# Need science fiction quote **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 29, 2013, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-science-fiction-quote/669928 "2013-09-29T16:17:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2013, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-science-fiction-quote/669928/1 "2013-09-29T16:17:48Z")
Somebody back in the 1940s - probably John W. Campbell, but possibly Robert Heinlein - said that he wanted stories that read as if they were mainstream stories from a magazine of the year 2000. It’s a relatively famous quote but all the search terms are too common for me to find it without first remembering the exact wording of the quote. Can anybody help me stop beating my head against the wall? ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2013, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-science-fiction-quote/669928/2 "2013-09-29T16:27:46Z")
Here’s an allusion to the quote [The History of the Science-fiction Magazine - Michael Ashley, Mike Ashley - Google Books](http://books.google.com/books?id=BjI4-qex0JgC&pg=PA109&lpg=PA109&dq=%22wanted+the+stories+to+read+just+as+though+they+were+contemporary+stories+in+a+future+magazine.%22&source=bl&ots=8kbb1sxipM&sig=6Rt2EiTn4EP3-GsuihN7cMZQpJk&hl=en&sa=X&ei=1lRIUrj-DtSu4AO-sIHYDQ&ved=0CCkQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=%22wanted%20the%20stories%20to%20read%20just%20as%20though%20they%20were%20contemporary%20stories%20in%20a%20future%20magazine.%22&f=false) in a book about science fiction. ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2013, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-science-fiction-quote/669928/3 "2013-09-29T16:38:14Z")
Sounds familiar. Perhaps in Expanded Universe or Grumbles From the Grave ? (I don’t have either in front of me right now) ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2013, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-science-fiction-quote/669928/4 "2013-09-29T16:40:42Z")
> [@Andy\_L](#): > > Here’s an allusion to the quote [The History of the Science-fiction Magazine - Michael Ashley, Mike Ashley - Google Books](http://books.google.com/books?id=BjI4-qex0JgC&pg=PA109&lpg=PA109&dq=%22wanted+the+stories+to+read+just+as+though+they+were+contemporary+stories+in+a+future+magazine.%22&source=bl&ots=8kbb1sxipM&sig=6Rt2EiTn4EP3-GsuihN7cMZQpJk&hl=en&sa=X&ei=1lRIUrj-DtSu4AO-sIHYDQ&ved=0CCkQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=%22wanted%20the%20stories%20to%20read%20just%20as%20though%20they%20were%20contemporary%20stories%20in%20a%20future%20magazine.%22&f=false) in a book about science fiction. Yeah, this sounds closer than what I posted. Though it may be in the books I posted as a quote from Campbell. What’s nagging at my brain is the thought it’s in the preface to the story about a bathroom of her own. We’re not helping you get any closer, are we? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2013, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-science-fiction-quote/669928/5 "2013-09-29T17:26:02Z")
> [@Andy\_L](#): > > Here’s an allusion to the quote [The History of the Science-fiction Magazine - Michael Ashley, Mike Ashley - Google Books](http://books.google.com/books?id=BjI4-qex0JgC&pg=PA109&lpg=PA109&dq=%22wanted+the+stories+to+read+just+as+though+they+were+contemporary+stories+in+a+future+magazine.%22&source=bl&ots=8kbb1sxipM&sig=6Rt2EiTn4EP3-GsuihN7cMZQpJk&hl=en&sa=X&ei=1lRIUrj-DtSu4AO-sIHYDQ&ved=0CCkQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=%22wanted%20the%20stories%20to%20read%20just%20as%20though%20they%20were%20contemporary%20stories%20in%20a%20future%20magazine.%22&f=false) in a book about science fiction. That’s almost certainly the quote I’m thinking of, so it’s definitely Campbell. But now I’m wondering if more people remember the paraphrase than the quote itself. With those keywords I found [this](http://www.enter.net/~torve/critics/Dream/dream1.html): > [@](#): > > This conviction of ability to weigh and measure and map and historically recount the future is apparent in a statement Campbell made in a 1942 issue of Writer’s Digest describing the fiction he wished to buy for Astounding. … Campbell said: “We want stories of the future told for scientifically trained, technically employed adults; central theme usually problems of an ordinary technician employed in an industry of fifty to fifty thousand years hence.” That’s too dull to be a lasting quote. Maybe Campbell himself edited it to a better soundbite. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2013, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-science-fiction-quote/669928/6 "2013-09-30T13:44:55Z")
I love that quote and the notion behind it. It’s what’s made reading Hannu Rajaniemi and Iain M. Banks so freaking awesome. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2013, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-science-fiction-quote/669928/7 "2013-09-30T14:50:24Z")
Wasn’t that the guiding gist of the “prophesied” issue (ASF, 11/49)? That JWC wanted to publish a mainstream magazine from 100 years in the future, or some such? ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2013, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-science-fiction-quote/669928/8 "2013-09-30T16:44:15Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > Wasn’t that the guiding gist of the “prophesied” issue (ASF, 11/49)? That JWC wanted to publish a mainstream magazine from 100 years in the future, or some such? Not that I know of. In the November 1948 reader’s column he printed a letter from Richard A. Hoen mock-reviewing the stories in the November 1949 issue. Then he had the authors write stories with those titles and themes, if any were mentioned. I don’t think they were set in any particular time.