{{  Thanks once again to everyone who sent us a
letter of comment or a fanzine in trade. The letters alone brought us several hours
of pleasant reading while we were organizing this issue’s letters column, and the
fanzines made an impressive-sized stack in the spare bedroom. You know, editing a
letters column isn’t very easy -- trying to keep this lettercol to a manageable size
while still providing a representative sampling of comments received is a tough
balancing act. We do appreciate all the comments on specific articles in your
letters, and please be assured that your comments, whether or not they are printed
in this lettercol, do get passed back to the contributors. First up are a selection of comments
about Dave Kyle’s retrospective article last time on science fiction
movies... }}- - - - - - - - - -
Guy Lillian III, New Orleans, Louisiana In this excellent issue I find many
terrific articles, of which Dave Kyle's reminiscences of early SF movies {{"Golden Ages, Silver Screens" }} stand out as a
gem among gems. One hook of note: Dave Kyle's visit to the 2001 set. Perhaps it's
rank sacrilege, but I disagree with Arthur C. Clarke that his novel explained all
the nuances of that epic. I find it a richer and much more symbolically compelling
work about science and Mankind's Quest Into the Unknown than the rather simplistic
von Daniken pastiche he created. Clarke really has little faith in humanity;
time and again in his works he advances the hope that our only salvation lies in
E.T. Visits from Beyond. Which makes that strange saucerite passenger in A Fall
of Moondust all the more interesting a character.
- - - - - - - - - -
Martin Morse Wooster, Silver Spring, Maryland David Kyle's piece was a pleasant bit
of nostalgia. Kyle makes some errors; Maureen O'Sullivan's performance in Just
Imagine was her third film role, not her first. (O'Sullivan's first two movies
were Song of My Heart and This is London.) And Michael Moorcock was
editor of New Worlds in 1966, not Ted Carnell. But what Kyle captures best
is the simplicity and innocence of an earlier era, when seeing Bela Lugosi perform
was a bright new thrill instead of a sad old memory, and when it was possible to
casually shake the hand of a second lead in a major sf film without being surrounded
by publicists, press agents, and puffery.- - - - - - - - - -
Brian Earl Brown, Detroit, Michigan Dave Kyle is not the only one who
finds the Flash Gordon serials with all their cheesy special effects more
delightful than so much of the SF being filmed today. There are, I think, two
reasons why Flash Gordon remains so enjoyable. One is that throughout it
remains an enthusiastic and optimistic story. We never doubt for a minute that the
evils of the world, as represented by Ming the Merciless, will be defeated. The
future looks bright -- it looks like a place we would like to be. You look at the
Alien or the Terminator series and the future there is dark, dismal,
foreboding and admits to little chance of getting better. It's not a future one
would want to live in.The other thing that, I think, makes
Flash Gordon continue to be so delightful is precisely those silly spaceships
with their smokepot rocket engines. They were the embodiment of the future. I
don't know about anyone else, but I loved to read stories about guys jumping in
their rocketships and cruising around the galaxy. That, to me, was science fiction.
And those rocket ships in Flash Gordon, as cheesy as they were, looked
like what you dreamed spaceships would look, and more importantly, act like. They
added a grand scale to the story. Look at Star Trek: The Next Generation:
the ship is so vast that most stories happen entirely on board it, and as a result,
the series tends to look like a bunch of people running around in their pajamas at a
screwy looking Howard Johnsons. Ultimately, there's a failure to connect. In
Flash Gordon people were always flying around in spaceships which looked like
spaceships. Even the landings had a spaceshipy feel to them.- - - - - - - - - -
Pamela Boal, Charlton Heights, Wantage, Oxon, United Kingdom Dave Kyle evoked many happy memories
for me with his article. With so much angst twixt media and literary fans it is
good to recall the pleasure some readers once had from films. It is possible that
SF readers have a valid critical viewpoint that is overlooked by film critics. Like
Dave, Things To Come gets my vote not only for the 30s but for all time.{{ Other readers, notably Walt Willis, gave
identical praise to Things To Come. Speaking of Walt, coming up are some
comments on his continuing series of articles ("I Remember Me") looking back at the
1950s, the first on Walt's description of Vincent Clarke tape recording Ted Tubb's
picturesque prose. }}- - - - - - - - - -
Alan Sullivan, Stratford, London, United Kingdom The only problem with 'I wish I had
my camera/tape recorder' situations is that if you did have such a device and were
unwise enough to use it, you might not live to tell the tale. Many is the time I
have been told that if I used my camera, that I would need the aid of a proctologist
to recover the film. The events in these letters from Walt's correspondence file
sound like the sort that you look back and laugh -- after the event. I also wonder
if the people involved would have written as freely and easily as they do here, if
they had known that they would later be quoted in a fanzine. Somehow, I suspect
they would. I'm glad to be able to share these fanecdotes. Lloyd Penney's letter prompts me to
respond that damned few, if any, of the fans I know are 'xenophobes' about Canada.
