Fantasy & Science Fiction Mar-Apr 2013 (39 page)

STEPHEN Leacock (1869-1944) was a living paradox. A humorist and satirist with a jolly style and a stinging wit, he took delight in skewering targets ranging from contemporary college life to the works of Jane Austen. But these entertainments, most of which are still relevant and funny, were only half his output. The other half was serious political polemics. A Briton by birth, he was raised and spent most of his life in Canada. He was both a small-c and capital-C Conservative, a full-out flag-waving British imperialist who advocated immigration to his adopted country provided only that the immigrants be of pure British stock.

One of his most notable books was titled
Afternoons in Utopia
(1932). The lead entry, "Utopias Old and New," includes an hilarious send-up of every imagined paradisiacal society from Plato's Republic to last month's issue of
Flabbergasting Fables
. Probably the most influential of all utopias was Edward Bellamy's
Looking Backward: 2000-1887
. It spawned endless sequels and rebuttals, of which I particularly recommend Mack Reynolds's
Looking Backward from the Year 2000
(1974).

I wish I had room for some hilarious excerpts from Leacock's collection, but the bottom of the page is looming. You'll have to snag a copy of the Leacock book for yourself. Just keep an eye out for Dr. Oom, the sandal-wearing and berobed, bearded future sage speaking oddly pseudo-Biblical English—and his lissome, doe-eyed daughter. Leacock's humor is wonderful. In his own time he was hugely admired by Groucho Marx, Jack Benny, and Robert Benchley. Add to that list the undersigned!
—Richard A. Lupoff

BOOKS-MAGAZINES
S-F FANZINES, pulps, books. 96 page Catalog. $5.00. Collections purchased. Robert Madle, 4406 Bestor Dr., Rockville, MD 20853.
Spiffy, jammy, deluxy, bouncy—subscribe to Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet. $16/4 issues. Small Beer Press, 176 Prospect Ave., Northampton, MA 01060.
20-time Hugo nominee. The New York Review of Science Fiction.
www.nyrsf.com
Reviews and essays. $4.00 or $40 for 12 issues, checks only. Dragon Press, PO Box 78, Pleasantville, NY 10570.
John Pelan's Classics of Fantasy and SF series begins with THE STORY WRITER by Richard Wilson and CHARIOTS OF SAN FERNANDO by Malcolm Jameson.
www.ramblehouse.com
228-826-1783
FREE!
The First Dragoneer
Novella, and Crimzon & Clover Short Story. Available
FREE
at B&N, Amazon, iStore, or use Smashwords for PC screen reading. 300-page sample of
The Sword & the Dragon
, which was written in a Texas Prison, at
www.mrmathias.com
"I killed him. Just thought him to death. Should anyone ever learn
They have that kind of power?"
Psy Mind: Calculated Risks
by Val Chanda. Amazon.com
Mad scientists and their monsters, vampires, werewolves and other lost souls lurk within
The Dream Cabinet of Dr. Kino
by Michael Samerdyke, now available at Barnes & Noble and Lulu.com.
The Time Traveler's Tale: Chronicle of a Morlock Captivity,
by Paul Schullery, $12 paper, $4 Kindle.
If you remember the '60s, you didn't read
Any Day Now
by Terry Bisson. Published by The Overlook Press.
FREE EBOOK DOWNLOAD: THE ISLANDS OF THE MOON, a post-apocalyptic novel in verse (rhyming couplets of iambic pentameter) by River Jackson.
www.tiotm.com
Renato, the Painter
is Eugene Mirabelli's latest (and greatest) addition to his Sicilian-Americana cycle of magical-realist novels.
www.mcphersonco.com
Welcome to the Greenhouse
—sixteen stories about climate change.
www.orbooks.com/our_books/greenhouse
The Fallen
by Pat MacEwen, now available from Sky Warrior Books:
www.skywarriorbooks.com
Invisible Kingdoms
(Silurian Tales, Vol. 2) by Steven Utley.
ticonderogapublications.com
Charles Fort was right!
Already Here: Long Poems
by Matt Bialer.
blackcoffeepress.net
SLAUGHTERHOUSE 5, CATTLE 0. The first 58 F&SF contests are collected in
Oi, Robot
, edited by Edward L. Ferman and illustrated with cartoons. $11.95 postpaid from F&SF, PO Box 3447, Hoboken, NJ 07030.
MISCELLANEOUS
Samuel Pusey, watchmaker. Repairing watches and mechanisms since 1826. I bring a personal touch.
SamuelPusey.com
If stress can change the brain, all experience can change the brain.
http://www.undoingstress.com
Space Studies Masters degree. Accredited University program. Campus and distance classes. For details visit
www.space.edu
.
Longtime professional editor will help you polish your manuscript for submittal/self-publication.
Betsymitchelleditorial.com
 

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