(1) BSFS MAKES GRANT TO 2020 WORLD FANTASY CON. The membership of the Baltimore Science Fiction Society has granted $1000 to the 2020 World Fantasy Convention, Salt Lake City, Utah, which will be held virtually this year.
The grant may be used to defray any of the considerable fixed expenses that are required to hold the annual event, which awards the prestigious World Fantasy Awards to the best Fantasy or Dark Fantasy works published in the previous year.
The 2020 World Fantasy Convention will be held virtually, October 19 – November 1.
More information about the Baltimore Science Fiction Society (BSFS) can be found here.
(2) HORROR IN EVERYDAY LIFE. Shiv Ramdas livetweeted a family crisis he was following by phone. Thread starts here. (Since it already had 69K retweets and almost 300K likes by the time I saw it, you’ve probably already read it!)
(3) INCONCEIVABLE. Rolling Stone reports “‘The Princess Bride’ Cast to Reunite for Virtual Table Read” as a political fundraiser.
The cast of the beloved comedy The Princess Bride will reunite for a one-night-only virtual table read to raise money for the Democratic Party of Wisconsin.
“A Virtual Princess Bride Reunion” will features original cast members Cary Elwes, Robin Wright, Chris Sarandon, Mandy Patinkin, Wallace Shawn, Carol Kane, the film’s director Rob Reiner and “special guests.” In addition to the table read, the reunited cast will partake in a virtual Q&A moderated by Patton Oswalt.
The virtual table read will livestream only once, on September 13th at 6 p.m. CST. Fans of the film can RSVP at Act Blue to watch the livestream. “Anything you donate will be used to ensure that Trump loses Wisconsin, and thereby the White House,” organizers promise; both Elwes and Reiner have been vocal in their criticism of Donald Trump on social media.
(4) CANON FIRE. Chris Nuttall, in “Some Thoughts On The SF Canons” at Amazing Stories, offers his own outlook on genre history.
…Second, the average writer in the early era worked under a set of very harsh restrictions. There were lots of issues that were taboo, from sex and mating to race and racism; there were morality clauses in contracts that could and would be enforced if the writer stepped too far out of line. Heinlein, for example, wrote coloured characters … but he had to give himself plausible deniability He did this so well in one book – Tunnel in the Sky – that he managed to raise suspicions of miscegenation instead. By modern standards, this is insane as well as stupid. But we’re talking about an era that was worried about Mr. Spock’s ears!
Third, the average writer did not know where technology was going. They made a lot of guesses and got some things right, but they also got a lot of things wrong. Heinlein’s predictions regarding computer development, for example, were absurd. He assumed a lot of easy things would be very hard, if not impossible, and vice versa. Asimov’s predictions were even worse, to the point he has wood-burning stoves co-existing with atomic power plants and FTL drives.
Fourth, the average writer lived in a far more limited world. There was both relatively little awareness of other cultures and a certain sense that the Anglo-American way was the best. It isn’t until fairly recently, thanks to the internet, that we have really become aware of alternatives. They drew on their awareness of the world to shape their future worlds, hence the number of very traditional societies in fantastic worlds….
However, it seems unclear why 20th Century sff writers would be unaware of alternatives that Wilberforce, Lincoln, and Susan B. Anthony already knew about in the 19th Century. In fact, they probably weren’t unaware of them. It’s hard not to simply enjoy the status quo when it works in your favor.
(5) THE RETURN OF HYPER COMICS. A book-length collection of Steve Stiles’ Hyper Comics, in the works when he died earlier this year, was released in August. One of the places it can be ordered is Barnes and Noble.
The last project of legendary underground cartoonist and Hugo Award-winner Steve Stiles, who passed away in 2020, is a September release from Thintwhistle Books, a company formed by Steve’s widow, Elaine Stiles.
Packed with more than 150 pages of Steve’s classic work from Hyper Comics, Heavy Metal, Stardate, and a host of other publications, it’s an essential part of any cartoon collector’s library !
Krupp Comic Works founder Denis Kitchen called Steve “one of the funniest and cleverest goddamn cartoonists on the planet.” Mark Schultz said of Steve’s back-up stories in Xenozoic Tales, “It was a joy to collaborate with him – if he made any adjustments to my scripts they were invariably improvements.” Heavy Metal editor Ted White called Steve’s contributions to the magazine “Phil-Dickian in their SF surrealism, wicked in their observations, and Firesign Theatre-like in their mocking details.”
In The Return of Hyper Comics, you’ll thrill to the adventures of Jim Baxter, Marijuana Detective. You’ll share Steve’s nightmares as he meets Nixon and Trump. You’ll smile along with Mr. Smile when he accidentally kills a girl he is trying to save. “If only I could stop smiling,” he says. You’ll get an advance look at next month’s QAnon conspiracy when Steve reveals, “Joe Stalin Tells Me What to Draw!” And you’ll barf as Steve’s first orgy ends with tainted oysters and a group emergency room visit.
