Storytellersunplugged

I read on the first that October is typically a month for short fiction. Well, I’m not an author, so I figured I’d pass on that tradition.

Then I saw how many other people were passing on that tradition as well, and changed my mind.

STILLED VOICE BEL CANTO

I regret to write that as of this issue, we will no longer be featuring original poetry.

For the readers who have paid for subscriptions based solely on our magazine’s reputation as a publisher of new material, I wish to say that I share your disappointment, and I deeply apologize for the format change.

Those who remember last month’s editorial may remember that I promised to give the reasons for any future alterations of format. That was written in anticipation of this column.

It has become an accepted policy to cite polite fictions… pardon the irony… for such changes. As we have never followed the pack, however, I am going to provide a quick summation of the reason for the change.

1) Harper v. Hill. While this case was celebrated in the media at the time, it has since become the obvious tipping point. Miles Harper was reading a book by Joe Hill while in the bathtub. His wife surprised him by opening the door unannounced, and he banged his head against the tile and subsequently drowned. Harper’s son sued, claiming that the novel had gotten the normally languid husband into the state of excitement which caused his rapid movement and death. It was revealed that Miles Harper, while a prodigious reader of more than six books per year, had never read horror or suspense fiction before, and had been encouraged to do so by the ad campaign. Despite the wealth/poverty and racial issues brought forth during argument, the lack of familiarity with the format proved to be the linchpin of the case. Cutting through the legalese, Hill was found partially complicit in Harper’s death.

2) National Athiest Action League v. Lewis. An attempted class action suit against the estate of C.S. Lewis, claiming damages from the theological messages within Lewis’ fiction. This established the precedent that lawsuits could not be brought against authors or their estates for work published prior to Harper v. Hill if physical injury could not be demonstrated. The wording of the decision, however, led to a flurry of similar, more successful lawsuits against subtext and meaning in popular fiction.

3) Consolidated Avionics and Robotics v. Silverberg. This lawsuit nearly bankrupted Robert Silverberg, one of science fiction’s most successful authors, when C.A.R. successfully argued that the capabilities of a vehicle in one of Silverberg’s recent stories created undue pressure upon the industry to meet those capabilities in reality. Using precedent of Harper V. Hill, Thomas v. Palahniuk, and others, the ruling stood a challenge at the Supreme Court.

Unsurprisingly, these and associated rulings have diminished submissions of new fiction to nearly zero. We have been successfully (or so we hope) researching and reprinting some of the best fiction of the previous century, and we have been printing new poetry and nonfiction.

Last month, a decision was rendered in Dobson v. Jacob in which Charlee Jacob was found liable for use of “objectionable imagery” in a two-word segment of one of her poems, and fined $25,000. In light of this, we have decided to shield our poets from potential damages, and have instead used some public domain work from a long-deceased poet named Clark Ashton Smith to fill out our pages.

As always, we hope you, the reader, continue to enjoy the magazine at it evolves and grows.

Yours,
THE EDITOR