{{
As we mention in our opening comments, it's been a sad holiday season, with the
deaths of two of our fan friends, Ian Gunn and Vincent Clarke. There wasn't enough
time to include remembrances of them in this issue, but we will have articles about
them next time. The article that received the most comments from our previous issue
was actually Nicki's closing comments, about the growing disconnect between today's
media-oriented fandoms and 'traditional' fandom. We'll begin with those but first,
given the somber mood, it might be appropriate to start out with a few comments
about the Mimosa 22 covers, by Peggy Ranson and Teddy Harvia, one of which
depicted a somewhat somber winter scene. }}
- - - - - - - - - -
Joseph Major, Louisville, Kentucky
Very artistic covers by Harvia and
Ranson! {{"Suspension of Belief" and
"Belief in Winter"}} Just gorgeous! These continue the Mimosa
tradition of storytelling front & back covers. Are "Spring" and "Fall"
forthcoming?
Concerning Nicki's closing comments
{{"Connections" }}, it looks like that
humor piece I wrote about Worldcon facing three takeover bids (by thinly-disguised
Disney, B5 and Creation Cons) is more real that expected.
There is no single focal point --
sixties media fen had only Star Trek, seventies media fen had Star
Wars, but today the Sailor Moon fan has nothing to say to the
Sliders fan and neither can connect with the out-of-it dude, who, like,
reads, you know? And each group grows on its own. Every media fan has its
own netgroup, which encourages simultaneously growth and separation. I hear that
Trek fictionzines have about died out, but Trek fiction continues on the Net. (The
Star Trek Welcommittee has disbanded.)
{{You're right that the
fracturing of fandom probably began in the late 1960s with the start of Trek-fandom.
Media fandom fictionzines are probably dying out due to the expense of publishing
and the cheapness of the Web. Actually, media fen have a lot to say to say to each
other on the Internet and often crosspost to newsgroups devoted to other
media-oriented subfandoms. We've never seen anyone objecting to participation in
more than one media newsgroup. In some ways, media fen are even very similar to
'mainstream' science fiction fandom. A big difference is that media fen lack the
history that we 'trufans' have. }}
So of course does 'traditional'
fandom and indeed many heretofore well-represented fans have vanished into this
ephemeral medium. This may be another reason that SF fandom appears to be dwindling.
It looks like, now more than ever, we need Scott Patri to come back from that
writers' course. Those who recall his enthusiastic crudzine The Zero-G
Lavatory will feel a thrill of nostalgia at his harum-scarum layout and
amateurish drawings. But his main thesis, one which Nicki seems to be collecting
evidence in support of, was that a new and unwholesome fandom was growing up, one
that instead of creating its own fannish experiences was content to absorb it. If
he had not limited his animus to 'Trekkies' this thesis would have been apparent.
- - - - - - - - - -
Roger Waddington, Norton, Malton, North Yorkshire, United Kingdom
Thanks for Mimosa 22; but
entitling the front cover, "Suspension of Belief"? Surely a misnomer; I've seen it
in reality -- well, the reality of fiction, that is. Beg, borrow or steal a copy of
The Sword in the Stone by T.H. White and in chapter eighteen, where Arthur
(the Wart) is taken to the goddess Athene, you'll find a perfect description of the
scene on your cover. (Closely followed by an equally sfinal concept.)
As Nicki points out, science fiction
has never been so popular, especially in the media, in college and on the street; I
like to think it was us single-minded fen who kept the dream alive, sustained it
through the decades to give it the public recognition that it has now. And, in a
sense, we are the last generation, because our purpose is now done. Of course, our
one great failure has been to see 'sf' crushed into the dust by the relentless tread
of 'sci-fi', but when the product's so prevalent, who cares what names it takes?
For electronic fanzines and feedback, I'm sure there'll come a point when spending
hours before a flickering screen will seem too much, when print on paper will be a
brand-new concept. The one drawback I can see, though cheerfully ignored by most,
is what happens when your machine 'crashes', when you can no longer contact the
outside world via the Net? And, horror of horrors, it's no longer repairable and
you've lost all your files? There's a lot to be said for old-fashioned paper.
But, for the prevalence of media
fandom, of Whovians and Trekkers -- well, there must surely come a point when every
episode, every last scene has been analyzed to destruction, when they've exhausted
all the fan-fiction about their characters, put them in more and more impossible
situations. Then perhaps they might look outside, see what else is on the sci-fi
shelves, start writing about it; include a bit of their personal lives and opinions;
and fandom will be born again.
- - - - - - - - - -
Gary Deindorfer, Trenton, New Jersey
You have had some incredible covers
lately, and this issue's is certainly one of them. Cosmic concept, the woman-trees
in summer and in winter, superbly executed. In fact, as fine as the written contents
are, what really makes Mimosa stand out for me are its airy, spacious
graphics. The large print is part of it, setting off some of the best art in
fanzines.
Dave Kyle's article about the first
Worldcon {{"Caravan to the Stars"
}} is vividly written fan history. It is difficult to realize how young
these pioneering, legendary fans and pros were. Perhaps that explains in part
their contentiousness; they hadn't aged enough to mellow a little. Plus the whole
nature of their feelings themselves set apart by their passion for science fiction
and fandom, then such a beleaguered thing, ignored or scored by the general public.
There were Jiants in those days, even if they were also just kids, like as not
bespectacled and pimply faced.
