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OtherRealms Issue 07 Part 03
OtherRealms
A Fanzine for the Non-Fan
"Where FIJAGH Becomes a Way of Life"
Part 3
Editorial:
The Past Through Tomorrow
Chuq Von Rospach
Editor of OtherRealms
One of the things I feel very strongly about is that OtherRealms should
be a showcase for new authors, the names that will be famous tomorrow.
Asimov and Clarke certainly don't need any more publicity, and I would
much rather see the magazine look towards the stars of tomorrow rather
than fan the flames of yesterday.
The only problem with this is that getting information about new
authors is difficult to do -- first books rarely get advertising; if
they did, I wouldn't be pushing them as hard as I do. I finally went
to the publishers for help, and the early responses have been
encouraging, to say the least. Because of this, I'm rather proud to
spotlight an author most of us have probably not read, Ben Bova.
This, of course, needs some explaining. Few people will let me get
away with claiming that Bova is a new author -- his first published
story was in 1959, replaced John Campbell as editor in 1971, and has
been writing and publishing ever since. Bova has recently agreed to
edit a new line of books, Ben Bova's Discoveries, for Beth Meacham at
Tor, and since this line is aimed at the newer authors, I wrote him a
letter.
Bova, being a writer as well as an editor, wrote back asking about
reviews of HIS works. Since OtherRealms is still relatively new, there
aren't any, so I went to my library to see what books of his I had.
None, which really surprised me.
It is obvious that we have an image problem here. He was a great
editor at Analog, but his life didn't end when he went back to
writing. I went out and grabbed some of his books. I've been reading
a lot of Fantasy recently and Bova's work was a breath of fresh air.
It is solid SF, the kind that has always been the Analog trademark.
His latest, Voyagers II: The Alien Within, is a good, solid political
intrigue written in the near future. It isn't perfect, but it's a LOT
better than most of the stuff I've been reading recently.
So OtherRealms is still looking for the stars of tomorrow, but there is
a lesson here for all of us. Some of these stars are new, burning
fiercely over the horizon and just out of sight. Others have been left
behind, peeking out through the mists of time and waiting to be
re-discovered. There is definitely a place here for both the new
authors and the old authors that deserve to be read more. There is a
lot of good OLD SF out there, too, and I'm going to try to not forget
that in the future. You should, too.
-----
Copyright 1986 by Chuq Von Rospach
OtherRealms Letters
Dear Mister Chuq Von Rospach:
In your otherwise excellent article about conventions, you omitted any
mention of "filksinging". For this lapse, I shall commission Mrs.
Juanita Coulson to sneak up behind you to give you a forte-fortissimo
"SHRIEK!" as only she can do, which shall either (a) induce permanent
impairment in your hearing, (b) stop your heart, or (c) both. Herewith
my attempt to define this category of activity, in case your sudden,
tragic demise should prevent you from doing so yourself:
Filksinging: the origin of the term is somewhat obscure. The best
explanation so far presented is that it originated as a typogarphical
error in an mid-1960s convention program book. The best definition of
"filksing" is "a haphazard aggregation of filksingers and audience
which gathers to perform and listen to filksongs". As the best
definition of "filksinger" is "one who performs filksongs at
filksings", and the best definition of "filksong" is "a song performed
at filksings by filksingers", we may observe a nicely
mutually-recursive set of definitions, but we are lead into something
of a quandary, and must perforce use less-than-optimal definitions.
