The Reluctant Famulus #118

The Reluctant Famulus 118

July-August 2017 Thomas D. Sadler, Editor/Publisher, etc. 305 Gills Branch Road, Owenton, KY 40359 E-mail: [email protected] Contents Introduction, Editor 3 WOW Signal, Editor 7 Kentuckiana, Alfred D. Byrd 10 Citizen Scientists, Eric Barraclough 15 The Crotchety Critic, Michaele Jordan 18 NAE, Gayle Perry 22 Letters 27 Conclusion, Editor 35 Artwork/Photos

Brad Foster Front Cover A. B. Kynock 27, 29,31,33 Anna Byrd 11, 12, 13, 14 Milt Stevens 34 left col. Upper; Back Cover Spore 28, 30,32, 34 Internet 8, 10, 34 T. D. S. Photos, 6, 9,33,35

The Reluctant Famulus is a product of Strange Dwarf Publications. Some of the comments expressed herein are solely those of the Editor/Publisher and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts of any sane, rational persons who know what they are doing and have carefully thought out beforehand what they wanted to say. Material not written or produced by the Editor/Publisher is printed by permission of the various writers and artists and is copyright by them and re- mains their sole property and reverts to them after publication. TRF maybe obtained for The Usual but, in return for written material and artwork, postage costs, The Meaning of Life, and Editorial Whim.

2 The Reluctant Famulus

Introduction A Doctor Who Rant. Which may make me unpopular.

Regarding the beginning of the introduction somewhere. Yes, I know, it’s only fiction. But in the previous issue I was poking fun at myself even fiction needs to make sense and unroll in a for crying “Wolf!” when it was only a ShihTzu or reasonable way. some such. The kerfuffle didn’t turn out as bad as To repeat myself, I expect people to disagree I had thought. I think it ended amicably. with me. I don’t welcome it but I know it’s inevi- At first I thought this introduction was going table. How many times have you read in a novel, to be a short one. Until I sat down with pen and short story, movie or TV series have you encoun- paper to write comments while I prepared to sub- ter something in the plot that makes you roll your ject myself to the Moffat inspired final episode of eyes and say, “Aw, come on!”? Season 10 of Doctor Who. I ended up with a little I didn’t and don’t care for the Steven Moffat over three handwritten observations. episodes no matter what anyone else may say. Here are my jottings. Reader beware! Writer His outlook seems to be dark and gloomy, beware. I might be subjected to strong assertions partly concealed by the darkness of many things that I’m an idiot and full of, well, whatever you occurring at night as if he’s afraid of daylight. think I’m filled with. They’re not in any coherent We see so much violence, evil and death in order. They’re more like personal observations. movies, on TV series and novels as well. To me Pearl Mackie and her character are all right I that becomes tedious and tiring, being able to de- suppose but she sure seems to spend a lot of time termine in advance what’s going to happen before with her mouth hanging open or partly open. It’s the episodes begin. as if she were in pain or trying to figure out what Yes, there is evil in the world. I acknowledge the heck is going on. I can understand it when that. In the entertainment of these days it seems to she’s talking or screaming when something nasty be at work 24/7 and anything good and positive is happens to her and she’s scared—pardon my much less. Well maybe except for the Hallmark French, as the saying goes—shitless. Come to channel where there’s almost too much of the lat- think of it, the Doctor’s mouth is often open when ter to be believable. he’s shouting at someone or thinking of some- After being exposed to the Moffat episodes I thing diabolical. begin to wonder what his childhood was like. Then there’s the part in the previous episode Was he treated badly as a child? Or was he born where the blue man (did he break away from that as some kind of low level psychopath with a grin musical group?) burned a large hole in Bill’s mid- who enjoys violence, death, anarchy and chaos section. Shades of Fearless Fosdick! It should and putting his characters through hell? I’m being have been the end of her. Instead, she’s hospital- rather harsh aren’t I? ized and miraculously comes back to life and run- The Cyber men are back again in full force ning around pulling her IV drip and stand behind invading a peaceful little colony alone in the her. Then she’s using a bucket of water and mop country forcing them to fight back. There was a bucket and mop to clean the floor in part of the moment when the Doctor gave an apple to a little hospital. Next thing you know she has ditched it girl. A bit later she tosses it into the cyber men

3 where it explodes because it was a bomb dis- I’m in a small minority. Personally I found the guised as an apple. Heck, in one of Buster Kea- episodes from the 80’s and later more enjoyable. ton’s silent comedies back in the 1920s there was Again, that’s just my opinion. a section that involved a pool ball two bad guys Yep. I’m that crazy old coot or nut who is out had that was a bomb in disguise. It was a gim- of step with everyone else on Earth and maybe in mick almost a century old. There’s truly nothing our solar system too. Maybe even a few other so- new under the sun. lar systems within a reasonable distance. Aren’t Is there a real need for two Masters, one male you glad you’re not me? and one female? Are two really necessary? From I have been sorting through my unreliable the way she looks, Missy is too obviously evil or memory for any other noteworthy moments at the up to no good one could see from a distance at a various conventions I attended. There was one at glance. What if she were spectacularly beautiful a convention the name and location of eludes me. and evil? Why make it so damned obvious she’s It was during a panel, the subject of which also evil? eludes me. The only thing that recall with any Whatever happened to the “Sense of won- certainty was when one of the other panelists, a der”? It has been replaced by the obsession with well known lady writer (embarrassingly, I can’t violence, evil and solving every problem with remember her name either. Curse it!). This much guns of all kinds and spectacular explosions. I do recall. She made a comment that she won- They really, really love those explosions! dered why someone hadn’t created a new religion I expect someone will tell me I’m all wrong (or words to that effect). Boldly, I leaned for- and that I’m behind the times. ward, looked in her direction and said, “Bu-but I Again, I know that nothing is all sweetness thought that was Scientology.” It got laughs from and sunshine but neither is it all gloom, misery, the other panelists and audience. That was one evil and deaths by the thousands. Well maybe small shining moment for me. with the exception of a certain political party. I I remember reading—or trying to read— bet that comment will get me in hot water again Dianetics and its updated version, Scientology. I A few of the latest episodes have been some- didn’t get far in either one. To me it was a bunch what better than ones before. I couldn’t help no- of nonsense and seemed more like Elron’s fiction, ticing those better episodes (I’m in the habit of something made up out of whole cloth as the say- looking for the names of the episode’s writer/s) ing goes. And, yes I knew about Hubbard’s bet didn’t have Steven Moffat’s name attached to that he could come up with a new religion and them. Now I understand that he is not, or soon make money from it. (Hmm. Sort of like all these will not be, affiliated with Doctor Who. Whether television evangelists who became wealthy con- he was fired or resigned I can’t say for certain ning their followers to give them money to buy which. Maybe it was an agreement on both sides. big fancy airplanes so that can get closer to God Moffat might (just a thought) have decided to re- and talk to him.) Well he ended up with a nice sign before he was given a Trump treatment. In yacht and other perks. I hope I remembered that any case I’m hoping there will be at least some correctly. episodes better than the Moffat ones. This is only Now I’ve dug my own grave with the preced- my opinion of course and I wouldn’t be surprised ing. if someone disagreed with me. The elder of my I was and still am amazed that an insignificant two daughters watches the series and feels about nobody like me was allowed to participate in pan- the same way as I. I’ll sit back and wait to be told els. I wonder, now, if the programmers regretted