Steve had a particular genius for chronicling life’s humiliating moments, and fortunately for his fans, Steve had enough humiliating moments in his life to fill volumes. He stands up to fellow students after one of them writes a racist insult on the blackboard, and in revenge they finger him as the culprit. A dealer spikes Steve’s coffee with LSD, leaving him on a bicycle in Queens in rush hour. But through it all, Steve faces life’s traumas with self-mocking humor and a core of optimism that nothing manages to quite extinguish.
The Return of Hyper Comics is 150 pages of wicked social satire, bizarre sex, science fiction, violence, drugs, and personal humiliation, all with brilliant art by a master cartoonist. Thintwhistle Books disclaims responsibility for damage resulting from excessive laughter.
(6) RADIO REENACTMENT. “Daniel Dae Kim to Lead All-Star Recreation of ‘The Adventures of Superman’ 1940s Radio Serial” – Yahoo! Entertainment has the story.
Daniel Dae Kim will lead an all-star cast in a recreation of the original “The Adventures of Superman” radio serial during the second installment of DC FanDome, Warner Bros. announced Friday.
Kim is one of three actors who will voice Superman in the one-hour production, which is being produced using original scripts recently found in Warner Bros. archives. The event is being held in support of The Creative Coalition, a Hollywood nonprofit that aims to address entertainment industry issues as well as urgent social issues.
Joining Kim as Superman in the production is Wilson Cruz (“Star Trek: Discovery”) and current Creative Coalition president Tim Daly (“Madam Secretary’)….
The performance of “The Adventures of Superman” will be available beginning on demand for 24 hours beginning Sept. 12 at 10:00 AM as part of DC FanDome: Explore the Multiverse, the second installment of the successful virtual Comic-Con alternative, which debuted in August. The event can be accessed at DCFanDome.com.
(7) NICHOLS MACIOROWSKI DIES. Influential animation visual development and story artist Sue Nichols Maciorowski died on September 1 at the age of 55 reports Animation Magazine.
The family obituary notes:
Sue graduated from California Institute of Arts with a visual animation degree in 1987. There she was part of a team that won an Emmy for work on The Muppet Babies. After graduation, Sue worked for Jim Henson on The Muppet Babies, Marvel production, and taught classes at CalArts. She then started her long career with Disney Studios working on animation films where she was best known for her expertise in character development. A few of her favorite works that she contributed to were Hercules, Beauty and the Beast, and the Princess and the Frog. More information on her career may be found on her website, Mothernichols.com.
Disney tweeted its own tribute. Thread starts here.
(8) MEDIA BIRTHDAY.
- September 5, 1952 — Tales of Tomorrow’s “Seeing-Eye Surgeon” –
Does Doctor Xenon really exist? I don’t know. For that matter, do we three standing in this room really exist? Who knows? The real and the unreal. Where does one stop and the other begin. Maybe we’re just a figment or product of someone else’s fevered imagination. Someone from another world perhaps. — Doctor Bob Tyrell
On this day in 1952, Tales of Tomorrow first aired “Seeing-Eye Surgeon” which is the only SF credits for co-writers Michael Blair and Ed Dooley. The cast was Bruce Cabot as surgeon Bob Tyrell, Constance Towers as Martha Larson, Edwin Jerome as Doctor Foyle and Joseph Holland as the possibly mythical Doctor Xenon. Towers would later be in episodes of The Outer Limits, The 4400 and Deep Space Nine. You can see it here.
(9) TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS.
[Compiled by Cat Eldridge and John Hertz.]
