OtherRealms Issue 28 Part 01

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OtherRealms

 · 8 months ago

 
                          Electronic OtherRealms #28 
                               Fall, 1990 
                               Part 1 of 18 

                     Copyright 1990 by Chuq Von Rospach 
			    All Rights Reserved. 

       OtherRealms may be distributed electronically only in the original 
         form and with copyrights, credits and return addresses intact. 

    OtherRealms may be reproduced in printed form only for your personal use. 

           No part of OtherRealms may be reprinted or used in any other 
                 publication without permission of the author. 

  All rights to material published in OtherRealms hereby revert to the author. 

 
 

Table of Contents: 

Part 1 
	Editor's Notebook [part 1 of 5] 
		Chuq Von Rospach 

Part 2 
	Editor's Notebook [part 2 of 5] 
		Chuq Von Rospach 

Part 3 
	Editor's Notebook [part 3 of 5] 
		Chuq Von Rospach 

Part 4 
	Editor's Notebook [part 4 of 5] 
		Chuq Von Rospach 

Part 5 
	Editor's Notebook [part 5 of 5] 
		Chuq Von Rospach 

Part 6 
	I'm not a nice girl 
		Laurie Sefton 

Part 7 
	Romancing the Turquoise [Part 1 of 4] 
		Susan Shwartz 

Part 8 
	Romancing the Turquoise [Part 2 of 4] 
		Susan Shwartz 

Part 9 
	Romancing the Turquoise [Part 3 of 4] 
		Susan Shwartz 

Part 10 
	Romancing the Turquoise [Part 4 of 4] 
		Susan Shwartz 

Part 11 
	Scattered Gold 
		Charles de Lint 
		 
Part 12 
	Much Rejoicing 
		Dan'l Danehy-Oakes 

	Past Imaginging -- Two Fandoms 
		Lawrence Watt-Evans 

Part 13 
	From Beyond the Edge	[Part 1 of 2] 
		Reviews by our Readers 

Part 14 
	From Beyond the Edge	[Part 2 of 2] 
		Reviews by our Readers 

Part 15 
	Flights of Fantasy 
		Reviews by Laurie Sefton 

Part 16 
	Words of Wizdom		[Part 1 of 2] 
		Reviews by Chuq Von Rospach 

Part 17 
	Words of Wizdom		[Part 2 of 2] 
		Reviews by Chuq Von Rospach 

Part 18 
	Your Turn -- Letters to OtherRealms 

	Masthead -- subscription, submission and other information 

 

Editor's Notebook 
Comments and Ramblings from Chuq Von Rospach 

	Advance warning: price increase 

It's fairly obvious that I'm never going to get down to my proposed 32 
pages, even with the changes I've made.  There's just too much to do and 
too few pages to do it in.  Also, postage is going to increase again 
next year, which will add to the mailing costs.  Because of these two 
factors, the cover price of OtherRealms is going to increase, probably 
with issue #30.  How much and what it will do to subscription rates I 
don't know yet for sure, but it will likely be either $3.50 or $3.95. 
I've been at the current rate since the beginning of 1988 and at $2.50 
since 1986 despite major increases in the size and cost of producing 
this thing and so it's time to put things a little more in line with the 
costs.  My policy of free copies to contributors, fanzine trades and the 
other usual stuff won't change, so people who want to write or draw 
instead of write checks still have that option. I will, after issue 30, 
trim the mailing list of freebies who seem to have gone dormant on me, 
so if you like OtherRealms and aren't paying for it in some way, get 
active or at least write me a letter telling me so. 

	Notes on this issue 

This issue is huge -- likely the biggest issue of OtherRealms yet.  So 
much for restraint in page count.  Aw, well -- I'll publish as much as I 
can before the electronic edition goes away. 

One noteworthy accomplishment from last issue -- not one name was 
typoed.  I got them all right.  This is noteworthy only because this is 
the first time in ten or so issues I've pulled that trick off.  Going 
for two.... 