It is usually perilous to offer generalizations about any topic, so I
shall attempt to eschew them. Filksings usually begin at approximately
eight PM local time, and usually continue until "dawn" (n., "the time
when men of reason go to bed"); thus, filksingers are usually the only
convention attendees who observe the rising of the solar luminary. At
a filksing, there are usually five to fifteen filksingers, usually in a
"bardic circle" or "bardic semicircle", who usually take sequential
turns at singing filksongs. Each filksinger is usually armed with a
guitar; she usually sings the verses solo, although she may, at her
discretion, invite the accompaniment of the audience on choruses. The
aforementioned audience is usually grouped in the general proximity of
the filksinger aggregrate. Filksongs may be: (a) published texts set
to music ("The Queen of Air and Darkness", "Danny Deaver"); (b) songs
based on published SF or fantasy works (the Dorsai cycle is perhaps the
most popular for such purposes; e.g. "I Am the Destroyer", from
"Soldier, Ask Not"); (c) original songs with an SF or fantastic flavor
(by far the most common category); (d) none of the above; (e) parodies
of categories (a) through (d) (greatly popular; e.g. "I Am the Cheap
Lawyer"). Filksongs are usually classified into two categories:
non-ose and ose (adj., der. fr. cry "ose, ose, and more ose!").
Your correspondent is, most unfortunately, resident in the Midwest, and
is, therefore, limited in his knowledge of filksingers. However, the
following may be recommended: Leslie Fish, Frank Hayes, Bill "of Many
Instruments" Maraschiello, Juanita Coulson, et cetera. (Mrs. Coulson,
in addition to an excellent singing voice, has the ability to project
her voice throughout an -- alas! too often -- noisy filk room, whether
it be an average room or Grand Central Station at rush hour. One
person, intending to record a filksing, was informed by Mrs. Coulson
that it would be prudent if he would, during her turn, reduce the
recording intensity of his device. The miscreant neglected to do so;
reportedly, the microphone emitted a puff of smoke at the beginning of
Mrs. Coulson's first song, the said microphone having been irreparably
damaged by the said singer. It is suggested that acquaintances of Mr.
von Rospach say their farewells to him now; in any event, he will be
unable to hear them hereafter.)
Much more could be written about filksinging, of heresies, of Frank
Hayes Disease, and of many other topics, but many would now say that
this letter (guided missal?) has continued altogether too long already.
I shall close by inviting those whom this letter has interested to
examine filksinging more closely at their next con;
I Remain
Y'r Humble and Obedient Serpent
Timothy A. McDaniel, Esq.
Arpa: mcdaniel@uicsrd.csrd.uiuc.edu
Csnet: mcdaniel%uicsrd@uiuc.csnet
Usenet: ...{pur-ee|ihnp4|convex}!uiucdcs!uicsrd!mcdaniel
Dear Chuq,
I enjoyed your article on the attractions at conventions, but note that
you left out one of my favorite things: Gaming. Most SF cons I've seen
will have a small area set aside for gamers (usually for roleplaying
games, e.g. Dungeons & Dragons, Champions, Call of Cthulhu), some go
so far as to organize tournaments. The best thing about gaming at
conventions is getting to see how others do it, and try different
"styles." The best game I've ever played in was at a convention; so was
the worst.
I realize you were primarily pointing out the convention features a SF
reader would be interested in, but since most rolegamers are SF/fantasy
readers, I thought I'd point this out.
--Carl Rigney
USENET: {ihnp4,allegra!cbosgd}!okstate!uokvax!cdrigney
-----
Dungeons & Dragons is a trademark of TSR, Inc.
Champions is a trademark of Hero Games.
Call of Cthulhu is a trademark of Chaosium.
Chuq;
I enjoyed reading your 'Introduction to Cons' very much. It gives a
very good intro to the 'feel' of being at a Con. The bigger cons are
generally just bigger and things run later.
I think that some fen would disagree with your relative ranking of
panels and parties. The parties come first for most, and many never
attend more than one or two panels.
Some advice for first-time con-goers:
- Read people's name badges. You might be sitting next to someone you've
always wanted to meet, but you don't know what they look like.
- Don't be afraid to talk to someone famous. Larry Niven and Isaac
Asimov have to go the supermarket for their groceries just like
everyone else. It's usually safe to corner someone at a party.
- On the other hand, don't be obnoxious. Try to insert yourself
gracefully into a conversation.
- If there is a party and the door is open, it is an open party. Join
in! If the door is closed, it is a closed party. Don't go in
unless you have an invitation (or are with someone who does).
- Don't be intimidated just because everyone seems to know everyone
else (except for you). Many of them have just met. Also,
everyone had a first Con.
