The Magazine's A Breeze, The Public Reaction Is Not
Getting on the Internet is easy. A computer can be purchased for a very affordable price, and thereafter the expenses are small. When one decides to do a webzine, it is merely a matter of getting things together and putting it up. One need not even be a person to do this. A group effort will serve as well. In fact, putting up a magazine is so easy that one might look out for not doing it by accident. One's magazine slides right in there and there it is.
For this reason, a net magazine is not very unique. But one that is filled with innovations and new ideas does have that quality. I'm not sure that Surprising is one of these, but there are doubtless such webzines. Their editors are trying to accomplish something, rather than merely having something up, as we do here. They want to “put out.” Okay, let them; but we here at Surprising don't want to “change the world” any more than did the Beatles, and we did listen to their various songs before deciding to do this magazine. Our reasoning is that the computer already HAS changed the world, now next is what can be found on it.
Web-surfing finds you quite a load of interesting material such as can be found in the 21 st Century. But your web-search has brought you here, for at least one time, and conceivably as surprised as we are to see you here. Doubtless your reaction is, “It's just like anything else on the Net.” No, it's MIND-BLOWING, CONSCIOUSNESS-EXPANDING MATERIAL OF THE AQUARIAN CYCLE, now you're set straight. We've just got a few things to say, that's all. And if it causes a slight change in people's expressions here and there, maybe that's what we're after. Why? We're somewhat tired of Things As They Are , and would like to see something new, even if we have to assemble it ourselves—always in the spirit of people doing such a thing, of course. The spirit found here is the spirit of Trufandom, perpetuating SF and fantasy in the literary hardship of a world that has come to resemble both forms of literature. Sure, we win doing this—that's to be expected. We have a first-class magazine. Surprising is better than anything else, it's here and you can't keep it down. That's the kind of magazine we like to have. Maybe it'll change your mind about living, to see such an explosive magazine with its good contents. Go ahead, mutate. You'll find these broader horizons are a better view to have and you'll be glad to be part of this uncertain new world.
That's what people who brag sound like, you're not going to see it here but maybe they sound all right. Actually a magazine does not believe in anything or have any real policy, but you know we like to contribute to a new perception of reality or we wouldn't be having these somewhat far out, avant-garde contents. The world, have you notice it, has gotten to sounding kind of Old, always complaining about its Middle Ages, the discovery of iron, one horror-war or another, with or without modern weapons, and how such and such a great man was going about on a wheelchair or gimping charity in a little-known part of a city after it had been going on for quite some time; or they'll say “Hannibal crossed the Alps” and you just know it wasn't easy, nor was it for the people on the other side of those Alps. This stuff is getting to be sugar, we could sweeten our coffee with it. We want a new sound, hear, we don't want to be stuck with all those recriminations about how it was in some early days, this and that and the other thing, the Fate of Man---this is old .
The new thing is to live life and see what's happening, what it's got in it. And this is the attitude toward which our magazine veers.
So now you know what we're about. And I hope you will lean back in that swivel-chair in front of your computer and look the whole magazine over. It's got something in it, either that or it's nothing. Our features aren't timely? Well, we think that they are. We like to say we keep up with things. You might do so as well, as you read it…sure, you're not keeping up with everything, but every little bit counts. If that's not true, maybe nothing else is either.