Vacation in the Golden Age, Episode 1. December 1. 94. 0I did a cursory roll call as I prepared for this Episode, which concludes the year 1. The list of authors that have appeared in the first 1. Vacation brings up two curious facts: So far as I can tell (and please correct me if I am wrong) none of the authors whose stories appear in the first 1. Vacation are alive today. Fiction or nonfiction. Of all the authors that have appeared so far, only 3 have been women: Leigh Brackett, Amelia Long, and C. And all three appeared in 1. No women authors appeared in 1. The end of 1. 94. Astounding. Overall, the issues wasn’t a bad one, but it was not one of my favorites, despite the conclusion of “Slan”. I wanted to make a brief mention here to the sad news of the passing of Martin H. He, along with Isaac Asimov, collected many stories from the golden age in retrospective volumes organized by year. His passing is a big loss to the science fiction community, and especially to the world of short fiction. Greenberg was science fiction’s premier short fiction anthologist. There were only 5 pieces of fiction in this issue. Invaded in June 1940, the Channel Islands were the only British territories to be occupied by the Germans during World War Two. Photo: Patriots on the island of. In part, that’s because there were also two pretty good science articles. There was of course, the conclusion of “Slan” which takes up the last 4. And three of the four remaining stories were novelettes. Campbell’s editorial, “Fog” opens by outing an author’s pseudonym: As a good many readers already realize, “Robert Willey” is the pen name Willy Ley has used for many years on his fiction material. Largely a scientific writer, Ley has wanted a distinguishing mark for his fiction work, so that there may be no confusion between facts, remarkable as the facts may seem, and the fiction he does. I think that Campbell reveals this to give a sense of. Ley’s story is about revolution, and as a German citizen, Ley lived through a number of revolutions. Campbell also mentions that at the time of the writing, Ley is 3. I have always imagined Ley and Campbell both as ageless. Campbell was only 3. I am older than both men were when this issue appeared. The cover story for the December issue is P. Schuyler Miller’s “Old Man Mulligan”. As Campbell blurbs the piece: Mulligan was a queer old guy, with delusions of age. Synopsis Donald decides to vacation in the great outdoors, but the denizens of the great outdoors are less than co-operative.A hundred thousand years of age. This is a pure adventure story, wrapped in a science fictional background and without much real science fiction. The story takes place on Venus, which I have to imagine was fairly stereotyped by now to a contemporary reader as Mars was. The Venus in the story is covered by water, mountains and jungles. It is the story of members of the Space Patrol who are trying to crack down on crime lords on the planet. I was fascinated by Campbell’s blurb, thinking that the story was going to be a precursor to “Methuselah’s Children.” Who was this Mulligan character? Why was he so old? But as it turned out, the blurb and Old Man Mulligan’s apparent age was more of a tease that was hardly delved into in the story itself. Mulligan knows a lot about surviving on Venus, certainly, and he can tell tall tales, but nowhere does his rumored age tie into the narrative of the story in a meaningful way–except perhaps in the song they sing of Mulligan at the opening. No, this is a bald- faced adventure story–not a bad one mind you, but I was fooled by Campbell’s blurb and it felt kind of like a bait- and- switch to me. The adventure story, incidentally, feels like a traditional jungle adventure–one that is heavy on monsters and action. For instance: It was like Leviathan of the legends. It rose out of the sea like a billowing wave, washed over with creamy spume–a colossal turtle’s caraprace, studded and ribbed and grown over with barnacles and clinging weeds–an armored, vast- eyed head with. The black bubbles of its lidless eyes stared at the little bandy- legged creature who danced tauntingly before it. A wave broke over its back, hiding it, and then it appeared again, much closer, and began to move ponderously toward the shore, its snaky dragon’s head thrust evilly forward. Miller writes well, and is only slightly heavy on his adjectives. I’m not sure the quality of the story would qualify it for Unknown, but it felt more like an Unknown story than an Astounding story to me. Not a bad story, but nothing special. I would describe the art work for the story similarly. The Rogers cover was rather plain, and the Schneeman interiors bordered on pretty awful–especially that first one with the monster turtle emerging from the sea. That said, the story was included in the Asimov/Greenberg retrospective volume for 1. The next story, “Legacy” by Nelson S. Bond was my second favorite in the issue. Campbell describes it as: His inheritance.
