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The Art of Garthness #1

April 2015

Colophon THE ART OF GARTHNESS #1 is the retitled personalzine of Garth Spencer produced in April 2015, which is Garth’s and belongs to him and is his . Garth is moving and has changed his email to [email protected] and is in the process of rebuilding his website at http://www.vcn.bc.ca/~gartho. This fanzine is mostly set in Baskerville Old Face 12 point. This fanzine is not the fanzine you were looking for, but may be the fanzine you need. This fanzine offers to Odin, Thor and Bugs Bunny. This little fanzine went wee wee wee all the way home. This fanzine is available by email for locs, trade, contributions, a word that rhymes with orange, a naughty in the bushes, or simply by download from efanzines.com.

Contents Since Our Last Episode ...... 1 The Karma List ...... 3 The Secret Lore of Our Tribe ...... 4 Join the Anarcho-Surrealist Party! ...... 15 What I Recall About Formal Logic ...... 18 Asatru ...... 22 The Problem of Magic ...... 27 The Gelded Age ...... 28

Art Credits ...... cover The (map of the drowned Earth) ...... p. 1 The Internet (machine for kicking yourself in the ass) ...... p. 2 The Internet (The Rules for Being Human) ...... p. 3 Photos of BCSFA members (no idea who took them – any hints welcome!) ...... pp. 4, 9 VCON 3 program book cover ...... p. 9 (who took this?) ...... p. 11 WCSFA logo ...... p. 14 Internet (Viking cat) ...... p. 22 Internet (“Shieldwall!”) ...... p. 23 Internet (Norse board ) ...... p. 24 Internet (Nine Virtues) ...... p. 24 Internet (Elder Futhark) ...... p. 25 ...... pp. 26, 29

ii SINCE OUR LAST EPISODE

I apologize for being so long out of touch, without letting correspondents have a chance receive replies to their letters, or to receive something for the they sent me. I also apologize for not featuring fanzine reviews in this issue; I will spend the whole next issue on nothing else. # Things have been happening to our world, and to , and last and least importantly, to me. Not all changes have been positive. If current affairs are anything to go by, then I understand why my father was such a committed union man, and where his drive and anger came from. Probably it’s time to be an active citizen … but how? Or, more specifically, who and what are the targets, and what is the strategy to apply to them? In we have lost too many good people, for one thing, people such as Jeanne Robinson, Art Widner, Andrew Brechin, Darryl Huber, and a host of others. And disturbingly, the kind of aggressively deceitful movement we have seen in mundane politics has surfaced in science fiction, effectively taking over the nomination process. We have now to see who takes up arms against this effort at ballot-stuffing, and how. My own life has been pretty quiet – living in shared rental accommodations, working part-time as a secretary, looking after people’s homes and cats when they went away. But a sub-minimum income isn’t secure, and it is time to make future plans, if only to make some inept preparations for being old; and, perhaps, for the financial collapse of civilization. One of my perennial attempts to form a social group is to rejoin the Society for Creative Anachronism. Another is my correspondence and meetings with local members of the Asatru community, Heathen House on Facebook and Heathen Freehold of B.C. Several attempts to be individual, or at least not to Be Old, include founding the Anarcho- Surrealist Party on Facebook (among several other absurd groups); maintaining the B.C. Science Fiction Association website; joining the West Coast SF Association as a member-at-large; obtaining an instant online ordination in the Universal Life Church; opening a wikispaces account to post Canadian fanhistory online, in a form people can extend and revise; and other hobbies which, I begin to realize, distract me from my real goals, and diffuse my energies. What should I be doing with my life? By my definition of “should”, and nobody else’s?

