Transcendence

Last Monday, I posted a James Gunn reminiscence of the alleged origin of "Sturgeon's Law."

While down in Nanticoke, I pulled an issue of Galaxy (the September 1975 issue, exactly) out of storage and came across a rather complementary quote by Spider Robinson in a review-essay on the "Golden Age" of SF and the then-current (even more so now current) wave of nostalgia and the wealth of quality reprints that such nostalgia demands. While praising the best of the past, Robinson does not tarry there, but instead is optimistic about the future of SF, refusing to relegate the so-called Golden Age to any past era.

"Put down that axe, sir, and let us discuss this like gentlemen. I will concede that we live in decadent times--they don't, for instance, make guitars like they used to. Every area in which individual craftsmanship and professional pride have been phased out has declined, inevitably. But SF is not produced by an assembly line of sullen transients, much as it seems that way at times, and by its nature it cannot help but improve. Mass Man's output gets steadily worse, but things made by and for individuals always get better."