I just finished skimming through a fascinating little bit of fannish history, Earl Kemp’s Who Killed Science Fiction? Fannish in the sense of science fiction fandom. It has a rich and varied history and the concerns within the genre are as fraught with angst, ennui, and ambition as any literature.
I am always a bit bemused when I read about this sort of thing, because I came into science fiction through the rotary rack at my local drug store. (Literally—Leuken’s Pharmacy, on the corner of Shenendoah and Compton, a good old fashioned drug store with a soda fountain, a magazine stand, and two circular racks for paperbacks, two blocks from my house.) …