I spent about 40 years teaching so naturally my favorite story in The Best from Fantasy and Science Fiction, Series 16 is Lloyd Biggle, Jr.’s “And Madly Teach.” There was a big push in the Sixties (and later in the Seventies) to replace teachers with technology. If you’re of a certain age, you’ll remember your teachers using overhead projectors, movie projectors, and slide projectors. Later, TV in the classroom turned into another failure. “And Madly Teach” extrapolates this trend to its logical conclusion. However, ZOOM is not mentioned.
The most famous story in this anthology is Philip K. Dick’s “We Can Remember It for You Wholesale,” first published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction in April 1966. Dick creates a melding of reality, false memory, and real memory into an ominous mix. “We Can Remember It for You Wholesale” was adapted into the 1990 film Total Recall with Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Edward L. Ferman includes several “forgotten” writers: Gilbert Thomas, Joan Patricia Basch, Mose Mallet, John Shepley and Robert M. Green, Jr. But well known writers like Isaac Asimov, John Christopher, Ron Goulart, Kenneth Bummer, Norman Spinrad, and Roger Zelazny are represented, too. Ferman delivers another solid anthology with The Best from Fantasy and Science Fiction, Series 16. GRADE: B+
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
- 1 • Introduction (The Best from Fantasy and Science Fiction: 16) • (1967) • essay by Edward L. Ferman
- 9 • Luana • (1966) • short story by Gilbert Thomas
- 19 • And Madly Teach • (1966) • novelette by Lloyd Biggle, Jr.
- 52 • Matog • (1966) • short story by Joan Patricia Basch
- 67 • The Key • [Wendell Urth] • (1966) • novelette by Isaac Asimov
- 100 • The Seven Wonders of the Universe • (1966) • short story by Mose Mallette
- 115 • A Few Kindred Spirits • (1965) • short story by John Christopher
- 126 • We Can Remember It for You Wholesale • (1966) • novelette by Philip K. Dick
- 150 • Three for Carnival • (1966) • short story by John Shepley
- 158 • Experiment in Autobiography • [Jose Silvera] • (1966) • short story by Ron Goulart
- 169 • The Adjusted • (1966) • short story by Kenneth Bulmer
- 178 • The Age of Invention • (1966) • short story by Norman Spinrad
- 184 • Apology to Inky • (1966) • novelette by Robert M. Green, Jr.
- 220 • This Moment of the Storm • (1966) • novelette by Roger Zelazny
God, I remember the clunky, useless overhead projectors and those clanky, foul-smelling 16mm projectors. We also had film strips (sort of like a slide projector) with an accompanying tape recorder for sound. All of this slowed learning to a crawl and once teachers started hauling out TVs it was clear even to us kids that they just wanted a free day.
I can remember PBS (in its earlier days) being an easy out; particularly SESAME STREET and MR. ROGERS. On the other hand, we did watch a lot of Apollo lift offs and moon walks I would have missed otherwise so not a complete waste.
Byron, how could I forget film strips! They became Standard Equipment for most U.S. classrooms. Boards of Education were convinced that technology could teach better than teachers could.
I can think of one teacher who changed my life and a good half dozen others who were very influential. I can’t say the same about a single film strip!
Byron, the Technology in Education movement really wanted to replace teachers with machines. ZOOM is just the latest step in that process.
I really don’t think Kenneth was a bummer.
A VG anthology with a lot of hits and few misses. Ferman’s editorship of F&SF ranks well with previous editors Boucher, McComas, Mills, and Davidson, each putting their individual stamp on the magazine while not sacrificing quality.
Jerry, Boucher, McComas, Mills, and Davidson basically did what Ferman did: pick stories they thought were best. Of course, tastes vary.
I was readin F&SF regularly by this time. I remember liking The Gree, Bulmer, and Zelazny stories but haven’t read any of them since then, The Dick I have read several times over the years. Probably the best story here or at least the best known.
Steve, Philip K. Dick was on a publishing roll around this time. Plenty of great novels and stories appeared during these years!
I’d rank this on3 so-so. I like the Dick and Zelanzy, but many here are misses for me. Though many disagree, including Todd and, I think, you, I ranked the big three magazines of the time as Astounding, Galaxy, F&SF..
Rick, around the mid-1960s I was constantly reading WORLDS OF TOMORROW, GALAXY, IF, AMAZING, and FANTASTIC. I picked up copies of ANALOG and F&SF when they came my way.
I started out reading ANALOG, then switched to IF for a while, and when I landed on F&SF I stayed there. I read the other magazines on occasion, but those I read regularly, one at a time.
Jeff, I enjoyed the serials that F&SF ran. And their special issues featuring a single author.
In the university city F&SF was almost impossible to get, but Astounding/Analog I bought regularly.
OT
So proud to have the first edition of Dune,!
Wolf, you should be proud to have a first edition of DUNE! A signed First Edition of DUNE is going for $10,000 here.
“Luana” was the story in this volume that has stuck with me, even more than the Dick which was travestied by the film version.
Though I had other teachers and professors who used overhead projectors from time to time, reference to them always reminds me of the 2nd Grade English “teacher” in W. Peabody, MA, who on three occasions went into a sustained screaming fit at me. The third time she did so, it was because she was ineptly trying to show us a magazine article with an overhead, and I was looking occasionally at the clay artwork her homeroom class had been working on, on a side counter. She apparently considered me her whipping boy, and interrupted the neighboring classroom to send me in there to fashion something out of clay as punishment for my “disruptive” behavior. Of occasionally looking away from the screen…not interrupting her nor otherwise distracting anyone else.
Her fatal mistake…she was presumably reported by the teacher she had interrupted, and was gone within a day or two. I didn’t use the phrase as a 7yo, but definitely thought at the time, “Good riddance.”
I am of the age that, when one mentions education, television and ZOOM, I first think of the 1970s Boston-produced young teens variety show on PBS. Even given how often I’ve used Zoom.
Todd, I’ve experienced some inept teachers during my K-12 education. Many just seemed just burned-out and were waiting for retirement. At College, other students told you which professors to avoid, but even then I had to take some dismal classes because an unsatisfactory professor was the only one who taught that Required Course.