- Born September 5, 1774 – Caspar Friedrich. Leading Romantic painter; known for great landscapes with human presence small. Here is a Frankenstein using CF’s Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog; here is another using The Sea of Ice; here is another using Cromlech in the Snow. Here is a Dracula using Man and Woman Contemplating the Moon. (Died 1840) [JH]
- Born September 5, 1913 – Sheilah Beckett. Illustrated seventy fairy-tale titles for Little Golden Books. First woman illustrator at the Charles E. Cooper studio, N.Y. Commercial work e.g. Necco Wafers, Whitman’s Chocolates, but preferred children’s books and Christmas cards. Lived to be 100. Here is a cover for Rapunzel. Here is an interior for Sleeping Beauty. Here is Jane Werner’s retelling of The Twelve Dancing Princesses. Here is an interior from John Fowles’ retelling of Cinderella. Here is a book of Beauty and the Beast stickers. Here is Lowell Baird’s translation of Candide. (Died 2013) [JH]
- Born September 5, 1921 — Paul L. Payne. He edited both Jungle Stories (three years in the Forties) and the better known Planet Stories (five years in the same period) but there’s very little on him on the web. ISFDB notes that he wrote one novel for us, The Cructars Are Coming, which is available in an Armchair Fiction print edition along with Frank Belknap Long’s Made to Order novel. (Died 1993.) (CE)
- Born September 5, 1936 — Rhae Andrece and Alyce Andrece. They played a series of androids in I, Mudd, a classic Trek episode. Both appeared as police women in “Nora Clavicle and the Ladies’ Crime Club” on Batman. That’s their only genre other appearance. They only acted for three years and every appearance but one was with the other. (Died 2009 and 2005, respectively.) (CE)
- Born September 5, 1936 —Joseph A. Smith, 84. Two dozen covers, half a dozen interiors for us; many others. Here is Hercules in his lion’s skin. Here is The Adventures of King Midas (look at the rock!). Here is Stopping for a Spell and here is Year of the Griffin. Here is Witches. Here is Gregor Mendel. Here is Circus Train. [JH]
- Born September 5, 1939 — George Lazenby, 81. He is best remembered for being James Bond in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service which I’m sure I’ve seen if I’ve completely forgotten it now. His turn as Bond was the shortest among the actors in the film franchise and he is the only Bond actor not to appear beyond a single film. Genre wise, he also played Jor-El on Superboy and was also a Bond like character named JB in the Return of the Man from U.N.C.L.E. film. (CE)
- Born September 5, 1940 — Raquel Welch, 80. Fantastic Voyage was her first genre film though she made One Million Years B.C. thatwith her leather bikini got her more notice. She was charming in The Three Musketeers and The Four Musketeers. She has one-offs in Bewitched, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, The Muppet Show, Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child and Mork & Mindy. (CE)
- Born September 5, 1953 – Paul Stinson, 67. Seventy covers, a few interiors, for us; more for commercial clients. Here is Jesus on Mars. Here is Gunn’s Road to SF vol. 2. Here is the first issue of Beyond. Here is Ice Hunt. Here is Pillars of Salt. [JH]
- Born September 5, 1959 — Carolyne Larrington, 61. Norse history and culture academic who’s the author of The Land of the Green Man: A Journey Through the Supernatural Landscapes of the British Isles and Winter is Coming: The Medieval World of Game of Thrones. She also wrote “Norse gods make a comeback thanks to Neil Gaiman – here’s why their appeal endures” for The Conversation. (CE)
- Born September 5, 1964 — Stephen Greenhorn, 56. Scriptwriter who written two episodes for Doctor Who: “The Lazarus Experiment” and “The Doctor’s Daughter”, both Tenth Doctor stories. He also wrote Marchlands, a supernatural series whichJodie Whittaker and Alex Kingston appeared in. He also wrote the Mind Shadows strip which was featured on the Who website. (CE)
- Born September 5, 1964 – Olga Dugina, 56. Teacher, illustrator (sometimes with Andrej Dugin). Here is an image from The Three Oranges; here is another. Here is Dragon Feathers. Here is an interior from The Adventures of Abdi (Brazilian ed’n; text shown is in Portuguese). Here is one from The Brave Little Tailor. [JH]
- Born September 5, 1981 – Dina Djabieva, 39. Three images in Star*Line vol. 36 no. 2, cover for vol. 36 no. 3. Here is “Pan”. Here is “Warrior Monk”. Here is “Elysium”. Here is “The Maiden”. She says, “I find myself living between two worlds, the dreaming and the waking. Too often I am not able to distinguish between the two.” [JH]
(10) COMICS SECTION.
- Tom Gauld on the possibilities of sci-fi (in The Guardian).
- Another Tom Gauld sff cartoon —
(11) INSIDE COMICS. The Numlock News’ Walt Hickey interviews a comics industry expert: “Numlock Sunday: John Jackson Miller on the comic book shutdown”.
You alluded to this a little bit, but one thing that’s so interesting about this particular industry is there are two very large well-capitalized companies and then several other smaller companies producing the core product. Then there’s one middleman. And then there’s zillions of tiny little mom and pops. And as a result, the one middleman was able to functionally shut everything down.
Most responsible retailers in the business saw that this needed to happen because we could not have stuff being shipped that couldn’t be sold. The bills would keep mounting up. The problem simply is that this is a system where it expects that there’s cashflow coming in constantly. Diamond was in a situation where they needed to try to pay off their suppliers for the books that they had already sold, and they knew that there was not going to be any more money coming in at the same time. Diamond did get a credit line with Chase, Steve Geppi has said this is not going to be a problem going forward.But there are many different kinds of comic shops. There are many that focus on graphic novels, and they’re much more insulated against these problems, because the graphic novels have continued shipping from other other distributors outside the comics industry like Random House. There are stores that have games or toys or something else like that they’re also doing.
Then, of course, let’s say you’re a pure comic shop, that means you probably also have a back issue section and many have a mail order, online stores or eBay stores, and there’s over 10 billion comic books already in existence so not having the new ones for a few weeks, you know, that’s not that big a deal.