4 their decisions to do so. I also wonder if fans in rible. I am suffering from a very uncommon dis- the audience looked at me and wondered, “Who ease called (by me) atrophy of the inventive pow- the hell is he? Why the hell is he up there?” But I ers. I can write like a streak but I bore myself. very well might be wrong. That being so, I could hardly fail to bore others After wracking my memory I came up with a worse. I can’t help thinking of that beautiful piece list of conventions I had attended more than once of Sid Perelman’s entitled “I’m Sorry I Made Me way back then. Context Columbus), InConJunc- Cry.” tion (Indianapolis), Confusion (Detroit) (?), Mil- Did you ever read what they call Science Fic- lenicon (Dayton), a Ditto Con. One World Fan- tion? It’s a scream. It is written like this: “I tasy Con Nashville) and 1 Worldcon (Chicago). I checked out with K19 on Aldabaran III, and think that’s it as far as I can recall. Maybe some- stepped out through the crummalite hatch on my one can help me remember. 22 Model Sirus Hardtop. I cocked the timejector Back in my comments about evil it probably in secondary and waded through the bright blue looked as if I was singling out the Republican manda grass. My breath froze into pink pretzels. I Party in general and TrumpPence in particular. flicked on the heat bars and the Brylls ran swiftly (TrumPence . . . Is that some new bit of British on five legs using their other two to send out cry- currency? No. Now I’m, insulting the British. I lon vibrations. The pressure was almost unbear- apologize for that. DJP was bad enough to them. able, but I caught the range on my wrist computer There are some reasonable Republicans—at least through the transparent cysicites. I pressed the I presume there are—who have been reluctant trigger. The thin violet glow was ice cold against about expressing themselves. But what do I the rust-colored mountains. The Brylls shrank to know? I’m that crazy old nut up above. By the half an inch long and I worked fast stepping on way... Are any of you catching the jokes I’ve them with the poltex. But it wasn’t enough. The been making? Really. Honestly. I hope so. That’s sudden brightness swung me around and the enough. Fourth Moon had already risen. I had exactly four A short while back I logged on to my Face- seconds to hot up the disintegrator and Google book page, something that I do at irregular inter- had told me it wasn't enough. He was right.” vals since I never have anything I feel worth post- They pay brisk money for this crap? ing on it. Mostly I go to see what my Facebook Ray” “friends” are doing and how they’re doing. This But that’s not all. In another letter from Chandler time I came to a posting Greg Benford had made. is the following. It’s about a subject near and dear—I hope—to us “TV stinks to heaven and even the halfwits admit fans and readers. Rather than logging onto Face- it, but it doesn’t cost anything, and you don’t book and slogging my way through the pages I have to put a shirt on and get the car out and find did the usual thing and ran a Google search. Here a place to park and sit in a badly ventilated thea- is that item you may or may not find interesting. tre with the stink of popcorn turning your stom- From Raymond Chandler to his agent ach. 6005 Camino de la Costa ... I’d like a TV show, who wouldn’t, but not on La Jolla, California any terms CBS would agree to. And if I got the Mar 14 1953 kind of show I would like, it would probably flop. “Dear Swanie: The private eye as such is dated. If you can’t give Playback is getting a bit tired. I have 36,000 him character and interest as a human being, you words of doodling and not yet a stiff. That is ter- are licked. And TV can’t. It hasn't the time or the 5 talent and it is too much afraid of offending some “whistling” Hal Clement (Harry Stubbs) jerk in Corn Center, Nebraska.” Chandler is entitled to his opinion, as we all are to ours. But if my memory is correct, as many writers. Chandler had his critics and he detractors. He may have thought little of Science fiction but it has endured for a long time and, one would hope, continue to do so. As with every other genre and even so-called literature SF had and has its share of poor writing but there is plenty of good stuff around. What Chandler wrote about SF got me to wondering what he would thought and written about fantasy and horror. Would he have had an opinion on H. P. Lovecraft? I’m not curious enough to go researching that. Aren’t I a good one for writing about Raymond Chandler and his attitude toward SF and TV after my writing about Doctor Who? On with the rest of the issue. How about a few more photos taken at conventions I’ve attended and participated in?

I tried to sneak away with it but they caught me. I couldn’t fit it under my t-shirt. It was really too Wait a minute! How’d that guy get between heavy anyway. They posted an armed guard by it. William Levy and Rebecca Meluch? (I suspect they were afraid I might come back after it gain.)

To the left: A laid back Fred Pohl.

6 Latest Wow! Signal news T. D. Sadler

Many of you readers may recall that a while Comet 266P took the wow out of Wow! when its ago various news accounts appeared celebrating signals matched the Wow! signal. In anticipation the anniversary of the so-called “Wow!” signal. of objections, Paris also looked at other comets When that claim appeared it generated much ex- similar to 266P and found that their hydrogen citement and speculation as to what had caused it. clouds produced the same frequency signal, so if Not surprising one of the answers was that it was it wasn’t 266P, Wow! was produced by another a signal from highly intelligent inhabitants of a gassy comet. planet light years away had sent. For the most It’s almost a shame to destroy the beliefs of part. Since then that signal remained a mystery. the proponents that signals were sent by intelli- Until now. gent beings many light-years from Earth. And Some of you readers must have seen and read possibly spoiling some SF fans. Reality can be a the latest news about that signal. According to real bummer another scientist the Wow! signal was proven Science came through again with the proof wrong. It was caused by a horrendous huge fart in and cleared up the mystery for most people. space. Yes, an object expelled an immense Well, except for the fact that many republi- amount of gas. cans will still claim science is a sham, a hoax and Last year, Professor Antonio Paris, an as- can’t be trusted (Yeah,, riiight.). To their detri- tronomer at St. Petersburg College in Florida pro- ment those republicans would do that even if hard posed the signal had actually been produced by science discovered something that came up and it comets passing by the Earth on their seven-year bit their asses. At least one of those anti-science orbits around the Sun. Those comets, 266P/ people would claim that God told him science is Christensen and P/2008 Y2 (Gibbs), discovered false. Religion is fine in certain ways. in 2006, are surrounded by large hydrogen clouds Unfortunately religious believers tend to go to known to produce a signal in the same frequency excess. My God is better than your god. Yours is as Wow!. Disbelievers demanded that Paris prove all wrong and wicked (or words to that effect). that it was not a call from ET. They seem to forget that the three major religions He did. Paris knew that the comets would be were established by one man: Abraham. As for in the same position as the Wow! signal (which the other religions, they pretty much seem to be was northwest of the globular cluster M55 in the ignored or don’t get as much attention. Wait until constellation Sagittarius) some time in early we’re visited by Extraterrestrial beings with their 2017. Where the Wow! signal’s source was on own religions. That ought to make for some inter- August 15, 1977. Paris used a GoFundMe page to esting experiences. I wonder how atheists will raise the money to install a dedicated radio tele- react. More religions not to believe in? scope at the Center for Planetary Science pointed Shame on naughty old me for injecting both at the Wow! sweet spot and then waited. politics and religion into the same article. Will I According to his paper published in the Jour- go to hell for doing that? If so, I might have Mark nal of the Washington Academy of Sciences, Twain as a co-resident, among others. Goody.

7 Okay, folks. Here are a few more SF pulp magazine covers. Enjoy.

8 Two more photos taken at cons. My moral support crew. George “Lan” Las- kowski and Maia Cowen

Jack Williamson Probably wondering, “who the hell is that guy?”

9 CIVIL WAR KENTUCKIANA John Gregg Fee: Evangelical Emancipationist Alfred D. Byrd

Sometimes, a leopard of slaveholders began to search Scripture can change its spots. As this for support for his newfound causes of abo- article will explore, slave- lition and social equality. A boy needn’t go holders can sometimes be- as far as Yale to bring home newfangled come liberators. notions. Like his mentor, Cassius Sadly, he did soon have to come home. Marcellus Clay, John Gregg His father, like many a father in the Sixties Fee was born into a slave- who saw his son or daughter go all counter- holding family, but became culture on him (“What’s wrong with those a firebrand for emancipa- long-haired hippie radicals smoking pot tion. In 1816, when John was born, the Fees held and making peace signs?”), told him, “I have land in Bracken County, Kentucky, southeast of spent the last dollar I mean to spend on you in a Cincinnati, Ohio, along the Ohio River. There, free state.” Maybe, some of you heard your father they farmed with slaves as far north as one could say something like what John’s daddy had said. legally own them— farmed apparently success- In any case, a historian can sometimes hardly tell fully as, on profits from slavery, John got a the decades before the Civil War from the decade bachelor of arts degree from Augusta College in of the Vietnam War. Sex and drugs and — well, Bracken County’s then county seat, also named there was no antebellum Rock & Roll, so there’s Augusta. a distinguishing feature. Just imagine how far Feeling a call to the ministry, he enrolled in those old-timey radicals would’ve gotten had they 1842 in Lane Theological Seminary in the Queen had a hammer to hammer in the morning! (What? City. The seminary, though theologically conser- That was a folk song, not Rock & Roll? Details!) vative, had a name for radicalism. Nowadays, Nowadays, we tend to see the battle over some of us can hardly imagine someone’s being slavery as a debate between two camps, each of both evangelical and progressive, yet some have which cherry-picked the Bible for support for its been, both before and after the Civil War. Check own beliefs. Certainly, Christian abolitionists like out William Jennings Bryan, if you don’t believe John Gregg Fee liked to quote Galatians 3:28: me! As Stephen Jay Gould pointed out, Inherit “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither the Wind didn’t do him justice. bond nor free, there is neither male nor female, As for the seminary, many of us who grew up for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.” (Given that it in the Sixties think that we invented political ac- was the Nineteenth Century, the abolitionists tion (I didn’t, per se; I was a flaming moderate quoted the verse in the King James Version, as I back then, too), but Lane’s students beat us to it: just quoted it.) in 1834, they’d shocked staid Cincinnatians by Equally certainly, slaveholders liked to quote staging a walk-out against the school’s pro- verses from Hebrew Scripture and even from the slavery policies. The students won, at least in apostle Paul that seemed to them to uphold their terms of their influence on John. At Lane, the son own position. Still, we create a false stereotype if

