In the Problem Pit

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In essence science fiction reduces the entire continuum of human knowledge to a sort of board game, and by systematically changing the rules of the game one or a few at a time investigates] the possibility of alternate societies ... Science fiction gives us a sort of catalogue of possible worlds. From the wish-book we can pick the ones we want. . .

Some sf people are right-wingers and some are left; some are deeply religious, some not at all; some battle for women's lib or black power or the freedom of the drug scene and some are firmly for the Establishment; and yet all of them are able to join in the game . . .

Perhaps the Method can spread. Perhaps the world at large can learn from sf. And perhaps then the ants won't have to replace us after all.

Frederik Pohl

Choosing which stories to put in an anthology is a lot like being asked which two of my four children should go into a "best of the family" collection. Like most writers, I try to maintain a pose of public professionalism. Also like most writers, in fact I bleed and die with everything I write. The stories don't always turn out to be masterpieces. I will go farther than that: I have written some stories that by anybody's standards, including my own, are awful. (They comprise a thick wad of wastepaper in my file cabinet, or at least the ones that didn't get published anyway do.) But in no case is it the story's fault, it is only mine. And whatever I privately know, it gives me some kind of pain to admit to anyone that this child is in any way deficient, and almost as much pain to claim that this other child is better than the rest.

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