But there are some shops, they’re suburban in nature, they tend to be more superhero-centric stores and those are the people that are more concerned about a disruption to the habitual nature of comics reading. My response to that would be, “yeah, but is the comics habit going to break any faster than the professional basketball watching habit will break, or the movie-going habit will break?” I think when you have every alternative also shutting down, you’re less likely to have people respond to this as, “the comics, they’ve left me, they’ve abandoned me.” No, it’s that the comet has struck, and we’re all going to just catch our breath here for a while, and we’re going to try to figure out how to restart this thing.
I’ve used the metaphor of Apollo 13 that they have to bring these systems up one at a time, systems that were never designed to shut down.
(12) NE$$IE. And now that you’ve finished that business survey, InsideHook hopes you want to know “How Much Does the Loch Ness Monster Boost Scotland’s Economy?”
When the effect of tourist attractions on local economies comes to mind, what are some of the first places one can think of? Historical sites, perhaps, or cultural events. But what happens when the thing that helps drive a local economy might not exist at all?
This isn’t a brain-teaser or a deep dive into epistemological thinking; instead, it’s a precursor to the way the Loch Ness Monster hosted the Scottish economy. Which, it turns out, is by a lot. A new article by Michele Debczak at Mental Floss delves into the way one of the world’s most famous cryptids has helped shape the local economy in Scotland. Nessie might not be real, but its impact certainly is.How much of an impact is there on Scotland’s economy? According to a study commissioned by accountant and Loch Ness Monster fan club founder Gary Campbell, the economic boost of Nessie tourism heads into the 8 figures.
(13) RADIO FREE DRACULA. The University of Delaware’s Resident Ensemble Players will be doing a five-part radio play adaptation of Dracula. Hear a member of the company speak about “Dracula: About the Project” at Soudcloud.
A free audio presentation by the Resident Ensemble Players, in partnership with WVUD 91.3 FM.
Much more than just a gothic horror story, DRACULA is a love story, a mystery, and a globe-trotting adventure tale. The REP partners with radio station WVUD for a free, five-episode audio drama of this classic to be presented every Friday night in October.
Beginning in the forbidding mountains of Transylvania, a mysterious night-stalking beast entraps and seduces his way to England in search of new blood. A group of colleagues and companions unearth the horrible secrets of this life-sucking creature as they launch a heart-pounding chase across Europe, only to find themselves in the fight for their lives to save both themselves and the ones they love.
WVUD will broadcast/stream DRACULA in October on Friday nights at 7:00 PM:
- Oct. 2, 7:00 PM — Episode 1: Listen, What Sweet Music
- Oct. 9, 7:00 PM — Episode 2: The Coming Storm
- Oct. 16, 7:00 PM — Episode 3: Of Nature and Supernature
- Oct. 23, 7:00 PM — Episode 4: Master and Servant
- Oct. 30, 7:00 PM — Episode 5: Chasing Nightfall
Listeners can tune into WVUD’s Friday night broadcasts on 91.3 FM on radio or stream from computer or digital devices at http://www.wvud.org/
(14) NO DEPOSIT, NO RETURN OF THE KING. GameSpot recommends you use your Labor Day Weekend free time studying this extra-long list: “Lord Of The Rings Rewind: 49 Things You Didn’t Know About The Return Of The King”. Lots of things I didn’t know here.
11. This elf is an in-joke
The elf who tells Arwen that she “cannot delay” her journey to the Undying Lands was played by Bret McKenzie, who subsequently became famous as half of musical comedy duo Flight of the Conchords, alongside Jemaine Clement. McKenzie very briefly appeared in Fellowship of the Ring, and his character became known as Figwit among admiring fans–an acronym for “Frodo is great… who is THAT?” Jackson decided to put him in Return of the Ring and give him some dialogue “just for fun for the fans.”
(15) MEDIA TIE-IN. Who knew there was Forbidden Planet merch out there? A buddy of John King Tarpinian’s stopped off at the Walmart in Bakersfield for supplies on his way to the Sequoias found this on the shelves —
(16) VIDEO OF THE DAY. “Double King” on YouTube is a 2017 film by Australian animator Felix Colgrave about a murderous monarch that has been viewed 42 million times but has never shown up on File 770! (Although I don’t think there’s a rule that it has to.)
[Thanks to Bill, Jeff Smith, John Hertz, Martin Morse Wooster, JJ, Mike Kennedy, Andrew Porte, Cat Eldridge, Michael Toman, and John King Tarpinian for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day MaineYooper.]
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(1) Good for BSFS!
(2)
I was glad that it worked out okay. But that’s a lot of rice!
(When I was eating rice, I bought it in five-pound bags. The supermarket has 25-pound bags for big users.)
2) I usually buy ten kilo bags of rice and they last me about five to six months. And I’m a heavy rice eater (largely because I don’t like potatoes) and have rice several times per week. So a truck full of rice would take me several years to finish.
9) I’m a big fan of Casper David Friedrich and have seen several of his works in the original, since most of them are held in German museums. “Monastery graveyard in the snow” is probably my favourite work of his, though I’m also partial to “Abbey Among Oak Trees”. Both depict Eldena abbey in Greifswald, which Friedrich painted a lot. I visited it a few years ago and it still looks much the same as it did two hundred years ago.