We've enjoyed two previous Worldcons in Canada, and I imagine many fans even look
for a good excuse to go to another country. Not that Canada seems so very foreign,
being next door and (for the most part) speaking the same language, and all that.
I mean, we share the majority of our cultural heritage, and if it comes right down
to it, I've never encountered a non-fan in this country who felt any
hostility towards Canada, much less anything as extreme as xenophobia.So what is going on? Well, for
one thing, very little apparent interest on the Conadian committee in publicizing
their con in fanzine fandom, and no apparent interest in contacting fanzine fans for
fan programming. I mean, no one I know has been contacted in any capacity. I heard
about the convention by accident, at Magicon. Most fans go to conventions to meet
up with their friends from other parts of the country (or other countries). If none
of your friends are going, why should you go? There seems to be a stampede
away from Conadian.{{ Generally, fan programming isn't done for a
Worldcon more than a year in advance. Since Conadian is in 1994, they probably
won't be doing much, if any, programming until ConFrancisco is over; it's useful to
see what worked at the last Worldcon and what didn't. MagiCon set a high standard
that future Worldcons are going to be hard pressed to meet. }}[Also in the letters column,] I'm
glad Harry Warner said it first about Asimov. I'd been wondering if anyone would
break the hypocrisy barrier and comment on Asimov's MCP side. My first meeting with
Asimov occurred at the 1956 NyCon. It was right before the costume ball (as it was
known then), and there were several very attractive women there in skimpy costumes.
One woman had a semi-formal gown, with a low-cut bodice criss-crossed by laces tied
up in a bow. Isaac virtually leaped upon her, crying out that he wanted to untie
her bow. It wasn't meant to be untied, being sewed in place, but Isaac was not to
be deterred. With a yank of both hands, he ripped her bodice down to her waist,
exposing her attractive chest. I believe he expressed contrition after the fact,
but the look of glee on his face had nothing to do with contrition or remorse.Asimov was hardly alone in this kind
of behavior. Buck Coulson mentioned in passing Randy Garrett's 'compromising
situation'; Garrett was such a tomcat that John Campbell refused to allow him to
marry his daughter.{{ Wow, that's an Asimov story that's not
been circulated in fandom; even Dave Kyle, the chairman of the 1956 Worldcon, had
never heard it before. From the way you describe it, though, it sounds like one of
those classic misadventures: Isaac, trying to live up to his lecherous reputation,
perhaps tugged on the bow a little too hard. From then on, it was a
real-world demonstration of Physics in action... }}- - - - - - - - - -
Ed Meskys, Center Harbor, New Hampshire I was surprised at the large role
Harlan played in Buck Coulson's tales of the early Midwestcons. I got onto the
fringes of fandom in late `55 and didn't get really active until `59; by then Harlan
wasn't very active. I remember being in Harlan's Brooklyn apartment with Ted White
when I was just beginning to learn the techniques of putting art onto mimeo stencil.
In that period I occasionally saw Harlan in NY fan circles; I remember a
confrontation between Harlan and Ken Beale at a New Year's party at Frank &
Belle Dietz's. It wasn't face to face, but Harlan kept making remarks about how he
would demolish Ken. The background was explained to me by Alma Hill (now deceased)
from Boston, who had been active in Boston fandom (just before NESFA was formed) and
in the N3F, and who had edited a newsletter for John Campbell's Interplanetary
Exploratory Society. Ken had apparently borrowed a typewriter from Harlan and then
hocked it. Harlan was giving him a hard time, so he sicced the police onto Harlan,
telling them that there were drugs in Harlan's apartment. When the police arrived,
they found weapons like brass knuckles from the time when Harlan had run with a
Brooklyn street gang to do research on a book {{ and arrested him on the spot }}. Harlan eventually wrote another
book about getting arrested, and what followed. I thought the best item in this issue
is Charlotte Proctor's "Night of the Living Dead... Cat." I've taken the liberty of
giving a copy to a cat-loving friend of mine who is also having trouble with
neighbors. Yes, Charlotte's article was, well, Pretty Good. And you didn't mention
her fanzine Anvil, which is Not Too Bad Either.{{ Anvil is one of our favorite fanzines,
too! }}Buck Coulson's article answered a
question that has nagged me for years. He confirms that midwestern fan Rog Ebert --
who published a few poems in fanzines in the early `60s is Roger Ebert of Siskel