10 we see slaveholders only as militant Bible- sius Marcellus Clay, whose life I explored in TRF thumpers. Apologists for slavery were well edu- #117. Cash was always looking for political allies cated and eclectic, citing Greek philosophy, Ro- and felt that John would be a good one of these. man history, Marxist economics, and Darwinian (Why did the previous sentence make me think of natural selection whenever any of these served the Man in Black?) Cash persuaded John to move their ends. It was eye opening for me to Madison County, south of Lexington, to read the works of a Southern writer to plant new antislavery congregations named George Fitzhugh for an assign- there. ment in Honors in American Thought With Cash’s support, John thought big. and Language at Michigan State Uni- On ten acres of land that Cash gave him, versity. That guy served up a smorgas- he founded a town that he named Berea bord of mid-Nineteenth Century in honor of a Macedonian city in which thought in trying to prove that slavery a Jewish congregation that was “more was the ideal form of socialism. noble than those in Thessalonica … Sometimes, college doesn’t broaden searched the scriptures daily, whether your mind, but just equips you with those things [the apostle Paul’s teach- means to deepen your convictions. In ings about Jesus] were so” (Acts 17:10). any case, please keep in mind the In Berea, in 1855, Reverend Fee, with complexity of the debate swirling the aid of his good friend John A. R. around John as we follow him through Rogers, started a common-level school his life. open both to blacks and to women. When John had been graduated from The town prospered awhile, but not Lane and married a fellow traveler, Fee’s alliance with Clay. John and Cash Matilda Hamilton, in 1844, he began to had been on the same side at the Com- plant antislavery churches in Bracken monwealth’s Constitutional Convention County and neighboring Lewis County. of 1849, which failed to pass any of sev- The churches may’ve been progressive in eral articles requiring the elimination of their politics, but were conservative in slavery in Kentucky, but, in 1856, at a faith and practice: for example, John al- Fourth of July rally of the Republican ways held the line for baptism by immer- Party, the two men fell out over the Fugi- sion. His support for this was odd, given that he tive Slave Act, which compelled citizens of so- was Presbyterian. I haven’t noticed a Baptist- called “free” states to return to their owners style baptistery in any Presbyterian church that slaves who’d escaped to those states. Cash, a po- I’ve attended. Maybe, it’s unsurprising, then, that litical pragmatist, felt that he should support the the New School Presbyterian Synod dismissed act as long as it was law. John, a true believer, John in 1845. It may not have helped things that, felt that even slaveholders should find the law in John’s churches, blacks and whites worshiped abhorrent and refuse to uphold it, for didn’t He- side by side. brew Scripture say, “Thou shalt not deliver unto Still, he persisted without the synod’s support. his master the servant which is escaped from his From his base of churches, John, through both master unto thee” (Deuteronomy 23:15)? In sermons and printed articles, won a reputation John’s mind, there was a higher law than the reaching as far as the Bluegrass. There, John Constitution of the United States. caught the eye of big-name emancipationist Cas-

11 John and Cash exemplify deep divisions in Back to John. Despite his falling out with the movement among progres- Cash, he kept up his work in sive whites to free slaves. Cash Berea. In fact, he dared dream was what one might call a Men- bigger for his utopia. In 1859, shevik, but that historians tend to he proposed founding a coedu- call an “emancipationist,” be- cational, racially integrated in- lieving that freedom for slaves stitution of higher learning should be gradual, to let both there. He was following a suc- them and the rest of humanity cessful model, Oberlin College adapt to their freedom, and com- in northeastern Ohio. (Among pensated, to avoid impoverish- TRF’s readership, Helen E. ing legal slaveholders and dis- Davis is an alumna of that insti- rupting the existing economy. tution). Although John may’ve Many in Cash’s camp believed deplored Oberlin’s progressive that, because of freed slaves’ understandable bit- theology, he adored its progressive politics, terness towards whites and because of profound which he described as “anti-slavery, anti-caste, cultural and biological differences between Afri- anti-rum, anti-sin.” (Like Bryan after him, Fee cans and Europeans, the races would have to saw alcoholic beverages and gambling as institu- separate, either by segregation of freed slaves in tions of slavery — means by which Big Business America or by relocation of freed slaves to other exploits and impoverishes members of the work- countries. ing class and the lower class.) What worked in John, on the other hand, was what one might Ohio could work, he felt, in the Bluegrass. In call a Bolshevik, but that historians tend to call a fact, many of the instructors whom he brought in “radical abolitionist,” believing that freedom for for his new school had taught at Oberlin. You slaves should be immediate and uncompensated. really can do something with a liberal arts degree! Radical abolitionists believed that Africans were Although the Bluegrass was the center of equal to Europeans and should be integrated with Kentucky’s slaveholding aristocracy, it was at them. Some even espoused amalgamation, the first willing to give the abolitionist colony of concept that intermarriage between the races Berea a shot. It was a free country, after all, and should erase differences between them. (Didn’t those hippie radical freaks did have Constitu- we hear the same proposal in the Sixties? I recall tional rights, drat the luck. Things fell apart when something like “One third white, one third Afro- the most radical of abolitionists, John Brown (I American, and one third Asian.” Shades of Gil- wrote of his Pottawattamie Massacre in my first gamesh, who was one third a god!) As things article on William Quantrill), tried to incite a worked out, the radical abolitionists won the war, slave rebellion in Harpers Ferry, Virginia. Fear- but lost the peace, as slaves were freed with no ing that Fee might be Kentucky’s very own John compensation to their masters, but then segre- Brown (does any of us really believe that our op- gated from them by Jim Crow laws. Could there ponents are law abiding?), sixty planters in Madi- have been a better way to end slavery than the son County formed a committee (shades of the way by which it was ended in real life? Unless we one that stole Cassius Clay’s printing press!) to make alternate history a science, we’ll never drive John and his commune from the Common- know. wealth. Given ten days to leave town, the Bereans appealed their eviction to Governor Beriah Ma-

12 goffin, but the notorious Southern River, as I mentioned in an article sympathizer ignored their plight. on that place, he set up schools, Sadly, being on the outs with planted a church, and ran a refu- Cassius Clay, John couldn’t count gee camp for escaped slaves. Both on help from his former friend. At Camp Nelson’s work and Rever- the end of the ten days of grace, end Fee’s were helped by Ken- an armed mob, spurred on by the tucky’s military governor, Gen- planters, drove Reverend Fee and eral John M. Palmer, who issued ninety-four of his followers onto what his detractors called the road north to exile. “Palmer’s passes” to let freed John’s Babylonian exile from slaves travel Kentucky’s railroads his Promised Land—perhaps, I for free. Although many freed should say, “his Patmos experi- slaves died of exposure at Camp ence”—was bitter: on the way Nelson, as John’s child had died back to Cincinnati, his youngest on the road to exile, his work child died of exposure. Still, he saved many black lives and persisted. He carried on his work helped start a tradition of black in New Richmond, Ohio, just up- education that’s enabled freed river of the Queen City, and never gave up on slaves and their descendents take charge of their going home. During the run-up to, and the early own lives. days of, the Civil War, he tried several times to Still, he hadn’t forgotten his dream of Berea. return to Kentucky, either to his hometown of Persuading many of the refugees in Camp Nelson Augusta or to his Mecca of Berea. Each time, he to relocate to southern Madison County, he was driven out by angry mobs, sometimes threat- opened there his envisioned sexually and racially ening him with death. nondiscriminatory institute of higher learning. In By one count, he faced angry mobs, yet came 1869, it became Berea College amid a growing out alive, twenty-two times. He must’ve been a town in which John began a program of what he wonder at talking himself out of tight spots. The called “interspersion”: encouraging blacks and hero of Oh, Brother, Where Art Thou? could’ve whites to buy farmland and town lots in the same taken lessons from him. John had to talk, as he neighborhoods. Today, we use the word integra- refused to carry a weapon for self-defense. Did he tion for John’s program, but his thought lies be- save himself by praying for members of the mob hind that word. as it dragged him off? Showing that one can get The policy of the college itself was simple: used to anything, as my mother used to tell me, “White and colored people [sic] must be perfectly one of John’s surviving children, a daughter, equal before the law.” In the college, blacks and would say of his exile, “We children never mountain whites served equally as leaders of stu- thought anything more about mobs than about dent organizations, and interracial dating was per- thunderstorms. We supposed everybody had mitted. This practice drew the ire of a now extinct mobs.” Understandably, John’s health declined, newspaper, the Lexington Observer and Reporter, but he preached on to raise money for a college which wrote in 1870 that Berea College was “a that might never open in the Bluegrass. miscegenation [a disparaging term for amalgama- At length, in 1864, he found a safe haven in tion] school … of the meanest Yankee type.” Kentucky. At Camp Nelson on the Kentucky