- - - - - - - - - -
Robert Coulson, Hartford City, Indiana
Concerning Nicki's closing comments,
I don't know of a lot of media cons here in the Midwest, though the ones I hear
about are big, and largely professionally run. When Star Trek began, there
weren't any other cons for the fans to go to, though they soon began starting some,
and they did gravitate into fandom. For that matter, Roddenberry catered to science
fiction fans to some extent -- he needed their support. Juanita and I got very good
treatment -- including visiting an officially 'closed' set -- when we and Kay
Anderson visited the studio. And one of the Trekkies who shifted over to science
fiction fandom when she found out about it was Lois McMaster Bujold; I think she's
worth more than the legions who stayed in TV-movie fandom. Fanhistory has always
been a footnote in popular culture, and we're still getting some new fans. There is,
after all, a limit to how many can be absorbed into printed-fanzine fandom, as
prices go up for every-thing including conventions. Conventions are feeling the
pinch, too; Louisville fandom has announced an end to Rivercon in the year 2000.
Too many attendees, not enough workers, and the regulars are getting tired.
- - - - - - - - - -
Lloyd Penney, Etobicoke, Ontario, Canada
With all the fanhistory books listed
in your Letters Column, here's another project for the Timebinders -- assemble a
list of all these fanhistory texts with titles, author/editor names, who produced
them, and how to get them, if indeed they're still in print. I will heartily second
Robert Lichtman's recommendation of Years of Light: A Celebration of Leslie A.
Crouch. It's author, John Robert Columbo, is a literary historian with decades
of research into Canadian literature, but has been on the outskirts of Canfandom
with books like this and his friendship with many of the local SF authors. Part of
the book is about Crouch and his fanpublishing, but another part is about Canadian
fanhistory right up to Torcon II in 1973.
Great closing comments, especially
about e-zines and paperzines. I've received a couple of e-zines (Cheryl Morgan's
Emerald City and Tommy Ferguson's Tommyworld), but in the long run, I
received text files. BCSFA in Vancouver can now provide .pdf versions of
BCSFAzine which are then translated back into visible fanzine form through
the use of Adobe Acrobat. Still, a paperzine is physical, textural, and sent to you
because someone wanted you to have it. A text file is downloadable if you want
it.
The popular of sci-fi today does
indeed undermine SF. The new public popularity of the genre means science fiction
channels both in the United States and in Canada. The Canadian channel, Space: The
Imagination Station, will interview authors for filler pieces, but broadcasts some
great (and many not-so-great) science fiction television shows. The last Canadian
show to profile and showcase SF authors, Prisoners of Gravity, has been shown,
but is now relegated to awkward hours. I've asked if there might be a programme
dedicated to the sources of SF, the authors, but the reply was that that's dull, and
most of the stations money is tied up in partnered production of sci-fi shows. It's
great to have a science fiction channel, but not when it broadcasts mostly
sci-fi.
- - - - - - - - - -
Edmund R. Meskys, Center Harbor, New Hampshire
In your letters column, I liked
Harry Warner's suggestion that Mike Resnick's list of fandom-related books, plus
additions, be made into a reference bibliography for neos. I have added many of the
titles to my 'must buy' list, but most are faanish or small press items and will be
hard to find at this late date.
Nicki's closing piece is all too
true. I wonder if young kids who saw the HBO series From the Earth to the
Moon or the movie Apollo 13 really feel they are watching real
history, or if it just blends into Trek for them. I have met young fen at
cons, but it is no longer "a proud and lonely thing to be a fan." Fandom has
changed greatly since I got in in 1955 and I am afraid it will continue to evolve as
the skiffy media fen take a larger and larger role.
- - - - - - - - - -
Tom Becker, Mountain View, California
Dave Kyle's report on his
"subversive" activities took a topic I thought I was familiar with and made it fresh
and immediate. It seems now that we're on the Internet, the future has arrived and
science fiction is irrelevant. But there still is war, and we're not living on any
other planets besides the ever more fragile earth. Has anything really changed
since 1939?
If Mike Resnick had written an
alternate universe version of his Worldcon memoir
{{"Worldcon Memories (Part 1)" }} that left
out his mean-spirited comments about ConFrancisco, it might have been entertaining.
Resnick seems to have overlooked the very nice hotel on the same block as the
Marriott (I think it's where the SFWA suite was), and he makes mountains out of
streets that are about as flat as you can get in SF, but I don't want to quibble
with him over his impressions. I am concerned, however, that some fans may get the
impression that the clever stunt Resnick pulled with the Marriott was somehow okay.
Depriving a con of room nights could throw a con into the red if it causes the con
to come in below the required minimum in their hotel contract. Fortunately
ConFrancisco got a good turnout so the loss of the room nights was not a fiasco,
but it surely affected the bottom line, which in the case of a non-profit means less
money was available for charitable causes. In other words, Resnick made sure his
dollars went to extra hotel profits when they could have gone to future Worldcons
and to TAFF and DUFF. Possibly even worse is the way Resnick went with a hotel
that had been playing hardball with the con, and essentially rewarded it for being
difficult. But enough of that. A lot of water has gone under the bridge since `93
and I wish those who are still holding grudges could just let go of them. I can't
speak for ConFrancisco -- I'm just one of the local fans who helped out with the
con -- but I have a lot of respect for Mike Resnick as a pro, and personally I'd be
happy to accept an apology from him, buy him a drink, and move on to better
topics...