Meanwhile, the “Chalk Cliffs in Rügen” no longer look that way, since erosion had done its work. They’re also very difficult to access and the path there is closed to the public after a rock fall killed a hiker a few years ago.
Finally, here is “The Frozen Sea”, another iconic Casper David Friedrich painting. I’m amazed this one never was a Frankenstein cover.
Clickity
Fifth.
(12) I remember taking the Loch Ness boat tour in the 70s. You got a certificate that you had survived the experience. I think it was £1 extra or some such. At the time, every store in Inverness seemed to have little ceramic Nessies filled with an ounce or two of Scotch.
(14) Robby the Robot seems to be on a cycle where various toys come out every 10-20 years. I didn’t realize it had been that long since the last iteration. The LEDs and digital sound mean this is probably an improvement over the last batch of Robby toys. Now if they’d just come out with a starship C-57D and a translucent monster from the id. Maybe an Anne Francis fashion doll.
As a tangent to Forbidden Planet, have we talked about the Outer Worlds wallpaper from MindtheGap? Part of their Eclectic Collection. I don’t know how long it’s been around so it might have been covered. There are three other similarly themed retro sci-fi wallpaper patterns in the collection.
Oh hold on: Duck Scroll. Duck Pixel. Pixel Scroll… Wow! That’s weird.
I’ve been to Inverness and Loch Ness as well. Didn’t see Nessie, but I visited a castle ruin by the shores of Loch Ness. The most amusing moment was a little girl standing by the shore and calling out, “Nessie, Nessie.”
I’m not a wallpaper person at all, but now I want that. Will require a remodel though.
There an action plan plant within a hundred miles and if not for the lockdown is probably have had a wood burning stove installed this year. No FTL drives though.
@Cora Buhlert that sounds adorable.
@Cora —
Ooo, I like that one. Thanks for the link. And with the little bits of a crushed ship poking out — Endurance, is that you?
Jack McDevitt tends to have societies centuries hence that someone from 1995 could adapt to in an afternoon (assuming that the 1995er even noticed the differences).
Hmm. My system is still doing a weird thing with subscribed threads.
4) I think the revival of the “canon” issue is all about efforts to distance the genre from its white male past. In the past, most people took a nuanced view of the genre’s past and its problems but now those problems have been revived and placed at the service of ideology. Personally, acknowledging the problems of the past is fine by me as long as they understand that today is not yesterday.
@RobThornton–
That might have something to do with some rather determined attempts to pretend the problems of the past weren’t problems, and to revive them as if they were virtues. The Puppies were a blatant and obnoxious attempt, but GRRM’s lionizing of Campbell and others, denial that there were any real issues with them, and clear disapproval of changing the name of the award from Campbell to Astounding, is just last month.
The issues are still real issues, and people are still trying to pretend there were never any issues.
Although, yes, some of that willful denial is due to ideological reasons.
The issues are still real issues, and people are still trying to pretend there were never any issues.
Although, yes, some of that willful denial is due to ideological reasons.
Certainly sexism, racism, and related issues are still around. The GRRM debacle is certainly an excellent example. I’m not denying that. And honestly, I’m OK with distancing the genre from the Golden Age. At this point, a lot of it is not readable and if it isn’t readable, what is the point? And certainly the general accusations about the Golden Age are right.
All I was really trying to say that this effort is driven by ideology. That doesn’t mean that it’s bad, I just think that’s what is going on.
@Rob Thornton
Even if it isn’t readable, it still is the foundation that everything that followed is built on. I slogged through Dreiser and Conrad and Cather and James and many other interminable works by 19th century authors in school. I wouldn’t dare pick any of them up today to read for pleasure, but they inform much of what was written after them, and studying them then made me a better reader today.
(And a whole lot of stuff written by those SF DWM is readable today. I went through Heinlein’s Double Star a few months ago; still a cracking good book.)
Lis Carey says That might have something to do with some rather determined attempts to pretend the problems of the past weren’t problems, and to revive them as if they were virtues. The Puppies were a blatant and obnoxious attempt, but GRRM’s lionizing of Campbell and others, denial that there were any real issues with them, and clear disapproval of changing the name of the award from Campbell to Astounding, is just last month.
There also seems to a strong resistance among many people, GRRM and the Puppies comes to mind, to admit that the genre doesn’t have a Golden Age, only a period in which certain novels and authors were known very well because there was less to keep track of. I think it healthy that the genre has expanded to include writers and (hopefully) readers more representative of the world at large. In doing so, most of us no longer can say who all of them are, but that‘s ok. I like Arkady Martine and Aliette de Bodard but I’m sure I’m missing knowing a dozen others just as good.
It’s not that small, easy to know fandom which was almost wholly white and mostly male. Mercifully it’s gone, never to come back. GRRM apparently prefers not to acknowledge that to his failure, and the Puppies long for a readership that’s largely disappearing from the larger genre community.