- Go to the meet the guests reception (every Con has one) and try and
meet as many people as you can. Then you can act like you know
them all the next year 8-).
Other Matters:
I thought that Spider Robinson was a very good choice for BayCon's
Writer Guest of Honor. He was much more accessible than most (he
talked for quite a while after the Meet the Guests Reception).
We are currently deep in the process of selecting/approaching the GoHs
for 1987. We will have flyers at Westercon with the names of any
confirmed guests.
John R Blaker
Logistics and Transportation
BayCon '87
UUCP: ...!sun!wdl1!jrb (jrb@wdl1.uucp)
ARPA: jrb@FORD-WDL1.ARPA
blaker@FORD-WDL2.ARPA
Chuq,
Finally, I find myself with time to write a loc to OtherRealms. Since
I have a lot to cover, I left a few things by the wayside, but here are
some things that demand comment.
I must confess that I'm a tad perplexed by Richard Loken's "pico
review" of _Pet Sematary_ in OR #3. When he says, "King has some real
writing skills which he uses to write schlock, I couldn't stand the
subject and never finished the book. Classic Stephen King," one can
infer that Loken doesn't like horror fiction in general and/or King in
particular. Which makes me wonder why he read _Pet Sematary_ at all, even
to relieve boredom.
Regardless, while I hesitate to do so, I venture to say that Mr. Loken
didn't understand what King was trying to say in the book. The story
was about the inability to let go of loved ones who've died; how even
the most rational of people have a hard time accepting the finality of
death. Despite a corny ending that I didn't think resolved the story
very well, King did a very good job of bringing this point across. The
book wasn't scary or gross; what it was was *disturbing* and *uneasy*,
as it should have been.
I could empathize with Lou Creed's actions. I read the book on a
weekend trip to Maine (coincidentally, very close to the setting of the
book). The day after I got back home, I went over to my parents' house
and learned that one of my mother's cats had died just before the
weekend. Pasha (who, again coincidentally --- I'm serious! --- looked
very much like the cat on the cover painting of the book) was my
favorite of all the cats I'd known before or since, and I was quite
depressed about his death. My mind immediately started asking the
obvious question: If I had access to a Pet Sematary as existed in
King's novel, would I use it to bring Pasha back, knowing the
consequences? The disturbing answer was that if I decided against it,
it would only be after long consideration. And to add to the feeling of
despair, my father passed away two weeks later.
I can't say that my experiences didn't color my perception of the book,
even though they happened *after* I read the book (except that I did
know for a long time beforehand that my father was dying ). Still, King
knew exactly what nerves to strike and I think he did so with unerring
skill.
re: "Callahan's Barred"
I haven't read _Callahan's Secret_ yet, nor, I confess, the magazine
appearances of the stories therein. Yet still, I understand your
feelings about the matter, because I felt similarly at the end of the
first Callahan's collection. I'd been a faithful reader of Robinson's
stories as they appeared in ANALOG, and I welcomed the chance to read
them again, all together, when the collection came out (not to mention
the couple of new stories). The last story in that book, _The Wonderful
Conspiracy_ left a bad taste in my mouth.
Part of the whole positive feeling of the Callahan's series was the
*humanity* in it, that it was, at the heart, people helping people.
That we find out, as did Jake, in _Wonderful_ that there was far more
to Callahan than we'd known previously, I felt a small betrayal. While
it wasn't really a *deux ex machina*, it seemed to me to be damned
close. It changed the whole complexion of the series.
I read the next one or two stories in the series when they appeared in
ANALOG, but they just didn't seem the same to me. It was like running
into and old friend after some time has passed and realizing that your
friend has changed somehow, in a direction that makes you feel
distinctly uncomfortable.
re: Horror as an offshoot of Fantasy
It was an interesting point you made in your April Survey Report about
the dearth of Horror in the survey results. I suspect that a majority
of fans just *don't* consider Horror as a part of Fantasy, perhaps due
to an attitude of "I like Fantasy, but I don't like Horror". In fact,
the impression I got from a couple of the folks behind the Fourth
Street Fantasy Convention in Minneapolis was that one of the ostensible
reasons behind that convention's existence was because the World
Fantasy Convention seemed to be oriented to Horror rather than
Fantasy.
