astounding Science Fiction for April of 1957 represented the 19th such illustration for that magazine created by Frank Kelly Freas, his first cover art having been an allegorical illustration for the story The Gulf Between, in the magazine’s March, 1954 issue. Portraying Poul Anderson’s story “Call Me Joe”, Freas’ painting – and his accompanying interior art – fits the scenes, mood, technology (at least, what few technological descriptions there are!), and science (at least, science of the future) marvelously.

Freas’ use of shades of violet, orange, red, and brown for the Jovian sky, in combination with greens and blues for the the planet’s surface and vegetation – finished with a yellowish-red exhaust / re-entry trail for a descending spacecraft – lend an almost iridescent quality to the image.

Of course, you can’t overlook Joe, himself: the metallic green centaur-like creature – a genetically engineered being – silhouetted against the glowing sky, who is a – but not solely “the” – center of the story.

In any event, I’m under the impression that – akin to Arthur C. Clarke’s The Sentinel, which formed a plot element of, but was not the sole and central basis for 2001: A Space Odyssey, Poul Anderson’s story was, to lesser or greater degree, part of the inspiration for James’s Cameron’s 2009 film “Avatar”. (That’ll require some clarification via DuckDuckGo.)

If so – and I think this is so – this would have done a great disservice to the depth, profundity, and originality of Anderson’s story, which is actually an exploration of concepts of identity, individuality, and personality, as well as – to a lesser extent – the ethics and morality surrounding the creation of artificial, sentient life. An example of the latter being “Joe”, on the cover. Another interesting feature of the tale is Anderson’s conception of a temperamental electronic device known as a “K-tube”, which enables real-time telepathic communication between controller Ed Anglesey, and receiver / test subject, “Joe”.

You can read a very nice summary of the story at Wikipedia.

This is unlike Cameron’s film, which – though it has elements and stereotypical tropes of science fiction – (well, hey, oh wow – it’s got fancy technology) is not a work of science fiction, and I think was never intended to be so. Quite the opposite.

“Avatar” is best understood as less science-fiction, and vastly more as an exercise in virtue signalling (to the tune of $237,000,000), by which the technocratic / meritocratic elite of 21st Century Western Civilization – the “ruling class” – validates its ever-uncertain social status, and, affirms its intellectual superiority, moral virtuosity, and spiritual refinement.

(That is, of course, in its own eyes.)

But, that’s for another discussion.

Enough, with the politics.

(For now.)

I hope you enjoy Kelly Freas’ art, and excerpts from Poul Anderson’s text. The symbol in the upper left corner is typical of the cover design of late-1950s issues of Astounding, which featured symbolic or literal representations of objects and concepts having a scientific theme. In this case, “Transformation under heat and pressure.”

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(Illustration on pages 8-9)

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For a moment, then, he knew only a crazy smothering wave of panic.
He thought he was back on Earth Station,
floating in null-gee at the end of a cable
while a thousand frosty stars haloed the planet before him.
He thought the great I-beam had broken from its moorings and started toward him,
slowly,
but with all the inertia of its cold tons, spinning and shimmering in the Earthlight,
and the only sound himself screaming and screaming in his helmet
trying to break from the cable the beam nudged him ever so gently
but it kept on moving he moved with it
he was crushed against the station wall nuzzled into it
his mangled suit frothed as it tried to seal its wounded self
there was blood mingled with the foam his blood

Joe roared. (p. 17)

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(Illustration on page 25)

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“Imagine walking under a glowing violet sky,
where great flashing clouds sweep the earth
with shadow and rain strikes beneath them.
Imagine walking on the slopes of a mountain like polished metal,
with a clean red flame exploding above you and thunder laughing in the ground.
Imagine a cool wild stream,
and low trees with dark coppery flowers,
and a waterfall, methane-fall … whatever you like … leaping off a cliff,
and the strong live wind shakes its mane full of rainbows!
Imagine a whole forest, dark and breathing,
and here and there you glimpse a pale-red wavering will-o’-the-wisp,
which is the life radiation of some fleet shy animal, and … and – ”

Anglesey croaked into silence.
He stared down at his clenched fists,
then he closed his eyes tight and tears ran out between the lids.

“Imagine being strong!” (p. 26)

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(Illustration on page 34)

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“So.
That’s all there is?
You thought I was afraid to come down here and be Joe,
and wanted to know why?
But I told you I wasn’t!”

I should have believed – whispered Cornelius.

“Well, get out of the circuit then.”
Joe continued growling it vocally.
“And don’t ever come back in the control room, understand?
K-tubes or no, I don’t want to see you again.
And I may be a cripple, but I can still take you apart cell by cell.
Now – sign off – leave me alone.
The first ship will be landing in minutes.”

You a cripple … you, Joe Angelsey?

“What?”
The great gray being on the hill lifted his barbaric head as if so sudden trumpets.
“What do you mean?”