(from The Lost Patents: a machine for kicking yourself in the ass) # It has taken until my fifties to decide I have to live my own life, my own way, for my own purposes. The way I was raised convinced me, deep down, that life wasn’t about living your own life, so any statements to that effect just sounded as meaningless as a lot of things people say. This is not delayed adolescence. This is the sound of a natural conservative, feeling betrayed that nobody would come right out and say in plain English what everybody wants. Maybe I’m just obtuse. The Edwardian conventions of my parents were outdated when I was born, anyway; and for that matter, the usual career and life plan of the Eisenhower decade I was born into is not attainable for everybody, in the 21st century. In fact, some of us are seriously anticipating the breakdown of the high-energy civilization we inherited, for reasons of international finance as much as other threats. So I need to improvise my own design for living, in any case. One paradigm for making a life is the Maslow hierarchy – first a human will concentrate on your material needs, then on your social needs, then on something Maslow called “self-actualization”. It’s a problem to earn a living, as long as the local society holds together. But I have transferable skills and strengths. I think I can advertise my services as an editor, and maybe learn to be a web designer. This is a solvable problem. It’s a problem to find a community to belong to and a social position within it. In a left-handed, inadvertent way I have acquired a lot of acquaintances, and some real friends, but I really must learn to return hospitality and to be more sociable. This also is solvable, though my strengths are not in this area. See my silly hobby list above. Yes, I know I’m spreading myself too thin. Perhaps the most important problem is the one I keep deferring: a question of self-fulfilment, or accomplishing my purpose, or seeking something greater than self. Sometimes, I can remember my own purpose: To get things said, instead of obscured and falsified and concealed with diversions. To connect some dots. Maybe, to solve some problems, for myself and for others. So I

The Art of Garthness #1 Page 2 April 2015 must make time to write, both stories and articles, in the time I have left. And yes, I realize I will have to set priorities.

THE KARMA LIST Readers of my previous personalzines, such as One Swell Foop, all deserve an apology for the long lapse of time since my last publication. It took this long to get clear in my mind some of the issues I will express here. # Paul Carpentier asked at VCON, a couple of years ago, what it meant when I complained that people don’t tell me what they expect. Well, normal people normally expect others to come

The Art of Garthness #1 Page 3 April 2015 equipped with a normal background of world knowledge, common folklore including outright nonsense, and an understanding of how normal people act – the kind of thing that, really, only sociologists or anthropologists perceive explicitly – and these are just the things I keep missing, or not picking up unless they’re pointed out. Maybe I should have understood better how I saw people talk and act, or maybe I should have read more biographies. In the last thirty years my social self-presentation has gotten a lot smoother, but there are still things I don’t do well, like job interviews, or technical conversations at work; and anything beyond the most casual social conversation with women is out of the question. Now you know, Paul. And you can see right away, if I were smart I would have kept on going to a university and asked my questions of sociologists and anthropologists, instead of lay people who had no idea what I was talking about. Maybe there is actually a cognitive problem some people have, simply to see and understand normal human behaviour, or even to understanding normal language sometimes. Or maybe I was just terminally confused as a youth by mixed signals, and by people from different English-speaking . There is evidence to support either idea. # Lloyd Penney was justifiably irritated when I responded, in some apazine or Facebook exchange, that he must not be aware of logic. Actually I referred to formal logic, and actually very few people are aware of it; and I admit there is a good deal I have forgotten. There are a number of and matters of misinformation about logic and clear reasoning, and I will go into them later in this fanzine.

THE SECRET LORE OF OUR TRIBE Stories that BCSFA Members Ought to Know Collected by Garth Spencer (With additional input from R. Graeme Cameron)

(previously appearing in BCSFAzine #500, March 2015) There are some things any BCSFA member or interested reader could benefit by knowing, such as, what else we do for fun besides club meetings and holding VCON, or what we learned after