...such as Richard Brandt's article
{{"How Michelle Went to San Antonio, Attended the
Hugo Ceremony, and Found God" }}, which was a hoot. It was nice to be
reminded just how good a writer Richard is, plus the article itself is a wonderful
reminder of the joys of fandom and even the satisfactions of helping out with a con.
I wonder if his standing in for the Deity is what finally made it possible for the
LoneStarCon 2 fanzine lounge to happen (late but worth the wait).
In Greg Benford's article
(("Save the Last Masque for Me" }}, his
find of a bag of um, spaceship models on the Rotsler estate reminded me of something
that happened while we were setting up ConFrancisco. Spike Parsons ran the Local
Color division, which included exhibits, and Don Herron brought down some of Fritz
Leiber's memorabilia, including one of Fritz's Hugos. The night before the con,
because of a temporary shortage of display cases, Fritz's stuff had to share a shelf
with the historic vibrator museum we had on loan from Good Vibrations. It was a
sight to see, and I like to think of Fritz looking down and cracking up with the
rest of us.
- - - - - - - - - -
Harry Warner, Jr., Hagerstown, Maryland
With respect to the Six Degrees game
in Richard's opening comments {{
"Six Degrees of Walter A. Willis" }}, I do quite well as far as political,
literary, and show business people are concerned. For instance, is anyone else in
fandom able to claim Stalin as a third degree connection? I can. The chairman of
the board of directors for the local newspapers in mid-century was William Preston
Lane, who served as Governor of Maryland for a while and was quite big in
behind-the-scenes national Democratic party politics. I knew Lane pretty well, and
he was acquainted with most of the big shots including FDR, of course, most of the
Republican leaders and some world figures. FDR knew Stalin, Churchill, and just
about everyone else, although I'm not sure if he ever met Hitler. I've also met
Carl Sandburg, Clifton Fadiman, and Forry Ackerman. They should provide me with
pretty close relationships with everyone in mundane and fantasy literature
throughout the 20th century.
The Lee Hoffman letter quoted by
Walt Willis in his column {{"I Remember Me" }} is
priceless, because it finally settles the old question of whether there really was
a horse that caused Lee's gafiation. She had written about a horse in print but I
don't think anyone in fandom had ever seen a horse that matched her description and
we never heard about what happened to the mysterious horses. Obviously, it existed,
as this bit of private correspondence proves.
Ron Bennett's history of
Skyrack {{"When the Sky Was the
Limit" }} is useful information. His description of the Penitentiary (and
there's nothing strange about the name of the apartment, because it refers to the
famous Parker merchandise to be found in every stationery store) brings back to
mind the strange change in Ella Parker, one of the most gregarious of all fans when
she was active in fandom, and by the time of her death an extreme recluse.
Finally, Nicki shouldn't feel too
unhappy when people are unable to remember anything about the first moon landing. I
saw somewhere the results of a survey of the American public on such things as who
won World War Two (I believe only slightly more than half of the people knew the
right answer) and how long it takes for the Earth to go around the Sun (fewer than
half got it right). People are incredibly ignorant nowadays.
Darrell Schweitzer, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
The Willis piece touches on a bit of
fannish history which I've never quite understood, though I'm old enough to remember
the tail end of it. There was a time, circa 1950, when prozine letter-hacking was
major fannish activity. Fannish reputations were made that way. I am not even sure
the fans read the stories before rushing to get their next letter off to Startling
Stories (there being no e-mail then, although the post was a lot faster).
Prozines had 20 pages of letters in tiny type. This is a completely lost world, as
I can tell you from my own prozine-editing experience. It is impossible to coax more
than five or six letters an issue out of 20,000 readers. Weird Tales will
get two or three good letters an issue, which I try to work into the editorials.
But it was all different in days of
yore, only there was another side to it. As the response from H.L. Gold to Walt
Willis makes clear, a lot of readers in those days didn't want letter
columns in prozines, and when Galaxy put the matter up to a vote, allegedly
there were six-thousand letters received saying, "No!" The numbers are completely
incredible in today's field, and as for the sentiment, well, when I was a kid I had
a friend (who was sort of a fan) whose father had read SF (and they lent me a lot of
early Galaxys to read), and the opinion of both father and son was that
fandom was full of stuffed shirts and that given the chance, fans would wreck
science fiction and certainly wreck any prozine they got their hands on. Meanwhile
Galaxy prospered and Startling Stories folded, and while I am not sure
that the presence of a fannish letter column had anything to do with it, certainly
many readers felt that way. Nowadays most fans would probably never imagine
themselves writing to a prozine. If I can work the subject into a panel sometime at
a convention, I'll ask for a show of hands from the audience.
- - - - - - - - - -
Ahrvid Engholm, Stockholm, Sweden
Regarding "The Six Degrees of Kevin
Bacon" game, I suppose I'm only one step away from anybody else, since I've met
Forry Ackerman -- and he has met everybody else!
Speaking of Bacon Numbers, I probably
have a high Bacon Number for most world leaders, since I've met and interviewed the
former Swedish prime minister Carl Bildt who probably has met them all. I also have
a Willis Number of 1, since I've met Walt Willis. (His article in the issue was,
though a bit short, excellent as ever. I think he was right and Horace Gold wrong
about letter columns. Most people writing letters to prozines don't write about too
important stuff. But the letter column gives a feeling of intimacy that's hard to
beat.)