Now playing: George Michael’s “Freedom! ‘90”
Then why is it you celebrate every day a 70-year-old radio show, or a 60-year-old TV show?
Mike, I’d love to list newer shows, particularly the podcasts out there that I know are doing really great stuff, but finding information on them is nigh unto impossible. Note that even shows from the Sixties onward Just don’t have easily accessible information.
So fellow Filers, tell how to find these radio and web based productions. Surely y’all know somewhere that I can find them. Datlow suggested Locus but they really don’t do it and ISFDB doesn’t list at all non-print appearances of genre fiction.
Mike, I never said the fiction that was older wasn’t good. I’ve got The Demolished Man high on my to be listenEd to list and I’m sure Some This Way Wicked Comes which is just about as old as me will get read this Autumn as it always does even if Halloween is effectively canceled. I’m just saying that the Golden Age of the genre is now.
Cat: Here’s an archive of Mindwebs episodes https://www.oldradioworld.com/shows/Mind_Webs.php – radio adaptations broadcast from the mid-1970s through 1990s.
Man, did those goalposts move fast.
I could have sworn I just read this:
Mentioning “GRRM and the Puppies” together in the same sentence makes no sense whatsoever. George is an old lefty new-waver. He’s as far away from Puppies as you can get. The problem people are having with him now is the “old” part. The field has changed. There’s also that George has fame and money. Science fiction writer has got to be one of the worst possible careers to train people for how to deal with wealth and fame. George hosted the Hugo loser’s party and MC’ed the Hugo awards ceremony out of the goodness of his heart. OK it didn’t go well. Let’s not go for a third failure in a row. But let’s not throw George under the bus either. All of us are going to be old some day. If we keep throwing our elders under the buses, it will become a painful tradition. That would be deeply ironic for a field that is always reinventing itself. And ouch.
Mike to says to me There also seems to a strong resistance among many people, GRRM and the Puppies comes to mind, to admit that the genre doesn’t have a Golden Age,
I’m like a cat, we move things around. More to the point, i think, and it’s only my opinion so do disagree with me if you want which I fully expect that you will, that the genre doesn’t have a Golden Age but rather one that’s determined by each and every fan. The books and authors you consider to be in your Golden Age will be different than what I do. That’s great. It’s just that defining a fixed Golden Age is like getting general agreement on a canon for the genre.
(I put Time Enough for Love in my Golden Age. Do you?)
Now playing: Timbuk 3’s “The Future’s So Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades”
Andrew (not Werdna) helps immensely with this comment: Cat: Here’s an archive of Mindwebs episodes https://www.oldradioworld.com/shows/Mind_Webs.php – radio adaptations broadcast from the mid-1970s through 1990s.
Oh thank you! Now added to the Birthday resources. That’s just the source of information I need.
For those of us (like me) who need a reminder that the more things change, the more they stay the same —
“Our Long, Forgotten History of Election-Related Violence” (at The New Yorker)
I thought the Golden Age was 11.
P J Evans says nicely I thought the Golden Age was 11.
You got what I meant. PJ, so what’s Your fav genre books from your early teens?
My idle thought for today was wondering how many of the people who are agitating for there to even be a canon were Virgos.
Because we Virgos do like things to be nicely neatened up.
But then, I also think it’s genetically tied to the “Is this science fiction or fantasy?” book debates,
Harold Osler says My idle thought for today was wondering how many of the people who are agitating for there to even be a canon were Virgos.
Because we Virgos do like things to be nicely neatened up.
But then, I also think it’s genetically tied to the “Is this science fiction or fantasy?” book debates,
Idle thoughts are good. Mostly.
I’m an Aquarius which means everything we do is in constant change. Mind you I wouldn’t mind a little stability for awhile, bless it.
@Cat
Dune and Witches of Karres are the ones I remember reading back then.
@Cat: Glad to be of help.
When I was in 7th grade, I read the original Foundation series, Moon is a Harsh Mistress, a bunch of Poul Anderson, Rama, Far Centaurus, and LotR. Twas a good year – I wonder what I learned in class?
Andrew (not Werdna) says @Cat: Glad to be of help.
When I was in 7th grade, I read the original Foundation series, Moon is a Harsh Mistress, a bunch of Poul Anderson, Rama, Far Centaurus, and LotR. Twas a good year – I wonder what I learned in class?
Hmmm. I read Dune, the Foundation series The Hobbit, Anderson of course (the Flandry stuff particularly), Le Guin including the Earthsea trilogy and the early Pern books. Clockwork Orange came later I remember as it was in a school lit class. Of school itself I remember nothing as it appears my head trauma allows me to remembers books read but not anything else from that time.
Now listening to: The City & The City
@P J Evans–
Twelve. The Golden Age of science fiction is 12.
It has been said, cynically, that the Golden Age of sf is twelve. (This epigram, often wrongly ascribed or paraphrased with slightly different ages, was coined by the sf fan Peter Graham.)