On one hand, I tend to agree with them. I, personally, like Science
Fiction and Horror, but very little Fantasy, and I tend to separate
them into distinct categories. On the other hand, in practice, I tend
not to distinguish any of the three. I usually think of the three being
a single entity that I call Fantastic Literature and let it go at that.
One other person here at DEC has come up with a rather elegant system
in which he considers Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror as different
species in the genus Fantastic Literature.
Part of the problem in trying to distinguish one species from another
is that there is, as you point out, a lot of interbreeding. Is _Alien_
science fiction or horror? How about Whitley Strieber's novels (_The
Wolfen_, _The Hunger_, _The Night Church_)? He takes the standard concepts
of horror --- werewolves, vampires, and demons --- and treats them as
science fiction. As does George Martin in _Fevre Dream_. And the list
goes on and on.
Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror are useful labels for dealing with
the material, but they cannot be hard and fast. While I would be fairly
comfortable about shelving my SF/F/H separately from my mysteries or
historical novels or whatever (even though I don't do so), I'd never
consider trying to separate the SF from the F from the H. It's like
trying to decide if I should file my Jeff Beck albums under Rock'n'Roll
or Jazz/Blues.
re: Articles/reviews of "non-sf" material in OR
Again, I'm somewhat divided. I feel that some "non-sf" material has a
place here. Something that fosters an understanding of science or
writing or similar bases for the discussion of SF belongs, as long as
its connection with SF is clearly established and is the point of the
article. Reviewing such just for its own sake doesn't really tell us
anything with respect to our common interest. If there was a problem
with Barb Jernigan's review of Golden Bough, it was that it read as no
more nor less than a review of a folk music group. Until Barb's reply
to Matt's letter, I had no idea that the group did any fantasy songs
because she didn't specify this. While I like folk music (and, thanks
to Barb, I will probably look this group up), unless its connection to
The Field is clearly established, it's just as well to leave it out.
And by the way, as long as we're on the subject of fantasy folk music,
I want to recommend another Kicking Mule record called BORDERLANDS, by
a duo Chris Caswell and Danny Carnahan (under the collaborative by-line
Caswell Carnahan). The title song was written by them and is very
definitely fantasy, and one of the other songs is a traditional tune
called "The Farmer's Cursed Wife".
Jerry Boyajian
UUCP: ...!{decwrl|decuac}!akov68.dec.com!boyajian
or ...!decvax!akov68::boyajian
ARPA: boyajian%akov68.DEC@DECWRL.DEC.COM
OtherRealms -- The Movie
Well, not really, but now that I have your attention I thought I'd take
this time to announce the latest offshoot of OtherRealms. OtherRealms
is now available on a subscription basis in hardcopy.
Why, you might ask, is an electronic Fanzine being printed out and
mailed? Primarily because I realized I was doing it anyway. Every
month, OtherRealms goes to editors, publishers, authors, and other
random interested parties -- anywhere from 5 to 15 copies a month
through the mails to people who don't have E-mail access.
Since I'm sending them out, I might as well do it right. Thanks to the
wonders of the Macintosh, it is possible to put together a good looking
printed product rather quickly; without, in fact, much extra work than
it takes to get OtherRealms out to the networks. I'm also starting to
strain my morality at the company copy machine, so this is the first
issue to go to a copy shop instead, and will also be printed up double
sided to help save on postage.
The electronic OtherRealms is about as good as it is going to get with
current technology. I think it is a big step forward from where we
were at the beginning of the year, but taking a critical look at it on
paper makes me feel that the best electronic look doesn't do very well
on paper, so it makes sense to split them and deal with them as
separate entities. As long as I'm going to do it anyway, I might as
well make the magazine generally available. It will (I hope) make the
material more accessible to the rest of the world as well as bring
outside material. To date, all of the material published has come from
my prime network, the USENET|ARPA|BITNET|CSNET interconnect. We've
been exporting our words to other places, but haven't been nearly as
successful in getting it back in. Hopefully these new options will
change this.