There are a number of new graphics this issue -- I was sick and tired of 
the graphic for Words of Wizdom, and when Laurie told me I was going to 
change her No Prisoners column (she never did like the dripping blood. 
That was my idea.  I thought it was cute, but I didn't have to live with 
it, either...) I decided it was time to fix some of the others as well. 
Hope the new ones (which aren't done as I write this) are better.  Since 
the schedule is more flexible and I wasn't quite as pressed for time (as 
I write this, I'm looking at an electronic release around mid-September, 
with mailing of printed copies somewhere near there -- the normal 
deadline would have been September 1) I've been trying to clean up a few 
of the things about the look that I didn't like but didn't want to try 
to fix while under the crunch.  Hope the look is better (I think so). 

	In Times to Come 

At that, a bunch of things didn't fit in this issue including a piece 
on Olaf Stapledon, an interview of Lew Shiner (Sorry, Alan!) and a look 
at reference books about the Science Fiction field.  Also scheduled is 
a trip report from Judith (Alamut) Tarr on her visit to Egypt, an 
article from Katherine (Bristling Wood) Kerr and all the usual stuff. 
Issue 30, to be published in April (and the last issue on the network) 
is shaping up very well.  It's an anniversary issue and is something a 
little different.  I think you'll like it. 

One thing that I experimented with and tossed back on the drawing board 
was an index of reviews using PageMaker 4.0's new indexing and table of 
contents features.  It didn't work out but it did give me a few ideas on 
how to restructure things that might make it usable down the road.  I 
wish I had an index, and I'm sorry it's not here this issue, but I 
expect I'll have one starting in the next couple (even if I decide to do 
it the old-fashioned way).  I've also been playing with a Hypercard 
stack that contains all of the text of all of the issues I've published -- 
I need something on my disk where I can easily look up what's gone on 
in previous issues -- grep just doesn't cut it.  The work I've done is 
promising, but I doubt it'll be done before the end of the year (even 
assuming it works at all), and I won't be able to release it generally 
because, as far as I can tell, it'd constitute a republication (it's the 
same general idea as a "Best of OtherRealms" anthology) and my copyright 
agreement with authors precludes that.  What I'm trying to do is design 
it so I can strip out the text and publish it as an on-line, Hypercard 
based index to OtherRealms so that people can use it to look things up, 
but not simply be able to click a couple of buttons and read it.  That'd 
require having a copy of the original publication. 

	More than you ever wanted to hear 
	on the end of electronic OtherRealms 

When I decided to announce the termination of Electronic OtherRealms 
last issue, I knew it was going to generate a lot of mail.  I also knew 
that I was going to get yelled at by at least one twit on the network. 
Unfortunately, I wasn't disappointed.  Within a couple of days of the 
posting of issue 27, the following showed up in rec.arts.sf-lovers under 
the title "OtherRealms abandons loyal readers".  It was posted by 
account ALC somewhere at Penn State University by someone who didn't 
bother to sign a name: 

	Just got the latest OtherRealms and I was shocked to read that 
	Chuq is no longer going to product the electronic version for 
	USENET.  He will, starting next issue, only product a paper version. 

	Well, I guess Chuq has been working at Apple too long.  The 
	"magazine for the rest of us" is now "the magazine for those 
	that will pay" (been taking too many lessons from Apple, I guess). 

	I, for one, find his arguments, completely lacking is 
	validity.  I hope that the readers here will mount some 
	pressure to change his mind. 

I did find it amusing that the poster was able to not only complain 
about my decision but to be able to make obnoxious remarks about my 
employer at the same time.  He gets two points for ingenuity there, but 
otherwise, it boils down to "I want it.  He has to give it to me." He 
went and got the date of the last issue wrong on top of that, much to my 
amusement (issue 30, due in April, is the last issue, not this one). 