13 The newspaper’s statement slave, he became a Baptist preacher showed which way the wind was ministering to his fellow slaves; blowing. For the rest of his life, then, in 1864, he joined the Union John worked for black equality as Army at Camp Nelson, where he he spoke for black civil rights, became an associate of Reverend especially the right to vote, but, Fee. After the war, he helped found as society hardened after Recon- Kentucky’s ongoing tradition of struction, John’s preaching began predominantly black congregations, to fall on stony ground. Progres- but also took part in several state- sive religionists objected to his wide educational conventions and support of baptism by immersion; served as a trustee of Berea Col- reactionaries who enacted Jim lege. Feeling, however, that some Crow legislation and opposed blacks benefited from an all-black women’s suffrage shouted down educational environment, he helped his cry for social equality. In found the teacher’s college of Ariel 1892, a new president of Berea Academy at what had been Camp College, William G. Frost, radi- Nelson. cally changed the college’s mis- He campaigned vigorously through- sion in response to growing oppo- out the Bluegrass in 1872 for Ulys- sition to it in the Commonwealth. He changed ses S. Grant, who seemed to him the best hope for that mission to providing free education (for protection and expansion of black rights. He was which students would have to work at the col- even one of the first blacks to serve as a presiden- lege’s enterprises, as students still do today) to tial elector in Kentucky. Was he as disappointed disadvantaged Appalachians, and set black enroll- in President Grant as the rest of America has ment at one seventh of the school’s total enroll- been? Great general, lousy politician. When the ment to reflect the relative proportion of the races disputed and possibly stolen presidential election in the hills. The proportion of blacks would only of 1876 put the fatally compromised Rutherford decline as they left Eastern Kentucky for big cit- B. Hayes in the White House, Burdett felt that ies in the North. political winds were blowing against blacks in Fee’s dream of integration ended altogether at former slave-holding states. Like many other Berea College in 1902, when Kentucky’s General Kentuckian blacks of his time, he went north Assembly enacted its own version of Jim Crow in (well, west from these parts), heading for Kansas the Day Law, which, among other restrictions on in hope of a better life there. mingling of the races, forbade the college to teach The departure from Kentucky of freed slaves blacks and whites together. With a generous do- like Gabriel Burdett discouraged Reverend Fee. nation from Andrew Carnegie, Berea founded for Still, though aging, ill, and defeated, he persisted. its black students a separate institution, Lincoln Until his death in 1901, he kept speaking both in Institute, just west of Shelbyville, far off between Berea and across America for equal rights for Frankfort and Louisville. Not until 1950 could blacks and women. In time, his vision for Berea Kentucky’s blacks go to Berea College again. College was partly restored; the fight for his vi- The hopes and disappointments of those sion for America goes on. whom John tried to help appeared in the life of his black counterpart Gabriel Burdett. Born a

14 Citizen Scientists of the Universe Unite! Eric Barraclough

For the purposes of this article, information has been taken SDSS SkyServer onto some spare machines and copiously from the e-coorespondence of Zooniverse. Galaxy Zoo was up and running again. And almost immediately making new discover- In 2007 Chris Lintott and Kevin Schawinski ies. had a major problem. Actually cosmology had a major problem but it was Lintott and Schawinski who took the bull by the horns and came up with a highly original and effective way to tame it. The problem was this: There should be an almost equal number of clockwise and anti- clockwise galaxies in the universe. If not, there is a colossal misunderstanding of how our universe works but no one had ever confirmed this and it was unlikely anyone ever would as it would take a lifetime of checking the Sloan Digital Sky Sur- vey (SDSS) photos to come up with an answer so cosmologists had continued to assume equality is the reality without actually knowing it. That is a little like whistling past the graveyard. But first there was also the problem of “simply” categorizing a million or so galaxies; elliptical, spiral, etc., Schawinski had spent a mind- numbing time categorizing 50,000 galaxies and Such as young small blue galaxies, a missing (as he admitted) that “proved to be just scratching link that helped show how older red galaxies the surface.” formed and green galaxies which are basically Computers were of no help. They could not living fossils. discern the differences. Only the human brain Not to mention the now famous Hanny's Voor- could. werp. Hanny van Arkel is a teacher at Citaverde The solution was conceived over pints of beer College, The Netherlands. She noticed a previ- at The Royal Oak pub in Oxford: Put the photos ously unknown phenomenon of a blue/green area on a web site, have people (citizen scientists or in one of the photos and asked on the Galaxy Zoo CS) identify the galaxies and register if they were Forum what it could be? It is now thought to be a clockwise or not and do this multiple times to gas cloud made fluorescent from being blasted in eliminate errors. the past with energy from a quasar jet. The qua- The idea was inspired by Stardust@home, an sar (which is now extinct) was the active nucleus internet project that asked people to identify of galaxy IC 2497. Voorwerp translates as comet dust snared by NASA's Stardust space “thing” or “object.” Somehow Voorwerp sounds probe. so much more evocative than Hanny's Thing. So it was that on the 12th of July 2017, galaxy- Lintott and Schawinski estimated the project zoo.org was launched using Fermilab servers and would be completed in about five years. It took within a few hours it had crashed. There were so only a few hours! many log-ons that a cable actually melted! Luck- Never the less they kept the site up for a year by ily, John Hopkins University was able to copy the which time each individual galaxy had been

15 checked seventy times. teor echoes registered. The data are presented as They also discovered that the human mind has images (called spectrograms) and automatic de- bias for the anti-clockwise. The results were tection algorithms try to detect specific shapes showing far too many anti-clockwise galaxies and associated with meteor echoes. However, none of a re-check found that too many people were mak- them can perfectly mimic the human eye which ing misidentifications. A new program was in- stays the best detector. The problem is particu- stalled, the project was initiated for a second time larly striking during meteor showers, occurring and the results showed that the universe is as near when the Earth is passing through a cloud to thoroughly equitable as makes no difference. of dust Another fly in the ointment was that the scien- tific community bulked at accepting papers cred- ited to over 100,000 coauthors. Instead all are listed on a web link. Since then GalaxyZoo has become Zooniverse and over the past ten years their projects have included Moon Zoo which in 2012 alone covered 55,000 square miles of lunar terrain (about equal to Iowa), supplying information on the locations of craters and geologic features such as boulder fields and rills. Planet Hunters: whose first exoplanet discovery was 'PH1'. A gas giant orbiting two stars in a four star system. Located 5000 light years away. PH1 orbits its host stars every 138 days or so. The planet is 6.5 times the size of the Earth, making it slightly larger than Neptune and smaller than Saturn. It circles its parent stars in an orbit between that of Mercury and Venus in our own Solar System. Orbiting PH1 and its host stars at roughly thirty times the distance from the Sun to Neptune, resides a second pair of stars, making this discovery truly unique - the first planet to be found in a four star system. Planet Four: Craters, one of Zooniverse's particles left behind by a comet when it ap- many Mars projects. By counting craters on the proaches the Sun. Many meteor echoes with com- Martian surface, the CS helped researchers figure plex shapes are then observed in the spectro- out how old the various surface regions are. An- grams. The Radio Meteor Zoo project started other important aspect of that project was to ex- with data from the Perseids 2016 (peaking around plore new program designs for future Zooniverse August 11-12) with dust particles belonging to projects. By using different tools and interfaces comet Swift-Tuttle, when the eyes of thousands the CS helped Zooniverse learn more about what of CS did their work. works best for cratering and similar tasks. The detections were used to determine how Radio Meteor Zoo: Belgian RAdio Meteor many particles enter the Earth’s atmosphere per Stations (BRAMS) is a network of radio receiv- hour, to determine the peak time of meteor activ- ing stations using reflection of radio waves on ity, to estimate the size distribution of the parti- meteor trails to detect and characterize meteor- cles, and to compute trajectories of particles. oids falling into the Earth’s atmosphere. Gravity Spy: On September 14th 2015, a cen- Every day a huge amount of data is produced tury after Einstein predicted the existence of rip- by the BRAMS network with thousands of me- ples in space-time known as gravitational waves, the Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Ob- 16 servatory (LIGO) made the first direct detection ciousness or Cambridge trained pedantry he re- of this elusive phenomenon. plied “Of course I can.” Being the most sensitive and most complicated More seriously, on the 25th April 2015 there gravitational experiment ever created, LIGO is was that disastrous 7.8 Earthquake in Nepal that susceptible to a variety of non-cosmic artifacts killed 8,964 people, injured 21,952 left 3.5 mil- known as (believe it or not) glitches. By selecting lion homeless. the right classification for a given glitch, the CS taught computers to do the classification themselves on much larger datasets which opened up an even bigger window into the gravitational wave universe. Backyard Worlds: Planet 9: In this project CS search through images from NASA's Wide- field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) mission, hunting for objects such as brown dwarfs and low -mass stars in our Solar System's neighborhood. Hoping to find an object closer than Proxima Centauri (the closest star to the Sun) or even discover the Sun's hypothesized ninth planet, which models suggest might appear in the images. How would it be to try and make one of the most significant astronomical discoveries of the 21st Century, and become the first person to discover a planet in our Solar System in over 150 Within three days the CS of Zooniverse had years? mapped the entire area, letting rescue services Zooniverse also ventures outside the realms of know where they were needed. astronomy and cosmology. They have helped A year later Zooniverse did the same for the Ec- with cancer research, transcribing music from uador Earthquake Rescue Efforts. Oxford University's Bodleian Library, identifying This year, with nearly ten years in their sails, deep sea creatures, and keeping track of animals Zooniverse launched Exoplanet Explorers on in the Serengeti and Chicago. Believe or not Chi- April 4th and cheekily declared their aim was to cago has a pair of feral sheep! discover at least one exoplanet within 48 hours of Using ship's logs they've been able to push back the launch. our knowledge of world weather by an extra two Did they do it? centuries. Of course they did! In fact at the time of writing In August of 2011, Zooniverse started Ancient they already have 20 new exoplanets under their Lives which presented CS with photos of frag- collective belts. ments of 1,000-year-old papyri discovered over a Come May 31st, they added their 100th project, century ago in Oxyrhynchus (the city of the long- Galaxy Nurseries, and have since added two nosed fish). Hundreds of thousands of those an- more. cient papyri remained waiting to be transcribed. That must have been some really fine ale that They contained everything from recipes to re- Lintott and Schawinski were drinking at The ceipts; literature to legal proceedings; and even Royal Oak. previously unseen gospels and works of Plato and At www.zooniverse.org there are now 70 active the CS didn't need to speak any Greek to tran- projects for you to help with. scribe. From Chicago wildlife to the galaxies them- It is said that when Chris Lintott was in the selves, the universe is waiting. States promoting this project he was asked “Can Go Now! you tell us about this?'” and whether out of fero-