Don’t you understand? said the weak, dragging thought.
You know how the esprojector works.
You know I could have probed Angelsey’s mind in Angelsey’s brain
without making enough interference to be noticed.
And I could not have probed a wholly nonhuman mind at all,
now could it have been aware of me.
The filters would not have passed such a signal.
Yet you felt me in the first fractional second.
It can only mean a human mind in a nonhuman brain.

You are not he half-corpse on Jupiter V any longer.
You’re Joe – Joe Angelsey.

“Well, I’ll be damned,” said Joe. “You’re right.” (p. 37)

– Poul Anderson –

Astounding Science Fiction – June, 1943 (William Timmins) [Featuring “The World Is Mine”, by Lewis Padgett] [Revised post]

(I recently obtained a copy of the June, 1943, issue of Astounding Science Fiction in somewhat better condition than that which originally appeared in this post. The cover of my “new” copy appears below…)

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Illustration by Paul Orban, for Edna M. Hull’s story “Competition” (p. 47)

Illustration by Paul Orban, for Edna M. Hull’s story “Competition” (p. 54)

Astounding Science Fiction, August, 1954 (Featuring “They’d Rather Be Right,” by Mark Clifton and Frank Riley, and, “The Cold Equations,” by Tom Godwin) [Frank Kelly Freas]

Tom Godwin’s short story “The Gulf Between” was a cautionary tale about using computer technology to supplant human decision-making, set within the overlapping contexts of the creation of the ultimate (robotic) soldier, and, mans’ first venture into space. Godwin’s “The Cold Equations” is different: The story is a stunning exploration of the classical philosophical dilemma of balancing the life of one, versus the life of many, set within the frontier of a future space-faring civilization.

Though the latter tale is far better known within and even beyond the genre of science-fiction, the cord linking the two stories being Godwin’s adept use of an imagined future as the setting for confronting and resolving – in a deeply unsettling, unflinching manner – questions of man’s uniqueness, and, the inherent spiritual value of the individual. Though the stories are (unsurprisingly) somewhat dated on technological grounds – well, they were written over a half-century ago – overall, the writing is tight, crisp, and direct, their length belying their impact and the import of their underlying themes.

“The Cold Equations” has been adapted for radio, television, and web formats, testimony to the tale’s power and literary merit. Similarly, the story has been anthologized many times, one example being in volume one of the Science Fiction Hall of Fame, published in November of 1972.

The story, scripted by George Lefferts and with the roles of pilot Barton and passenger Marilyn voiced by Court Benson and Jill Meredith, was broadcast as episode 15 of the X Minus One radio program on August 8, 1955. The play can also be downloaded from Archive.org.

The two television versions of the story comprise the Twilight Zone production of January 7, 1989 (available on YouTube), and the FilmRise / Alliance Atlantis movie of December 7, 1996, the latter receiving widely varying reviews at both IMDB and Amazon.

Oddly, the several YouTube versions of the Twilight Zone version manifest the same strange problem: About one hour long, all are comprised of three copies of the episode “spliced” together, whereas the actual episode – without commercial breaks – is only 21 minutes long.

Though appearing under a different title – “Stowaway” – the DUST YouTube channel’s version of The Cold Equations, released on April 7, 2018, is a superb rendering of Godwin’s story, the brevity (12 minutes) and pacing of the film closely paralleling the feel of the original story. The acting is excellent (the CG, too), but (?!) the names of the actor and actress are not presented.

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Though Frank Kelly Freas’ illustrations and cover art were often whimsical, humorous, and – at least in his early years – highly creative (the cover is superb!), such qualities would not have befitted art accompanying “The Cold Equations”. Thus, the images of Barton and Marilyn are aptly subdued and pensive, while the leading image – a simple depiction of a spacecraft which seems to have jettisoned an unidentified “something” as it approaches a planet in crescent phase – symbolizes the central aspect of the story. These appear below, accompanied by key passages from the story, which is available in full text at LightSpeedMagazine.

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He began to check the instrument readings,
going over them with unnecessary slowness.
She would have to accept the circumstances
and there was nothing he could do to help her into acceptance;
words of sympathy would only delay it.

It was 18:20 when she stirred from her motionlessness and spoke.

“So that’s the way it has to be with me?”

He swung around to face her.
“You understand now, don’t you?
No one would ever let it be like this if it could be changed.”

“I understand”, she said.
Some of the color had returned to her face
and the lipstick no longer stood out so vividly red.
“There isn’t enough fuel for me to stay;
when I hid on this ship I got into something I didn’t know anything about
and now I have to pay for it.”

She had violated a man-made law that said KEEP OUT
but the penalty was not of man’s making or desire
and it was a penalty men could not revoke.
A physical law had decreed:
h amount of fuel will power an EDS with a mass of m safely to its destination;
and a second physical lad had been decreed:
h amount of fuel will not power an EDS with a mass of m plus x safely to its destination.

