by Gideon Marcus Value Shopping The price of science fiction digests has steadily gone up over the years. In the early 50s, the standard cost was 35 cents. I think the last hold-out at that price point was Fantastic. Now Galaxy and Analog cost four bits, and the cheapest mags go for 40 cents. Still, … Continue reading [February 9, 1964] Bargain Basement (March 1964 IF)
by Gideon Marcus If you've been following the papers this week, you can't have missed the biggest news: the tour of Madame Nhu, the sister-in-law of South Vietnamese President Ngô Đình Diệm, was pushed from the front page when a military coup toppled the Asian country's government and assassinated its head on November 2. Rioting … Continue reading [November 9, 1963] Change and Constancy (December 1963 Galaxy)
by Gideon Marcus New York. Gateway to America. Home of Broadway, the Empire State Building, Times Square, etc. etc. Big deal. This week, my wife and I took a United 707 from LAX to Newark for a mini-vacation. A good friend of ours, whom we met in fandom, lives in Morristown, New Jersey. We stayed … Continue reading [October 8, 1963] The Big Lemon (November 1963 IF)
by Gideon Marcus We live in increasingly tumultuous times (or maybe we are just better informed about them). A war is heating up in Vietnam, an even significant enough to have produced fictional characters who have experienced it (e.g. Linc, the veteran in Route 66; Oscar from Heinlein's new serial, Glory Road). There's a war … Continue reading [June 30, 1963] Calm from the Storm (July 1963 Analog)
by Gideon Marcus How quickly the futuristic becomes commonplace. Just two years ago, I marveled about how fast one can cross the oceans by jet. Now, on the eve of another trip to Japan (we really have joined the Jet Set, haven't we?) I look at the flight itinerary and grumble. Why must we stop … Continue reading [June 4, 1963] Booked passage (July 1963 IF)
by Gideon Marcus Around the world, events herald a heightened rate of change. Civil Rights marchers and boycotters in Birmingham, Alabama have been met with fire hoses, attack dogs, and mass incarceration. Casualty reports for servicemen killed in Vietnam are becoming a weekly occurrence. In a more hopeful vein, the nuclear test ban group at … Continue reading [May 6, 1963] The more things change… (June 1963 Galaxy)
by Victoria Silverwolf It's déjà vu all over again. — attributed to Yogi Berra A couple of months ago the first issue of Worlds of Tomorrow offered half of an enjoyable, if juvenile, novel by Arthur C. Clarke, half a dozen poor-to-fair stories as filler, and one excellent work of literature. The second issue is … Continue reading [April 15, 1963] Second Time Around (June 1963 Worlds of Tomorrow)
[If you live in Southern California, you can see the Journey LIVE at Mysterious Galaxy Bookstore in San Diego, 2 p.m. on February 17!] by Gideon Marcus I've complained from time to time about the general decline in quality of some of the science fiction digests, namely Analog and Fantasy and Science Fiction. On the … Continue reading [February 6, 1963] Up and Coming (March 1963 IF Science Fiction)
[if you’re new to the Journey, read this to see what we’re all about!] by Gideon Marcus Behold the picture of contentment. I sit in my La-Z-Boy, feet crossed on an ottoman, a Julie London album on the phonograph, and my tummy stuffed to the utmost with stuffing, turkey, cranberries, sweet potatoes… the whole megillah. … Continue reading [November 27, 1962] Turkeys and Gravy (December 1962 Analog)
by Victoria Silverwolf America's present need is not heroics, but healing; not nostrums, but normalcy; not revolution, but restoration; not agitation, but adjustment; not surgery, but serenity; not the dramatic, but the dispassionate; not experiment, but equipoise; not submergence in internationality, but sustainment in triumphant nationality. I'm a Kennedy liberal, so goodness knows I wouldn't … Continue reading [November 22, 1962] Return to Normalcy (December 1962 Fantastic)
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