I use the term “golden age” as the name for a certain era, in this case the science fiction of the 1940s and early 1950s, rather than as a value judgment. Just as I use golden age comics to refer to the superhero comics of the late 1930s to mid 1940s and golden age mystery to refer to mysteries of the 1920s and 1930s, because those are the accepted terms for the era in question. My personal tastes may be quite different, e.g. I don’t particularly care for golden age superhero comics or golden age mysteries, though I do like some golden age SFF.
As for the canon debate, it seems to me as if the crappy 2020 Hugo ceremony and GRRM’s endless reminiscing about the past have led to a backlash against any kind of older SFF and those who are interested in it. Even though pretty much everybody agrees that there is no canon of science fiction and that you don’t need to read anything you don’t want to, unless you’re writing an academic study of science fiction. If you’re an author, it also helps to be at least cursorily familiar with what has come before, so you don’t accidentally and unironically reinvent the wheel, such as the self-published SF novel I recently came across which was basically “Arena” with nothing new added to the basic story.
That said, Christopher Nuttall is wrong on a lot of counts here. Not everybody in the past was racist, sexist, xenophobic, etc… You can find both reactionary and progressive views in older SFF as in newer SFF. And those who did hold reactionary views like H.P. Lovecraft or John W. Campbell were often called out on it by their contemporaries. In their report about Loncon II, the 1965 Worldcon, Kris Vyas-Myall recounts how fans and pros confronted John W. Campbell about his views.
Nor was everybody in the past ignorant of the wider world. There may have been no internet, but there were newspapers, magazines, libraries and authors did make use of them. One of this year’s Retro Hugo finalists was set in Tibet and what was then the British colony of Burma, nowadays known as Myamar. Another story was set partly in Mozambique, then a Portuguese colony. Those stories were not unusual either. There were plenty of vintage SFF stories set outside the US and even those stories set in the US were not always set in New York, Chicago and Waukegan, Illinois either.
Finally, SFF authors have been referring and responding to other SFF authors and stories for as long as the genre existed. Older SFF is also chock full of references to mythology, classic literature and popular literature beyond SFF. Science fiction did not spring fully formed from the foreheads of Hugo Gernsback in 1926 or John W. Campbell in 1937 and SFF authors of the golden age (a descriptor, not a value judgment) drew on plenty of earlier sources, though not necessarily sources we recognise today. I recently reviewed a Ray Bradbury story which contained references to Greek mythology, William Shakespeare, William Butler Yeats, John Steinbeck (and his most obscure novel, too) and James Stephens in only four pages. James Stephens in particular seems to have been popular among SFF authors of the 1940s, because I have also come across references to his works in stories by C.L. Moore.
@Cora Buhlert
I’m a little confused here. Is this an actual first-person report of what happened at the con by someone who was there? Or is it someone writing today as if they had attended the convention? (I was under the impression that Vyas-Mayall is not old enough to have attended LonCon II, and that they whole point of this website is to report on SF 55 years after the fact, but as if it was real-time). If the latter, then on what is the report of fans criticizing Campbell based? (or is Vyas-Mayall projecting what they would have done, had they been there?)
Kris did not attend Loncon II in person, because they were not even born yet. However, the report is based on contemporary con reports. And apparently, there is a transcript of the panel featuring Michael Moorcock and John W. Campbell. Not that Moorcock was ever shy about airing his views about Campbell.
Here’s a contemporary report http://www.fiawol.org.uk/FanStuff/THEN%20Archive/1965%20Worldcon/65Wcon05.htm
@Bill —
I think the facts claimed in that reconstruction are borrowed from first-person reports. For instance, you can find more info from people who were there at this site, including audio recordings of several panels. I’m currently downloading one panel that included Campbell, Moorcock, and others — if I can get it to play and it contains anything interesting, I’ll report back.
@Bill again —
Okay, I downloaded the file, and it does play — but it’s two hours long. Not gonna listen right now. I’m assuming, though, that this is the panel being referred to. I’ll try to listen to it tonight, but if you’re interested you can download it yourself at the site I linked above!
@Lis
Close enough – I was certain reading Astounding at 12. (I’d get home from school, slide the [brown paper] wrapper off, read the editorial and the letters, and slide the wrapper back on before my father got home. Then he’d slide the wrapper off and make remarks about eyetracks all over his magazine…. (I inherited the subscription. Eventually.)
