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OtherRealms Issue 19 Part 11
Electronic OtherRealms #19
Winter, 1987
Part 11
Letters to OtherRealms
Part 1
Corrections
I was glad to see your review and that by Mr. Danehy-Oakes of my How To
Write Tales of Horror, Fantasy, and SF, but his criticisms of George
Clayton Johnson's piece seemed the most unfair I've ever read --
because Mr. Johnson is not in my How To! Check it out; a serious
mistake, indeed, was made. I know whom he meant and how the error
occurred, but I doubt the competence of reviewers who don't even glance
at a byline again to be certain their targets have work in the book
under attack! Curious; all those "people (Danehy-Oakes) never heard of"
weren't nearly as mistaken in their remarks as the critic.
J.N. Williamson
[Dan'l responds: Mr. Williamson is absolutely correct. I
managed in the space between the book and the keyboard to do a
mental swap of George Clayton Johnson and his collaborator on
the novel Logan's Run, William F. Nolan. It was Mr. Nolan who
wrote the article which I attributed to Mr. Johnson.
Apologies are hereby tendered to Mr. Johnson, Mr. Nolan, and
Mr. Williamson for the error.
And my apologies to everyone involved as well. As editor and
final proofreader of everything published (and having also just
read the same book, for that matter) I should have caught the
mistake. Since I didn't, final responsibility lay here. -- chuq]
I'd like to correct one point of fact in Charles de Lint's review of The
Shelter. I am not Mary Kittredge's husband. Never have been. I'm married
to Kim Tchang. A completely different person altogether. They don't even
look a little bit alike.
Kevin O'Donnell, Jr.
[Charles de Lint replies: While Kevin O'Donnell, Jr. has lived
around the corner from, workshopped with, and published Empire:
For the SF Writer while she editied it, he is not and never has
been the husband of Mary Kittredge. He is married to Kim Tchang
and my apologies go to all three of them. Please go back to
your copy of OtherRealms #18 with a black pen and put a nice
thick line through the misinformation]
In James Brunet's piece in part 5 of Other Realms 18, he calls
"Hardwired" a first novel. Not only did Walter Jon Williams have two prior
SF novels in print ("Knight Moves" is one, and I can't recall the name of
the other at the moment), but he was an adventure novel author under a
variation of his byline before he started writing sf.
Neil Harris
(atari!neil)
And
Comments
Good issue. I enjoyed the Mike Resnick interview a lot and found myself
agreeing all along the way. I, too, simply like writing although most
pros like to have written. He's quite savvy about the genre taking what
it wants from an innovation (New Wave, Cyberpunk) and throwing the rest
on the ashcan. I remember pros telling me copies of the 1960's New
Worlds would be priceless in a few decades because they marked the true
maturing of the field...
I'll buy Harry Turtledove's thesis about Historical Realism. He's a
welcome addition to the great practitioners of that mode. What makes it
work in SF-type writers is the constraints of accuacy, which such
readers enjoy. Similarly, they like mysteries and adventures which Get
The Facts Right. I, too, find much SF that doesn't bother to learn and
science or other such details rather shallow. Most of the big
prizewinners lately have been of this type, suggesting that we're
losing that facet of the genre... to our detriment, I feel.
Greg Benford
Please thank Alan Wexelblat for his generous review of Ronin. One
correction is required, though. Lynn Varley's remarkable work on Ronin
is hers and hers alone. If it wasn't black, I didn't to it. This is an
understandable mistake, and one from which Lynn takes no offense. Her
work has transformed a largely dismissed and ignored aspect of comic
art into a powerful and versatile tool for storytelling. Even within my
field, her contribution has gone largely uncreditted.
Frank Miller
De Lint looks like he's going to be a worthwhile addition to the mag.
You can tell he likes doing reviews, and perhaps more importantly,
knows how to do it.
Nice to see jayembee's article. He's a good - if still unmet - friend
here, one of the better writers I know, and certainly one of best-informed
people I know about almost any subject under the sun. I use him as an
information-resource often, and he's never failed to have an answer for
me - or to point me to an answer. Hope to see more from him.
I think you're finally got the review headings working. Certainly they
were easier to follow than past issues.
Fred Bals
(bals%nutmeg.DEC.com)
Conspiracy
Comments
My impressions of Conspiracy were generally like yours, though I went
with lower expectations and so was less disappointed. I also had the
advantage of staying in the Grand, an expensive but excellent hotel.
I read your review of Writers of the Future III with a good deal of
pleasure, as you can imagine. But perhaps someone ought to point out
that there is no real conflict between Clarion, which attempts to train
promising beginners, and the Writers of the Future contest, which
attempts to encourage and reward them. It would be very surprising to
learn that Clarion objected to training beginners who have been
encouraged and rewarded by WoF; and certainly WoF has no objection to
encouraging and rewarding beginners trained at Clarion or anywhere else.
