with letters from Howard Brenton MacDonald, Robert Bloch, David R. Evans, R. Cornelius Jones, Annetta Richardson, Joe J. Fortier, Edwin N. Chamberlain, George Patrick and Bob Carson

“ MacDonald points out, that Transmigration is a sort of degraded perversion of the doctrine of Reincarnation—and for the sake of the yarn I perverted it further. The tale dealt, you may remember, with a priest of Yama—the equivalent of an Occidental devil-worshipper. Devil-worship certainly is a religious perversion. Its doctrines are definitely at odds with recognized Christian theology. Yet in a weird tale, we accept the tenets of the devil-worshippers for the sake of the story, and do not demand that their beliefs accord with established religion. ”

“ This, however, is not accepted by any serious-minded Hindu authority, or student, although it is held by many uneducated people in India. But even granting the idea of Transmigration, Mr. Bloch is at fault in saying that means that a human soul can pass directly into the body of a living animal, us is the case in his story; because no doctrine of the Orient that I know of teaches such. If it goes into an animal at all (and only Transmigration teaches this) the soul does so into the body of a newly born creature, not a living one such a the snake or monkey in his yarn. ”

“ But I stuck to my guns—maintaining that in the disputed field of fantasy any variation on a known legend, myth-pattern, or psychological concept is permissible, provided that it does not strain the reader's credulity. Nothing in any yarn should be at all fantastic or unbelievable. Everything must be factal. Realism, that's what it is. ”

“ We cater to zombies, black sheep, the mentally unbalaced, and even normal fans. Come on—rip our library to pieces, get a membership card, lick our stickers, read our club publication, meet authors, artists, top fans, and amateur editors. ”

“ Howard Brenton MacDonald, M.A., of Yonkers, N.Y., wrote us a very interesting letter about Reincarnation and its rather involved by-paths, pointing out that Robert Bloch—in his story Beauty's Beast (May issue) —had, in his opinion, got his philosophy rather mixed up; so we sent his letter on for Mr. Bloch's answer. First, here is the philosopher's side of things:
In Beauty's Beast Robert Bloch has his Hindu philosophy a trifle mixed. ”

“ The methods employed by the puppet-maker are enough to make any orthodox witch blush in horror—and I know, because several orthodox witches of my acquaintance did. "You can't kill a man that way," they protested. ”

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