For now, charter subscriptions are set for $15/year. The idea of this
is simply cover postage and copying costs. I'm going to monitor things
for a few months, and if I'm too high, I'll add a couple of issues to
the subscription to make it up. If I'm too low, I'll eat it (sounds
fair?).
Why subscribe to the hard copy? For someone reading it online, not a
lot of reason since the same words will be in both places. I'm going
to start using some art (as it gets submitted) in the hardcopy version,
and I think the print will be much more pleasant to read. I don't plan
to print material that won't also go to the networks, so there is no
pressure to pay any money -- the point is to put the best face on the
words in whatever format they are seen -- besides, typography and
layout are fascinating and I expect I'll have just as much fun learning
how to do it in print as I did online.
Who knows? It could be the start of a whole new career...
Masthead
This issue is Copyright 1986, by Chuq Von Rospach
All Rights reserved
One time rights only have been acquired from the signed or credited
contributors. All rights are hereby assigned to the contributors.
Reproduction rights: Permission is given to reproduce or duplicate
OtherRealms in its entirety for non-commercial uses. Re-use,
reproduction, reprinting or republication of an individual article in
any way or on any media, printed or electronic, is forbidden without
permission of the author.
OtherRealms is edited and Published on a monthly schedule by:
Chuq Von Rospach
160 Pasito Terrace #712
Sunnyvale, CA 94086
USENET: {major_node}!sun!chuq
ARPA: chuq@sun.COM
CompuServe: 73317,635
Submission Policy
OtherRealms publishes material on Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror
literature with an emphasis on reviews. Please, no media articles. I
am very interested in the newer and lesser known authors -- all those
hard working and under paid people we haven't heard about yet. You can
read an Asimov review anywhere -- OtherRealms wants to review the next
Asimov. Articles about authors, series, and anything of interest to the
serious reader of the genre is welcome.
My preferred submission format is electronic. If you can E-mail it to
me, or put it in a format my Macintosh can read, it saves me a lot of
work. If not, I'm a fast typer.
Pico reviews are welcome from everyone. Duplicate the format used in
this issue and limit your comments to one paragraph. Please include
enough information to allow someone to buy the book, such as Publisher
and price. If it is not a paperback, or is from the Science Fiction
Book Club, please note that as well.
Submissions of publishable art for the hardcopy version of OtherRealms
is solicited. No Vulcans or other media, please.
A writers guide is available. If you want to write for OtherRealms,
please ask for a copy, including SASE as appropriate. Submissions
should include both an E-mail address (where applicable) and a U.S.Mail
address. Your address is for your contributor copy -- it will not be
published unless you request it.
Letters should be mailed to the above address. All letters will be
considered for publication unless requested otherwise.
Subscriptions
OtherRealms is available in two forms: electronic and paper. The
electronic OtherRealms is available through the newsgroup
"mod.mag.otherrealms" on the USENET network. For those on the UUCP,
ARPANET, BITNET and CSNET computer networks without access to this
group, a mailing list subscription is available. Send mail to the
appropriate address above to be placed on the mailing list.
OtherRealms can be found as part of Online Visions (GO SCI-4) on
CompuServe. OtherRealms is also available through the following
bulletin boards:
SCI-FIDO, (415) 655-0667.
The Terraboard, Fidonet number 14/341, (612)721-8967.
Dim_Sum Fido, Fidonet number 146/5, (503) 644-6129
Other BBS systems or computer networks are welcome to make OtherRealms
available on their systems. Either copy it from an available location
or contact me to make arrangements. If you do make it available, I
would appreciate hearing about where it is being distributed.
The paper OtherRealms is available from the above address for $15 for
12 issues, sent first class in a wrapper. Fanzine trading rules also
apply: if your article is printed in OtherRealms or you send me a Fanzine
you get a free copy. Please make checks payable to "Chuq Von Rospach."