Dave Kyle's article was, for me, the
most interesting in the issue. I don't think I'll ever read enough of the Nycon
Exclusion Act. He managed to give some new perspectives on it, even if I thought I
had heard everything. I'm convinced fans 500 years from now will still talk about
Nycon, and Kyle will be quoted as an Important Source. However, it would be
interesting to read that pamphlet he was supposed to distribute. I'm sure its quite
innocent, but it would be interesting nonetheless. What did Moskowitz et al
do with the copies confiscated? Did any copies survive?
{{The entire text of the pamphlet was reprinted in
Dave Kyle's very first article for us back in Mimosa 6 ("The Great
Exclusion Act of 1939"). We don't know how many copies of the original yellow
pamphlet still exist, though it's been reported that at least one is in the
Moskowitz collection; it's likely that most of the copies confiscated at the 1939
Nycon were thrown away that same day. }}
Dal Coger's article
{{"The Legendary Slan Shack" }} was
interesting, but didn't answer all the questions around the original Slan Shack.
Was the Slan Shack a collective dwelling or just the home of the Ashley's where
they sometimes had fan meetings? I also lack details of day-to-day Slan Shack life.
In my fannish universe, the different collective dwellings of the Futurians in New
York in the `40s was always more of a model. Maybe this is because there is more
written about them? (Like in Damon Knight's The Futurians, which also tells
about daily Futurian slan shack life.) But Coger also makes it possible to correct
an old mistake. Harry Warner wrote, in All Our Yesterdays, that "Jack
Wiedenbeck was the first fake-fan." Reading about Wiedenbeck makes it obvious that
he wasn't a fake-fan, but we have "Thelma Morgan, a dark, quiet woman, who loved to
read and enjoyed fans, without being one herself." Thelma Morgan was the first
fake-fan, perhaps?
Nicki raises some discouraging
questions in her closing remark. I too am not sure that "true fandom" will survive
into the next generation, or at least the next to next generation. Star Trek,
Star Wars, e-mail, the Web, etc., makes it difficult for the trufannish
generations to come. Printed fanzines are on the way out. While Internet makes
contact between people easier, contacts also becomes more shallow -- fandom has
always been about deep, personal contacts. Web-versions of zines like Mimosa
or mailing lists like Timebinders are steps on the right track, but far from
enough.
Is it even desirable that fandom as
we know it survives the transition into the information age? I think it is, because
fandom has at least one unique quality that makes it worthwhile: fandom was one of
the first successful examples of the Global Village. Fandom established a Global
Village long before we had Internet, CNN and whatever. Fanzines were sent all over
the world, or at least in the triangle North America-Europe-Australia. The Worldcon
hasn't been entirely successful as a WORLDcon, but people have tried their best (and
there aren't too much of sf culture in Asia, Africa, etc., -- not the Worldcon's
fault). You seldom see fans being excessively nationalistic (with some exceptions,
but they are considered odd). Nobody says, 'your zine is shit because you're from
Austria or India'. We send people around the world in fan funds. Healthy,
non-threatening nationalism occurs in fandom, but on the whole fans tend to say:
he's a fan first, and secondly he's Italian/Mexican/Norwegian (but that's not too
important).
- - - - - - - - - -
Bob Tucker, Bloomington, Ilinois
One small typo crept into Dal Coger's
splendid report of the legendary Slan Shack. E.E. Evans joined the Slan Shackers,
not E.E. Smith. That article brought back a torrent of memories and no, I will NOT
tell you what my score was on that Jack Speer test that gave Al Ashley a score of
194. We had a lot of fun at Al's expense after that, in person, in letters, and in
the fanzine prints. Someone coined the phrase "Ol' AA-194" and it stuck to him for
the remainder of his life.
- - - - - - - - - -
Eric Lindsay, Airlie Beach, Queensland, Australia
I wonder what degree of closeness I
can claim for having Bob Tucker stay at my house around the time of the first
Aussiecon. Or indeed for visiting with him when I drove from Los Angeles (where if
I recall right we had visited Mary Beth Wheeler) to the east coast with Rusty
Hevelin. Or being in the same apa with him? Boy, those were the days.
{{The writers of many of the letters we received
had fun describing some of their fannish 'connections', but surprisingly, nobody
picked up on the main 'connectivity' feature of Mimosa 22 -- the issue was
designed so that each article had a 'connection' to the article that immediately
preceded it. Maybe we were a little too subtle. }}
Like you, I'd read Pohl and
Moskowitz and Knight on Nycon, most recently when I was making a few notes about
Worldcon history for the Aussiecon Three web site. So it was great to see yet
another account of those days from Dave Kyle. I was also amused to see Dave mention
the formality of dress of early fans, as that was something I'd also noted in photos
from the time. No wonder A.E. Van Vogt had some of his characters wearing ties in
Slan, despite the plastic houses and the spaceships and atomic energy.
Thanks for printing Greg Benford's
memories of Bill Rotsler. Bill was one of many fans who stayed at my place around
the time of the first Aussiecon in 1975. He was the one who complained about the
quality of the toilet paper (cheap and harsh), but he forgave me that. Last time I
saw him was at his birthday party at Loscon. I guess we will all miss him, every
time we see another of his illos, which I'm sure will continue to appear over coming
decades.
- - - - - - - - - -
Janice Gelb, Los Altos, California
I would love to see the full con
reports from which Mike Resnick extracted these gems. My favorite was his note
about passing the little old ladies wearing sweaters in the furnace heat of Phoenix
and deciding he didn't want to be immortal after all. Having grown up in Miami
Beach (The Place Where Little Old Jewish People Go To Die), that had real resonance
for me!