Or so it seemed–This was a funny story. It is the story of a ship captain who inherits a robot from his uncle. The robot seems worthless, but as the deceased uncle wrote before his death: This . Treat him well and follow his precepts and he will bring you the same kind of happiness that has lightened my life. The voice of Jessifer beside you in space should lead you to glowing contentment. He is not, as man, prone to error. The name Jessifer gave me pause, and of course, at the end, we find out that name has significance. Still, the story remains an amusing one, particularly because Bond made the good decision to tell the story not from Cap Hawkins view point, but from his mate, Sparks. From Sparks eyes, we get to see Hawkins frustration with the robot and its strange behavior first hand. And that strange behavior helps to make “Legacy” a funny story. And of course, in the end, we find that Jessifer was not as worthless (or as nonsensical) as it seemed from the start. As a reader, you kind of had to expect this, but it was still a fun ride trying to figure out just how it would be revealed. Next up was a novelette, “Spheres” by D. This was one of those stories in which I bogged down early and couldn’t finish. Campbell blurbs the story in a way that makes it sound interesting: A new author presents a new type of self- defense–and Sezzy- Blacky, a man of two minds, so to speak. And from what I could make of the story, Sezzy- Blacky where two personalities in the same person. But the story started slowly for me and I kept bogging down and couldn’t make progress. Eventually, I gave up. I did, however, look up D. Edwards, whom I’d never heard of. According to the Internet Speculative Fiction Database, “Spheres” is the only story listed under this name. The single best story in this issue, in my opinion, was . I was surprised by this story. Going into it, I did not think it would take hold of me the way it did. Campbell blurbs the story as follows: What a revolution in a major nation is really like–by one who has lived through five of them. They’re not mad actions–their maddening uncertainty. The story is about a revolution in America, as seen through the eyes of an average citizen who we know only as “the manager.” The revolution in question is one of the Soviet Union attempting a take over in the U. S., a startling idea since the U. S. The story progresses in small steps until all of the sudden, almost overnight, the revolution is complete. From the viewpoint of the manager, we can feel the tension, particularly the uncertainty of what is happening. I was fascinated by how quickly things snowball after a seemingly quiet start. After a night of gunfire the country is virtually transformed. To be honest, that was a little hard for me to believe–such a large- scale revolt without any effort to stop it. To some extent, I felt that the first third of this story could have been the story of Hubbard’s “Final Blackout” told from the point of view of the United States. Like Hubbard’s serial, “Fog” is not really science fiction in the sense that changes in technology affect society in a positive or negative way. This is more of a political thought experiment, and I imagine it ended up in a science fiction magazine to compliment “Final Blackout”. I thought part IV was better than parts II and III, but having completed the entire thing, I will acknowledge that it did not live up to what I remembered of it when I read it in the late 1. Another 7 years go by in this final part and Jommy Cross is now 2. Everything comes together in this part and of course, there are two major revelations that take place that change the nature of the story to some extent. Warning, spoilers follow. The first big revelation is that Kier Gray is a slan. I’d forgotten about this when I started reading the serial, but somewhere along the way, something I read in the story reminded me that was the case. Of course, the biggest revelation is at the very end of the story, where we get a double- whammy: not only is Kathleen Layton alive, but we are left to ponder the fact that she is Kier Gray’s daughter. As Alva Rogers’ writes in A Requiem For Astounding: “Slan” came to its smashing climax in the December issue, and with one of the first examples of what was to almost become a trademark of future van Vogt epics–the one sentence, or at the most one paragraph ending of a completely unexpected nature that usually required the reader to completely revise his concept of the meaning of the story. I felt like there were too many things coincidentally falling into place; I felt as if Jommy Cross was too well- prepared for what was to come in part four to make the part believable. That said, it was still a fun section to read. It was fast- paced up until Jommy meets Kier Gray face- to- face. At that point, it felt like it became a lengthy info- dump through dialog, although much of that information was interesting. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed “Slan” overall as a story, but I don’t think it was as remarkable as Campbell makes it out to be; I don’t think it was worth of the “Nova” designation; and I tend to like the writing style in van Vogt’s short fiction (e. Vault of the Beast”) better than what he displayed in “Slan.”Part of the reason there were only 5 stories in this issue was because there were two articles. Chapter II: The Crisis of 1. CHAPTER IIThe Crisis of 1. Germany broke the spell of the . The United States by then had only. American neutrality and at the same time. Western Hemisphere. In RAINBOW. 