The Art of Garthness #1 Page 4 April 2015 holding VCON for several decades. In fact, we learned a good deal about holding parties, small publications called fanzines (and the odd attitudes people now attribute to each other), model- building clubs, running an amateur publication association, making your own , maintaining a website, the limitations of Yahoo! Groups, how many people are interested in a dinner club or a book discussion club or writers’ workshops, and how fans of SF have changed the focus of their interests, several times over. The whole reason for activities may have been summed up in a casual comment by Karl Johanson (editor of Neo-Opsis magazine, in Victoria)—“having fun and doing neat stuff.” Some of us keep that in mind. To Begin With One of the first things you find out about SF and fandom is the large role that demographics plays in this interest group, and especially in Canadian SF fandom. At first, in the early 20th century, SF fans were very few and far between, and finding someone you could actually talk to was a big deal. In Canada, fans appeared as early as anywhere else, but they seem to have been starkly isolated. The earliest mention of a Canadian is in Donald A. Wollheim’s 1936 report in an obscure fanzine titled The Science Fiction Review, on a fan magazine called The Fan produced “by a chap in , B.C., where we least expected a fan to live! A fair little magazine!” Apart from a mention in ’s The Immortal Storm, a history of 1930s fandom, this first Canadian zine by an unknown fan editor has not been attested by any other source. And things kept changing. By the middle of the century, there were apparently more fans: there were both individuals and organized groups in most population centres—notably, coalescing at colleges and universities—and usually at least one annual convention. By the end of the century, fannish jargon—at least as and media fans used it—was entering the standard dictionaries. The only way that fans can be out of touch, nowadays, is not to realize there are other kinds of fandom than you meet in person or online, or different kinds of conventions than you attend or hear about; which does happen a lot, now that a comics or gaming or costuming group can be entirely occupied with their own fandom, even their own group. Entirely aside from that, Canadian fan groups are still a bit of a drive away from each other, particularly east of and west of Ontario. Robert Runté, a very active fan in Edmonton in the 1970s, noticed that SF clubs tended to be far more independent entities, organized from the ground up, than (say) comics fandom, which could be far more organized. There was in fact a “Cartoon/Fantasy Organization” in existence well into the 1980s, organized as a sort of confederation, with chapters in Canada, as well as in the States. A gentleman named Jack Bowie-Reed, travelling across Canada in the 1940s and 1950s to organize local supporting chapters of a political party, invited existing clubs ( some of which he founded) to become chapters of a “Canadian Science Fiction Association,” but this mostly died of attrition as member clubs faded away. Nils Helmer Frome One of the earliest (and most isolated) fans in BC was Nils Helmer Frome. He moved around southwestern British Columbia from 1936 to 1958, working in a lumber camp during the war and

The Art of Garthness #1 Page 5 April 2015 afterwards trying to get a commercial graphic art career off the ground. It seems that Frome was not in contact with any organized fandom in BC. Like many good fans in the 1930s (and right up to the 1980s), Frome was a fanzine publisher, which in his time meant producing an amateur magazine that imitated newsstand pulp SF magazines, even if they were produced by mimeograph machine. In the 1940s he did fillos for Les Croutch’s Ontario fanzine Light and both covers and fillos for issues of Joseph ‘Beak’ Taylor’s Canadian Fandom. He also contributed fiction to both . Frome published two editions of Supramundane Stories out of Fraser Mills, in 1937 and 1938, with an impressive roster of contributors; and he did an issue of Fantasy Pictorial for the May 1938 First National SF Convention in Newark, NJ. Frome is documented at some length in Sam Moskowitz’ 1989 Mossashuck Press monograph, “Howard Phillips Lovecraft and Nils Helmer Frome.” Michael Dann, a member of the British Columbia SF Association, looked up Frome’s family and wrote a Frome biography for fanzine publication.1 There have been rumours of a Vancouver club in the 1940s; a friend in Victoria told me in the 1980s about attending meetings of a Vancouver SF club in the 1950s, which were also attended by Al Purdy (subsequently a well-known Canadian poet). This turned out to be The Vancouver SF Society, founded by its first President Norman G. Browne in December of 1951. It joined the Canadian SF Association in 1952, and was still affiliated in 1953, so we know the club lasted at least that long. Interesting to note that there were some sixty fans active in B.C. in 1952, and since the club’s membership drew from the entire province, many of these fans may have belonged to the club. Members called themselves “The Hibited Men” presumably inspired by the short story “The Hibited Man” by L. Sprague de Camp which appeared in Thrilling in October 1949. At least four issues (and probably more) of a newsletter titled Hibited Happenings were published. Browne served as editor for the first three issues, then moved out of province. Frank Stephens edited the remaining issue or issues. During its short lifespan the Vancouver SF Society was well-known in North West fandom, if only because Browne’s self- proclaimed to become a BNF () drove him to aggressively publicise the club. He came closest to achieving this status later with his 1950s genzine Vanations, published out of Edmonton. BCSFA Appears In October 1968, students Claire Toynbee and Maynard Hogg started the UBC Science Fiction which was more commonly known as the UBC SFFEN at the University of British Columbia, and which later spawned the BC SF Association. According to Ed Beauregard, their office hosted some lively Monday-night discussion groups. The UBC SFFEN published a newsletter titled, simply enough, The UBC SFFEN Newsletter. In order to gather funds to produce a oneshot club fanzine, the UBC SFFEN put on a show (One Million Years BC) on January 29th 1970 which was so well attended it generated money in excess of the club’s needs. It then turned out that the club had to use all its money within the year, or the remainder would be absorbed by the Alma Mater Society for general revenue. (It is standard practice, I think, for student unions to dole out money to student clubs, then absorb the leftovers at the end of the fiscal year.)

