Copy Link
Add to Bookmark
Report
OtherRealms Issue 29 Part 10
Electronic OtherRealms #29
Winter, 1991
Part 10 of 10
Copyright 1991 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.
Your Turn
Letters from our readers
Richard Lupoff
On page 39 of OtherRealms #28, I notice a review by Mr. Michael Orr,
of a novel called CIRCUMSOLAR! The review credits me with the
authorship of this novel.
Alas! Such is not the case. I never wrote any such book. As far as I
know, no such book exists. I suspect that Mr. Orr is playing some sort
of joke on me, perhaps behind your back, or perhaps with your
cooperation. Or maybe the book does exist and I just haven't seen it
around, and somebody is using my name without my permission and
putting it on books I didn't write.
Or maybe I had amnesia and wrote the book and forgot all about it. I
mean, the possibilities keep multiplying, don't they?
Maybe there's another planet just like ours, and another Richard A.
Lupoff lives there and writes science fiction novels, and somehow one
of this other Lupoff's manuscripts made its way to our Earth and got
published.
Man, this is getting scary!
I wish you (or better yet, Mr. Orr would look into this and let me
know what's going on. If somebody else is writing books under my
name -- and, if Mr. Orr's judgement is to be trusted, really lousy books
at that! -- at the very least, I want my piece of the royalties.
If Mr. Orr can produce a copy of "my" book CIRCUMSOLAR!, I'd be very
eager to see it, and even more grateful to have a copy of my own to
add to my brag shelf.
[[This is the kind of situation that I'm always worried about with a
publication like OtherRealms -- reviews of nonexistent books, hack jobs
by people with an axe to grind, puff pieces by personal friends -- are
all ways that the openness of OtherRealms to outside writers can be
abused. When it happens innocents are hurt. My apologies to Dick for
letting this one slip through -- chuq]]
M.J. B.
I wanted to write you a note to tell you how much I enjoy OtherRealms.
I especially enjoyed your discussion of Westercon. At one time I got
involved in 'organized fandom' but even then it was a pretty wild
group of people. Nice folks, sure, but for every nice person there
were two more whom you looked at and muttered "Jeezus......" I
figured I was just too basically 'straight' for that crowd. We're
talking about 15 years ago, here, and boy does that make me feel old.
The last Con I went to, on the first night someone dismantled ALL the
furniture in his/her room and placed the pieces in the elevators. At
about that point I decided I'd had about enough. (So did the hotel,
BTW).
Anyhow, it sounds like Cons haven't gotten much better, which is a
real shame. I am a long-time SF fan, who has the misfortune to be
married to a 'non-reader'...oh, I don't mean he *can't* read, just
that he *won't* read (unless you count the racing form). I surely do
miss discussing good books with other fans who can talk dragons or
robots or whatever and not go glassy-eyed in three nanoseconds.
Reading OtherRealms is a breath of fresh air for me....
So, thanks, Chuq, for the fresh air you've sent my way for the past
five years (that's how long I've had net access).
PS. One thing I *do* miss about the cons, though...the zines. I just
loved the fan writing, mimeographed or Xerocopied, damn near illegible
and usually not very good but every once in a while....ooooh....buried
treasure. I wish there were somewhere I could send away for more of
those zines....without having to go to Con and risk life and limb
among the strange flora and fauna.
(and a second letter to Laurie)
I just finished reading your "Not a Nice Girl" article in OtherRealms,
and I really want to say how much I admire you.
I, too, am not a nice girl, but I imagine I've been so for longer than
you have. When I graduated from high school in 1967, nice girls got
married and had babies and spent their lives caring for husband and
children and not doing much else. Worst case, they got secretarial
positions until they found the right man, which wasn't expected to
take more than a year or two. College? For a girl? Not in my Italian
family....
So when I expressed an interest in computers (a relatively new field
at the time), folks looked at me as if I'd suddenly sprouted a second
head. I spent three years in a clerical position here at Xerox,
telling everyone I wanted to learn to program, and being told not to
get such ideas into my pretty little head. As you said, girls didn't
do computers...or anything else, either...
