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OtherRealms Issue 19 Part 12
Electronic OtherRealms #19
Winter, 1987
Part 12
Letters to OtherRealms
Part 2
I'm glad to see Harry Turtledove's article, "Historical Realism," and I
feel I must explain that, although my CRT does show green type, it
appears on a blackish screen. Not, as might be expected, pink. Nor is
there a cute little alligator on the screen -- or on the computer's
dust cover.
I personally think he's onto something. I'm fascinated by the whole
problem of researching an historical fantasy or an alternative
timelines novel, especially if you no longer have a university library
to rely on. I don't think that any of us would be likely to state that
we were the wave of the future: most of us are too firmly and fondly
grounded in the past for that, and we know what happens to people who
make such pronouncements. there's nothing quite as stupid as an
out-of-date manifesto. Except maybe two out-of-date manifestos.
I was intrigued by your conreport on Conspiracy. My experience with
European fans seemed pretty good. The norwegians were just great, and I
didn't have any of the run-ins that you and your friends unfortunately
did. Perhaps this might have been due to my own attitudes. I had
utterly no intention of standing still for Yank-bashing. To responses
that Americans seem to spend a lot of money (a comment I ran into in
London from Mundanes whom I met in the normal course of running about),
I simply pointed out, "well, don't you spend money when you're on
holiday -- and then you have to go home and be very, very good until
you've saved up enough for the next bash?" They seemed to understand
that line of reasoning, as well as the "well, I live in New York, and
we're all workaholics there" line of thought.
The way I felt was that, as a guest, I had to be polite. But as hosts,
so did they. I saw no reason to carry abour a burden of guilt or any
other burder because I was American: there was no way I'd have said
anything rude about anyone else's country, and I was damned if I'd let
anyone say anything about mine.
I agree with you that Brighton simply wasn't up to a 5,000 person
convention, though I must admit that going through the train station
and seeing many people from the States was very funny. The World
Fantasy Con next year will be in London; I'm hoping to be able to go.
If Worldcons, increasingly, become Eurocons, I predict a vasst rise in
the size and prestige of the Nasfic, simply because of economics. I'm
damned sure I can't afford Australia, but I definitely could manage
Chicago, for example. That may be imperialist or any adjective that
people wish to throw at me: it's also realistic.
I don't know about anyone else, but I'm sick and tired of hotels having
two policies: one for paying guests; a second -- and far more restrictive
and unfriendly one -- for convention-goers. In self-defense, and
because the Brighton ConCommittee screwed up my hotel reservations, I
had a place far away from the Metropole Messup; and they were charming.
I don't want to have to check into a non-convention hotel in order to
be treated with courtesy, but that seems to be what's happening.
Susan Shwartz
I can't disagree with much that you say in your con report, but I think
you're overlooking a few things which to some extent mitigate your
criticisms, especially those of the con comittee.
To begin with, England is a different country. It is unrealistic to
expect facilities which could have been transplanted from anywhere in
the USA (albeit damned few US cities can now muster the facilities for
a 5,000 plus Worldcon) -- although the Brighton Centre came close. More
to the point, Britain has been suffering economically on a scale which
we've not seen for fifty years: staggering unemployment and inflation
have created a standard of living seriously inferior to ours. It's easy
for American concoms to throw about the bucks with free soft-drinks (at
the least) and munchies, but far more difficult for a British concom to
do so, and what is "traditional" here simply isn't traditional at
British cons. However, and offsetting that, the Brits have the
tradition of buying rounds -- drinks for everyone in the group -- so
that it may well be that clever maneuvers one can cop a number of free
drinks, although if others catch on there could be a problem.
My hotel facilities in Brighton were awful. The first hotel --
Keehan's, on Regency Square -- was clean and hospitably run, but our
room required a climb of 88 steps (six and a half flights), there being
no lift, and the toilet was down the hall (the bath a flight down).
Worst, the lock on the door fell off at the first push. Despite a
listing in the Brighton Chamber of Commerce publication that assured it
took plastic, Keehan assured me he "never had done." We stayed two
nights, settled our bill (for cash)_ and moved to the Churchill Palace
Hotel, where we were only one flight up (a lift was available), a
bathroom adjoined the room, and plastic was acceptable. On the other
hand, we had to awaken a resident each night to get in (the night
porter was never there), a dunk used our door for his toilet, and the
people in the next room never let us slepp past 9:00 AM. In each place
the general quality of furnishings and maintenance of plumbing was best
characterized as "shabby." I haven't seen such inferiour hotels in this
country in thirty years. But the room rates (30 pounds a night in
Keehan's; 40 at the Churchill Palace) compare closely with the rates I
paid for first-class accommodations in US hotels at recent Worldcons.
I attended little of the pro programming -- just the dialogue John
Brunner and I had on the sixties -- but the fan programming was
definitely superior at Brighton to that found at American Worldcons.