Based on the LoneStarCon2 report
from Richard Brandt, I seem to have passed on a fannish tradition. Lori Wolf
'interned' with me when I ran the Hugo ceremony at LAcon III, and I used the term
'Voice of Ghod' in my script, having stolen it from a previous Hugo ceremony's
script (I believe Noreascon 3). My VoG was Marty Gear, who had done it previously
so he didn't even blink an eye at the term!
Finally, the behind-the-scenes look
at the making of Men In Black {{"From
Rags to Off the Rack" }} was fascinating and I enjoyed it thoroughly...
up until the next-to-last paragraph, when Lowell Cunningham rated meeting Mark
Hamill as a bigger thrill than meeting Tommy Lee Jones. He credits this to being a
long-time SF movie fan, so I guess I don't qualify!
- - - - - - - - - -
Steve Jeffery, Kidlington, Oxon, United Kingdom
Reminiscences from both Mike Resnick
and Richard Brandt remind me that I was once probably a wide-eyed neo (I wonder what
ever happened to him?) at conventions where Famous Real Authors were wandering
around. Happily, the U.K. convention scene does not pander to the star syndrome,
and you soon realise that many authors at cons are fans who happen to write the
books that you like to read (in the same way that you might be making the car they
like to drive). But you do get an impression of how it might have been when non-fan
friends or colleagues learn that you've met Terry Pratchett or Anne McCaffrey.
As intriguing as the tale of how
Men In Black went from comic to film was Lowell Cunningham's story of how it
started from a chance remark to become a comic in the first place. There must be
hundreds of moments like that where you just go "oh yeah" and an opportunity sails
into the lost realm of might-have-beens. Sometimes (I know this is criminal) they
don't even get turned into fanzine articles.
Pamela Boal's letter about Julia
Morgan-Scott sends me straight back to the cover of Mimosa 21. Now that's
impressive. I've played with scratch board, but not with results like that. I love
the armadilly wimmen. Hell of a lot of work must have gone into that.
{{Here's what Julia told us about her M21
cover. "A confession about my cover for
Mimosa 21: The idea for "Armadillo Ladies" came from my work as a
scientific illustrator for Dr. Timothy Gaudin, a paleontologist who specializes in
the study of Order Xenarthra (armadillos, sloths, and anteaters). Order
Xenarthra -- 'Xenaville Saloon' -- get it? Obscure, I know.
"It wasn't until after I had finished
the picture that it occurred to me that it fit right in with LoneStarCon's armadillo
theme. Talk about being out of it! Another thing -- I realized, too late, that the
original song is 'Buffalo Gals won't you come out tonight.' But Dr. Gaudin
said, 'Perhaps female armadillos prefer to be called ladies.'
"Sadly, though, for Ruth Shields'
wistful hope that the Armadilly Wimmin survived, I have a dark suspicion that they
were doomed, or at the very least got their tails squished."
}}
I agree with Nicki's closing
sentiments about science fiction and sci-fi. It's increasingly obvious in the
proportion of media novelizations, tie-ins and 'spinoffery' in review books, and its
most damaging effect on published sf/fantasy seems to be the destruction of the
midlist as the market splits between high advance titles by established (and hence
proven selling) authors and the pile it high, sell it quick media domination of
shelf space. Would there be no room now (or in the future) for an author like, say,
Tom Reamy, or Bob Shaw? It's a (literally) incalculable loss to sf if this proves
the case.
- - - - - - - - - -
Martin Morse Wooster, Silver Spring, Maryland
I'm not as depressed as Nicki about
the state of fandom. I've been reading fanzines since 1975, and as long as I can
remember, the core audience for fanzines has always been around 300 people.
Obviously, the 300 fanzines fans today are not the 300 fanzines fans 20 years ago,
but I am guessing that the core audience for SF fanzines has remained pretty
constant over the years. What has changed is that the methods by which fanzine
fandom reached out to new people have atrophied. No SF prozine reviews or even
mentions fanzines. Science Fiction Chronicle still tries to mention some
fannish events, but stopped reviewing fanzines about two years ago. There are few
fanzine panels at conventions (and fewer conventions). I've found, however, that
new fans are interested in fanzines. I run a small sf club, and routinely
give away fanzines at each meeting. (Not Mimosa; I keep those.) Younger
fans may not know about fannish traditions, but they aren't that much different from
fans or our generation.
Lowell Cunningham's experience as an
extra in Men In Black was not terribly different from the one day I spent on
the set of Twilight of the Dogs, a local sf/horror film in which I played a
disciple of the evil Rev. Zerk. My part consisted of having an upside-down peace
sign sprayed on my forehead, putting a while robe over my clothes, and spinning
about a dozen times until an actress shouted, "Defiler!" in the general direction of
the heroine. If the film is ever released, I am in it for one second. (How did you
get Cunningham to write for you? Did he used to be a fan?)
{{
Actually, we've known Lowell for years (from well before his Men In Black
fame), and he has always been a fan for as long as we've known him. As for
Twilight of the Dogs (which featured several members of the Washington
Science Fiction Association in "key roles"), we've heard that it's been released --
in Asia -- and will be coming out on video this spring. }}
Ron Bennett, Harrogate, North Yorkshire, United Kingdom
Lovely, gentle article from Walt
Willis, gentle because it sits pleasantly among pieces of more frenetic activity.