Then, in about 1970, Xerox got into trouble over some government
contracts. Basically, the government decided that there were not
enough minorities in the 'professional positions' here, and if the
situation wasn't rectified immediately, Uncle would take his business
elsewhere. So, the Xoo held what many of us senior women now refer to
as 'Hire a Woman Month'. Suddenly I found myself officially being
called a programmer. Of course, such niceties as 'training' weren't
given a lot of thought....after all they just needed token
minorities...nobody actually expected us to be capable of doing the
job.
So, I learned to program in the school of 'hard knocks'. Now, 20
years later, I'm a senior consultant here at Xerox, and people come to
me for help. Pretty funny, huh?
But the funniest thing is that, even today, most men deal with us
senior professional women by the simple expedient of convincing
themselves that we're really just funny-looking men....girls don't do
computers, right? I do computers. So I must not be a girl. Just a
man with breasts.
Feh, indeed. Some things never change.
But, in reading your article, I just have to admire your courage soooo
much. You've done so many different things. I fought tooth-and-nail
for the chance to do just ONE thing, the one thing I wanted more than
any other, programming professionally.
At one time, about 15 years ago, I got involved briefly in organized
fandom. I wrote some stories and poems, and some of them were
published in fanzines. But the one incident which sticks in my mind
the most concerns a particular story I wrote, a humorous story (or at
least it was intended to be humorous) set in a computer room, in which
the constant stream of obscenities that programmers tend to bestow on
the equipment resulted in a sentient computer with an...uh...
*interesting* vocabulary.
When I submitted it to the fanzine I'd been working on, the (female)
editor sent it back with a note suggesting I submit it to one of the
'boy's" fanzines.
Because everyone knows that girls don't do computers.
Joel M Snyder
Undoubtedly you'll get several dozen letters, but I thought I would
write moments after reading your note. If only for the cathartic
effect.
Yes, you're right, you're right, you're right. USENET is full of
idiots, and the very structure of the system is such that such idiots
are encouraged -- the electronic personalities of people too afraid to
speak their mind in person explode with the anger and hatred that
they've bottled up inside. And the network is anonymous, and safe,
and comforting, and provides a world apart from the one which
frightens them so.
And I understand your desire to GET OUT. We all have this feeling
when the assholes and idiots of the world just gang up on us. "I'm
working my butt off, and all you can do is complain..."
And there is no "but." The basic reaction is, "yes, they're jerks,
but..." There is no but. They're jerks. Takes the fun out of it. So
get out. And don't even feel guilty.
I've been posting EOR on our local bulletin board for about five years
(since 1986, I'm pretty darn sure, if not before), and you have a set
of loyal readers here at Arizona -- presumably some of them will get in
touch with you for paper copies.
Anyway. Thanks for the effort, and for making at least SOME
electronic mail interesting.
Gordon E. Banks
Do you have any suggestions for what could be done to make the net
more civil? Some of Maddox's latest spew has been particularly
offensive and profane, although he is smart enough that on balance I
learn something by reading his posts. Should there be a board of
censorship to which complaints can be made and warnings issued?
I too have had some flames (mainly from sci.med postings) and even a
phone call from someone who threatened to sue me. But I haven't gotten
anything like the abuse that you have. Perhaps something about fandom
is malignant. I too read the Ellison piece and was very sympathetic to
it. The hostile reaction to it on the net is revealing. Why is it
that when someone puts their work before the public, some people think
there is now some obligation to them?
You clearly have good reason for quitting, and I won't urge you to
reconsider, for it is clearly dangerous to your mental health to
continue, and I don't see any practical way of getting the abusers to
lay off.
