A Vision for “James Gunn’s Ad Astra”
by Jean Asselin, Editor
Our namesake, James Gunn, says that fantasy and science fiction (SF) are literatures of discontinuity—the world of the story differs from the one we live in—with one essential difference: SF traces a path from here to there. I value that path. The greatest dreams are realized by thinking about what can be, rather than what never will.
Moreover, I want Ad Astra to raise our eyes above the horizon. The magazine is not called “The Limits to Growth” or “Earth Is Room Enough” but Ad Astra: To the stars.
When I hear people suggest SF should concentrate on the near future, I shake my head. In response to those in NASA who wanted a safer Apollo 15 landing site, astronaut Dave Scott tipped the balance for the more challenging Apennine Mountains: “I believe there is something to be said for exploring beautiful places. It’s good for the spirit.”
For SF, beautiful is a future so remote readers will approach an idea that, put in the present, triggers, “No thanks, I already know all I want to know about that.” Places like a society where getting rich by enslaving others in all but name gets you committed. Places like exoplanets with beautifully wiser lifeforms, perhaps in a zone habitable to us… READ FULL ARTICLE
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