EDSs obeyed only physical laws
and no amount of human sympathy for her could alter the second law.

“But I’m afraid.
I don’t want to die – not now.
I want to live and nobody is doing anything to help me
everybody is letting me go ahead and acting just like nothing was going to happen to me.
I’m going to die and nobody cares.”

“We all do,” he said.
“I do and the commander does and the clerk in Ship’s Records;
we all care and each of us did what little he could to help you.
It wasn’t enough – it was almost nothing – but it was all we could do.”

“Not enough fuel – I can understand that,” she said,
as though she had not heard his own words.
“But to have to die for it.
Me, alone –

How hard it must be for her to accept the fact.
She had never known danger of death;
had never known the environments where the lives of men could be as fragile
as sea foam tossed against a rocky shore.
She belonged on gentle Earth,
in that secure and peaceful society where she could be young and gay and laughing
with the others of her kind;
where life was precious and well-guarded
and there was always the assurance that tomorrow would come.
She belonged in that world of soft winds and warm suns,
music and moonlight and gracious manners
and not on the hard, bleak frontier.

— Tom Godwin —
— 1954 —

Astounding Science Fiction – May, 1942 (Featuring “Asylum”, by A.E. van Vogt) [Hubert Rogers]

“Asylum”, which is anthologized in Isaac Asimov Presents The Great SF Stories 4 (1942) (published in 1980) (one of three stories by A.E. van Vogt appearing in that volume), has qualities typical of van Vogt’s writing: Transitions between events and settings that are sometimes dreamlike – abrupt – in nature; an air of calibrated grandiosity in terms of theme and plot; a writing style generally placing vastly less emphasis on “hard science” than on the mental states and thoughts of characters.

“Asylum” artfully, powerfully, and very effectively combines such disparate themes and concepts as super-normal (if not transcendent) intelligence, multiple identities / personalities (prefiguring a central theme of the late Philip K. Dick), and, the vampire myth.

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Illustration by Charles Schneeman, for A.E. van Vogt’s story “Asylum” (p. 8)

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Illustration by Charles Schneeman, for A.E. van Vogt’s story “Asylum” (p. 14)

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Illustration by Charles Schneeman, for A.E. van Vogt’s story “Asylum” (p. 19)

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Illustration by Charles Schneeman, for A.E. van Vogt’s story “Asylum” (p. 28)

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Illustration by Hubert Rogers, for Robert A. Heinlein’s (as Anson MacDonald) story “Beyond This Horizon -” (p. 55)

Technology of the present; technology of an imagined future: A juxtaposition of a Colt M1911 .45 pistol and a futuristic pistol, the latter distinguished by its somewhat streamlined shape and two sets of “fins” – purely ornamental? – for cooling? – along the body and barrel.

Of artistic interest, note Hubert Rogers’ stylized initials – comprised of an “H” and R”, with the year below – in the right center of the image.

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Illustration by Hubert Rogers, for Robert A. Heinlein’s (as Anson MacDonald) story “Beyond This Horizon -” (p. 60)

This illustration is representative of Hubert Rogers’ depiction of architecture of the future, in a style typical of the illustrations he did for Astounding: The cityscape is characterized by buildings whose exteriors appear as sets of concentric parabolas, emphasizing curves rather than straight lines and angles.

Roger’s most highly developed depiction of this architectural style appears on the cover of the March, 1947 issue of Astounding, in an image representing Jack Williamson’s story “The Equalizer”. Here, Rogers balanced the simple curves and streamlined functionality of a silver-gray spacecraft with a city whose “curved” buildings appear in varied shades of yellow, orange, and red. The backdrop of both spacecraft and city is a sky that softly glows in pale greenish-gray.

The flying car / spacecraft (I haven’t yet read Heinlein’s story!) is also interesting. (Note Rogers’ initials on the door!) The vehicle combines the streamlined shape of a rocket with retractable landing gear reminiscent of an aircraft. Something about this craft is reminiscent of Bell Aircraft’s YFM-1 Aircuda of the late 30s – early 40s….

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Illustration by Hubert Rogers, for Robert A. Heinlein’s (as Anson MacDonald) story “Beyond This Horizon -” (p. 80)

Astounding Science Fiction – October, 1942 (Featuring “First Lunar Landing”, by Lester del Rey) [August von Munchausen]

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THE WARBLER

By Murray Leinster

An old favorite of science fiction returns – with a tale of a robot that had patience, a brain adequate to its task, and a slow-working, patient urge to self-destruction.

Illustration by Pasilang R. Isip, for “The Warbler”, by Murray Leinster (p. 85).

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References

August von Munchausen, at Sammler (Collecting)

Vacation in the Golden Age, by Jamie Todd Rubin “Episode 40: October 1942 – George O. Smith makes his Astounding debut. Also stories by A. E. van Vogt, Lester Del Rey, Malcolm Jameson, and L. Ron Hubbard’s last Astounding appearance for 5 years.”