[[The primary problem of USENET (and to a lesser degree, FIDONET) is
that there is no central authority and no enforcement power. If
someone wants to be an idiot, they can be an idiot, and unless they
happen to be on a machine who's administrator cares enough to make
them cut it out, you can't touch them. USENET revels in it's anarchy,
but it also wallows in it. On balance, I find the anarchistic freedoms
allowed by the net overshadowed by the segment of the net-users who
refuse to accept that with freedom comes the responsibility to not
abuse those freedoms. Anarchy works only when everyone involved is
either mature enough to deal with the situation rationally or is stuck
somewhere that they can't cause problems. As long as people are not
accountable for the actions, USENET will continue to attract those
people for whom creating controversy and being obnoxious are great
fun. That's one reason why I'm now home based on GEnie. It's not
perfect over there, but it has one thing that USENET doesn't: a person
paid to make sure that the people who get out of line either settle
down or get out. (there are negatives to THAT as well; just look at
the fun on PRODIGY -- but there are tradeoffs on everything in the real
world). -- chuq]]
Mike O'Brien
Just been reading the latest OR. Easy to see why you'd leave USENET.
Hope GEnie's more congenial, if more commercial. I'm getting back
into ham radio after 20 years out of it, and there seem to be the same
sorts of BD cases there - difference is, after they piss enough people
off, the FCC fines 'em $1,000 and yanks their licenses. Though I
heard that one such fellow was back on the air within the week, using
some foreign callsign from a boat out past the 3-mile limit.
I think the shitheads aren't just on USENET. They're everywhere.
"Genuine" celebrities seem to have the same sorts of troubles you've
got. You hear a lot of stuff like that if you live in LA - you're from
down here, right?
You expressed interest in going to Yellowstone next summer. I'm
writing primarily to heartily endorse that. It's one of the few
things I enjoyed as a kid that still measured up when I went back as
an adult. I just spent 10 days in the Old Faithful Inn with my
fiance, geyser-gazing. We hiked out into the never-never, we sat
around on the boardwalk in the Upper Geyser Basin within eyeshot of
our room, we gazed and we gazed - and we never got tired of it.
Some folks see one geyser and that's it. Other's become addicted.
We're now members of GOSA - the Geyser Observation and Study
Association.
Of all the books on geysers, the best, hands down, is "The Geysers of
Yellowstone" by T. Scott Bryan. If it spits water and it's in
Yellowstone, it's in this book. You can buy it in the park or order
in advance from The Yellowstone Association.
Lodgings -- I'm tired of camping out. The cabins are OK but pretty
run-down, really. They were never built that well to begin with. To
my mind, the finest accommodations in the park, hands down, are the
rooms in the Old Faithful Inn. They cost $32 a night, bathroom down
the hall. The place is 100 years old and the largest free-standing
log structure in the world, and it looks out over the Upper Geyser
Basin (NOT Old Faithful - that's off to the side. You see it in front
of you as you pull up to the front of the hotel.). The lobby is five
stories tall. The food is superb. Reservations required, naturally,
but you only need reserve a few months in advance, NOT years in
advance as I'd been expecting!
Go enjoy yourself. Chat up the ranger force. Hike out to Artemisia
Geyser. See Lone Star Geyser, and from there, take a (cautious!) walk
along the banks of the Firehole River, to see geysers and hot springs
nobody ever sees. Find a geyser gazer and find out the indicators for
Fan & Mortar Geyser, such as it has. Best show in the park. Right on
the boardwalk. Nobody knows about it.
Make it your own. There are thermal shows to be seen here that you'll
tell your grandchildren about, and most people miss them. Don't.
John Lorentz
I enjoyed your review of Westercon, Portland and the Pacific
North-west in general. Being co-chair (and running Registration) for
an event that takes three years to plan does not allow the opportunity
for an objective look at that event. (For that matter, it doesn't
allow time to see *any* of the convention.) I'm glad you liked the
convention and Portland. Come back anytime. (We do run this
smaller -- 1,100 person -- event each November called "OryCon".) I also
congratulate you for finding Alexi's and (especially) for finding
Jarra's. They're two of my favorites (out of dozens -- we eat well in
Portland).
