At times, things go haywire. In a tiny corner or even in plain sight. And the system so meticulously put together by the architects of societies goes astray. We are the product of political correctness and overconsumption, especially when the articles that are brought to our attention are successfully promoted through advertising techniques that target our primal needs and ancestral traits.
Europe has reached a crossroads; many of us feel it, but refuse to see it clearly. Dark winds are blowing from everywhere, and our senses are dull. Particularly those senses that are responsible for pointing out when things go wrong.
Eagle – a literary publication – is that particular eagle which, although having the wingspan of a bald eagle, is more likely to be the close cousin of the white-tailed eagle. An Old World, European, dignified survivor. And now, The Eagle become EuropaSF – The Pan-European Literary Magazine.
Europe is Old World, a sophisticated lady even older than we can imagine. Europe has fine people, creative and profound. A unique breed. Throughout history, whenever they emigrated in the New World, they helped the American nation blossom.
European SF means classic, good, genuine, profound.
SF literature was born in Europe. That is true. But it travelled across ‘the pond’ to find a fine soil, improving and growing into what it is today, imposing a style of its own.
“How paradoxical, then, that science fiction should be primarily an English-language phenomenon, at least in the minds of the majority of readers – in Europe as well”, says Franz Rottensteiner, an Austrian publisher and critic in the fields of science fiction and speculative fiction, in the preface to his View From Another Shore. European Science Fiction anthology. And he continues, in an interview with Will Scofield: “I think that the great difference between the mass of American SF and the (very rare) European masterpieces is their degree of seriousness, moral seriousness. Best exemplified perhaps by Frederik Pohl’s “Gateway” novels and the Strugatskys’ “Roadside Picnic”.
This magazine on paper become the literary image of The European Speculative Fiction Portal and welcomes the stories and the European authors that make the difference. And we are not talking of another sequel to The Avengers.
Mugur CORNILĂ