(Mike Glyer's protestations and pullout from the "Why have American's
Hijacked the Worldcon?" panel were an embarrassment to all American
fans, but all too typical of LA fandom's highhandedness. I voted for
Holland so that LA wouldn't end up with another quarter of a million
dollars in profits from this non-profit convention -- and so I'd have a
good excuse to visit Holland, a country I've never been to. As for the
program item, it was not at all what you appear to think it was --
perhaps you should've attended it -- and its title accurately reflects
the annoyance non-Americans have over the American proclivity for
pronouncing American events "World" events. If we want to hog the
"Worldcon" perhaps we should call it the "national Con" and stop
pretending otherwise....)
I've been to two previous British worldcons -- 1965 in London and 1979
in Brighton -- as well as local British cons like the Mexicon, and in
general I think the Brits put on better-programmed conventions than we
do. But just keep in mind that they're working with a) less money, and
b) less cooperative venues than we do.
Ted White
Reviewers
&
Critics
Your Editor's Notebook in OtherRealms #18 brings up some interesting issues
about the nature of reviewing and, by extension, the difference between
a reviewer and a critic. I certainly agree with your admonition to look
at authors' works, not their lives, for political and cultural conclusions.
However, I think that there is a place for the kind of critical writing
that goes beyond plot summaries and "I liked this book, you will too",
and looks at an author's relationship to his or her audience, to the
genre, to contemporary (or period) literature in general, and even to
his or her social and political views, to the extent that they are
reflected in the work discussed. I, too, regularly read the New York
Review of Books, the New York Times Book Review, and many other
mainstream critical publications, and believe that the quality of
writing (and therefore the service to the readers, authors, and
publishers involved) is quite high and worthy of emulation by those of
us in the SF/Fantasy community. While "having the first mention of the
work on the second page of a review" may be an extreme case, I think
that the mainstream reviews offer a level of comprehensive literary
criticism and analysis that just is not found in our community beyond
writers such as Samuel Delany, Ursula K. LeGuin, Algis Budrys and
perhaps a few others.
I have seen evidence of this kind of critical ability in OtherRealms,
particularly among the regular columnists, and it is a service to the
SF/Fantasy community that is well worth cultivating. In encouraging
writers to "review the book", let us not drive out more complex and
analytical criticism simply because it doesn't mention the book title
often enough, fails to tell the reader whether he will like it or not,
or delves into the "forbidden" areas of the author's political and
social attitudes.
One example of "irresponsible" criticism that you cite in your
discussion of the demise of Fantasy Review is the article in FR #102
attacking Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead as
being thinly-veiled Nazi apologias [and so forth]. I'm sure that I
found the article in question as offensive and preposterous as you did,
but I am glad that FR published it. We need to air controversial
views, especially unpopular ones. It is not a discredit to Robert
Collins and FR for publishing it; on the contrary it was a credit that
he permitted Mr. Card to review the article and publish a full
response. If anything, it made me feel better about FR -- and that much
sorrier that it is gone.
Michael C. Berch
mcb@tis.llnl.gov
[There definitely is a place for criticism, and I encourage it
where I can. The fact is, however, that writing good criticism
requires a strong background in writing and the fields involved
and a lot of work, things very few people can claim to be
qualified. For every Budrys, there are dozens of people who
mistake opinion for criticism and come off half cocked.
Criticism has its place here, and I hope to see more of it in
the future. Reviews are my bread and butter, and it allows
people who's voices aren't as skilled or their background as
deep to be heard -- something I consider to be very important.
About the Card article, I have nothing against controversy, but
there is a line where it stops being controversial and starts
becoming irresponsible. We can disagree where that line lay,
but I still feel that the article was set up as a "controversy
for the sake of controversy" hit-job with Card as a convenient
(and prominent target) by someone trying to make a name for
themselves. The fact that Collins allowed a rebuttal to be
printed is laudable, but doesn't refute the fact that, to me,
the article in question was unpublishable in any professional
venue. It was factually inaccurate (starting with the very
obvious blunder that the author called Card a White Anglo Saxon
Protestant, when in fact it is a generally known fact that Card
is Mormon), it was inconsistent and self-contradictory, it was
full of accusations that were not backed up or backed up by
quoted material taken out of context, and the tone was one of
anger, not of critical examination. There is a difference
between criticism and hack-jobs, and it stepped across the line
-- chuq]
Breaking Strain
Paul Preiss
Arthur C. Clarke's
Venus Prime
Volume 1
Avon Books, 262pp, $3.95
Reviewed by Danny Low
hpccc!dlow
Copyright 1987 by Danny Low
[**]
This novel is built around an old Arthur C. Clarke story, Breaking
Strain, which appears in modified form, as part 3 of the novel. There
is no intrinsic connection between the novel and Clarke's story. It
could have been replace with a different story with no effect on the
novel. The use of Clarke's story and name is nothing more than a
marketing ploy to associate Clarke's name and appeal with Preuss' story.
