Futurians

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The Futurians were an influential group of science fiction fans, editors, and writers that existed from 1938 to 1945. The Futurians were mostly from New York City and had a huge impact on the development of science fiction literature and science fiction fan culture .

Origins

Manhattan 1931, home to many Futurians

According to Isaac Asimov's autobiography In Memory Yet Green , the Futurians split off from the Greater New York Science Fiction Club (then chaired by Sam Moskowitz ) because the Futurians took a more open political stance. Other sources suggest that Donald A. Wollheim campaigned for a stronger left-wing attitude in fan culture, which Moskowitz opposed. Then Wollheim left the Greater New York Science Fiction Club and founded the Futurians, while others under Moskowitz founded the Queens Science Fiction Club .

Frederik Pohl writes in his autobiography The Way the Future Was that the first members of the Futurians found themselves in 1934 in the Brooklyn Science Fiction League (BSFL), a subgroup of the Science Fiction League . Wollheim, John Michel and Robert W. Lowndes were also members of the BSFL. Together with Pohl they called themselves the “Quadrumvirate” "Pohl comments on the time with the words:" The four of us hiked from Brooklyn to the sea and left a wide swath of burned-out clubs behind us. We changed clubs as often as in Detroit auto tail fins were changed, ... ".

There were different names for these clubs until the Futurians were eventually formed. In 1935 the East New York Science Fiction League (ENYSFL) was founded, later the Independent League for Science Fiction (ILSF). In 1936 the International Cosmos Science Club (ICSC) was launched, to which Will Sykora also belonged.

Pohl said that "in retrospect, Cosmos probably took up a little more space than was justified, so we changed the name to International Scientific Association (it wasn't international, but on the other hand it wasn't scientific either)". The ISA was then renamed the New York Branch-International Scientific Association (NYB-ISA).

In 1937, after Will Sykora and others left the club, the members set about forming the Futurians. Will Sykora then founded the Queens Science Fiction League with Sam Moskowitz and James V. Taurasi . The QSFL was later renamed New Fandom . Pohl said that New Fandom and the Futurians were "addicted to conflict" and "neither the CIA nor the KGB have ever fought as bravely for the soul of a young state as New Fandom and the Futurians did for science fiction" ("No CIA nor KGB ever wrestled so valiantly for the soul of an emerging nation as New Fandom and the Futurians did for science fiction").

Most of the group members also had professional interests in science fiction and related fields. At some point in the early 1940s, nearly half of all editors who published science fiction and fantasy magazines in the United States were members of the Futurians:

Many of these magazines had only small budgets and were therefore dependent on text donations from other Futurians.

Political inclinations

While the Futurians were being founded, Donald Wollheim was strongly committed to communism and believed that science fiction fans "should actively work for the realization of the scientific world state as the only real justification of their activities and existence" ("should actively work for the realization of the scientific world-state as the only genuine justification for their activities and existence "). This was also the reason for Wollheim to found the Futurians, and many of their members had a certain interest in the political application of science fiction literature.

Hence, the association included supporters of Trotskyism , such as Merril, and others who were classified as extremely far left at the time (Pohl was a member of the Communist Party from 1936 to 1939 ). On the other hand, there were also moderate or apolitical members, and with James Blish even a possibly right-wing author. Damon Knight suggests in his book "The Futurians" that Blish viewed fascism as an interesting theory at the time. More solid evidence of this is provided by the fact that Blish was an admirer of the work of Oswald Spengler .

Members of the Futurians (not exhaustive)

Frederik Pohl (2008), one of the co-founders of the Futurians

literature

  • Isaac Asimov: In Memory Yet Green: The autobiography 1920-1954. Doubleday, Garden City, NY 1979, ISBN 0-385-13679-X .
  • Damon Knight: The Futurians. John Day, 1977, ISBN 0-381-98288-2 .
  • Frederik Pohl: The Way The Future Was: A Memoir. Gollancz, London 1979, ISBN 0-575-02672-3 .
  • Harry Warner: All Our Yesterdays: An Informal History of Science Fiction Fandom in the Forties. Advent, Chicago, 1969.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ John Clute , Peter Nicholls : The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction . St. Martin's Press, New York 1993, ISBN 1-85723-124-4 .
  2. ↑ SaM - Fan Forever , post by Dave Kyle, accessed May 10, 2018.
  3. ↑ "we four marched from Brooklyn to the sea, leaving a wide scar of burned out clubs behind us. We changed clubs the way Detroit changes tailfins, ... "
  4. ↑ Terry Carr: Classic Science Fiction: The First Golden Age . Robson Books, 1979, ISBN 0-86051-070-0 . p. 430