1, the Army and Navy had an approved plan for hemisphere defense. Army were still considerably below the strength needed to. American naval power was. Pacific with only enough vessels in the. Atlantic to maintain the neutrality patrol, because the United. States since September 1. British and French naval. German thrust across the. Atlantic. Assisted by the neutrality act of November 1. British and French to make . The Joint Planning Committee on. April therefore recommended to the joint Board that priority be. RAINBOW 2 and 3 situations, leaving 4 to the last. Plans 2 and 3. dealt with situations that assumed major United States operations. Pacific against Japan on the one hand and a more or less. Europe on the other. The planners. apparently considered a RAINBOW 4 situation- the . The. Joint Board approved the planners' recommendations on 1. April, and. its directive governed the work of the planning staffs until. May. 1. When interviewed that day by. President was no longer willing to say, as he had the. September, that he thought the United States could keep. Instead, he considered the chance of involvement to. On 1. 5 May the new British Prime Minister, Winston S. He also wanted. assurances that Great Britain could obtain American steel, and he. United States dispatch naval forces to Irish. Singapore area. On the same day that the Prime. Minister made his requests, he pledged that, regardless of what. Germany did to England and France, England would never give up as. This he was unwilling to approve. United. States and the state of public opinion. The President and his military advisers in conferences on 1. May. agreed that, for the time being, the bulk of the United States. Fleet should remain in the Pacific and, in consequence, that the. Army should have primary responsibility for air operations in the. Atlantic area and along the east coast of South America. Should. France fall, they anticipated that Germany might secure immediate. French African possessions. In view of these alarming prospects, the. Department of State hastily made the necessary arrangements for. Latin American nations in. United States forces . The War Plans Division on 2. May summarized what it termed the . They therefore concluded. United States Army and Navy would have to limit. All agreed to the soundness of its analysis and recommendations. The President and his advisers approved this. May and arranged for a cruiser squadron, with. The Navy employed. Quincy and Wichita, which visited South. American ports during June. The President and his military advisers were particularly. Nazi intervention in Brazil. It provided for the. Brazilian. coastal points from Bel. Of course the United. States Government had no intention of putting the POT OF GOLD plan. Brazil. The services realized only too well. Latin American fears of Yankee. Army, as the War Plans Division had pointed out on. May, had no units that were really ready for expeditionary force. Army Air Corps was certainly not equipped to carry out the. Brazil were wholly inadequate to handle an air movement of this. United States Fleet from the Pacific, a step strongly opposed by. Navy. 8. Since they did not know the real scope and direction of German. American military planners in May 1. The course of subsequent. POT OF GOLD plan seem somewhat excessive, to say the least. Speaking confidentially to a group of businessmen on 2. May, the President said that the defeat of France and Britain would. United States. and its way of life. By 2. 5 May a. German land victory was certain. The Belgian Army surrendered on 2. May, and the epic evacuation of the British Army from Dunkerque. The events of May forced a radical change in the schedule. April for development of the RAINBOW plans. About 2. 0. May the Joint Planning Committee dropped its work on RAINBOW 2 and. RAINBOW 3 and turned to a hurried development of a RAINBOW 4 plan. The. board approved the plan on 7 June, and six days later the. Secretaries of War and Navy transmitted it to President Roosevelt. By then, the War and Navy Departments had. The new joint RAINBOW 4 plan was based on assumptions that. Army and Navy officers at. May. It assumed that, after the defeat of Britain and. France, the United States would be faced by a hostile. German- Italian- Japanese coalition. Its combined naval power. British and French Fleets, would. United States. Japan would proclaim. Far East, and might seize the. Philippines and Guam. In Latin America, the Germans and. Italians would use every means to stir antagonism toward the United. States, and they might succeed in establishing pro- Axis governments. Canada; remaining technically. Germany, would occupy Newfoundland, and the United. States would have to join with Canada in the defense of. Newfoundland and Greenland. Nevertheless, a considerable interval. British