I had told a few people of my plan to kill OtherRealms, and I'd told 
them that I could guarantee that I'd be flamed for deciding to kill the 
fanzine.  ALC gave me a rare opportunity to say "I told you so" -- and 
also to show a classic example of why I've decided to stop producing 
Eeyore (Electronic OtherRealms, aka EOR).  There are a lot of great 
people on the net.  A lot of great people who read Eeyore.  And enough 
idiots out there that all the greatness doesn't matter.  It doesn't 
matter how good the hot fudge is if the whipped cream is spoiled, and 
for me, the cream of the net has long since gone sour.  It's people like 
ALC, and Omega, and Tim Maroney and Tom Maddox and the nameless dozens 
who pop in and scream and whine and rant and moan and never make enough 
of a presence for me to bother remembering their names. 

USENET's not fun any more.  For me, serious not fun.  Why? Read on. 
This is something that I posted as a tangential followup to the 
continuing saga of Robert Abernathy of the Houston Chronicle and his 
series of stories about USENET/Internet (terms he incorrectly uses as 
equivalent) being a haven for government funded pornography (great 
headlines, horrible research, factually questionable).  This was titled 
"What's wrong with USENET" and is my final comment on why I'm leaving 
USENET and taking Eeyore with me.  A couple of people mentioned on the 
net that my comments here were at odds to my comments in the editorial 
last issue announcing the termination. Very true: I thought I'd be 
polite (although why USENET deserves politeness I'll never know).  So 
much for polite, here's what I really think: 

Since announcing the upcoming demise of my group rec.mag.otherrealms, a 
number of things have happened.  First, I got flamed by someone who was 
pissed that I'd decided to stop volunteering my time for his benefit. 
But first, he got all the facts wrong and then flamed me based on his 
version of the facts.  A number of folks wrote and asked me what it 
would take to give r.m.o a reprieve.  A bunch of folks wrote me and told 
me not to let the turkeys get me down (a LOT of folks: thanks, each and 
every one of you).  ONE person wrote to ask advice on how to do a 
replacement group like rec.arts.sf-lovers.reviews. 

I bring this up for a few reasons.  One is to point out that of ALL the 
mail I got on r.m.o, one person took initiative to look into building a 
replacement.  Some folks offered to help out, but only one person was 
willing to take over and to the whole thing -- and THAT was the reason I 
gave a year's notice on the termination.  So that by the time OR was 
gone, there would be something to take its place. 

I suggest that if and when he goes public with rec.arts.sf-lovers.reviews, 
you treat him well.  Initiative and a willingness to give of oneself 
are rare and needed attributes on USENET -- and the general attitude on 
USENET towards people who do give their time to the net is not pleasant -- 
as the one idiot who flamed me showed quite clearly.  I not only 
expected that an article of that type was going to appear, I guaranteed 
it to a few friends. Nice to know I wasn't disappointed. 

So what's wrong with USENET? And what does that to do with r.m.o dying? 
What's wrong with USENET is that I'm tired of being threatened with 
bodily harm with a baseball bat (Hi, Omega).  I'm tired of being accused 
of all sorts of nasty stuff.  I'm tired of abusive e-mail, uuencoded 
unix kernels in my mailbox, nasty notes sent to my postmaster, profane 
phone messages in my voicemail.  An incident occurred at Baycon this 
year that really freaked me.  A reader of the net came up and introduced 
himself.  Something, for some reason, clicked and suddenly there was a 
third person between us.  I later apologized to him (and he apologized 
to me, needlessly) -- but it's very scary to me that enough shit has 
happened to me on this network that my defense mechanisms kick in like 
that -- that I'm now paranoid enough from a pretty constant stream of 
threats and abuse that when someone comes up and introduces themselves, 
my first reaction is to see whether he's carrying a stick.  So far, I've 
been lucky.  So far. 

Many folks have told me to turn the other cheek.  I've been turning the 
other cheek for ten years now.  I'm outta cheeks.  I'm outta tolerance. 
I'm outta here. 

That's why r.m.o is dying.  Yes, it's the few and the noisy.  Yes, the 
vast majority of my readers are being penalized for the actions of a 
very few twits.  I don't care.  All I want now is out -- where I can get 
away from the noise and the abuse and the twits.  I don't care who gets 
hurt -- as long as I stop hurting. 