Loved the mimeoscope story; haven't heard of one of thise things for goodness knows
how many yonks. The piece was, of course, far too short.
I also liked Ian Gunn's very original
piece {{"Never Work With Children and Animals" }}.
Very well told, like the story about the goat getting stage fright, but in context,
his following remark about the storyteller being surrounded by kids is just
a tad ambiguous. Ian deserves a medal for persevering with this group.
- - - - - - - - - -
William Breiding, Tucson, Arizona
I was particularly fond of Curt
Phillips' piece on firefighting {{
"10-70 Structure" }} -- it was vivid and incredibly lucid -- I felt as though
I was right there with him. And Richard Brandt's piece was one of the best
convention reports I've read in quite awhile, a singular report like this has a
chance to be much more successful than one that starts with pre-con travel
arrangements and rides the entire tide of the convention through the dead dog party
and on back home. To write that kind of con report takes an incredible intensity of
spirit and emotion that few fan writers have. My kudos to Mr. Brandt.
Also, I was much amused when I saw
the heading for Richard's Opening Comments. In most cases I am two degrees away;
hard to believe that with Tucker -- I was at any number of Midwestern conventions in
the `70s at which he was omni-present in those days, but somehow always failed to
meet him, or even be in the same room with him. Odd!
- - - - - - - - - -
Jerry Kaufman, Seattle, Washington
Both Lowell Cunningham's and Ian
Gunn's memoirs were entertaining. Ian brought back memories of my visit to St.
Kilda in 1983. John Foyster lived there at the time and hosted a big post-Natcon
party for all the out-of-town, out-of-country visitors and locals; the highlight of
the party was our visit to Luna Park. Cunningham's piece inspired me to want to
read his comic books to get the original flavor of the thing. Julia Morgan-Scott's
illustrations for Ian's piece were wonderful. Are these scratch board, like her
work in the previous issue? They look like wood or linoleum cuts.
{{
Yes, Julia works almost exclusively in scratchboard for the covers and interior
illos she does for us. }}
Still more interesting stuff here,
especially Curt Phillips on being a volunteer fire firefighter. Does he ever
explain what a '10-70 Structure' is? I couldn't find it, but maybe I wasn't being
careful enough.
{{We'll let Curt explain that one himself:
"Good heavens! Did I actually forget to explain that in
the article? '10-70' is the radio code for a fire. A '10-70 structure' is a house
or building fire. We've also had '10-70 train', '10-70 dumpster', and '10-70 tree'.
(The tree was hit by lightning and set ablaze. I ran that one. Took me nearly an
hour to completely put it out.)" }}
Dal Coger touched on the matter of
fannish socioeconomic status. If he's right about where fans came from, then he
might have touched on an explanation for differences between fandom then and now.
Fans today seem to be in, or from, professional or solidly middle class families. I
think there isn't the same pool of people forced to be underachievers because they
couldn't afford higher education. Fans used to need fandom to find their creative
outlet; the same sort of people today can express their abilities in work that's
more challenging. It's a topic that deserves a lot more thought and even research
than I can give it here.
- - - - - - - - - -
Dave Rowe, Franklin, Indiana
Do you know how the 'Men in Black'
legend started? It was with a book published in 1956 entitled, They Knew Too
Much About Flying Saucers, whose dust jacket proclaimed it was, "The true story
of what happened to certain researchers and investigators who found out where the
saucers come from." It was written by Gray Barker and centered mainly on Albert K.
Bender who said he quit his amateur research after being intimidated by three men in
black. About a decade later Bender finally 'reappeared' with a book of his own
under the unimposing title of Flying Saucers and the Three Men in which he
claimed that the M.I.B. had not been government agents, oh no, they were aliens and
they actually took him up in a U.F.O., etc. etc. One reviewer in slamming it wrote,
"I had got into a frame of mind where in I felt anything might happen," and Bender's
publisher, desperate for a good blurb, quoted it word for word. Showing that if
nothing else, the publisher knew the market.
Ian Gunn's uproariously funny
recollections of the Scout's Melbourne Gang Show and its urinating goats
brought to mind an odd memory with a couple of tentative connections. The 'big time'
Gang Shows were started in London by Ralph Reed who not only produced the
show but wrote all the sketches and songs. Of all the songs Reed wrote at least one
became a standard: "Strolling," which was made famous by the professional musical
comedy team of Flanagan & Allen. Bud Flanagan was also a part of a comedy team
called 'The Crazy Gang', and one time when they appeared on ITV's Sunday Night at
the London Palladium, some bright director had the idea of having the whole
Crazy Gang sing "Strolling" while walking dogs back and forth. You guessed the
other conection -- on live television, as the Gang strolled from right to left, one
of the dogs stopped at about center stage, cocked his leg, and a jet of liquid
fertilizer watered a two-dimensional scenery bush. Bud Flanagan (to his credit and
to the applause of the audience) reappeared, as the Gang strolled from left to right,
with a mop and bucket, and as the song continued, he cleaned up the mess.
- - - - - - - - - -
Kevin Standlee, Sunnyvale, California
Over the years, I have been
personally connected to perhaps a dozen or so mundane news events that were covered
by television, radio, or newspaper. With rare exceptions, the coverage has been
wrong, or at least one-sided and incomplete. This bothers me, because it tends to
imply that the reporters ALWAYS get it wrong.