& Ebert. I'd have thought he'd have grown up reading Famous Monsters of
Filmland rather than fanzines.{{ It is the one and same Roger Ebert, who was a fan while
he was a college student at the University of Illinois. }}Dave Kyle's article on this memories
and experiences in the SF film world is as informative and entertaining as his two
excellent illustrated books on SF history. Dave is one of the small group of SF
'Movers and Shakers' who really ought to write a full autobiography. His smallest
anecdotes are fascinating.- - - - - - - - - -
Tracy Shannon, Madison, Wisconsin Charlotte Proctor's tale of
neighborly woe is one more that could be collected in a great anthology of Weird
Neighbor Tales. My odd neighbors seem to have a certain synchronicity: at our last
apartment, the downstairs resident was a hopeful guitar ace, and the vibrations
would reach my ears via my feet. I thought we had escaped when we bought our house,
but across the street is another budding Mark Knopfler. He is accompanied on bass
by the muffler of the teenager next door, and vocals are provided by the large dogs
a house over. (The drumming is me beating my head against the wall.)- - - - - - - - - -
Andy Hooper, Seattle, Washington Boy, what a great issue Mimosa
#13 is! Lots of excellent material from outside contributors and very entertaining
editorial contribution from you guys as well. And that cover by Brad Foster was
really superb work. I think I was feeling some kind of residual
disgruntlement over his winning another fan artist Hugo in Orlando, but looking at
this cover, that feeling is completely banished. He really is just about the best;
I think only Linda Michaels can touch him on quality of composition and line, and
only Stu Shiffman and Ken Fletcher can match the expression and invention of his
characters.I'm not sure why it should be so, but
fans from earlier generations seem to have a much more unshakable belief in the
fundamental value of fandom and stf than more modern fans do; certainly chroniclers
like Kyle and Willis have seen their share of ugly feuds and misanthropy, yet they
have not succumbed to the kind of anti-fannish, down-in-the-mouth gafia that so many
modern fans seem prone to. Of course, people who felt differently have left the
field, and so we have an image of sixth and earlier fandoms as being
disproportionately cheerful. The time will come, however, when someone will have
to step forward and write a history that includes such things as the Breendoggle
{{ a fracas before as well as during the 1964
Worldcon }} and the Topic A war {{ the 1980s
TAFF unpleasantness }}, without indicting the whole fannish firmament in the
process. And whoever takes on that task would probably appreciate it if certain
anecdotes and events were recorded for posterity beforehand.Speaking of Dave Kyle, his piece was
quite good, a kind of counterpart to Forry Ackerman's many accounts of life as a
fantasy film fan. I think it's a shame that the Starfire Award and associated
activities fell by the wayside; media fandom could really use a scholarly fraternity
to recognize and promote serious work in their area of interest.Farber and Thayer both contribute
strong additions to their respective canons. David's piece {{ "Play Ambushes and Other Surprises" }} in
particular appealed to me, as it put me in mind of organized hikes and orienteering
exercises of my own youth, where no one knew what they were doing and did their best
to hide the fact. And I also admired Charlotte Proctor's piece, and the way she was
able to make something very funny out of what was probably a pretty unhappy
experience. Charlotte really writes very well; I wish we saw more of her stuff
showing up in other editors fanzines now and again. Walt Willis' exploration of his
letter files is inspiring; one of the benefits of publishing a small zine is that I
am gradually building up a backlog of unpublished letters of my own, and it will be
fun to someday bring them to light as well.I'm not surprised to see that my
comments on Worldcon occasioned a few other Loccers to comment. The real reason
that Carrie and I are not planning to go to Winnipeg is that we will need a year off
from Worldcon in order to gear up for going to Glasgow. We've been bent on
attending the latter since we first saw the bid, and I hope to be able to do it up
right. But in general, the business of Worldcon bidding and voting is an ugly one,
and I try to stay out of it as much as possible.{{ Worldcon bidding has gotten very ugly and
unpleasant lately. Fandom is still a hobby, and it's sad to see that what should be
partying and an invitation to a city become a matter of life-and-death to those
bidding. The saddest part is that there seems to be little joy to the activity.