17 The Crotchety Critic By Michaele Jordan All Systems Red and Ada Palmer

Maybe I should have called this column ‘The tions and defensive systems were compromised. Long and the Short of It’. All Systems Red is So “significant portions of organic tissue” were short. Ada Palmer’s two books are not. included, making him sentient enough to exercise All Systems Red by Martha Wells (Tom Do- basic judgment. herty Associates 2017) is, in fact, a novella, al- But there’s a downside to heavily armed units though it’s marketed as a slim paperback. Ms. with super-human strength and enough autonomy Wells probably always keeps her books short, to override input. They might refuse human or- since she has about twenty titles, and her first ders, since those were often stupid, incompetent, publication date is 2009. That’s at least two a self-destructive, or just demeaning. So each unit year. Mind you, there’s nothing wrong with short. was equipped with a ‘governor’ (read restraining There’s nothing wrong with fast, either. I wish I bolt) to make sure he obeyed, as programmed. could write that fast. The official designation for these cyborgs is Se- All Systems Red is told in first person. As I’ve curity Unit (or SecUnit for short) but our narrator mentioned before, first person is easy to misuse, describes himself as a Murderbot. And he has but is an effective tool if you know what you are successfully hacked his governor. doing. One of the things it is good for is adding a You need not conclude he intends to rampage little emotion and substance to an otherwise slim through the humans, wreaking bloody carnage. story—which simple arithmetic suggests you will He doesn’t like humans, but he has no particular find in a short book. For instance in the Esther intention to do them harm. He even kind of likes Diamond novels, by Laura Resnick, the actual his current team—they’re much less offensive story lines are slight—very simple (albeit magi- and abusive than his last team. Nor has he cast off cal) mysteries, generously laced with some pre- his governor so completely that he can storm out, dictable romantic complications—but they hold leaving them to their own devices. Some of his up well as light fare, thanks to the charm and wit programming is hardwired, and even where it is- of the protagonist, and their lack of pretention to n’t, he obeys most commands rather than risk re- being anything serious. vealing that he is capable of refusing. So he re- The narrator in All Systems Red is a cyborg, in mains bound to his people, and behaves more like charge of security for a planetary exploration a sulky slave than a free being, routinely sneaking team. As such, he has been equipped with exten- off to watch soap operas instead of doing his job. sive weaponry and powered armor for use in I found SecUnit (he doesn’t have a name) in- emergencies. Not quite a combat unit, perhaps, triguing. Ms. Wells did do a splendid job portray- but very formidable. ing him. She deftly sketches his personality with The cover notes describe him as an android, quick, telling nuances. The other characters, not but he is not entirely artificial. The Company so much. That’s a danger in first person narrative, would probably have preferred a mindless, obedi- but Ms Wells coasts fairly smoothly around it ent robot, but he needed to be capable of overrid- with the simple, character-appropriate device that ing system input in situations where communica-

18 the SecUnit doesn’t care about them, and pays as They are good people and they are horrified little attention to them as possible. to realize that they have been treating an actual The book opens with an action scene. SecUnit person as a mindless slave, and further that the is escorting/guarding two team members as they corporation has deliberately rendered him a mind- take samples, when a monster erupts out of the less slave. They want to sympathize. They want ground. This monster is completely unexpected, to help. Which is the last thing in the world that as there have already been preliminary planetary SecUnit wants. surveys, and major fauna are supposed to be It becomes almost immediately obvious that known. Yet there it is—a big, toothy monster. SecUnit is appalled by their efforts to reach out to The SecUnit behaves heroically. He beats the him. He has, after all, no experience in conceal- monster back sufficiently to rescue a badly in- ing his emotions—normally he hides behind a jured woman from its mouth. Carrying the casu- faceplate. They are not offended by his rejection. alty and half-dragging her stunned colleague, he They decide he is shy. Their leader orders them to manages to run up the sandy and unstable side of refrain from harassing him with unwanted atten- the pit created by the monster's entrance. While tions, and leave him be. They do try. Not entirely running, he summons their helicopter for rescue, successfully, but they try. despite an electronic firestorm of multiple con- Meanwhile the story moves on to investigate flicting error and emergency transmissions gener- how there came to be large hostile fauna on a ated by readings from the victims’ equipment. planet that had already been surveyed and pro- His ‘organic parts'’ take considerable damage, but claimed safe. Clearly there was data missing from he barely acknowledges his own incoming error their survey packages. How could that happen? messages until his team members are back in And if some important data was missing, might their habitat receiving full medical attention. there be other important data missing? Questions This exciting scene is not just the obligatory are asked, plots revealed, and bad guys detected hook. It is relevant, a necessary kick-off for eve- and confronted. The plot is not hugely compli- rything that follows. Again, kudos to Ms. Wells. cated, but it could have easily been worked into a First and foremost, this event brings SecUnit to much longer book. And yet it wasn’t. the attention of his team members. Up until this Many second-rate writers choose first person point, they had all accepted SecUnit as little more because they can substitute their own personality than a sophisticated robot, largely because he had for that of an invented character. Ms. Wells did been deliberately presenting himself as such. But NOT do that. Her character is his own man, and I in the course of rescuing his people he had re- enjoyed meeting him. The aforementioned writers vealed his face, and his voice. also tend to substitute said personal narrative for It was not his heroic battle and escape, and or a solid story. Ms. Wells didn’t do that either, or at his rescue of the injured woman, that impressed least not exactly. She had a story. She could have the team. What they noticed was the way he cared told more of it. But at the end, she didn’t. She for the man who was not injured, but thrown into knocked her hero out and let him wake up to find a state of deep shock. SecUnit assured his people everything settled and taken care of. that he had been trained to deal with emergencies, It was as if she lost interest in the mere plot. including managing survivors, and he had simply She didn’t want to bother with all that action followed procedure. But they remained convinced stuff, she wanted to get back to her character, and that they had seen compassion rather than dispas- see what happened to him. So that’s what she did. sion. The conclusion of the character development nar-

19 rative was interesting and well done, but it lacked ers who study all the old religions and related plot support. Regardless, Ms. Wells will have philosophies so as to provide comfort and guid- plenty of time to talk about what happened to ance to the troubled, but they do not adhere to SecUnit. All Systems Red is Volume I of the up- any doctrine and do not consider themselves to be coming series, The Murderbot Diaries. I suspect priests. she’s going to come to regret that title. Traditional family structure has been replaced Just as I started reading Too Like the Light- by ‘bashes’, larger extended family groups whose ning from Tor Books (2016), I stumbled on an on membership is not necessarily dictated by genetic -line interview with ‘animé expert’ Ada Palmer. relationships. To further confuse matters, there is That struck me as quite a stretch for the woman a cultural insistence on non-gendered pronouns, listed on the book jacket as a history professor, punctuated by the narrator’s personal insistence author of the non-fiction tome, Reading Lucretius on using gendered pronouns—but not always as- in the Renaissance, and composer of a capella signing them on the grounds of actual gender. music. Clearly she is a woman of many parts. The book opens with the introduction into this She would have to be, to write Too Like the bizarre cultural mélange of a miracle child. The Lightning. This book is not unflawed, but it is an term is literal. The child can, and routinely does, astonishingly literate work. perform miracles, mostly by making their favorite For starters, Too Like the Lightning has a lot toys come alive. The child's protectors are terri- of philosophy in it. And while I love philosophy, fied that this child will come to public attention I have to admit, it drags in spots under the weight while still too young and immature to survive ce- of its admiration for Aristotle and the detail with lebrity. Strangely, very little of the story seems to which it recreates Roman infrastructure. There’s revolve around this child, despite the passionate just too much extraneous material. I forgave Ms. concern of the protectors. Palmer showing off a little French in scenes tak- Also, a list has been stolen. The list in ques- ing place in Europe. But extended Latin dialogue tion was one of seven, each an eagerly awaited was excessive. Yes, Ms. Palmer thought she had political publication. I admit, as a reader, I found reasons. She was mistaken. it hard to credit the importance the characters at- Many of her digressions were fascinating, but tached to this list, but they did attach importance the book was already too complex to bear much to it, and most of the action in the book is gener- over-extrapolation. It is set in the 25th century, ated by its theft and the cascading consequences. after massive upheavals, based largely on the de- This brings me to another flaw in the narra- velopment of a new high-speed personal transpor- tive, one I personally consider to be quite serious. tation system. Nation states no longer exist, hav- I say ‘most of the action’. But not all the action. ing become meaningless in a world where citi- Or even, it turns out, the most important action. zens can reside in Argentina, work in Tokyo, stop For 400 pages, the narrative spins around this list, off for lunch in Paris, and dine in San Francisco. before revealing in the last few chapters that it’s The world is instead divided into political entities not really very important. It’s just a vehicle for called hives. These have no geographical basis, deducing the real issue. Which will be embraced being instead cultural/philosophical conclaves in Book II. whose citizens voluntarily join upon coming of Ms. Palmer did plainly state that this was age. Book I of the Terra Incognita series, but I none- Formal religion has been outlawed as coer- theless expected it to be an actual book, with a cive. There is a class of counselors called sensay- beginning, a middle and an end. Perhaps an end

