Scvcoh 6 January 1 7th - 1 9th, 1 992 Wyndham Southpark Hotel Austin, Texas Guest of Honor JoMAtliAM Carroll Author of Bones of the Moon, The Land of Laughs, Sleeping in Flame, Winner of the World Fantasy Award AND L. Spr&$ue SeCarnp, Catherine Crook SeCamp, Elizabeth Moon, Lewis Shiner, Bruce Sterling, HowaiS Walbrop Memberships are $20 (US) through October 1 3th, 1991 $30.00 through December 31 st, 1991 For more information: Sercon 6, P.O. Box 961 2, Austin TX 78766 or call 512/835-9304 before 10 p.m. Central Time PIcasc waUc cticcks/moMcq orders pAvpble to "FACT1 Sponsored by the Fandom Association of Central Texas, Inc., a 501 (c)3 non-profit organization. EADERCON 4 SOUVENIR BOOK ABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction, Robert Colby......................................................................................Page 3 Barry N. Malzberg....................................................................................... Page4 Giant Among Midgets, Mike Resnick.................................................................. Page 5 Missing Malzberg, Allen Steele.............................................................................Page 7 From Tranquility to Baghdad, Carter Scholz..................................................... Page 8 A Barry N. Malzberg Bibliography: A First Pass, Sheila Lightsey & Eric M. Van Books.............................................................................Page 11 Stories............................................................................................ Page13 Index to Stories Bibliography..................................................... Page 20 Notes on "The High Purpose", Barry N. Malzberg........................................... Page22 "The High Purpose", Barry N. Malzberg.........................................................Page 23 Books to Cherish, J.F. Rivkin, Darrell Schweitzer, David A. Smith, Stan Leventhal & Susan Palwick.Page 32 John Clute.......................................................................................................Page36 On Being Criticized, John Clute............................................................................Page37 John Clute: An Appreciation, Rachel Pollack..................................................... Page39 Clute on Clute.................................................................................................Page39 Readercon, Inc.: A Chronology................................................................... Page40 Readercon, Inc.: An Agenda........................................................................ Page45 The 1990 Readercon Small Press AwardWinners..................................... Page 47 eadercon 4 Souvenir Book Edited by Eric M. Van- Designed and Produced by Nevenah Smith I Cover Art by Cortney Skinner. R Barry N. Malzberg and John Clute portraits by Joey Zone. All other interior art by Alan Giana A 11 material © the authors, except where noted, all /% unsigned material is © Readercon, Inc. / % The High Purpose © by Mercury Press, Inc.; X JL reprinted by permission of the authors. ext is set in 10/12pt New Century Schoolbook, TTitles and Footers are set in Palatino Italic. Introduction , M- by Robert Colby i (or hi again, depending). When you signed in, gatherings, and substituting a more intense and you received this Souvenir Book and a focused program, one that creates more of a real com­ Program Guide. We started separating the munity by bringing more of you together more of the Hstandard Program Book into these two sections lasttime. Here our results have been mixed. Readercons 1 year to better accommodate the way people actually and 2 were well matched with their small attendance use this stuff. For the most part, you used the and one main track. Readercon 3, I now feel, was Program Guide to answer the questions you had. about somewhat seduced by its own success into flirting Readercon 4 as it happened. with the status quo, and fractioning you into too Why was the last sentence in the past tense? many pieces. The next few years will see if we can Because for most of you this book is the one you read, balance size and community. after the con, the one that will, I hope, put what you’ve Third, a wider view of what constitutes specula­ experienced into some kind of context. (Then again tive and imaginative literature. We’ve tried to direct maybe not, but everybody who writes has some your attention to works of non-realist literature assumptions about the conditions they’re going to be (many of which fall under the heading of “magical read in; these are mine.) And so I’ll be trying to pro­ realism”) that don’t get sold in the SF/Fantasy section vide some of that in these intros. of the bookstore. Though we have no way to know For four years now (Readercon 1 was in June whether this has inspired many people to venture 1987, and our irregular schedule has finally circled into the general fiction section, we intend to keep it the calendar, plus a month) I’ve been using these up, and attract some of the authors who produce what pages as a way to explain