Which is why I disagree strongly with Kenn when he says we need to 
protect things for the noisy as well as for the rest -- because while 
you're protecting the noisy, the noisy are forcing out the rest.  Think 
about how many people who were high-profile on the net two years ago are 
gone.  Or five years ago.  And think about why. 

You folks are welcome to do whatever you want with USENET.  It's not my 
battle any more -- I fought the idiots and the turkeys for ten years 
trying to make a better, humane network.  I hereby declare 
unconditional, complete defeat -- the best I can say is that maybe I 
slowed them down a bit.  Maybe. 

So when you talk about protecting the net "for all users", think about 
how you are really defining "all", and what the cost of that really is. 

If I sound tired and bitter and angry, it's because I'm tired and bitter 
and angry.  I'm looking forward to discharging the rest of my 
responsibilities to the net and getting the hell off -- my only hope 
being that I get off before my sense of humor goes away permanently. 

One final note before I shut up: a reading exercise for people who want 
to make USENET better.  In the august Asimov's is an essay called 
Xenogenesis by Harlan Ellison.  Read it.  Then ask yourself at what 
price is total freedom too expensive. 

I might point out, just for the heck of it, that there was an entire 
meta-discussion about the Ellison article on the various nets.  As far 
as I can tell, if you've been there you understand and sympathize with 
Harlan. If you haven't, he's overreacting and posturing.  I haven't hit 
nearly the shit he has in his life, and I'm glad.  I don't know how I 
could have coped with it.  Nobody's thrown eggs (they've limited 
themselves to obscene phone calls and 'cute' anonymous letters to my 
post office box).  But I find all these 'little, trivial' things add up 
after a while, and they're additive -- the set of all the trivial, 
little stupidities and obnoxiousness over the years has added up to a 
layer of nastiness I no longer want to wade through.  The result: lots 
of the good, worthy readers are getting cut off so I can get away from 
the few, the noisy, the nasty.  You can argue if you want that it's my 
fault for quitting.  I'll argue in return it's none of your business and 
suggest you go spend a few years in the trenches holding back the filth 
on the net and try to both stay clean and keep a sense of humor.  I 
can't any more -- you want the job? You got it. 

In discussion with a net friend, the following popped up: 

    Thanks...  It's funny.  I've been thinking about this for a few 
    days, and I realize that I sit in restaurants with my back against 
    a wall, facing the front door.  I'm slowly realizing there are all 
    sorts of behaviors I'm doing because I'm mildly paranoid -- which 
    scares the hell out of me.  I've never been physically assaulted in 
    person (just yelling, which I can deal with.  Mostly, from USENET 
    folks, it turns out to be churlish whimpering in the guise of high 
    wit -- and almost always, when confronted with a real person, they 
    turn into real cowards...).  I knew USENET was causing problems in 
    my life.  I'm just starting to realize how many... 

Scary to realize exactly how far my unhappiness on the net had pushed 
me.  How many people have 'hobbies' that make them keep their backs to 
the wall because they're afraid something is going to pop up behind 
them? (I'll note, by the way, that since these revelations have bubbled 
up from the subconscious they've been dealt with pretty well -- I'm not 
nearly as freaked or hyper.  But I am still rather pissed at finding 
myself ending up in the situation in the first place.  I'm taking things 
a lot less seriously and trying to avoid internalizing issues or getting 
involved in the emotionally charged ones.  That makes things more 
tolerable, but I'm definitely not at the point where I could claim I'm 
enjoying myself on the net.  Not by a long shot.  Just not miserable). 