and French collapse before. United States would be drawn openly into war. The United States planned to counter these threats initially by. British, French, Dutch, and Danish possessions in the. Western Hemisphere claimed by Germany and Italy as the spoils of. Thereafter, its armed forces must be disposed along the. Atlantic front of the hemisphere so as to prevent any lodgment by. Axis military forces. In the Pacific, every effort would have to be. Japan; if they began, the. United States should base its defense on Oahu and Alaska. The major. portion of the United States Fleet would have to be withdrawn from. Pacific and concentrated in the Caribbean area. Though the. original RAINBOW 4 concept had contemplated defense of the entire. Western Hemisphere, the armed forces of the United States for the. North America. and the northern part of South America (approximately within. RAINBOW 1 limits), extending their operations southward only as. While maintaining a defensive. Atlantic and the Pacific, the nation would. In presenting the RAINBOW 4 plan to the joint Board, the Joint. Planners stressed above all the critical situation that would arise. British and French Fleets were. Axis Powers. Should that happen, Germany and. Italy would soon attain a naval strength in the Atlantic equal or. United States Fleet. The planners. estimated that the Axis nations would require a minimum of six. For the. United States, they pointed out, there would be two critical dates. The second is six months. The date of the loss of the British or French. Fleets automatically sets the date of our mobilization. With war plans in the making that took into account the new and. President's decision on a number of broad questions. President Roosevelt laid the. Charlottesville, Virginia, on 1. June 1. 94. 0. After affirming that. The Chief of Staff remarked that. Japan. and the Soviet Union might suddenly team. If at the same. time the French Fleet were surrendered to Germany and Italy, the. United States would face an extremely serious situation in the. South Atlantic. The chief of the War Plans Division, Brig. Strong, expressed the opinion that Germany might strike. South America within sixty days, and that initially the. Nazis might try to block the Panama Canal by sabotage in order to. American naval power in the Pacific. General Strong and. G- 3, Brig. Andrews, recommended that the. National Guard be inducted into federal service at once, so. South American situation. At General Strong's urging the Hawaiian. Panama Canal Departments were alerted on this same day against. The. alarm of 1. 7 June also gave impetus to the garrisoning of Alaska. Anchorage. arrived there on 2. June. 1. 8On the preceding day, 1. June, Army and Navy planning officers. In turn, this would require maintaining a purely. Pacific and halting the flow of material. Great Britain. The hemisphere defense policy recommended by. General Strong would also involve. As. stated in the revision, the basic decisions were: first, that if. French Fleet passed to German control, the United States would. Pacific and would probably. United States Fleet into the. Atlantic; and second, that the United States would not release any. Great Britain, except for small. Hemisphere defense may involve the necessity for —a. The occupation of British . Plans for the occupation of strategic positions in the. Caribbean Area and in Central and South America, other than referred to above. American Republics. Action in accordance with the plans will be taken in. The employment of armed force by the United States to sustain. In reaching the decision consideration will be given to the fact. December 1. 94. 0 our Army will not be in a position to undertake. Venezuela, unless mobilization and. Selective Service are made immediately effective .. The supply of munitions to Latin American countries.(1) It is decided that by providing small amounts of munitions. Latin American countries may. Credits will be extended for the purchase of munitions. The adjustment of the economic relations between the United. States and Latin American States . The naval and military operations necessary to assure successful. Hemisphere Defense call for a major effort which we are not now ready to accomplish. To overcome our disadvantage. The outstanding. demands on this national effort are: — first, a radical speed- up. General Marshall and Admiral Stark on 2. June had also asked the. President to approve a longer working week for war industry and the. The President was loath to. Army considered unworkable. An appendix to the joint memorandum of 2. June incorporated a. President that . It also would. Australian and New Zealand Governments to take the. British or French islands west of. International Date Line fell into Axis or Japanese hands. The crucial points in the proposals and decisions made between. June were those relating to the disposition of the French. Navy, to the discontinuance of material aid to Britain, and to the. Action on these. points was bound to be closely interrelated. If Germany secured the.
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