It's almost like a grim death-march on the part of the committee. }} Having met Chuck Harris again at
MagiCon and greatly enjoyed a few brief 'conversations' with him, I wish I could be
there to see his reaction to your reprinting his comments {{ in Walt Willis's article }} about expecting "some
normal sex life this Sunday." Somehow I doubt that was written with any expectation
of it being published in a fanzine almost forty years later and it certainly doesn't
do much to augment Chuch's reputation as a lascivious rogue, so carefully
constructed over such a long period of time and so completely destroyed by one
off-hand remark from the past. One only has to glance at Peggy Ranson's depiction
of a younger Chuck in the library to see just how successful he has been in building
this image of himself and now...poof...it's completely shot to hell. It's
almost a shame... (I'm really enjoying these excerpts of actual fannish
correspondence from the past and hope Walt can continue to being fanhistory alive
for us in this way for a good many columns -- and a great many past years -- to
come.)David Thayer's piece, while
undoubtedly autobiographical, reads more like fiction than fact although again I'm
absolutely sure that it happened to David in the way he describes. It's just that
nobody ought to be able to remember such an incredible wealth of detail
almost a quarter century after the fact. I'm pretty sure David didn't, but merely
embellished the broad strokes on the canvas of his memory with the fine detail that
makes this such a well-written article. And, as always when I read or hear of
people's activities in the armed forces I am reminded of what a wonderful
decision my father made when he chose to come to Canada instead of to the United
States!For me, the most interesting and
entertaining piece in the issue is Dave Kyle's article about his relationship with
science fiction movies. It was probably a wise editorial decision to put this last
in the issue before the lettercol because very few fanzine contributions could have
followed it successfully. I envy Dave his colourful life and his many adventures
but I suppose I'm also glad I'm young enough not to have lived a similar life and
can settle for sharing parts of the Kyle mystique vicariously.Among the reasons that people might
choose not to attend the Winnipeg worldcon would undoubtedly be that it is the
Winnipeg worldcon. This is hardly a city that will seem attractive to people
planning their annual vacation around our annual family reunion. (There's also the
fact that one of the driving forces behind the con, and one of my oldest friends in
fandom, is notoriously undiplomatic and can manage to annoy people even when
striving to enlist their help. Sad, but true.) As for the thought that people might
stay away out of a sense of sour grapes, I give it little credence: surely you Yanks
will have forgiven the Blue Jays by then?Many people listen to music while
they loc their favourite fanzines. I roasted a pigeon. Just thought you'd like to
know.{{ There's probably a funny line here, but we can't
think of it.}} I love the cover of Mimosa 13.
Brad Foster certainly earns some sort of award for his work. It was interesting to
read of your trip over the South and of the conventions that you have attended
{{ "A Tale of Two Conventions, Part 2" }}. I'm glad
that you liked central Florida so much, though it's not all Disney and Sea World.{{ Actually, this wasn't nearly our first trip to central
Florida. Dick's mother lives in Inverness, Florida, and we stopped there for a
short visit on the way to the convention. }}I was surprised by Lloyd Penney's
attitude about the Canadian worldcon. I gather that some fans aren't going to the
Winnipeg Worldcon but I doubt it is because so some feelings of xenophobia. If
there are less people going to Winnipeg (and I am planning to go) I think that it
has to do more with the fact that Winnipeg doesn't strike people as a tourist center
of the universe like Orlando or San Francisco. I also know many dealers are not
looking forward to try to deal with Canadian customs (though that shouldn't be a
problem if the North American Free Trade Act goes through). I think that any group
of people who voted for Winnipeg and then for Glasgow deserves to be not called
xenophobes. Sure, most people support a convention that is close to them; that's
why I supported Orlando, even though I wondered if the local fan groups could pull
it off. I think that many fans, however, do take the 'World' in Worldcon very
seriously and are willing to give the benefit of doubt to a group that looks like it
can pull it off.- - - - - - - - - -
Simon Green, Bradford-on-Avon, Wilts, United Kingdom Interesting piece of yours on the two
conventions. I'm hoping to be at the Worldcon in `95, since it's in Britain. The
last one I attended was the `79 Worldcon, where I was in a spillover hotel. My room
was a fire exit. I'm not kidding. On my door was a large sign saying 'Fire Exit',
and a hammer was attached to the door by a length of chain. In an emergency, you
rushed to my room, smashed the lock with the hammer, ran across the room and onto
the fire escape outside. I slept every night with a chair jammed up against the
door; no one was getting in without me knowing.Sharon Farber's piece on strange
medical tales {{ "Tales of Adventure and
Medical Life, Part VIII” }} strikes an echo with me. I recently had to have
a wisdom tooth removed. My dentist declined the job as a bit too complicated, and
sent me to the local hospital. The first thing I was told was that I shouldn't
worry about the extraction. "You'll suffer traumatic amnesia, and won't remember a
thing." What this meant was, that the proceedings would be so harrowing that I
wouldn't want to remember it. Very comforting. Turns out, what they actually do
is dig a trench around the tooth in the gum with a scalpel, so they can get at it,
and then they use a hammer and chisel to dig it out bit by bit.I immediately demanded a total
anaesthetic, and a long interview with the tooth fairy. What I got was a megadose
of valium, which apparently also helps to rub out short term memory. Result was, I
sat in a chair in the hospital, and they gave me an injection in the back of the
hand with what looked like a horse needle. I was also somewhat taken aback at where
they stuck it. I've had needles in a few funny places in my time, but the back of
the hand was a new one on me. The next thing I know, I'm back home sitting in a
chair by the fire.I have no memory for the extraction,
getting up and leaving the hospital, or being driven home. Very strange. It feels
like my mind's been edited...- - - - - - - - - -
Rhodri James, Cambridge, United Kingdom Sharon Farber's piece on hysterics
was interesting and did actually provoke some memories of my own. My father used to
work as a Disablement Resettlement Officer, a grand title for someone who is
supposed to find jobs for disabled people (and if someone says 'differently abled'
to me one more time I shall scream!). Many of the people he had to try to
help were, if not hysteric, then at least not as badly disabled as they liked to
think. One particular case that he told me about was that of a young man,
wheelchair-bound I think, whose mother insisted long and loud that he be found a
job. Dad guessed what was coming, and was very dubious about making much of an
effort. This rather shocked the social worker on the case with him, so he dug
around and come up with a vacancy for a manual job that was well within the young
man's capabilities. The mother was horrified. "He can't do that!" she exclaimed,
inventing several new spurious disabilities on the spot to prove how a cruel
government was mistreating her offspring. The social worker conceded defeat. What
the young man's opinion was, or whether he was allowed to have one, I never did
discover.In the letters column, Darroll
Pardoe's mention of Arthur Pedrick's orbital weapon and selective catflap patent was
a perfect example off synchronicity at work. You see, my (ex-)landlord is a trainee
patent agent, and one evening he brought home a copy of that patent for our
amusement and his study. I smiled, turned to the next loc in the copy of
Mimosa that had arrived just that morning, which seemed to concern a
strangely familiar patent application... My personal favourite of these loopy
patents is the mechanism for making it easier to open and close Venetian blinds.
