(no subject)
Sometimes I think I spend too much time looking backward and not enough looking forward. But tonight, I happened to read the current Mike Resnick/Barry Malzberg "Dialogue" in the pages of the SFWA BULLETIN, parts one and two spread out over a pair of issues. The subject was a look at the history of science fiction magazines. Malzberg has stated before that the sf magazines represented "the soul of science fiction," and I dont think I can argue that.
At one time years ago, I was a voracious reader of the sf magazines. As a kid I subscribed to GALAXY in its dying days, and AMAZING and FANTASTIC, which were already dead but didn't know it. Later, I subscribed to ANALOG and ocassionally F&SF. When ASIMOV's came along, I subscribed, and also to its short-lived sister publication, ASIMOV'S ADVENTURE MAGAZINE. David Hartwell edited another short-lived three-issue magazine called ODYSSEY, which I loved and to which I subscribed. Those subscriptions took up the bulk of my allowance and later my busboy's salary. In college, when money was tight, I reduced the number of subscriptions, but in those days libraries actually carried many of the top sf magazines, so I still kept up.
Little by little, however, that changed. I read less short fiction, especially when I began writing and selling novels. And also, frankly, real life crept in. I've always loved short fiction, though, and as a demonstration of that love (even if I was only demonstrating to myself) I've kept a small ton of those old magazines.
Stored in the basement, though, moved around as I moved around, not all of them are in exactly pristine shape. I've tried at various times to sell them on convention dealers' tables, sell them to used bookstores, and to just give them away. Such is the regard in which old magazines are held, however, even by science fiction fans, that I'm still stuck with far too many of them, and storage space in this palatial suburban split-level paradise I call "The Black Lagoon" is now at a premium.
So, inspired by the Resnick/Malzberg Dialogue, I decided to start pouring over my odd collection and weed it out. The ConQuest science fiction convention is coming up, and some of the magazines will go to guests -- the ones with Martin or Swanwick or Chilson or Gunn -- if they want them. Some will go up on a freebie table -- take them or don't, but I won't be bringing them home. Still some others will probably go into the trash. It's heart-breaking, but there it is.
I've gone through the first box already. There are a lot of boxes. Browsing the contents pages of every issue has been an adventure in nostalgia. There are many good stories and many forgettable ones. More interestingly, there are authors who've grown into major names, but there are also good authors who have vanished from the scene. That last is kind of sad; one wonders what happened to them. Why did they stall out? What real-life fate took them away from writing?
Some of these I'll keep, but the damaged ones, the faded ones, the brittle ones, out they go. I wish I'd taken better care of some of them - the way I did my pulps -- but I didn't, and sometimes you just have to let go.