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Happy Encounter
| Original Fiction | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Happy Encounter |
| Author(s): | D.R. Smith |
| Date(s): | May 1938 |
| Length: | |
| Genre: | Humour |
| External Links: | Hosted online. Novae Terrae #23 pp. 16-17. May. 1938. |
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Happy Encounter was a short piece of original fiction published by D.R. Smith in 1938. It tells of a science fiction fan meeting a newer science fiction fan in the street and loathing him instantly.
The lesser fan prefers Fredric Brown's illustrations to Wesso's and enjoys Eando Binder's "Life Eternal". He feels that science fiction can only be enjoyed by a select few with enough imagination to enjoy it. He doesn't read Dickens, Twain, or Tolstoy. He thinks that even in science fiction, H.G. Wells and Olaf Stapledon pale before Nat Schachner. As the lesser fan starts to explain how good Eando Binder is, he walks into a lamppost.
Before he could recover I had jumped on a bus and was home ten minutes later, where I sat down and soothed my feelings by reading Fowler‘s "Modern English Usage" for two interrupted hours.