@Bill yet again —
In the meantime, here’s Michael Moorcock’s first-hand summary of that panel, from the site linked above:
MIKE MOORCOCK:
One of the few moments from that convention was that John W. Campbell made me cry…
Michael Moorcock (ns)
I was on a panel with him. The previous night we’d drunkenly done a spoof version of the event, with me taking the role of Campbell and making various fascistic utterances. When I actually got on the panel I was horribly hungover — and my supposedly exaggerated spoof of Campbell turned out to be not even close to the actuality. He suggested, for instance, that black people naturally wanted to be slaves (‘the worker bee, denied the chance to work, dies’ — first time I heard the bell jar theory, too) and the best thing which could happen to them (the Watts riots had just taken place in LA) was for them to be re-enslaved. I managed four words in the whole panel — ‘Science Fiction — Jesus Christ…’ (well, more than four words if you count ‘boo hoo hoo’) and collapsed into speechlessness. Campbell leaned forward solicitously to ask the chairman if I was feeling all right…
Campbell was used to US sf conventions and apparently had never been queried before. This was at a London convention with a sophisticated audience, not by any means just drawn from sf fandom. There were many questions from the floor and Campbell simply couldn’t field them. He wound up, rather as one of the generals in Dr Strangelove, calling on God as his witness! He also talked of his family ancestors as having been Highland barbarians (and therefore wholesome stock) apparently unaware that most of his audience knew the Campbells as ‘the traitor Campbells’ and certainly didn’t identify them as vital barbarians. An extraordinary exhibition. In one sense Campbell was the old bull and John Brunner, who was also on the panel with me, was able to keep his cool and counter every argument JWC raised. The audience did the rest. I don’t think the poor old bugger enjoyed himself very much. I remember him saying something about political regimes not lasting more than a few score years and Bill Butler asking him if he didn’t think of the Vatican City as a rather successful regime.
I just started listening to that panel, and Campbell (I think it was Campbell, I didn’t catch his introduction) has already made a very interesting statement — one that would, ironically, make the “oh, the best sf doesn’t contain any politics” puppy types froth at the mouth.
He said: “To ignore politics in science fiction is equivalent to ignoring the nervous system in a living organism.”
Hmmm!
Contrarius says He said: “To ignore politics in science fiction is equivalent to ignoring the nervous system in a living organism.”
It’s Campbell. I’m listening to it and it rings true to him. Look he’s not just mildly racist, he’s as horrid as Lovecraft was. Neither really believed Blacks were human in any meaningful sense. This panel makes that very clear.
This response made me LOL. Well-played, Cat.
rcade say to “I’m like a cat, we move things around.“ that This response made me LOL. Well-played, Cat.
Thanks fir the kind words.
Well at least I can things around in my mind. Today is exactly the hundredth and twentieth day that I’ve either been in-hospital or confined to here. I can count on both hands without using my toes the number of times I’ve been out somewhere else, either the surgeon’s office, to have a MRI done or to Martins Point to see Jenner or Meghan.
And I’m logging more time on Zoom seeing specialists than I an actually being with them.
I am not a house cat — I want out!
I think it was John Scalzi who recently had the interesting suggestion that the ’40s may currently be in a sort of “uncanny valley” for a lot of people (especially younger folks)–too far from us for us to accept their common views and mores, but too close for us to view them as “merely history”.
Xtifr says I think it was John Scalzi who recently had the interesting suggestion that the ’40s may currently be in a sort of “uncanny valley” for a lot of people (especially younger folks)–too far from us for us to accept their common views and mores, but too close for us to view them as “merely history”.
Good point. And the last humans that remember that time as young adults are mostly passing on now. I can’t remember which battle in the Second World War it was but there was just one survivor still with us according to the news story I heard.
Now playing: Al Stewart’s “Year of The Cat”
The Nazis started drafting sixteen-year-olds towards the end of the war, while everybody else stuck to people eighteen or older, so the youngest WWII soldiers are now 91 years old. So it makes sense that there are not a lot of them left.
Cor Buhlert says The Nazis started drafting sixteen-year-olds towards the end of the war, while everybody else stuck to people eighteen or older, so the youngest WWII soldiers are now 91 years old. So it makes sense that there are not a lot of them left.
America allowed sixteen and seventeen year-olds to enlist with parental consent during that period, but I’ve no idea how many did. There’s stories of younger males lying about their age and enlisting but I’ve never seen any confirmation of these stories being true.
My mother-in-law, who turned 100 the other day, knew her grandfather, who had fought in the American Civil War. When she told me that, just the idea that I knew someone who knew someone who had fought in the Civil War blew. my. mind.
In the UK you could enlist at sixteen but couldn’t be sent into a combat role until you were eighteen (not that this helped the cadets aboard HMS Royal Oak when it was torpedoed by U47 in Scapa Flow (though the Royal Navy did remove all cadets under eighteen from ships following that incident).
It is not that surprising to know someone who knew someone who fought in the American Civil War. Some teenage combatants would have only turned 100 around 1950. In fact, IIRC one boy who was at a military academy was sent into battle as a drummer at around five or six years old and didn’t die until until the 1960s.
It is, however, astonishing to me that my grandfather remembered when, as a boy, he and other boys used to listen to the stories of an old retired sailor. One of these was about the sailor’s first voyage, when he would have been about thirteen or fourteen, which was to take supplies to St. Helena where he remembered seeing Napoleon on the docks.