Gene Wolfe
Someone I met, who is himself in the construction business, was
estimating that a good twenty percent of Brighton was being rebuilt
while were there. I can't help wondering if your view on paying for
things isn't just a difference in expectations. After all, you pay 60p
and up for a program when you go to a British theater, so perhaps this
is just the way things are done.... Never having been to a British con
before, I don't know, though I will agree that the Masked Ball wasn't
worht the #10. Wasn't there supposed to be a hall costuming contest
attached to that? Or was it cancelled in one of the progress reports I
didn't get? I'd also like to put in a good word for the Holland people
I met, who were perfectly nice and rational when I was talking to them....
Melissa Scott
Having had the pleasure of bumping into you at Brighton, you know I
survived my first WorldCon, too. And while you are correct in your
description of the facilities, I cannot forget just about the first
thing that my friend from Boston said to me (he being the "convention
expert" of my little group). As we took our first stroll between
buildings he said something like, "Every American in the place is going
to bitch when they realize they have to walk outside."
You neglect to mention that all the facilities were directly across the
street from the ocean, and a nice long esplanade. As you say, for
Brighton, the weather was very cooperative. It was nice to stroll
between programme streams and look out over the ocean and get a breath
of fresh air.
You say the British fans made you feel unwelcome. I can name at least
two British authors who at the mere mention of my friends and I going
to take a post-con wandering tour, insisted we drop by -- and they
meant it. And the same with some fans giving us great advice on where
to go, where not to go, where to eat, etc. etc. (And apologies to our
new author friends, we got to see wonderful parts of Scotland -- it was
all wonderful -- but we never made it to Glasgow. We realize this is a
tragic mistake, but it gives us an excuse to go back again!)
You missed the Bedford. This means you missed the "Which Lift will get
stuck with 30 people in it next" contests, which happened quite a few
times. Rather than complain, most of us in the lobby formed a nice pool
and used it as a conversation starter.
Now you run fanzines, and I was on vacation, so my viewpoint was
perhaps a bit more relaxed. Sure, there were inconveniences. But there
were great panels and great stories. Alan Cole And Chris Bunch ("Sci-Fi
on Tee-Vee") come to mind. Here were two American TV writers slamming
the industry execs up one side and down the other, telling hysterical
stories about some big stars (I'd name them, but you never know what
lawyer might read this), and they were clearly having a fun time, as
was the audience. British and American alike, there was a true one
group feeling, and we all loved it.
As for the bitterness of the Holland group, etc. Seems to me all the
"vote for us for the next con" groups were the most business oriented
and unpleasant lot of the whole convention. I was treated just as
rudely by the people from Los Angeles and Orlando, as I was by the
people from Holland. After that, I just stopped talking to all of
them. If everyone was like that, I wouldn't go to any other Worldcon
again anywhere.
And what amazed me were so many of the "big names of Science Fiction" I
met who were truly pleasant and very helpful. These are human beings,
and this is their big time too pitch their stuff, but given all that,
the vast majority were amazingly open and cheerful. To parallel our own
computer industry, the authors at the Con did a lot better than most
company reps at a "Unix con".
This was my biggest surprise of the convention. For example, the panel
Frederick Pohl and Robert Silverberg did ("On Writing Books", though my
marked up programme and memory might be wrong) was sheer enjoyment,
indeed, it was sheer poetry. And we'd still be there today listening to
their stories and banter if we could.
In any event, even though I really agree with most of what you said, I
found your viewpoint was a little bit too "ugly American" so I thought
I'd write. My little group had a swell time, and I would like Britain
and your readers too know that, with the right attitude, the Worldcon
was a great time, much appreciated by this American and his American friends.
Larry Kaufman
lsk@mabstoa.sun.com
While reading your account of this year's WorldCon, I cringed a little
every time you mentioned how you had to go up and down stairs to get to
places around the convention sites. Being a non-biped, I hold stairs
and the bipedal architects who build them in the highest contempt.
Also, after experiencing this year's Alternacon (aka Norwescon) in a
hotel which had ramps so steep that I decided getting out of my 'chair
and pulling it up the stairs after me was easier to manage (although I
fortunately found more accessible but more circuitous routes later) the
thought of attending a con so horribly set up gave me visions of
feeling for extended periods the sort of annoyance and loathing for
bipeds I feel briefly when I find some idiot has parked in front of the
only curb cut on the block.
