Talk:Dynamic Science Fiction

GA Review

This review is transcluded from Talk:Dynamic Science Fiction/GA1. The edit link for this section can be used to add comments to the review.

Reviewer: J Milburn (talk · contribs) 14:29, 10 August 2014 (UTC)

Happy to offer a review. I don't think I've ever been involved in reviewing your articles, but I have looked over them before. I suspect you have mostly perfected the format now! J Milburn (talk) 14:29, 10 August 2014 (UTC)

Hah! I wish. I certainly have habits, but every time I get a good reviewer I learn something new, so I suspect perfection is still waiting. Mike Christie (talk - contribs - library) 01:27, 11 August 2014 (UTC)

• "Dynamic Science Fiction was the junior of the three magazines Lowndes edited" What does this mean?

  I've seen this terminology in the histories a couple of times; it refers to when a publishing house has multiple magazines in a single genre, and it means that a given magazine is not the earliest of them. In this case Silberkleit had started Future, Science Fiction Quarterly, and Science Fiction Stories in the 1940s, so Dynamic was the junior in that sense. In the article I cite Ashley as if being "junior" meant that rates were likely to be lower, but in fact that wasn't generally the case -- rates often were the same at all magazines for a given publisher. I went ahead and cut the comment; it's not that informative, and Ashley doesn't really make much use of the point, so I don't think it's worth keeping. Mike Christie (talk - contribs - library) 01:27, 11 August 2014 (UTC)

• "It was priced at 25 cents throughout" Perhaps this is something you prefer not to do, but in similar articles I have seen this translated into 2010s prices. I have no idea, and not just because I'm British, what 25 cents could buy you in 1952. I'm not really sure what 1/- could buy you in 1952's UK, either.

  I've not typically done this, but I don't see why it wouldn't be a good idea. Is there a template that can be used to inflate the price automatically and keep it current, do you know? I think I've seen something like that. Mike Christie (talk - contribs - library) 01:27, 11 August 2014 (UTC)

  Template:Inflation does something similar, but I'm not sure it's quite what we want in this case. See North Pier, Blackpool for another way I've seen it done. Not ideal, but it perhaps does the job. Something to think about. J Milburn (talk) 18:15, 11 August 2014 (UTC)

• How did the content of Dynamic Science Fiction differ from the content of Future Fiction and Science Fiction Quarterly, if at all?

  Given that they all had the same editor I think there probably wasn't much difference -- Lowndes probably just bought what he could and put it in whatever magazine he wanted to. One difference the sources do specify is that SFQ often had a lead novel, but by the 1950s this was not as marked a difference -- the lead stories were often not really novel length. I mention that in the SFQ article, but not here; I don't really see how to bring it up here, given it's really not about this magazine. Mike Christie (talk - contribs - library) 01:27, 11 August 2014 (UTC)

• (Again, happy to defer to your experience if this is a bad idea.) As there were only six issues, you may want to consider listing every piece included in the magazine, if you have access to that information.

  I think that would be too much information, but I have sometimes added links to the isfdb.org page on the magazine in question. I've gone ahead and done that here; the ISFDB is a great resource for that sort of thing. Mike Christie (talk - contribs - library)

• I'm assuming that you have no information about circulation numbers or popularity?

  Unfortunately, no. The US required circulation information to be printed in every magazine starting in about 1962, just too late for the pulp era. Prior to that you have to depend on whatever is recorded from the time period, and in this case there's nothing except the statement that the magazine was cancelled because of falling circulation, and even there it's ambiguous because Silberkleit clearly had decided that the time had come to switch to digests at around the same time. Mike Christie (talk - contribs - library) 01:27, 11 August 2014 (UTC)

• On page 14 of [books.google.co.uk/books?id=n-y-9PgtcV8C&source=gbs_navlinks_s About Science Fiction], Gunn claims that he wrote "probably the only thesis serialized in a pulp magazine", which is a nice quote possibly worth including.

  You're right, that is a nice factoid. I found a mention of it in Ashley, and as he's more definite than Gunn, and as Gunn is saying it about himself, I went with Ashley as the source. Mike Christie (talk - contribs - library) 01:27, 11 August 2014 (UTC)

• This article mentions that there was a poll included in Dynamic Science Fiction; any information about this? The fact it's picked out there suggests it may be worth including.

  I'm hesitant about this -- this is just a casual mention in an article. It's certainly a reliable source (and I could source it from the magazines themselves) but I'm leaning towards not including it. Mike Christie (talk - contribs - library) 01:27, 11 August 2014 (UTC)

• Your call whether this actually matters, but there's a story from Dynamic Science Fiction in The Third Golden Age of Science Fiction Megapack: Poul Anderson ("The Chapter Ends", January 1954)

  I don't think so -- I do mention anthologies where they are drawn primarily from one magazine, but in this case I don't think it's enough, unless there were some discussion of the magazine -- e.g. in the preface to the anthology. If Anderson says something like "this is the finest story Dynamic printed", I think that would be worth including, but I don't have the anthology, unfortunately. Mike Christie (talk - contribs - library) 01:27, 11 August 2014 (UTC)

Sources are great, image is strong and the copyright claim seems plausible- I take your word for it, if you're sure. Great stuff- exactly the kind of thing which makes Wikipedia so interesting. J Milburn (talk) 14:57, 10 August 2014 (UTC)

Thank you! I wish this could have been made substantial enough for FA, but I don't think it really can -- what I've included is just about everything I could find about the magazine. Mike Christie (talk - contribs - library) 01:27, 11 August 2014 (UTC)

I'm impressed you've got this much information for a 6-issue pulp magazine from the fifties, but it does seem that the topic is fairly well studied. I'm going to go ahead and promote at this time- whether to bother with the currency inflation thing is up to you. J Milburn (talk) 18:15, 11 August 2014 (UTC)

I've placed it in Wikipedia:Good articles/Social sciences and society#Magazines and journals- I've no objection to you moving it as appropriate. Keep up the good work! J Milburn (talk) 18:24, 11 August 2014 (UTC)

Thanks -- and thanks for the review! Mike Christie (talk - contribs - library) 10:44, 12 August 2014 (UTC)