The justification paragraphs were positively purple; while closing your blind in
a hurry was hardly the greatest problem in this age of the Nuclear Threat, it
explained, it was none the less reassuring to know that your eyes could be safely
shielded from the nuclear thunderflash while your neighbours were still fumbling for
their draw-cords.Also, I did like Diana Stein's
letters column title illo. Are all your letters that lively? Your postman must go
through hell!- - - - - - - - - -
K. Hainsworth, Redondo Beach, California My interest in Sharon Farber's
medical series keeps growing. From the responses in Mimosa's lettercolumn,
it's clear that many other readers love this series, too. I suspect that this is
because of Sharon's presentation of herself and other doctors not as the usual
all-powerful healers, but as humans, who, like everyone else, must at times resort
to guesswork, trial-and-error, and deception to get their jobs done. This departure
from the traditional mystery and omnipotence that the medical profession shrouds
itself in is commendable honest and makes for compelling reading. Sharon's
descriptions of the pathetically wacky patients she encounters and her reactions to
them make her writing a rare combination of informative and entertaining. I'm
really looking forward to future installments.- - - - - - - - - -
Richard Dengrove, Alexandria, Virginia I loved your Jophan Family Reunion
and the great baked potato rescue. It's just like the hijinks of the `50s fans in
Harry Warner's book A Wealth of Fable. I'm glad you're trying to keep up
some of the vigor of fandom as it ages. On the other hand, aren't you guys getting
too old for such shenanigans? ...Eh! Never too old.Sharon Farber's latest installment is
also interesting. However, I thought the Munchausen Syndrome was rarer than that.
It appears not: it appears we have fake sick people all about us. Maybe if we have
enough of them, they will have the real disease and people with the real disease
will be faking it. ...Maybe not.In the letters column, Sam Long
claims that physicians who go into writing often make excellent authors because of
their training in close observation, deduction, and the careful and exact use of
words. Having a father for a doctor and a brother for a doctor, and knowing a lot
of other doctors, I can say that isn't so. Farber is one of the exceptions.
Usually medical writing is to clear writing as medical music is to music. Ah, you
haven't heard of any medical music lately? Well, that's the idea. That was a neat trick Charlotte
Proctor pulled on the motel with the Jophan Family Reunion, but given the spreading
interconnection of fandom I could believe a con that genuinely was a family reunion,
given the spreading connectivity of marriage, divorce, remarriage, and so on. And
the interaction with Roger Weddall has a special poignancy."I Remember Me" had a special
interest for me this time. Willis is writing about the year I was born. As for
James White's stay in the hospital, has this slipped down from Sharon Farber's
column? Farber all the time, Brandt in Mimosa 12 with toxic shock, and now
Willis on iatrogenic ailments... is Mimosa becoming the fanzine of medical
history? Do you want an article on the diagnosis of Crohn's disease, written by the
sump for all those tubes, scopes, needles, et cetera?{{ Thanks, but no... }}
- - - - - - - - - -
Adrienne Losin, Mornington, Victoria, Australia Thanks for your wonderful
Mimosa. Congratulations on a well-deserved award. Your obituary to Roger
Weddall {{ "Remembering Roger" }} was the finest I've
read. Roger and I went to the same high school for several years and before my
arrival he'd been the top math student -- he didn't like being beaten by a newcomer
and a girl. He and a couple of his friends persecuted me, until I'd had enough and
I flattened him! His bullying friends ran away. They left me alone after I proved
I could defend myself. (I'd started learning judo when I was six.) For years
after, Roger tried to rival me -- in running conventions, zines, and was really
bugged when I ignored him and his efforts weren't always very successful. It was
only after he travelled to Africa, and had a few adventures, including breaking his
leg and nearly dying, that he matured mentally. Then he became my friend. I miss
him.{{ Many other correspondents reacted as we did on
learning of the death of Roger Weddall: shock, anger, and sorrow. Perhaps typical
of these comments was one from Alan Sullivan, who wrote: "Cherish the
memories of the good times. That's the best way to remember someone, when they're
gone." Roger's trip to North America and attendance at Magicon made him many
friends, but he might be remembered as one of fandom's best correspondents, as this
next letter seems to indicate: }}- - - - - - - - - -
Ahrvid Engholm, Stockholm, Sweden I was sad to hear about Roger Weddall.