One might hope for something better
from fannish sources, but clearly there are sometimes severe disagreements on matters
of fact, not opinion, regarding events that should be clear. Witness Dave Kyle's
mention of various errors of fact in previously-published fan histories in his
article, "Caravan to the Stars." Obviously, multiple observers of the same events
have completely different memories of it.
With this in mind, it is with severe
trepidation that I try to comment on Mike Resnick's "Worldcon Memories" of
ConFrancisco. I cannot hope to change his mind about it. If anything, I will
reinforce his opinions. I fear that my comments will be ignored as those of a
biased member of the convention's Executive Committee with an ax to grind. However,
in my opinion, Mike paints his word picture with too broad a brush.
As one of the most visible people in
the group that Resnick describes as "some committee members [who] have spent years
on the computer networks arguing with unhappy attendees...", I would presume that my
opinion would be highly suspect. After all, I was the convention Secretary, and one
of its Division Chiefs. Presumably, I would like to paint a picture that was all
sweetness and light, where all 7,100-plus attendees were perfectly contented and the
convention ran utterly without blemish.
This is nonsense, of course.
ConFrancisco had some really annoying operational difficulties, and worse, they were
the sort that inconvenienced a large portion of the membership. A major operational
difficulty that only inconveniences a few people is rarely as obvious or
commented-upon as forcing a large portion of your membership to queue up for
excessively long periods of time.
We would be fools if we didn't admit
to, as a group, having made some serious tactical mistakes at ConFrancisco. Actually,
we admitted to them rather pointedly during the 'Gripe Session' on the last day of
the convention, with Tom Whitmore and me being among the first to admit our failings
and apologize for them. (This seemed to surprise many in the audience, who
apparently expected us to deny that it had happened.) In particular, our attempt to
emulate a successful Registration area run by Noreascon Three four years before us
missed some of N3's elements that turned out to be critical. In my opinion, our
major events were not run with the audience or participants' interests in mind.
Judgement errors by some of the convention management magnified the mistakes until
they became nearly disastrous.
In short, we blew it, and in a way
that was impossible to disguise or deflect. The only bright side I can find about
that part of the experience was that some of our mistakes were so irritating that
we've been used as a specter with which to frighten other Worldcon committees into
making sure they don't repeat our mistakes. As a result, registration for every
Worldcon since then has been relatively trouble-free, and queuing for major events
has been handled reasonably well (notwithstanding the people at ConAdian the
following year who complained about the doors to the main hall opening too
early -- apparently some people like standing in line).
Without going into great detail
about the loss of the San Francisco Marriott for the 1993 Worldcon -- a subject
which would make an article of its own -- let me just say that the facts are not
quite the way Resnick states them. Personally, I wish we had been playing closer
attention to the hotel booking situation in San Francisco; that way, when Ford
stiffed the Marriott, we might have been able to get back in there, with a hungrier,
and therefore more cooperative, host hotel.
I'm not sure where Resnick concludes
that "the con committee was pissed because we cost them 300 room-nights." I do not
recall ever saying anything like this; indeed, I remember one of our hotel liaisons
being somewhat relieved that we had enough people staying "off-block" that we could
accommodate everyone who wanted to stay in our convention hotels. ConFrancisco
ended up drawing a lot more people (about 30% more) than we originally planned;
depending on how you measure "attendance," it was either the second- or third-largest
Worldcon held to date. Housing all of those people was a challenge, and it was a
relief to be able to handle everyone. Any irritation I personally felt was not
directed at the people staying at the Marriott -- who could blame them for getting
what they perceived to be the best deal? -- but was rather annoyance that the
Marriott would get any money from our attendees after having forced us into using
other hotels. It isn't as though we were happy about having our headquarters hotel
be located 960 meters (about six-tenths of a mile) from our convention center
instead of one-third that distance. As I've often said, it was like driving
cross-country on a mini-spare-tire. (It was still closer to Moscone Center than the
places at which I stayed during ConFiction and Intersection were to their respective
convention centers, but people seem to be more willing to accept this separation at
non-North American Worldcons.)
One of the good things about bidding
for the 2002 Worldcon has been talking to many people who have good memories
of ConFrancisco. I know that anyone reading Mike Resnick's article would have to
assume that nobody who was there in 1993 could possibly have enjoyed themselves.
With that many people attending, and with the mistakes our committee made, I know
that there are some people whose Worldcon experience was certainly less than ideal,
and for that I apologize. This is not the same thing as "arguing with unhappy
attendees that they did so have a good time."
It is regrettable that some of the
things ConFrancisco did very well have been, in my opinion, ignored, forgotten, or
at least have gone uncredited. For instance, I think we had excellent publications.
In particular, a variation of the spiral-bound Pocket Program designed by Gail
Sanders is now touted as one of the best ways to balance the conflicting demands of
a Worldcon pocket program. David Levine very nicely cited Gail's design when he
adapted it for Westercon 48 in Portland, but he is an exception. Memories of good
things are shorter than those of bad, I guess.
It is generally much easier to write
a negative review than a positive one. Most of what Resnick wrote about ConFrancisco
was correct, as far as it went. He merely didn't cover the entire story, and he left
out enough that I know personally to be true that it concerns me that all of his
convention memories are as similarly selective. This would be a shame, because they
all are so entertainingly written that I want to believe them.