who and what we are, and Bruce Sterling has referred to as ‘slipstream’ here to aren’t, and what we’re trying to accomplish here. I’ve discuss it. And maybe some of their readers, too. spelled out our focus on literature and in creating an Fourth, support for alternatives to the mass environment where people who are serious about it market (specifically the small press). At this point, we can explore it on an adult level, and I’ve tried to are about where we want to be with the Small Press explain the ways in which we want to be more than Awards, at least in terms of getting the procedures just the book-related parts of your typical big con together and laying the groundwork for its gradual (without any unnecessary hostility towards people increase in stature. We are still in the beginning whose concept of science fiction has more to do with stages of two related efforts; the Readercon Small big-budget special effects and the chance to play Press Review, and becoming the conference of choice make-believe). Because so many of you are new each for small press people in this field. time, this needs to be restated (and maybe rethought) All in all though, it looks like we got more-or- periodically. But I think it’s finally time to compare less what we wanted when we first started kicking our announced goals to the results so far. this idea around in 1985. But then again, that’s only First, the general atmosphere. Here we have my viewpoint, which is bound to be more than a bit accomplished our mission. Almost all of you that I’ve subjective. I’ve talked a lot about community these met genuinely care about this literature as a form of last few years. So it’s time I found out just what kind literature, and that’s reflected in the grown-up (but of community we’ve put together. What does rarely stuffy) tone of the proceedings. People who Readercon mean to you? What do you get from it that come here know that they’re going to get a fair dose of you don’t get from anything else? Next year, the cranium-stretching during the day, but still get to Chair’s Introduction will be supplemented (or even unwind later on (Kirk Poland, plus parties if we can replaced) with guest introductions from at least one get more of you to throw them). program participant, and at least one reader as well. Second, intimacy and community. As stated The readers whose intros are printed in full will have above, we want to be more than just the book-related their memberships comped. Next year’s PR1 will have part of a typical con. That involves departing from the full details, but start thinking about it soon. And three-ring “extravaganza” model that dominates said we’ll see you in ‘92! ■ ■ ■ READERCON 4,1991 PAGE 3 PAGE 4 RE ADERCON 4,1991 iant Among Midgets by Mike Resnick cc e tried to make the world the kind the 1970’s, by far, were Galaxies and Herovit’s World, of place it might have been. It both by Barry Malzberg. drove him mad.” So I wrote Barry a postcard and told him what I H had said. His answer was brief and to the point: —Justin Playfair “Where were you when I needed you?” They Might Be Giants I wrote back, he wrote back, we met for brunch a month later in Manhattan, and we have occasional­ ly gotten together, frequently corresponded, and have arry Malzberg tried to make science fiction the spoken on the phone literally a thousand times dur­ kind of field it might have been. It didn’t drive ing the past ten years. During this time he has Bhim mad, but it has occasionally made him more become my closest friend in the field of science fiction, morose than he might otherwise be. as well as remaining one of my very few literary It will be to science fiction’s everlasting shame heroes. that he failed to elevate it, for there has been no finer One of the things you will find when you finally exemplar of what we could have become than Barry meet Barry is that he is a gentleman, in the true himself. sense of the word. He is gentle, decent, well-man­ Writing is an egomaniac’s sport. You must nered, thoughtful, considerate, self-effacing, and believe you are the best, or there is simply no reason witty—all those traits one demands in a Boy Scout to continue pushing nouns up against verbs in the but, once exposed to the field, never really expects to wee small hours when the rest of the world is sleep­ find in a science fiction writer. ing the sleep of the innocent. You may be properly He is also a man of prodigious intellect and eru­ modest in public, but during those long nights of the dition. The average man—and this includes the aver­ soul, when it is just you and the keyboard and the age science fiction writer—speaks in sentence frag­ story that is trying to get out, you have to convince ments, a la Richard Nixon and his hired guns. Barry, yourself that you’re writing the best story or the best on the other hand, speaks in exquisitely constructed book ever put to paper, or there is simply no reason to paragraphs, and when you listen to him expound on endure the psychic strain and frustration required to any of the things that are near and dear to him—and keep working on it.