However (there has to be a "however", doesn't there), I do have a
couple of comments. Firstly, the Art Show. It may be possible that
some of the artists didn't participate due to our liability policy.
(We stated that, although the Art Show was locked at night, and
although we posted a paid guard at the Riverview Room -- the Art Show
site -- we were not responsible for damage or theft of artwork.) If so,
they didn't tell us. The Art Show was nominally sold out. Then some
people informed us that they couldn't make it because of: (a) other
commitments, or (b) they'd already sold the pieces they'd planned on
sending us [or (c) the art work showed up the day *after* the
convention -- this did happen]. No one said they wouldn't display art at
our show because of our policies. Now, Ctein (who writes for the ASFA
newsletter) may know -- or believe -- differently. But, if it's true, it's
news to us.
Our policy is a fairly standard one, and it's how we've run OryCon for
years -- and we usually sell out that show also. To cover the artists'
pieces, we'd have to make a substantial change in our insurance
policy. (For that matter, we might not even be able to *get* the
appropriate policy. Very few companies will insure non-profit groups.)
The cost for that policy would have to come from somewhere -- I suspect
the artists. It would probably triple their fees. Is it worth it?
(Especially since there were *no* losses?)
Secondly, the discussion on alcohol. (By the way, I appreciate it that
you liked our no-weapons policy. We're happy with it -- for much of the
same reasons you stated.) I like having beer available at parties. I
don't got to parties to get drunk and rowdy. I go to parties to nurse
a bottle for a while, and have interesting conversations with fellow
con-goers. Non-alcoholic parties always seem very dry (no pun
intended) and usually dull. There are ways to avoid problems with
alcohol. But I didn't agree with many of yours. "No gate crashers"
doesn't work, and is not valid, for open (not convention-sponsored)
parties. We (the convention) have no right to tell people what they
can/can't do in their own rooms, as long as it's legal and not causing
problems outside that room. While most of the rooms in our hotels were
rented by Westercon attendees, a few weren't. We certainly couldn't
tell *them* what they couldn't do. And, if I'm at a con in another
city, and I want to invite some friends to a party in the hotel room
I'm renting, I'd be very pissed if the convention told me I couldn't.
"You get carded at Registration and get your badge marked." Have you
ever *run* Reg? It gets *very* busy (especially at a larger
convention). It isn't possible to spend the time checking age id, and
stamping badges * WHICH THEN CAN BE PASSED ON TO UNDER-AGE FRIENDS!*
(Unless we weld them to people.) A far better alternative is what we
do at our conventions (OryCon and this last Westercon). People
(*EVERYONE -- NO MATTER WHAT THEIR APPARENT AGE*) have their id checked
at Hospitality, and get their hands stamped. (Hands
aren't -- usually -- interchangeable.) If they wash their hand, then they go
back to Hospitality to have their id re-checked. (Since Hospitality
was open 21 hours a day, this was fairly convenient.)
Yes, we want to avoid problems. But there are friendly ways of
accomplishing this.
It's quite possible that the strawberries that you got at Pike's Place
weren't as good as Californian berries. Unfortunately, you were here a
month too late for the peak of the Oregon (Willamette Valley)
strawberry season. They're the best I've ever tasted. (By the way,
it's "marionberries", not "marian berries". They're named after Marion
County, Oregon [where they were developed], not the [soon to be
ex-mayor of Washington, DC.)
Anyway, come back again. There is *lots* to see here in the
North-west. And definitely go the Vancouver Westercon in 1991. It's
one of the prettiest cities I've ever seen. (And if you think that
Portland has a good selection of restaurants...)
Other stuff: If someone wants to locate of copy of "Dragonhiker's
Guide..." (Langford's book), they might try Wrigley-Cross Books, 8001A
SE Powell, Portland OR 97206 (503-775-4943). That's where I got my
copy, though whenever Paul (Wrigley) gets a new shipment in, they go
*real* fast.