I received many copies of Thyme (also after he was no longer personally
involved) and occasional letters from him. I sent him my own fanzine in trade,
Fanytt as it was called then (it's now SF-Journalen) -- which is in
Swedish. I thought that even if he couldn't read it, he should get something in
return. I was quite amazed when I then received a letter from Roger where he
actually made comments to details in an issue! Apparently he had found some
Swedish-English dictionary and had translated interesting parts for himself, trying
to learn some Swedish, not without success. I got at least a couple of letters with
comments to different issues.He must have been quite talented with
languages. More talented than me. I would never be able to learn Australian.{{ You might be interested to know that Roger wrote about
this same exchange in the first letter we ever received from him (which was
reprinted in the M3 letters column). Until now, though, we didn't know the
Swedish fan he had corresponded with was you.}}- - - - - - - - - -
Jack Herman, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia In M13, I enjoyed most of all
the story of your trip to Magicon, with all its ancillary adventures. I'm glad you
got to meet Roger. He was the co-chair of the first National Convention I attended
(in 1978), and he was one of the few faces that I could be guaranteed to see at each
of the subsequent Natcons I attended. Cath and I are going across the continent to
Perth for this year's con at Easter and one of the things I will surely notice is
Roger's absence. His energy and joy of life were an integral part of the Natcon
experience for so many people and for so many years.In the letters column, I trust George
Flynn is joking when he talks of convention video. If he isn't, then Boston is a
long way behind the time. We produced, in very limited numbers, a six-hour video,
on 2 three-hour tapes, of Syncon 83, a Natcon chaired by me and starring a kid sure
to go far in the convention GoH game, Harlan Ellison. Personally, I think the whole
idea of cons is that they remain evanescent. Remembered only through (fallible)
memories -- like Buck's recall of early Midwestcons -- or very biased reportage of
the contemporary con reports.Mind you, coming from a small fannish
community, I still find it hard to understand the American fannish culture that
distinguishes so much between convention fans and fanzine fans. Out here we haven't
enough to go around, so fanzine fans organize cons and con fans write zines. Of
late no-one has been doing much of either, so there is probably a screw loose in my
analogy somewhere.- - - - - - - - - -
Buck Coulson, Hartford City, Indiana I disagree slightly with George Flynn.
It's not that cons are perishable, but that even with nametags it's much harder to
remember the names of the people you meet. Fanzines have the names right there in
print. When Lois McMaster Bujold's first book came out, I was told to see her at
Marcon and get a copy, because it was very good. My reaction was, "Never heard of
her; fat chance I'll have of ever seeing her among 1800 people." Then I walked in
the door of the con and this woman I'd been talking to at cons for years came up and
handed me her book. I knew her all right; liked her and enjoyed talking with her.
But I'd never had an idea of what her name was. I suppose that may be part of what
George meant as 'perishable', but I think of it strictly as 'the name problem' and
videos won't help much, unless there are a lot of closeups of name-tags.Also, Don Fitch's letter {{ about the life expectancy of older fanzines }}
overly pessimistic. Pulp paper lasts quite a bit longer than 50 years. I have some
1930s fanzines that are in about as good a shape as they were when published. The
staples have rusted and stained the paper around them, but they're still holding the
pages together. It might depend a bit on where one lives, of course, but barring
fires, I should think that copies of Mimosa should last into the 22nd
Century. (So should Yandro.) And yes, the 1930s fanzines I have are on pulp
paper; I realize that some of them were on better quality material.{{ That's good news. The timebinding quality of old
fanzines is something that future generations of fans should be allowed to
experience. But now the question becomes: "How do we ensure that fan artifacts such
as fanzines are kept for future generations?" An answer to that one might not be so
easy. }}- - - - - - - - - -
Steve Jeffery, Kidlington, Oxon, United Kingdom The Brad Foster cover is wonderful!
More so when I realized it was a wraparound to the bacover. By strange coincidence
it's almost a spoof version of the Bea John illo we'd planned to use for our next
Inception cover. It that Brad himself on the bottom left of the back cover,
doodling during the magician's demonstration? {{ Yes. }} Nice touch by B Ware on the inner cover title. I gather
from the black cat, ladder and cracked mirror for Mimosa 13 that you're not
superstitious (or are you just tempting fate?).Congratulations on 'Best Fanzine'.