- - - - - - - - - -
Robert Whitaker Sirignano, Wilmington Deleware
I didn't meet Mike Resnick at the
swimming pool at the first Noreascon, but I did see that nude pool bash. I recall
wandering by an amused happy-looking Robert Silverberg and seeing a couple in coital
engagement at the shallow end of the pool (years later, I wonder if chlorine and
water was really a good lubricant for this act). I felt left out. I was still a
virgin.
On a different topic, I got a mild
shock while reading Stan Freberg's Autobiography, It Only Hurts When I Laugh.
Freberg mentioned that one of his duties during World War II was running a base
newspaper. He turned over the editing and writing to some guy named Forry Ackerman.
Small world?
- - - - - - - - - -
Leigh Kimmel, Herrin, Illinois
I enjoyed the reminiscences in Walt
Willis' "I Remember Me," in particular the observations about the travails of the
often-overlooked bit-part characters, who are treated like so many objects in a set
piece rather than valid characters with motivations. I also enjoyed the latest
installment of "Through Time and Space with Forry Ackerman" particularly for the
memory of his meeting H.G. Wells, who was quite a bit different in real life from
his portrayal in the movie Time After Time.
And Greg Benford's "Save the Last
Masque for Me" was a very good remembrance of the late Bill Rotsler. Although I'm
sad that I never got to meet him, I'm glad that there appear to have been quite a
few unpublished cartoons among his personal effects, so that he will continue to be
with us for a long time after he's gone.
- - - - - - - - - -
Marty Cantor, North Hollywood, California
I would like to point out to Mike
Resnick that I found the 1978 Phoenix Worldcon to be quite comfortable -- and I
spent most of my waking hours (I stayed at the Adams) wearing a tie and a tweed
jacket (among the rest of my clothes), even when I had occasion to cross 'The Anvil
of God' (as I remember it being called, not 'The Sun's Anvil' as he refers to it).
Where I found it uncomfortable was at the 1983 Baltimore Worldcon. One step out of
the airport and I wanted to immediately reverse course and head back to California
where the heat is dry. What I hate is humidity -- I love dry heat.
I read Rodney Leighton's Letter of
Comment about the 'We Also Heard From' listing with interest and then looked at the
people you WAHFed, noticing some rather well known names in said listing. Any good
faned knows that BNFs and WKFs are often WAHFed even though they have written good
LoCs because other LoCcers have produced just the right word you need to express a
certain thought and your space constraints force you to place the remaining LoCcers
in the WAHF listing. Pubbed or not, the production of a LoC is always a pleasurable
experience; and, like all writers (even of LoCs), it is my hope that what I create
will be enjoyed by others. LoCcers do not just produce for editors -- we always hope
that we can contribute to the enjoyment of a zine which the readers experience.
{{You're right that a good Letter of Comment
serves many purposes, not the least of which is to actually provide some feedback
for the contributors to the issue being commented on. That's why we make sure that
we send a collection of all the comments we receive (whether or not they
were actually published in the Letters Column) to the respective writers and cover
artists. As for why a reader would send us a LoC, though, you didn't mention an
obvious reason -- the person just dropped us a note to say thanks. While it would
be nice to get long, substantial LoCs from everyone all the time, sometimes we get
just a "thanks for sending me the fanzine, and I liked most everything in it" type
of letter. Nothing wrong with that, because it shows they thought of us, but it's
not really something for the Letters Column. }}
- - - - - - - - - -
Dennis Caswell, Burlington, Ontario, Canada
Seeing all the history in your
fanzine, I decided to tell you my own personal fan history. About 1977, I went to
my first convention. This was a gaming convention, and I continued to go to these
for several years. But in 1987, while I was at Windsor Gamefest, I picked up a
brochure for a science fiction convention known as Contradiction, to be held in late
October in Niagara Falls. Anne McCaffrey was scheduled to be its GoH. Now, I knew
that Anne McCaffrey lived in Ireland, and rarely visited North America due to her
problems concerning flying. I figured that I would never get another chance to see
her, so I decided to go to the convention.
What an eye opener! I found that I
enjoyed myself at Contradiction more than at the best of gaming conventions. And
while I was there, I found a brochure for another convention, known as Draconis, to
be held in Louisville, Kentucky in March of 1988. Again, the GoH was Anne McCaffrey.
I went to this one, and again enjoyed myself. An SF fan was born.
- - - - - - - - - -
We Also Heard From:
Forry Ackerman, Don Anderson, Harry Andruschak, William Bains, Martha Beck, John
Berry, Pamela Boal, Bill Bowers, Ned Brooks, Ken Bulmer, Vincent Clarke, Chester
Cuthbert, Sharon Farber, Naomi Fisher, Dean Grennell, Ian Gunn, Sam Helm, Craig
Hilton, Irwin Hirsh, Ben Indick, Ben Jason, Terry Jeeves, Irv Koch, Robert Lichtman,
Bill Mallardi, Todd Mason, Catherine Mintz, Murray Moore, Pär Nilsson, Marc
Ortlieb, Elizabeth Osborne, Robert Peterson, Greg Pickersgill, Derek Pickles, Mike
Resnick, Fred Smith, Steve Sneyd, Gene Stewart, Jon Stopa, Mae Strelkov, Alan
Sullivan, Roy Tackett, David Thayer, Michael Waite, Ted White, and Zdenko Zak.
Title illustration by Sheryl Birkhead
Other illustrations by Alexis Gilliland and Alexis Gilliland/William
Rotsler
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