Teddy Harvia
Your mom is not the only one who doesn't recognize all the creatures
in SF art.
I sometimes get lost scanning OtherRealms. Headers across the tops of
the pages would better orient me.
What perpetuates the sexism Laurie Sefton decries is that men and
women are different. One is not inferior to the other; they are just
different. In the minds of some, anyone different from themselves is
inferior. It is fear as much as attitude. Fear is often irrational and
hard to overcome . . . with acts or words.
Andy Porter
Thanks for the new issue, just received. Remember what Ray Milland
said in The Man with the X-Ray Eyes: "If thy fanzine offends thee,
Pluck It Out!"
Or something like that...
Funny, after having a computer since early in ' 84, I've never gotten
involved with BBses. Possibly because I've never figured out how to
use a modem (with my IBM clone that is: the Mac is so much easier to
use, so much clearer that I'm sure it's a matter of a few minutes to
learn).
Anyway, I don't have the time...
The article by Lawrence Watt-Evans was fascinating in that here's
someone who has no experience with, no background in SF fandom,
explaining things about it (many of which are wrong: for instance,
that "nor is there the network of dealers in new and used books") and
then why comics fandom (which he obviously doesn't know arose from SF
fandom) is on the whole more interesting.
(In the newest issue of Extrapolation, there's a survey of articles
about A Canticle for Leibowitz which mentions that no fanzines were
surveyed, unless the articles were reprinted from previous academic
sources.) Am I not suffering fools tonight? Am I getting old and
tired? Is my Mac incredibly easy to use, and fun too? You bet your
ass...
There are a lot of assholes out there. The question is, when do their
idiocies cancel out the good stuff that makes us want to keep
publishing?
Cathy Howard
Susan Shwartz had one heck of a nice vacation. So did you and Laurie
(shame on you for not getting a redwood burl mug. Maybe next time).
I don't know if Laurie was seriously asking about what passes for an
English requirement at colleges these days, but I'll tell you anyway.
I'm going for a 4-year accounting degree and my English requirement is
English 101 and 102. Both of these concentrated primarily on writing
papers and studying literature. I can't say I particularly feel like I
learned much in either class except how to write papers the way a
college teacher wants them written.
Harry Warner, Jr.
I owe you locs on several recent issues of OtherRealms. During the
past summer I've been sick and distracted by various obligations.
Your editorial on Earth Day is in line with my own thinking on a
related matter, the dispute over one proposed logging operation that
would threaten one species of owl. Like you, I feel that the salvation
of the environment is too big a task and too important to justify
limited programs, no matter how well-intended. The energy that goes
into Earth Day or that fight over one forest area should be directed
instead to the international problem. Saving one patch of woods and
one species of owl and devoting one day a year to demonstrating will
have an insignificant effect on the real problem, the need for a
carefully planned, combined program by all the major nations to
control acid rain, the greenhouse effect and other forms of pollution.
As you might suspect, I was overjoyed to find you defending the value
of ink on paper for editing purposes. I've spent the past week
ransacking this house in a vain attempt to find the manuscript of my
second fanhistory book. The only thing that keeps me going is the
knowledge that it wouldn't be any use looking for it if it existed
only in electronic form: too many changes in computers to make
playback very probably from the time I wrote the book to today.
[[There was an interesting report from the Federal government
recently. It turns out that a good part of the scientific data and
government records that have been stored over the years is now
unreadable -- because they're written on magnetic tapes that the
government can no longer read. This is especially true with the data
collected by NASA from space research (NASA literally generates
millions of reels of magtape a year, much of which is never looked at
ever again due to lack of time, money or access). They're starting to
look at the issue, but it's not going to be an easy one to solve. --
chuq]]
Alexis A. Gilliland
Thank you for #28 with the lovely Hanke-Woods cover. Three things in
this issue merit comment. The first is Susan Shwartz's vacation piece,
a lovely combination of travelog and con report. Susan sees the world
very much the way Dolly did in her younger days, evoking in my wife a
desire to travel tempered only a little by reality. The second is
Laurie's far too brief note of response to a raspberry on her bulletin
board. She is an interesting person, responding with considerable
dignity to what seems to me a wholly unnecessary aggravation.