I'd heard of the Hugo award mix up before, and while it causes all sort of red faces
and confusion at the time, it passes into fanhistory as an event -- the Hugo that
was awarded twice -- and will doubly fix your name in the listings.John Berry's recollections of George
Charters and Irish fandom {{ "Magna Charters" }}
have the touch of the surreal humor of the BBC radio Goon Show of the time
(not, as one confused BBC program planner is supposed to have queried of Sellers and
Milligan "What's this 'Go On show', then?"). Sadly this has almost totally gone,
and our last experience of the Irish SF convention at Trincon, seemed to be bogged
down in bitter disputes over Trekkies wandering about in full nerd regalia (the
first, and hopefully last, time I'd seen a Vulcan with a beer gut).Vin¢ Clarke has filled me in on
more of the background to the Chuch/Willis 'maps' saga, and the 38 year late sequel
of Vin¢'s 'philately' in the last Mimosa remains a wonderfully funny
postscript {{ to Vince's article about map
stamps in M12 }}. (I note that my handwriting slopes severely
backwards and wonder if Chuch was also a southpaw.) As a footnote to Terry Jeeves'
letter about boring UK stamps, the GPO have just issued a set commemorating classic
Children's comics. A first day cover of Rupert the Bear winged immediately to my
father. Guernsey, as Vikki found later in a stamp shop, had already issued a
complete set of Rupert stamps.Also in the lettercol, I agree with
Matthias Hofmann that Mimosa tends to gloss over the later decades of fandom
(you only counted up to the `60s in your reply; what happened to the `70s and `80s?).
The `70s (at least in the UK) seem to have been associated with the rise of RatFandom
(fandom red in tooth and claw) but until Rob Hansen's Then reaches this
decade I only know it by reputation. I wonder if this is a similar disillusioned
reaction to the souring of the end of the sixties. I would be interesting to put
fannish cycles into a broader historical context (or are we that isolated from the
real world?) from what seems the enthusiastic lunacy of the fifties to the inward
looking nostalgia (navel gazing, if you want to be cruel) that seems prevalent since
I joined the scene in the late eighties.- - - - - - - - - -
Vincent Clarke, Welling, Kent, United Kingdom It was weird reading John Berry's `93
style, as I've just been engaged in helping Ken Cheslin to start on reprinting
John's mid-to-late `50s fiction. This was popular enough in its day for John to be
the recipient of a special fund for getting him across the Atlantic to meet U.S.
fans {{ in 1959 }}, but the stories are thick with
contemporary references. It'll be very interesting to see how `90s fans react to
them.And yes, that was a good answer to
Terry Jeeves {{ about the founding of the
British Science Fiction Association }}; after setting the ball rolling, I
couldn't get to the Convention where BSFA was formed, but was happy to leave it in
the capable hands of contemporary administrators... at the time, I was heavily
involved in non-fan affairs, anyway. Alas, the BSFA was originally intended to
direct the reader into fandom, but in 5 years this origin was being decried, and sf
for its own sake was the aim. Sercon ruled. Thus, virtually a waste area for new
faans in the `60s in Britain.In his LoC, Don Fitch comments on the
durability of fanzines. Here's a word of cheer. I have them stretching back to the
`30s, and aside form the odd few done with jelly hektographs which fade alarmingly,
they all, printed or duplicated or whatever, sneer at the Ravages of Time.Except for one.Every time I remove Lee Hoffman's
early `50s Quandrys from their envelope, the carpet gets dandruff. Tiny
fragments of paper all over. Years before those TV heroes had self-destructive
audio cassettes, Lee had the self-destructive fanzine.Thank Ghu Joe Siclari reprinted some
(hint) of those early issues. John Berry is back in his old form as
a fanzine writer in his reminiscences of George Charters. A few of his recent
fanzine contributions have seemed just a trifle strained, as if he were attempting
to reconcile his present writing style with that which he made famous a third of a
century ago. But this time he's writing freely and wonderfully just as he used to
do. It's nice to have George immortalized in print in this manner, since he must be
one of the lesser known stars in the Irish Fandom constellation of mid-century.Once again, I'm immensely impressed
by David Thayer's writing when he does it at length, and that seems to be only when
he writes for Mimosa. We associate him mostly with postcards of comment and
captions to his cartoons as a writer, and I wish he would do more extended pieces on
any subject at all more frequently, like the military reminiscences he's been
providing for you.- - - - - - - - - -
Bill Bodden, Austin, Texas John Berry's piece on Irish Fandom
was delightful. In the past, I've often been less than charitable towards fanzine
fandom's attitude of treasuring the past writers while largely ignoring those of the
present. This piece fairly clearly illustrates the value of the former. There are
no shortages of stories recounting the exploits of Walter Willis, Chuck Harris,
Arthur Thomson, Vince Clarke and James White; indeed their exploits seem to form the
basis for many of Fandom's most cherished traditions. However, a piece like this
one reminds us that there are a good many fans out there who aren't such big names,
but still deserve tribute. George Charters is well remembered.{{ As is Nancy Moore in this issue. }}David Thayer's piece on his
experiences during basic training was enlightening. Often I've know pranksters such
as he, but rarely have I known them to get away with so much, especially in the Army.
