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galacticjourney[if you’re new to the Journey, read this to see what we’re all about!]
by Gideon Marcus
Trends are tricky things. They require multiple data points to become apparent, and even then, careful analysis may be required to draw a proper conclusion.
I think I can safely say, however, that one-plus year into Avram Davidson's tenure as editor of F&SF, the magazine's quality has trended sharply and consistently downward. Stories tend toward the obtuse, the purple, the (and this surprises me) hackneyed. It's just not the sublime lyric beauty it used to be.
Why is this? Let's explore some possible explanations:
2) F&SF can't get good writers anymore.
This clearly isn't true. The Table of Contents of any given issue reads like a who's who of the genre.
2) Nobody is writing good sf anymore.
Demonstrably false. Just look at the other mags.
3) The good writers save their best stuff for other magazines
This could be true, but given that F&SF pays some of the best rates (for science fiction anyway – three or four cents a word), I'd can't image F&SF is a second-resort mag.
4) Davidson's editorial preferences are driving the direction of F&SF.
A ha. Davidson has been a writer of sf for many a year, and the trend in his writing has been toward the obscure and the prolix. It shouldn't be a surprise to see the Davidson style creep into his magazine. One trend I find particularly disturbing is the disappearance of women from F&SF's pages. This magazine used to be the stand-out leader in publishing of woman authors, and its pages were better for it. Now, female writers been conspicuously absent for two issues, and there had been fewer than normal in the months prior. Nor can one argue that women are leaving the genre -- F&SF's loss is the gain for the other digests.
The inevitable destination of this downward trend, the limit of quality as the time of Davidson's tenure goes to infinity, as it were, appears to be zero stars. Sure, there are still stand-out issues, but they come fewer and farther between. And the January 1963 F&SF isn't one of them...
(see the rest at Galactic Journey!)
by Gideon Marcus
Trends are tricky things. They require multiple data points to become apparent, and even then, careful analysis may be required to draw a proper conclusion.
I think I can safely say, however, that one-plus year into Avram Davidson's tenure as editor of F&SF, the magazine's quality has trended sharply and consistently downward. Stories tend toward the obtuse, the purple, the (and this surprises me) hackneyed. It's just not the sublime lyric beauty it used to be.
Why is this? Let's explore some possible explanations:
2) F&SF can't get good writers anymore.
This clearly isn't true. The Table of Contents of any given issue reads like a who's who of the genre.
2) Nobody is writing good sf anymore.
Demonstrably false. Just look at the other mags.
3) The good writers save their best stuff for other magazines
This could be true, but given that F&SF pays some of the best rates (for science fiction anyway – three or four cents a word), I'd can't image F&SF is a second-resort mag.
4) Davidson's editorial preferences are driving the direction of F&SF.
A ha. Davidson has been a writer of sf for many a year, and the trend in his writing has been toward the obscure and the prolix. It shouldn't be a surprise to see the Davidson style creep into his magazine. One trend I find particularly disturbing is the disappearance of women from F&SF's pages. This magazine used to be the stand-out leader in publishing of woman authors, and its pages were better for it. Now, female writers been conspicuously absent for two issues, and there had been fewer than normal in the months prior. Nor can one argue that women are leaving the genre -- F&SF's loss is the gain for the other digests.
The inevitable destination of this downward trend, the limit of quality as the time of Davidson's tenure goes to infinity, as it were, appears to be zero stars. Sure, there are still stand-out issues, but they come fewer and farther between. And the January 1963 F&SF isn't one of them...
(see the rest at Galactic Journey!)