20 that implied the prospect of future engagements, have said. And this is supposed to be a religion but still an end. Not so. The book does not have free society. an end, it just provides a place to put a bookmark. In Book I, it is laid down very plainly that All the mysteries remain mysteries. The charac- society has eliminated the use of gendered pro- ters are all left hanging in assorted cliff-hangers. nouns, and replaced them with the non-gendered Absolutely nothing is resolved. ‘they’. I was amused by the way that this context Usually, when an author does this to me, I enabled the narrator, who is very pointedly using retaliate by declining to read the next volume, gendered pronouns, to assign those gendered pro- or—for that matter—anything else by that author. nouns on the basis of personality type instead of Ever. Rather to my own surprise, I found I was biology. But having used up the cleverness of it sufficiently curious to order Book II from the li- in Book I, Ms. Palmer tries to expand on the brary. But I’m still angry. My trust has been metaphor in Book II, with disastrous results. abused. I do not recommend Too Like the Light- Almost immediately, the narrator casually ning wholeheartedly or without an urgent warn- switches the gendered pronoun previously as- ing. signed to a major character, on the grounds that That said, I did read Book II, Seven Surren- the character's behavior is more typical of the op- ders (2017). As I said above, I did, on the whole, posite gender. This, despite the fact that the char- enjoy Too Like the Lightning up until the end—or acter’s behavior hasn’t changed. Further down rather, the lack thereof. Her exotic future society the road, the narrator changes their mind again, really is interesting. But here, in Book 2, she gets and switches the pronoun back. Meanwhile, the into her story at last. one character who is biologically non-binary is Alas, her story is just plain silly. All of the assigned the pronoun ‘it’. So much for non- ideas which looked clever enough as social ex- gendered pronouns! periment degenerate into sheer nonsense when I can only guess these word games are in- she tries to apply them to character action and tended to veil the great, gaping holes in the story motivation. She elevates the ‘idiot plot’ to a su- through which the characters—whatever their pernatural level. All the characters display an as- gender—stumble like zombies. The underlying tonishing lack of coherent thought pattern, which principle seems to be that in the absence of gen- is particularly bewildering since they are all so dered pronouns and religious guidance, human literate that they’ve read Voltaire, and speak four beings have entirely forgotten how sex works. I or five languages. am embarrassed that I let myself be seduced into Particularly implausible was the universal ac- reading this book. From now on in, I will stand ceptance of one character as a god, for no appar- by my rule: no sequels! ent reason except that he said he was, and that he frequently spoke in tongues. He had no powers. A lot of people felt he had insight, but this was never reliably demonstrated to the readers. Mostly, he babbled incomprehensibly, and the narrator—who was the only person who spoke enough languages to keep up—translated. Every- one else cowered before him. Not a single character shrugged and said, “Well, poor guy’s crazy.” Which is what pretty much anyone I know would

26 The readers have their say. I thank them one and all

From: Al Byrd Clarke when he gave a talk at July 5, 2017 Michigan State University. Dear Tom, Niven let me down nicely Thank you for TRF when I asked him an inane #117. Let me start my question linking the elephant- loc on it with a correc- like aliens of Footfall to the tion to my article on Strategic Defense Initiative. As uncommon Clay. When Footfall came out in 1985, I he supported Horace Greeley in his campaign for have a terminus a quo for the con. president against Ulysses S. Grant, Cash wasn't Larry Niven's panel was one of two that I at- acting as a Radical Republican, for Greeley was a tended at the student center. The other panel was Democrat. If the esteemed editor cum presidential a talk by my distant cousin, renowned skeptic Joe candidate is somehow aware of my having called Nickell. I'm likely related to the rest of humanity him by implication a Republican, he's likely tell- as closely as I am to Cousin Joe (somewhere ing me where to go, and it isn't west, young man. around fifth cousin), but I can document the rela- Isn't it wonderful that such levels of partisanship tionship to him. In any case, he regaled his audi- as those shown during Reconstruction don't exist ence with tales of his investigations into today? "spontaneous" human combustion. The tales were Yes, well. As I feared, my draft of a con report on illustrated with slides not for the faint of heart. a busted con in my hometown of Lexington, Ken- What is it about charred human flesh that squicks tucky, didn't show up. Still, I recall the con well. us so? Cousin Joe conceded that "spontaneous" According to local fen who spoke to me long ago human combustion is real, but denied that it's in in confidence, the con's concom had the ambition any way supernatural. In all of the cases of which of starting their con, Future Science One (F/S he spoke, it involved a person with a high body- One), at the level of Marcon. The concom hoped fat index falling asleep while smoking in an easy to reach this level by holding the con in two loca- chair near a partly opened window higher than tions, the Student Center at the University of the sleeping person was. Airflow set up a flue ef- Kentucky and the convention center beside Rupp fect that caused flames on the sleeping person to Arena, linked by shuttle buses. The concom se- rise, consuming him or her with scant damage to cured the attendance at the con of an impressive the easy chair. According to Cousin Joe, those list of guests headlined by Larry Niven as GoH. who prefer a psychic explanation of the phe- Now, if only as many fen as show up at Marcon nomenon tend to leave key details out of their would show up at F/S One... accounts. I showed up, at any rate. As I've mentioned in Having gone to two enjoyable panels at the earlier locs, I developed at the con a strong hero- student center, I drove downtown to see what was worship complex for Larry Niven -- a complex going on at the convention center. As not much unaccountably stronger than I'd felt for Arthur C. was (did I mention that the con was busted?), I

27 bought at a nearby bookstore a stopped watching new Who in book by Timothy Zahn, an up-and- disappointment after Christopher coming writer who'd be hosting a Eccleston left the show after a sin- panel at the convention center the gle series. I think that, in time, next morning. I read the book he'd have grown into a truly leg- through in one sitting, but can't now endary Doctor, a combination of recall its title. The book dealt with the best traits of Tom Baker and two parallel worlds, one of high Jon Pertwee, my favorite old-time tech and the other of magic, to Doctors. which one could travel through an I enjoyed Eric Barraclough's as- interface. The novel reminded me tronomical articles on H. P. Love- of a series with a similar premise by Piers An- craft and Edgar Allan Poe. Both writers were at thony -- a series the name of which I likewise their best when they were dealing with things be- can't recall. Are my senior moments merging into yond human experience. If only their social preju- a senior continuum? In any case, you can assume dices hadn't bound them to the earth... that Zahn's novel was excellent, as it was rare for Thanks to Michaele Jordan and Gayle Perry me even then to read a novel in a single sitting. for fascinating articles on books and dinosaurs, Could your kind readers remind me of the names respectively. of Zahn's novel and of Anthony's series? Robert Kennedy is right about how lucky his In any case, I felt ready with questions for ancestor was not to have found Jesse James dur- Timothy Zahn when I reached the convention ing his departure from Northfield. Riders who center the next morning. It was good for me that I trained under William Quantrill were dead shots was ready, as I was the sole member of the audi- with a revolver. It continually surprised Union ence to sole up for a panel of which he was the soldiers and lawmen (though not for long) at what sole member to show up. While he and I were distance one of those riders could drill a target. awaiting those who'd never arrive, we discussed I've just sent you my last piece of Civil War his novel and then moved on to our lives. It was a Kentuckiana for the foreseeable future and begun point of contact between us that both of us were work on an sfnal piece. It's outside the box, and I alumnae of Michigan State. Talk of it filled the promise never to send you anything else like it -- rest of a pleasant hour. unless your readers like it. Sadly, one fan/one pro was not unique at F/S Thank you again for TRF #117. I'll start looking One, if rumors that I've heard are true. In terms of for the next ish. quality of panels attended and contact with pros, I Best wishes, have to rate it as the best con that I've attended, yet the financial bath that it took ensured that Al (Alfred D. Byrd) there'd be no F/S Two or higher numbers. The con was such a traumatic event to Lexington fandom that I suspect I'm breaking a ban on men- [[It sounds as if the concom people involved in Future Sci- tioning it to you even now, three decades later. If ence One had goals and expectations beyond their capabili- ties. That is, they were in over their heads, lofty goals never you hear of my demise under shadowy circum- reached.// One of my goals when I decided to attend SF stances, you may know whom to suspect. cons was, if at all possible, to eschew inane questions, As for the latest ish of TRF, I share your pref- something that is difficult to achieve. I think I succeeded erence for old Who to new Who. Actually, I but I may have deceived myself. One thing a fan needs to do is avoid “a strong hero worship complex”. Otherwise it 28 results in easily acting like an sters. In fact, the last three idiot. From your account of doctors have all suffered your experiences almost impos- serious knee injuries from sible to believe. But then who with any sense would make up being directed to run and something like that. At least turn suddenly. I got fed up you got to meet a pro or two at with Moffet’s story writing, the convention and a distant but completely lost it on the cousin.// I see that I was very story that was supposed to take place among the lucky at the cons I attended.// In regard to your “demise under shadowy circumstances . . . Do you mean Russian Vikings. Having Viking society split into brave agents?’ // Another disappointed Doctor Who fan to keep and hearty warriors and weak farmers, with me company.// ” . . . as SFnal piece that’s outside the box . . women being told to be subservient and quiet, .” That seems ominous and foreboding. We’ll just have to that was bad enough, but I lost it with the electric wait until it’s published to decide that. By the way . . . I eels in Scandinavia. No, just no. apologize for not adding your name to the Contents page in the previous issue. Failing to catch things like that is ex- Eclipse. We are going to have one, soon, and if I tremely frustrating.]] wished to drive to St. Louis, I could see totality while standing on Monk’s Mound—with all the From: Helen Davis rest of the population of Missouri. I guess I’ll Hello Tom, and greetings. I can’t remember have to be content with 89% here. I’m too much when I last wrote to you, but I think it was before of an introvert. On the other hand, if I can live the rotator cuff surgery, which went very well, until 2024, the solar eclipse will come to me. considering. Eight weeks of no driving and four As always, I enjoy the dinosaurs and other pre- months total of physical therapy. My shoulder is historic beasties, but the Kentuckiana will have to still stiff at times, but it doesn’t hurt constantly, wait until my cat loses his obsession with climb- and it is slowly getting better. ing in the couch and squirming around under my Somehow I missed all the outrage with the butt. It’s wrecking my concentration, to say the cover of 116. I was in a discussion with my hus- least. band about past presidents, founding father past, Thank you to all the writers in the previous is- and how it is unfair, really, to judge them by the sues who sent me their best wishes. I followed up sensibilities and politics of modern times. I have the radiation therapy with first a torn rotator cuff to wonder what our descendants will be judging and then a broken shoulder, and this has delayed us for. But one thing is certain, in our modern my promised trip report. I went through shoulder world no one can take a step without offending surgery in February, after the fracture healed. another person, and then the person who took the Now I am about ready to get back to work, save step, no matter the intent, is vilified and ridden that my time is now taken up with trying to teach out of town on a rail. For example, the cover of my daughter to drive. Her eye problems have sta- 117 could be taken as a reference to a certain very bilized enough that we are going to make another naughty (but hilarious) webcomic… (But not sex- attempt at it. ist. Both sexes are featured in very fine detail.) As to the Gahan Wilson story: the Tribble sur- Dr. Who: You are definitely not the only per- vived. I really miss his art. son who wishes for the earlier Dr. Who stories, Cons. The old ones are gone, but new ones are when the budget was so very much smaller but coming. I will see if I can find a list for you of the stories were more, well, SF. Moffet’s stories what is local. have been, pretty much, running away from mon- An answer to Dave Rowe’s question as to how

