I Want A Dish To

[science Fiction Is] That Class Of Prose Narrative Treating Of A Situation That Could Not Arise In The World We Know, But Which Is Hypothesised On The Basis Of Some Innovation In Science Or Technology, Or Pseudo-science Or Pseudo-technology, Whether Human Or Extra-terrestrial In Origin. It Is Distinguished From Pure Fantasy By Its Need To Achieve Verisimilitude And Win The 'willing Suspension Of Disbelief' Through Scientific Plausibility.

The Scandinavians Are Dear People But They've Never Been What You Might Call Bywords For Wit And Sparkle, Have They?

The World That Seemed So Various And New, Well, It Does Contract. One's Burning Desire To Investigate Human Behavior, And To Make, Or Imply, Statements About It, Does Fall Off. And So One Does Find That Early Works Are Full Of Energy And Also Full Of Vulgarity, Crudity, And Incompetence, And Later Works Are More Carefully Finished, And In That Sense Better Literary Products. But . . . There's Often A Freshness That Is Missing In Later Works--for Every Gain There's A Loss. I Think It Evens Out In That Way.

How Wrong People Always Were When They Said: 'it's Better To Know The Worst Than Go On Not Knowing Either Way.' No; They Had It Exactly The Wrong Way Round. Tell Me The Truth, Doctor, I'd Sooner Know. But Only If The Truth Is What I Want To Hear.

It Is No Wonder That People Are So Horrible When They Start Life As Children.