Old/cold

[threemonkeys]

A little while back I was musing about the notion that you can identify the age of writing by the impact that major incidents or the like has on the writing. Anyway, into my possession fell three issues of IF Worlds of Science Fiction from 1952 or thereabouts. And what was the current affairs theme that was obvious through most of the stories? The cold war of course. The other common theme was spaceships. Perhaps two thirds of the stories featured them. Science fiction was a much more limited genre in those days. There were a few other things that I noticed:

• The science predictions were not great. One editorial proclaimed that there would not be space travel before the year 2000. Another article confidently predicted time travel in the near future.


• There were several stories where the state of the English language featured. The beatnik movement or something like it was clearly having an impact. Interestingly all the stories came down on the side of language change.


• There were a few stories where women were secretaries or receptionists judged by their appearance only and described in the language of possessions. But there was also one story where that view of things was attacked.


• Some very big names in the field were there and some others who have left no lasting impact in the field. The quality of the stories varied wildly, much more so than I have seen in recent magazines. A couple of stories were so bad that I just couldn't finish them.


• No mention of computers at all - not even as huge room filling contraptions. I wonder when the term came into common usage (other than to refer to the humans who previously held that job title).

Of course editorial policy affects what goes into a magazine, but it is an interesting window into the state of the genre and the world at the time. By world, of course I mean the USA.