Very entertaining.Finally, Dave Kyle's article reminded
me how much more fantastic SF films used to be when I didn't know a thing about how
they were made. In spite of this jaded attitude, his reminiscences were a stroll
down memory lane that I thoroughly enjoyed.- - - - - - - - - -
Naomi Fisher, Lexington, Kentucky Re Matthias Hofman's letter: there
just isn't the same urgency yet about describing fandom in the nineties as there is
for the `40s, `50s and `60s. There are, simply, fewer people left who can tell of
the way things were then than there are those who can speak of the way things are
now. Don't worry about being too 'yesterday-oriented' -- you're doing what needs to
be done, the sooner, the better. Let those who don't have the old memories
record their actions -- heaven knows, they will anyway, probably on camcorder.Harry Warner, Jr.'s incident with the
Army officer {{ in "When Fanac Was a Four
Letter Word” }} was surreal. I think the man's behavior was sufficient
explanation for why he lost his security clearance -- he stepped off into the deep
end without benefit of water wings. 'Fanac You!' could become a new expletive,
suitable for accompanying rude gestures toward Nashville drivers.>{{ As well as the ones here in Maryland... }}- - - - - - - - - -
Donald L. Franson, North Hollywood, California I have never put out a fanzine. (Yes,
I know, this is an unbelievable first line, on a par with another one I saw in a
recent Mimosa: 'I certainly agree with Joseph Nicholas.') Some call Trash
Barrel a fanzine, but I consider it a fanzine review column {{ It also appears as part of The National Fantasy
Fan, a publication of the N3F }}, which I send to faneds reviewed and
others. I could qualify this to say that I edited beaucoup N3F zines, had an
apazine of my own, and did special publications, but I didn't do the actual
publishing.In these depression days, conventions
cost too much, but I've seen it countered, publishing fanzines cost too much (I
know). Nevertheless, newcomers should be told that they don't have to actually
publish a fanzine (at least right away) and that they can become a fanzine fan on
the cheap by just sending letters, costing the stationery and maybe a sheet of
stamps ($29) or less. With 100 letters, not all at once, or mass-produced of
course, you could certainly get started on our hobby quite quickly. Of course, you
have to find out about fanzines, and that's where fanzine reviews come in.I'm glad to see more fanzine reviews
in fanzines, which might attract curious outsiders. One fanzine leads to another,
and before you know it, presto, you're a fanzine fan.- - - - - - - - - -
Ben Indeck, Teaneck, New Jersey Thank you for No. 13, a fortuitous
number in this case, signifying another delightful issue of the prize-winner. The
covers by that reformed reprobate Brad Foster (happily chaste here) (or unhappily,
depending on what one wants) are entirely wonderful. He is abundantly talented. I
urge your readers to write him and buy from him! He has a book laboriously
hand-made into a perfect bound paperback, with a signed drawing as dedication for
the purchaser, and every fan should have a copy. It is, furthermore, G-rated!- - - - - - - - - -
We Also Heard From: Eve Ackerman; Barbara Adams; Harry Andruschak; Lon Atkins; Mark Blackman; Linda Blanchard; Robert Bloch; David Bratman; Ned Brooks; Terry Broome; Gary Brown; Russ Chauvenet; Ken Cheslin; Chester Cuthbert; Cathy Doyle; Allison Dyar; Leigh Edmonds; Walter Ernsting; Tom Feller; George Flynn; Meade Frierson III; Tom Fülöpp; Tim Gatewood; Steve Green; John Guidry; Lynn Hickman; Craig Hilton; Josip Kovacic; Irv Koch; Dave Kyle; Ken Lake; Dave Langford; Fred Lerner; Fred Liddle; Eric Lindsay; Sam Long; J. R. Madden; Shinji Maki; Janice Murray; Pär Nilsson; Mark Olson; Lloyd Penney; Derek Pickles; Charlotte Proctor; Dave Rowe; Joy Sanderson; Ben Schilling; Michael Shannon; Robert Whitaker Sirignano; Steve Sneyd; Els Somers; Dale Speirs; David Thayer; Ron Trout; R Laurraine Tutihasi; Shelby Vick; Roger Waddington; Michael Waite; Taral Wayne; Beryl and Brandon Weddall; Henry Welch; Walt Willis; Taras Wolansky, and Link Yaco. Thanks to All!  Title illustration by Kip Williams Other illustrations by William Rotsler & Steve Stiles, William Rotsler, and Diana Harlan Stein |
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