29 we know so much about Indian Cul- From: Milt Stevens tures when they had no written language: oral history combined with July8, 2017 artifacts. The Native Americans still Dear Tom, remember. You just have to know Before reading the comments in Re- who to ask. luctant Famulus #117, I hadn’t paid Take care, any attention to the cover on #116. Helen Davis Damsels in distress have been common on SF covers since the begin- [[It’s good to hear from you and to know you are ning. They have also been a staple of literature getting much better even if it seems slow. It’s not forever. In some fanzine, I commented that I had fair that an injury takes only a split second while thought about doing presentations composed of the healing is more complicated and takes far too old magazine covers at cons. One of the presenta- long. That’s Nature I guess or something.// Peo- tions would have been titled “Damsels in Dis- ple do seem to enjoy jumping to conclusions with- tress.” Another one would have been titled out sufficient information. They seem to do so on “Distressing Damsels.” It hasn’t been a one sided a superficial lever. I’ve been guilty of that, much thing. There are all sorts of covers showing to my disgust. That’s certainly the way of bigots women slashing and blasting their way through and racists.// I’m glad I’m not alone in my disfa- all sorts of people and things. vor of the current producers’ damage to the Steve Stiles mentions remembering a cover Doctor. The very first and subsequent Doctors showing aliens enslaving humans and using them with their low budgets and limited resources and as beasts of burden. Once he mentioned it, I re- their writers did pretty good work in spite of the membered something similar. I looked through limitations.// The introduction, as you will, I my files and found the attached cover from Fan- hope, have read contains much of my feelings tastic. about the Steven Moffat Doctor Who episodes. This wasn't exactly what I was thinking of. I The producers certainly do love those fantastic remembered humans being ridden by mantis like special effects and . . . Well I went over that al- aliens as if they were engaged in a horse race. I ready.// That’s right. There’s an eclipse coming think the cover I’m remembering may have been up in August. I have a small rectangular piece of on a comic book. dark glass that came from a welder’s helmet. If I In my copy of TRF #117, the cover of the can find it in time I should be able to see what- July 1926 Amazing didn’t seem to have enough ever extent of the eclipse appears in Kentucky.. resolution. I’ve attached another copy below. As with you I’d have to be satisfied with whatever If the image of a giant fly attacking a warship we can see. Gahan Wilson’s art—or drawings are didn’t turn you off SF forever, probably nothing unique and meeting him even briefly helped me would. Of course, if a giant fly was attacking a appreciate them even more.// I have been out of warship, that must mean the fly thought it was… the con part of fandom that I’m hesitant to attend never mind. one because there will be a lot of unfamiliar faces Yours truly, and names. I wouldn’t know a single one of them and end up wishing I hadn’t come to it.]] Milt Stevens

6425 Keystone St.

30 Simi Valley, CA 93063 In fact (as you like re- [email protected] printing SF mag covers) www.philsp.com is a [[It’s just as well you hadn’t grand source for nearly paid attention to the cover. all SF mag covers. The controversy over the You are not alone in cover proved to be a minor criticizing the latest Dr. matter for which I am thankful. After having gone Who plots as being unintelligible. Had an evening online searching for sites that featured SF maga- meal on Friday at Midwestcon with five well zines and their covers I can attest to your com- above-average-intelligence fans who had all seen ment on damsels in peril all through SF’s history. the episodes and all agreed that the plots were A presentation you considered would make for an unfollowable. In fact the only disagreement was interesting program item. Yes there are covers about the degree to which they were unfollow- and possibly interior artwork of all sorts as well. able. And it wasn’t a one-sided thing. Men were also Will second Milt’s motion: Do start going to faced with all sorts of nasties and life threatening cons again (as long as you can afford it). You dangers. Such things are inevitable. It wouldn’t were always popular there. As it’s been so long, be a surprise that there were many such covers. this time around it’ll mean making new friends. Maybe I could compile a selection of such covers Heck, that’ll probably mean new contributors to for a future issue of TRF.// Regarding the fly at- TRF. tacking a warship . . . If I recall, the copy I found was rather small for some reason and so I [[As far as I know there are no fundamentalists enlarged it. That would cause the blurring. on the TRF mailing list.// About the cover: If I There’s another idea for a presentation of the recall correctly Steve admitted he might be mis- things that attack not just battleships but also taken and misremembered which magazine. I ad- spaceships. There are a few such things.]] mit I’m fascinated by all the pulp magazine covers and the SF ones also. I forgot on what online site I found those covers. I know there are sev- DAVE ROWE eral. I’ll have to check on that site you men- 8288 W Shelby State Road 44 tioned.// Ah ha! I’m relieved to learn that I’m not FRANKLIN IN46131-9211 the only one who feels that way about the Moffet 2017-June-27 episodes of Doctor Who. There’s one of my Dear Tom, daughters, Sheryl Birkhead and Helen Davis. Re: TRF 117 Now some much smarter people than I trying to decide which episode was of more unfollowable. At least the cover isn’t controversial this time That would be difficult indeed.// Well when I fi- around (unless you are sending TRF to funda- nally get up the nerve to attend some cons one in mentalists). particular will be Midwestcon. I attended only Tried finding the F&SF cover that Steve re- one of those, something I deeply regret. Then In- ferred to but it was a no go. All the F&SF covers ConJunction. Who? Me popular? You must have can be found at www.philsp.com/mags/fsf.hml confused me with someone else. It must have been including the Australian and British imprints. someone impersonating me. Or else everyone was Perhaps Steve was confusing it with another high on something potent. Meeting new people magazine.