What I found refreshing was that you actually pointed out that the
convention site was living hell for non-bipeds (at least more so than
it was for bipeds). Generally I find that the only person I know who
has much feeling for whether a place is accessible, and who cares about
it, is me (although several family members and close friends have
absorbed the talent). Seeing a self-proclaimed biped voicing these same
concerns makes me regret chanting "Death to Bipeds!" to myself when
facing the difficulties of being a non-biped in a bipedal culture.
(The terms "biped" and "non-biped" came from an utterance of a friend,
which was approximately "Well, you know it's tough for us bipedals."
This came after he had listened to me brag about what I considered to
be the superior speed and grace of the wheelchair, and complaining
about the annoying traffic habits of pedestrians who seem to have far
less foresight and care than I do when I weave through them at high
speeds. I stuck with the terms because of the humorous connotations
they have for me, because "non-biped" is easier to say than "wheelchair
user", and because they lack the negative connotations of other terms.)
Steve VanDevender
stevev@oregon1.BITNET
A friend of mine forwarded to me a copy of Hard Hat Fanzine #1. While I
agree with much of what you wrote, I'd like to rebut at least one
complaint.
Then there's the Con Suite. Or, rather, the lack of one. Most
of the folks who normally hang out there moved to the Fan Room.
Finally, the bar. ... if you wanted something in the Fan Room,
even water, you paid for it. Most of the folks who hang out in
the bar moved into the Fan Room.
Y'know, they did warn us about this in at least one of the PR's.
Apparently this is the way the Brits run their cons. We Yanks get sugar
highs at our cons, they get sloshed at theirs. I imagine they get
rather annoyed at coming to an American con and having to pay large
sums of money for icy cold beer.
Not having free water anywhere is one of those quaint European customs - like
smoking - that one simply must endure while traveling there. When I
saw a water fountain at Gatwick I did a double-take, almost thinking I
was back in the States...
The only hotel at all tolerant of con parties seemed to be the Grand.
The Grand was even helpful. They loaned the @-party wine glasses so
that we could drink the orange juice that the hosts had brought in.
Michael Kupfer
Michael_D._Kupfer.osbunorth@Xerox.COM
Internal WorldCon politics sound much like the politics of any
international organisation. 5000 is too big for any convention, I am an
AI worker - not animal husbandry - and now steer clear of the "biggies"
like the US national conference and the Internation Joint Conference -
too many people. The smaller ones have a much better atmosphere. Do you
think it's possibly time to abandon the idea of a single WorldCon and
have a USCon & a EuroCon & an AfroCon ... etc.? The Brighton hotel
sounds fairly typical of a major UK conference facility, why were you
so surprised? You are used to the superb conference facilities
available in the US. Considering that the UK has only twice the
population of California, it's hardly surprising that the US has
developed superior facilities to provide single- site accommodation for
extremely large conferences!
I'm surprised that you weren't aware of the strong anti-American
sentiments over here. Well, perhaps that's one reason for their
existence, I have found on my US travels, that Europe has a fairly
accurate perception of modern-day America (albeit primarily gathered
from the media), but we seem to meet a lot of visitors who have
laughably (and often insultingly) simplistic and inaccurate perceptions
of "The Old Country". Let me hasten to add I am aware that this is not
true of the majority of Americans, but why is it so frequently true of
those Americans who can afford to tour "Yurrup"?
Additionally, it can be difficult to separate one's attitudes towards
the people of a country from one's attitudes towards its government.
Your President is something of a laughing stock over here - well he
would be, if he weren't so dangerous. The recent arms reduction
agreement with the Soviet Union is a case in point. How come the US and
the Soviets are negotiating over nuclear weaponry in Europe? If you see
my point - it seems to shut the Europeans out of a situation which is a
hell of a sight more important to those of us living here than it is to
a foreign government 3000 miles away! It's a pity that the force of
this argument is so vitiated by the fawning behaviour of our own Prime
Minister, who seems hell-bent on keeping nuclear arms for no apparently
sane reason. Three decent-sized air-bursts spaced down the North Sea
would completely irradiate the UK. Did you notice that the
"survivalist" mentality is noticeably missing in Europe - you can fit
the whole of England, Scotland and Wales into California, twice over
(Holland is about the size of Wales, a little smaller), there's just
nowhere to hide! We are still suffering from the Chernobyl effects, did
you know? There are several Welsh farms where the sheep still show
unacceptably high levels of radiation contamination - and the source of
that was about 1500 miles away. It provides a clear warning of
something a little closer to home could do!
You should also recognise that there is a substantial difference in
standards of living. A return air flight from London to San Francisco
costs about half a month's pay. Compare that with cost of a US internal
flight from Chicago to San Francisco. There are many factors which
promote European resentment, a substantial amount of British (and I
presume other European countries') heritage is being freighted to the
US (OK, we got our own back, with that moron buying "London Bridge"),
but both the Government and the major heritage trust organisations
frequently have to make special efforts to gain funding to prevent
significant collections from vanishing into American museums. It has
been noted that we seem to send the US all our best quality things,
fine antiques, clothes, leather, china - what do we get back? fast-food
chains, Coca-Cola and vulgar tourists in Hawaiian shirts.