For all practical purposes, the novel is wholly the creation of Paul
Preuss. The story outline should be very familiar. Sparta, as a result
of childhood trainning and some physical alterations, has superhuman
powers. She also has several gaps in her memory and is being held
prisoner as the story opens. She escapes and now must:
1. Stay alive.
2. Find out what happened in those missing periods of her memory.
3. Stay alive.
4. Find out who did all this to her and why.
5. Stay alive.
Basically, this is a traditional superhero SF story. Preuss had added a
couple of minor twists. Sparta is a woman and her superhuman powers
does not include superhuman strength or endurance. It is well written but
is not extra ordinary enough to interest anyone who is not already
interested in this type of story. Those who have a preference for superhero
stories will enjoy this one.
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
Subscriptions
OtherRealms is available for the usual bribes and trades: a copy of
your zine, submissions, letters, comments or artwork. If you don't want
to be a part of OtherRealms, you can subscribe for one year (four
issues) for $8.50. A single issue is $2.50. OtherRealms is available
at Future Fantasy Bookstore in Palo Alto, CA.
People in the publishing industry can qualify for a free subscription.
Please contact me for details.
Electronic
OtherRealms
An electronic, text-only version of OtherRealms is available on many
different computer networks and bulletin boards.
On the ARPAnet, BITNET, CSNet and UUCP networks, send E-mail to
chuq@sun.Com to be placed on the mailing list. For people with access
to USENET, OtherRealms is available in rec.mag.otherrealms. It is also
available on the Delphi Timesharing service.
Submissions
OtherRealms publishes articles about book length Science Fiction and
Fantasy. The primary focus is reviews of books, especially the newer
and lesser known authors that might otherwise be missed in the crowded
shelves of your bookstore. Other material about books and the authors
that create them are welcome, including bibliographies and interviews.
Authors are invited to write articles for the Behind the Scenes series,
where the background and research that went into a book can be
discussed.
Please query on interviews, Behind the Scenes articles, and longer
works. Reviews should be sent in their entirety. OtherRealms does not
publish poetry, fiction, movie or fannish material.
Submissions can be made either on a Macintosh or MS-DOS disk. With the
Mac, either text, MacWrite or Word files are fine. For MS-DOS, please
submit ascii readable disks.
Please include an envelope and return postage. If you ever want to see
your submission again, you need to post bail. Also, while I don't mind
multiple submissions, you need to tell me if something is going to
multiple markets. I take first serial rights unless we agree on
something else. Folks who forget these rules will find it hard to get
published in OtherRealms in the future.
You can also submit via the networks to either the account CHUQ on
Delphi or"chuq@sun.COM" on USENET.
Submission deadline is the 15th of the month prior to publication or
when I run out of room. Letter column deadline is the first of the
month of publication.
Publishing
News
OtherRealms is interested in publishing news about the happenings in
the field -- contracts, promotions, deals, sales, market needs. If
something has happened to you that you want the word to know about, I
want to know about it.
Art
I'm always in need of good genre art, from small clip-art pieces to
front and back covers. Anything with a genre flavor is welcome here! I
prefer reproductions and photocopies to originals.
Those
Funny Runes
The gobbledygook attached to the names of many OtherRealms
contributors are addresses. Computers use them to figure out how to get to
another computer to pass along a message. If you don't understand them,
don't feel bad -- neither do many computers, and they're the experts.
Believe it or not, it does work. Most of the time.
The
Details
OtherRealms is published using a Macintosh computer, a Laserwriter
Plus, Ready, Set, Go! 4.0, Microsoft Word 3.0, SuperPaint, and various
other pieces of software. The body typeface is Palatino 10/11, the
Headers use Bookman Bold and Zapf Chancery in various sizes.
Review Copies
Press Release
Books to be considered for review in OtherRealms, press releases and
other interesting stuff should be mailed to:
OtherRealms
35111-F Newark Blvd.
Suite 255
Newark, CA. 94560.
OtherRealms
Science Fiction and Fantasy
In Review
Editor & Publisher
Chuq Von Rospach
Associate Editor
Laurie Sefton
Contributing Editors
Charles de Lint
Dan'l Danehy-Oakes
Alan Wexelblat
Book Ratings
in OtherRealms
All books are rated with the following guidelines.
Most books published should fall into the
range [***-] to [***+]. Ratings are modifed with - or +
to show a half step, with [***-] subjectively better than [**+].
[*****] One of the best books of the year
[****] A very good book, Above average
[***] A good book. Recommended
[**] Flawed, but has its moments
[*] Not recommended
[] To be avoided
