![[February 24, 1970] Sex and the Single Writer: New Worlds, March 1970](https://galacticjourney.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/NW-1970-3-cover-672x372.png)
by Fiona Moore
This month has seen a few positive developments. In news of the former British Empire, the world welcomes the new Cooperative Republic of Guyana. Guyana (formerly British Guyana) had achieved independence in 1966, but now the country has completely severed governing ties with the U.K., exchanging a Governor General for a ceremonial President. The South American nation is also officially pursuing a somewhat socialistic path, introducing cooperative elements to the economy. May she continue to be a leading member of the Commonwealth!
Former President Forbes Burnham addresses a crowd regarding his plan for a Cooperative Republic in 1969
Meanwhile, Miss Ono is back in the news, as the owner of the London Arts Gallery has been charged with corrupting morals for exhibiting John Lennon’s etchings, which include lithographs of himself and his wife in coitus. I suppose we’ll get to see just how far the Permissive Society goes.
A crowd at the Gallery examines Lennon's art
Which brings us neatly to New Worlds, who seem to be courting similar controversy, or attempting to, anyway. The front cover this month is a file-box of erotic pictures with the heading Does Sex Have A Future? This gives the impression that New Worlds are trying to restore their flagging fortunes by going back to basics: shock the Tories by talking about sex.
Artist/designer uncredited
My immediate fear is, of course, that it will be New Worlds business as usual, full of Philip Roth pastiches and wish fulfilment fantasies on the part of frustrated young white men. Fortunately the resulting issue is better than that. Most of the stories are light on the titillation (if indeed any is present), and heavy on the use of SF to explore the more complex and disturbing aspects of sex.
Lead-In
Mostly highlighting the Sex! theme of the issue, and promoting the Ballard story, so pretty much as usual.
The Sex Machine by Ian Watson
Artist uncredited
Watson is emerging as the new darling of New Worlds. However, I don’t really mind the recent overexposure, as his work has thus far been refreshing and exciting. This one is a really disturbing story about a sentient vending machine for sex, casually used and vandalised in misogynous ways. Five stars.
Agatha Blue by Hilary Bailey
Artist uncredited
Another standout story and another one exploring the misogyny of everyday life. An alien being, curious about human life, inhabits the body of a mentally ill woman; the alien is from an implied-to-be-gender-egalitarian society and finds what she discovers on Earth to be shocking and frustrating. Also five stars.
Princess Margaret’s Facelift by JG Ballard
Art by Charles Platt
Fairly standard Ballard fare, using the clinical description of a facelift to criticise the beauty industry and our attractiveness standards for famous (and non-famous) women. I found it a bit too similar to his story "Coitus 1980" a couple of issues ago, however. Two stars.
Does Sex Have A Future? By John Landau
Artist uncredited
Clearly the answer is “yes”, or we're doomed as a species, but Landau argues that it will become increasingly commodified and solipsistic, due to the combination of technological advances and increasing permissiveness. He imagines a future where a man might never physically meet his partner, but have sex with her through videophones and customised artificial genital-substitutes. It doesn’t sound to me like it’ll catch on. Three stars.
Cinnabar Balloon Tautology by Bob Franklin
A surrealist/absurdist piece, where the unnamed narrator takes a balloon trip with a man and some chickens. They eat eggs and play chess. I suppose it could be about the banality and absurdity of daily life. Two stars.
High in Sierra by Reg Moore
Art by Gabi Naseman
A short vignette. A traveller on an island visits an Indian reservation and is implored to stay, but leaves and regrets it, seeing the reservation as the future. I suppose it’s saying that we should aim for a happy multicultural society that doesn’t depend on capitalism or technology, and yet we fail to achieve it? Anyway, two stars.
Front and Centaur by James Sallis
Art by R. Glyn Jones
Surrealist humour. Two American writers come to London and have a relationship with a woman named Berenice who leaves them for a unicorn. A bit sophomoric. Two stars.
Computer 70: Dreams and Lovepoems by D.M. Thomas
Art by Gabi Naseman
As the title indicates, this is advanced and experimental poetry by Thomas, on the themes of love, sex and/or technology. Some of them are really very good but the whole thing went on a little too long for me. Three stars.
The Terminal by Michael Butterworth
Art by Allan Stephanson
Short vignette/prose poem about a car accident. I think Ballard might have started a trend. I do like Butterworth’s imagery though. Three stars.
Edward at Breakfast by Yannick Storm
Short modernist piece about a man drinking coffee and ruminating on his unsatisfactory relationship, and I suspect his wife leaves him in the end. Didn’t really stick with me. Two stars.
Nest Egg by Sandra Dorman
Art by Ivor Latto
Good heavens, a second woman in the magazine! And one who appears to be actually a woman and not a pseudonym for one of the male regulars! It’s a rather good short story, satirising domestic and consumer culture through paralleling the life of a suburban woman with that of a battery hen. I’m still not entirely enthralled with the way women writers for New Worlds tend to be pigeonholed into the domestic satire/critique genre, but this was a good enough story. Four stars.
Books
William Barclay complains that bad books sell better than good ones; Michael Dempsey gets sarcastic about a volume of art criticism; Joyce (Not Actually A Woman) Churchill reads some nonfiction; John T. Sladek thinks about voting and Peter White finds a social-breakdown novel a little unoriginal.
Music
Ralph T. Castle likes the new album by the Mothers of Invention, but is pretty scathing about everything else that comes out this month. Having recently been subjected, along with the entire campus, to the debut album of Black Sabbath courtesy of an undergraduate playing it at top volume on the fourth floor of Founders Building, I share his disapproval. We should never have let the college go co-educational.
Next month I’m off for a fieldwork trip to the Republic of China (Formosa), where I can update you all on the latest exciting developments in the lives of Chiang Kai-Shek and Madame Chiang! The next issue of New Worlds will be its 200th, and I’m interested to see what they will do to celebrate this milestone.
[New to the Journey? Read this for a brief introduction!]