A friend of mine, who is extremely keen on SF - (I just like reading
it, he's really into it) observed that now that SF is "acceptable", it
seems to have lost a lot its "magic" and appeal. Once upon a time, you
could be an SF fan and (gratifyingly) be considered weird because of
it. Now everyone's into it (courtesy of Spielberg, et. al.), it seems
to be less exciting, fantasy is rapidly going the same way. The
exclusivity has been lost. Perhaps that's what they mean when they
complain that the US has "highjacked" SF. That's a fairly strange
claim to make, I don't see any references to the European equivalent of
John Campbell and the like - it was largely an American "scene", almost
from the beginning. However, the "old days" have gone and SF is now
"acceptable fiction" (almost), all things must pass.
Your comments in "Hardhat" imply that you aren't a "typical" American
(OK, they aren't as common as they once were). I'm glad you enjoyed
your trip to London (the restoration is repairing 150 years of
pollution and decay). I appreciated your recognition of the importance
of books, in which I think "SF" is primarily embodied, the literary
tradition is still strong over here, but then again it's a different
country. For instance, what would contemporary US society make of a man
who sings in church, grows flowers and plays darts? (He's a Welsh coal
miner, typically and usually hard as nails).
Graham Higgins
Hewlett-Packard Labs, Bristol.
mcvax!ukc!hplb!gjh
[I think SF is big enough these to support a North American con
and European con each year. I don't know exactly how to deal
with Australia in all of this. Practically, we do this already,
with NaSFIC, and there is no reason why we can't have both each
year The competition and boundaries are artificial, and while
they helped get the European worldcon off the ground, they're
now in the way. Perhaps a better way of handling it would be to
change the boundaries to put foreign bids, rather than make
them poor cousins to the Real con-people. Instead of the
current three boundaries, set up four: American West,
Australia, American East, and European. American's can run
NasFIC's during the foreign slots, and the rules can be set up
so that if no qualified bid arrives for a slot, it gets thrown
open to all comers. There's no need to 'protect' or otherwise
make special dispensation for the foreign con bids anymore.
For the record, I've got my slew of horror stories about bloody
American's. Boy, I can tell a few nasties about my own crew.
Loud, nasty jokes about the shape of the money in restaurants.
Loud, obnoxious people in restaurants in general. I had a ball
in Brighton for the two days I was there before the con
started. Once the con folks moved in (and most of the hassles I
saw were from American fans) it was a zoo. And it wasn't
Brighton's fault -- a small but noticable percentage of
American fans left their manners (and in some cases brains) at
home. I was at various times embarassed to admit to being (1)
part of the con, or (2) simply being american.
Americans need to learn some foreign phrases: "please" and
"thank you" at the top of the list. And to say them like they
mean them. "Sorry" would be a nice addition, too (spending two
weeks in england taught ME the difference between "excuse me"
and "sorry" -- I hope I never forget...
Now I firmly believe the Bloody Americans were a very small
minority. But they are the ones you notice. And they are the
ones that make all Americans look bad. I'll happily apologize
for them, since they probably don't notice how obnoxious they
are -- and I'll hope I wasn't one of them at some time without
noticing.
The reason HHF #1 emphasized the negative was because it was
short on space. Frankly, a lot of the positive things are
things you would expect at a con. I tried to emphasize the
extra-ordinary and point out the problems in the hope that
others might avoid them in the future. In general, England was
wonderful. While I don't think I'd attend a Worldcon class
convention in Britain, I do plan on going back and visiting in
the future and perhaps look in on a smaller British con -- one
better suited to the size of the convention facilities. The
people were invariably wonderful, and I want to see how things
work when they're done on a scale a little more suited to the
kind of function British people are used to. -- chuq]
OtherRealms #19
Winter, 1987
Copyright 1987 by Chuq Von Rospach
All Rights Reserved
One time rights have been
acquired from the contributors.
All rights are hereby assigned
to the contributors.
OtherRealms may not be reproduced in any form without written
permission of Chuq Von Rospach.
The electronic edition may be distributed or reproduced in its entirety
as long as all copyrights, author and publication information remain
intact. No individual article may be reprinted, reproduced or
republished in any way without the express permission of the author.
OtherRealms is published quarterly (March, June, September and December) by:
Chuq Von Rospach
35111-F Newark Blvd.
Suite 255
Newark, CA 94560.
Usenet: chuq@sun.COM
Delphi: CHUQ