Which leads me to your own editorial, and maybe not be accident. First
of all, the rules of electronic intercourse seem to be cutting edge
modern, not necessarily a good thing. In the stodgy old medium of
fanzines, the general rule is that unsigned material is not published,
while libel, gross stupidity, and slander are (in theory) edited out.
A second consideration is that the audience you are talking to is much
smaller. With a modem and a bulletin board, however, you can have a
real-time conversation with real people as the wide world hangs out on
your computer monitor.
Your violent reaction to meeting one of these phantoms in the flesh
suggests that maybe this isn't such an unalloyed blessing after all.
Clearly the effort of suppressing the rage felt at a steady drip,
drip, drip of insult, provocation and petty injury exacted a physical
toll over time.
I never got a modem or involved myself with the wonderful world of
USENET, and not I have an excuse for what was really inertia, sloth
and technophobia.
We Also Heard from: Mahan Stephen, John Fiala, Sheryl Birkhead, Barb
Jernigan, Ann Feeney, Jon Bonnell, Thomas Lindgren, Jordan B Pollack,
Ken Hancock, ange, Susan Joyce Gross, kathyj, Larry Strollo, Joseph J.
Ford, Rodney Hoffman, Anne Louise Gockel, Susan Shwartz, Kitt Kerr,
Christopher Cambler, David Elliot, Chuck Koelbel, Mark Brader, Mark
Axelrod, Janet Huss, Mark Anbinder, Diane Mitchell, Wes Miller, Todd
Ellner, Bob Weber, Andrew Dwelly, Janet Fields, Jerry Kaufman, Peggy
Ranson, A.C. Clarke, Victor Popov (Bulgaria), Kenneth Kousen, Misty
Lackey and Larry Dixon, Tom Easton and Roger Weddall.
The Masthead
Subscriptions
OtherRealms is available free for arranged trade, your published
letters, articles, reviews, or artwork or at the whim of the Editors.
If you prefer spending money, the cost is $2.85 per issue of $11 for a
four issue subscription. Checks should be made out to "Chuq Von
Rospach". Canadian and overseas people, please write about foreign
rates. Because my bank thinks foreign currency is the spawn of Satan,
all monies need to be in U.S. dollars.
Submissions
OtherRealms publishes reviews of Science Fiction, Fantasy and related
books. Authors are solicted to discuss their work in the Behind the
Scenes section. This series allows you to describe the background and
history of your works in the kind of detail that helps make a book
successful but isn't obvious from the writing. Let us know why this
book is special to you.
Please query everything except reviews, and please include a SASE if
you want a response.
Artwork
Submissions are welcome, but be aware that we only use one or two
pieces per artist each issue. We need work of all types and sizes,
especially some good full page and cover pieces. If possible, send a
good reproduction instead of the original. If you wish the art
returned after use, please let me know.
Letters
We solicit your feedback and comments, since they help us make a
better fanzine. All letters will be considered for publication unless
otherwise requested.
OtherRealms
Science Fiction and
Fantasy in Review
Issue 29, Winter, 1991
Editors
Chuq Von Rospach
Laurie Sefton
Contributing Editors
Dan'l Danehy-Oakes
Charles de Lint
Dean R. Lambe
Lawrence Watt-Evans
Copyright 1991 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.
OtherRealms is published three or four times a year.
Next deadline: July 15, 1991.
Contacting us
Chuq Von Rospach
chuq@apple.com
GEnie: CHUQ
Laurie Sefton
lsefton@apple.com
CompuServe: 74010, 3542
GEnie: L.SEFTON
U.S. Mail
35111-F Newark Blvd. Suite 255
Newark, CA. 94560