A number of people talked to me about possible ways to keep Eeyore 
alive.  Some even were silly enough to volunteer their time to help out 
(silly folks.  Down that road lies net.god status and then you are truly 
lost). That isn't an option in this circumstance.  Even if I was able to 
find someone who was willing to commit to a long-term shot as editor of 
Eeyore (and long term means a couple of years or more -- an issue here 
and there, or even a year doesn't really do anything -- I'd either be 
spending all the time I'm supposedly saving training new editors (or 
looking for them) or doing it myself because the editor bugged off on 
me.  It wouldn't keep Eeyore from dying, either -- at some point, sooner 
or later (and probably sooner) the situation would fall apart and then 
Eeyore would die again, but this time without notice.  The sad reality 
of USENET is that it runs on volunteers, and volunteers only work as 
long as they're motivated -- and the motivation has to come from within. 
I simply can't see someone remaining motivated towards doing 
mechanistic grunt work on someone else's stuff instead of doing their 
thing for any length of time.  It's just unrealistic based on what I've 
seen happen around the net.  What would end up happening was that hopes 
would be raised and things would seem to get back to normal and then 
either come crashing to an unfortunate end or be dumped back in my lap. 
What it doesn't do is solve any real problems like saving me time, 
energy or hassle.  It just shifts things around and delays the 
inevitable. 

It also begs the major question, which is why I should want to continue 
doing something for an organization (i.e.  USENET) that has made me feel 
so distinctly unwelcome that I feel I have to get out? Even if I'm not 
around, I"m still supporting a network that has made me unhappy and 
allowed users to abuse me.  I've used the analogy of a lecture to 
explain this to people: if I'm giving a lecture in front of a group of 
people, I don't care how many folks are sitting and listening intently, 
if two or three idiots are throwing tomatoes, after a while you get 
tired of ducking -- especially if the rest of the audience isn't trying 
to make them stop. 

And that's the bottom line on this.  There are lots of neat people being 
hurt by this decision and I recognize that.  I don't feel guilty about 
that, though, because USENET, as an organization, not only tolerates the 
kind of abusive behavior I'm no longer willing to ignore, but actually 
encourages it by refusing to admit it has to deal with the problem.  The 
attitude of "turn the other cheek and ignore the idiots" only works so 
long, and now USENET is going to have to deal with the reality that by 
choosing to accept the idiots, they have chosen noise and chaos and hurt 
over information and people and caring.  I'm not (by far) the first 
person that's been kicked off the net by the hooligans.  I'm just the 
first unwilling to go quietly. 

USENET has to realize that their policy of 'benign' tolerance isn't 
benign and isn't free of cost.  One cost of tolerating the idiots is 
that USENET is losing OtherRealms.  No big loss to many, I'm sure -- but 
take a roll call of all the names that you don't see on the net any more 
and ask yourself what the hidden cost of this 'benign tolerance' really 
is. 

When USENET decides that it's time to get serious and start dealing with 
the aberrant, anti-social and abusive behavior that is common on the 
network, then maybe I'll reconsider.  Until then, I'm treating USENET 
the way the world treats British soccer fans -- there are lots of nice 
soccer fans in Britain, but when the hooligans start rioting, it's hard 
to remember anything else. 

When USENET becomes a place where we can sit down and have a good time 
without someone practicing primal scream therapy in your face, then 
it'll be time for Eeyore to return.  I'm not holding my breath. 

Mike White and Ambar, Bob Halloran, borneo @ UC Santa Cruz, Betsy Perry, 
der Mouse (long time no see, man!), Henry Cate, Bryan @ University of 
Kansas, Chris Holt, Brad Templeton (well, sort of.  Then again, from 
brad, 'dweeb' is a compliment...), Gordon Banks, Ken Meltsner, Allen 
Wessels, Joanne Brooks, Dave Cline, Dana Goldblatt, Ken Josenhans, Kenn 
Barry, William Davidsen, Jr., Peter Scott, Paul @ hcr.com, Rolfe Bozier, 
Mike Shappe, Robert Frey, Scott Merrilees, Maurice Schekkerman, Paul 
Zimmerman, Stephen Spencer, Mark Hill, Dennis Cottel, Kevin Rushforth, 
Alex Heatley, Tippy (somewhere inside AT&Tland), Stephen Duncan, Steven 
Glover, Ken Crouch, Marc Ringuette, Larry Reeves, Andrew Dwelly and the 
dozens of other people who wrote in on the situation, thank you very 
much -- for your comments, your support, and even your criticism.  The 
good people out there make this decision that much harder to carry out. 
But it came down to me and the idiots.  The idiots won.  We all lose 
because of that, me more than most. 

[continued] 

 

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