31 would be all right. But I wouldn’t quite a while since I last at- be so cruel as to dragoon people tended a con. I spent time talk- into helping perpetrate TRF.]] ing with the Haldemans, the Zelaznys, Tucker, Rusty, Ned Sheryl Birkhead Brooks (well BNFs count). I 25509 Jonnie C7. always felt I had that deer in Gaithersburg, the headlights look and never MD 20882 relaxed, never attended parties USA etc. I did go to programming, the huckster room, and the art June 30-July -7-14,2017 show. I did a lot of people watching. At on point I took a copy of, I think, a Conk- Dear Tom, lin anthology and tried to get as many Well, I suspect ish #115 is lurking autographs as I could over a number of around somewhere but I grabbed what I conventions. One of these days I ought to could find and all I have with me are #116 see if I can locate that book just to look and #117. I’ll just have to work with these and see how many autographs I actually two and make sure I go back and try to managed to garner. locate #115 before I wrap this up and get Hmm . . . Steve’s cover. You are correct in it into the mailbox. that it also seems to me that it is a departure #116 I cannot pinpoint my first con- from most of his work that I have seen. Per- probably a Lunacon or a Philcon. The haps it might make more sense if I knew what first pro I got to know well was Anne the pictogram(??) meant. I have read #117, so McCaffrey. I would talk with her at any I know that cover figures prominently in com- con when I could find her. I have never ments nextish. felt at home at any con . . . as if I was an Old Media . . . it has been many years outsider. I would go to the consuite and since I have simply watched TV late into the see groups talking but they always night then into the early morning—and I seemed tight knit and no one invited neos have to wonder (with the apparently 24-hours to sample the water. Ironically, that is one broadcasting) if the sign-offs still exist. I, thing McCaffrey spoke about to me—that I vaguely, remember what some of them looked never seemed to venture outside the little (and sounded) like. group I came with (in from State College, I cruised through the dinosaur updates. I PA—the SF “club” there . . . at least the can only marvel at the way scientists have four or so of us knew each other). Over come up with an image of the animals and the years I have seen this as business as plants with often scant information. Of course, usual in the consuites. I guess that if who is going to dispute the images?! my personality lent itself to speaking I think that this year's Hugo ballot is less right up and pushing into the apparently impacted by the various Puppies. In my opin- established groups, things might have ion any impact is too much, that that ship has been different. My personality is not and sailed and I think the influence will continue for things were not. I have no idea if con- years. We shall see how long. suites are still that way since it has been # 117: Somehow the cover’s moss covered

32 (?) cottage makes me conventions. Back then I did think of Hagrid (of the feel I was very shy and now 20 years old Potter blended into the back- world). I like the front and ground. To the best of my back pairing. recollection the fans and It would appear that pros I met didn’t treat me The Doctor has/is un- like an outsider and it didn’t dergoing his regeneration right now. We take long for me to feel at home. I still remember just won’t see the who (ahem) when I first met you in person at one of the cons and what of the results until Christ- in Columbus Ohio. If I remember I was there with mas. I have not managed to find that the BBC my wife and daughters. Please correct me if I’m has made a definitive statement as to the iden- wrong. I do remember how humble you seemed to tity of the next Dr. Rumors continue to run be when you asked if it would be all right for you rampant. We shall all see. I can (sorta) see to join us for lunch or some meal. I was surprised Missy, um, mis-regenerating as The Doctor. So by that. One of the reasons we were there was so I won't totally rule that out. She has been I could meet you in person and that was a good around in the past few episodes We all just way to do so. Also at that same convention you, have to wait to find out. George “Lan” Laskowski and I were together One of the local public TV stations, WETA and you wondered what prices you should place UK has been running what seems to be (too on the artwork you had for display. Lan and I much like work to verify this) all the Dr. Who urged you not to set low prices on them, that your “movies”. I have been taping them and am work was as good as most of the other artwork.// slowly going through the stacks of tapes. It wouldn’t surprise me if the “puppies” leave a The rapidity of working through the various stain on the Worldcon for a long time.’ As you Doctors makes a real appreciation of each Dr probably know by now the new Doctor Who has difficult. been chosen and is a woman. I can't recall her Yes, I do know that John Purcell has his name. I don’t know if there are any photos of her own ish, but you ought to get a jump on the there may be. Or maybe we’ll have to wait until gun and see if he will get a con report to you, the December episode to see her. //* That you It can’t hurt to ask! and Anne McCaffery got along so well is proof of I think that about covers it for now—and I that.]] took the issues out, left them at home since I managed not to mail this last week.

[[I haven’t been to either of those cons. I don’t know why. Maybe because of their distance. I don’t recall if I met Anne McCaffery. If I did it for a minute or so. Shame on you for thinking you were an outsider.* You would fit right in. I never thought that way about myself when I attended the World Fantasy Con and all the subsequent

33 1706-24 Eva Rd. Orillia, Ontario, where I grew up. Etobicoke, ON I think I have done what I can here. There is so much more CANADA M9C 2B2 to do today, and so little time to get it all done, and there are plenty more fanzines to comment on. We will see you August 1, 2017 with the next issue, coming soon, I suspect. Dear Tom: Yours, Lloyd Penney. Thank you for the newest Reluctant Famulus, issue [[As you can see, after I relieved your concern 117. Seeing this was the May-June issues, and here it is the first of August, I hope I am not late. Now to see what com- about your loc arriving in time, it showed up at a ments I can make in limited time. fortuitous moment and was included. You were Conclusion and Intro…I fear we fail to take intent into lucky because I’ve been working on avoiding account when there may be the possibility of offence. Fan- rushing to get an issue finished and mailed out dom, and fanzines fandom, especially, has a near-tradition and, I hope, at least fewer mistakes.// Sadly, in of taking things the worst possible way. If people are intent the world at large, too many people are quick to on being offended, or taking something the worst way, there’s not a lot you can do, and apology may not be what take anything the wrong way or take offense at is wanted or required. We must be wary of anything sexist what they read or hear. That results in the person or racist, but the source of what is offending, once revealed, presenting the statements or comments feeling should be sufficient. Not enough? Let them be offended, compelled to explain what was really meant. For- and carry on. Peter Capaldi is indeed leaving Doctor Who, and the tunately, in this case things worked out better only reason I can see is that ass a professional actor, past than I expected.// What you wrote about Peter Doctors have advised their successors not to stay in the role Capaldi was unknown to me and I find it very in- any longer than four years, which Capaldi has done. He was teresting. His decision to leave the series made a huge Doctor Who fan in his youth, and even contributed some sense. Many actors perform in various roles to Doctor Who fanzines of the day. His art work was but sooner or later begin looking for new, chal- signed, and he did say in his writing that he’d love to be the Doctor one day. He made his dreams come true, but it’s lenging roles because they being typecast or as- time to go. He can always return, past Doctors have done sociated with the roles they’re playing. So in a that. Jodie Whittaker is indeed the next Doctor, and the first way that is understandable and was one of the female Doctor. Some of the Patrick Troughton episodes that reasons he had for leaving the series. Actors/ have been completely lost are being recreated as animated cartoons. (I sound like quite the Whovian, but honestly, I actresses come and go all the time. That being the am not.) case, the new female Doctor might leave after The Trump regime hit lower lows nearly every day. I three or four seasons. If that should occur it am not sure what to think of anyone who might voluntarily raises the question of what the gender of the next take a job there, and some have set records for shortest time Doctor will be? Another woman or revert to a in a government position. The only happy group loosely male? Time will tell.//You’re not the only one to connected with the government may be the political car- toonists. Even harsh caricatures cater to Trump’s narcis- feel that way about D.J.T. His current tenure will sism, which came to the fore when he himself suggested feel like and endless four years. Even worse, sup- that his likeness should be added to Mt. Rushmore. There is posedly he’s raising money to run for a second no end to his ego. term in 2020. What an appalling thought.// My loc… The telemarketing ran out, and I am trying to Speaking of jumping to conclusions above. I sure return to it, without luck so far. I have a little registration work coming up this month, and the company with which I jumped to a conclusion about David Boreanaz’s did some voicework has moved further north, which makes nationality.// Steady employment for you seems to it difficult to get there. No, David Boreanaz is American, be elusive and arbitrary. Perhaps one day . . .[[ and his father, Dave Thomas, worked on a Buffalo TV sta- tion. I watched the kids’ shows living in the small town of That’s it for the letters.

34 The following is hardly science fiction but I hope you’ll find them interesting. They were in an old battered book I rescued from total destruction. I still have it around here somewhere.

Interesting old paintings. All the alchemists are well supplied. I don’t know if any have turned lead into gold or found the elixir for long life or the philosophers’ stone. They tried at least. I doubt they summoned any demons either.

36 Conclusion:

I finally took the time to see who the next Doctor Who and was disappointed by the result.

I felt disappointed and that’s all I’m saying. Don’t jump to the charge of sexist (which I have already denied) Too may people instantly seize upon that without anything to back up the charge. Some things to note: I have my wife, two daughters, four granddaughters, one sister, , several female cousins and, of course, there was my mother and several aunts and there are some women fan friends. Me be sexist? If anyone thinks I’m sexist they’re out of their minds. As you can see I’m greatly outnumbered. So far, I’m not insane enough to be that way. I may act crazy at times but it’s a kind of funny crazy, sort of like the King’s Court Jester. I may not be the brightest bulb on the string but I hope I’m not the dimmest. There. I hope the preceding settles the matter. So lets all continue to be friends but on a better level than Facebook “friends” and watch Doctor Who. I admit I’d still prefer a male Doctor Who but I’ll be happy if future episodes make much more sense and are more reasonable than the Moffett stuff. That’s it for now. It’s the end of this issue anyway. Aren’t you grateful for that? I wonder what atrocity I’ll com- mit in the next issue. I hope I don’t seem like a grouch. Two more con photos. Top one. I never got their names. I guess they were just good friends. Below, Stephen R. Donaldson and me. Very likely I was boring him and he was wishing I would go away or fall into a volcano somewhere. I think he probably avoided me all through the con. Or maybe I came to my senses and left him alone for the rest of the convention as atonement. That reminds me. At another convention, during a panel I was on, I got some laughs for admit- ting to having read all the Thomas Covenant Chronicles. True story. Don’t ask why. At another con. What a lovely couple 37 38