The Art of Garthness #1 Page 6 April 2015 After an emergency meeting held the same night, it was decided to hide these excess funds through the creation of a separate entity to be called the “BC SF Society.” The very next day Ed Beauregard opened a bank account for this purpose off campus. In March of 1970 he wrote “For the mere charge of 50 cents per member ($30) all members of the UBC SFFEN have been enrolled as members of the BC SF Society. This new organization has been set up to encourage fandom in B.C. and act as a co-ordination agency for fan activities.” However, in fact it remained relatively dormant for the remainder of the year. Note that January 19th, 1971 sees the first surviving reference to the BCSFS as the BC SF Association, by which title (BCSFA) it is still known. Also in March of 1970, the oneshot fanzine titled Stage One finally appeared, edited by Robert Bells. A copy still exists in the BCSFA archive. On March 7th 197l, the first off-campus meeting of the BC SF Association was held to formally organize the club, and to promote a convention. A local TV personality, Chuck Davis, became a member. Note that the current BCSFA President, R. Graeme Cameron, first joined the club at its second meeting held March 21st. The first BCSFA newsletter did not come out till August 1973. It was titled The BCSFA Newsletter. Not till issue #34 did it adopt its current title BCSFAzine at the suggestion of (later a famous author, to put it mildly), “in the old fannish tradition of forcing people to roll phonetically-unlikely around in their mouths like so many marbles." Eventually BCSFA members also founded BCAPA and VANAPA (amateur publishing associations). Maybe that needs explaining by analogy to a newsgroup, or to a social-network page, using pre-Internet postal communications. The original plan of an APA was that a limited number of people would each produce a minimum two-page, four-page or larger contribution on a regular basis, e.g. monthly; make copies and send them to an Official Editor, who would collate them; and he or she would send out the collated mailings to the members. APAs were created over the decades for a number of stated interests, ranging from James Bond , , feminist discussion or comics fandom. Some APAs continue online, such as e- APA and TePe (The Trufannish Electronic Press Exchange). BCAPA included members from Vancouver, from British Columbia, from other provinces, from the States and even abroad. Unfortunately it fell out of publication in the 1980s. Fanzines in the 1970s and later were mostly produced by individual members; these included Amor de Cosmos (produced by Susan Wood, a well-known Toronto fan who came to Vancouver) and Love Makes the World Go Awry (produced by Fran Skene, a librarian and active fan, now retired). By the 1950s and 1960s, fanzines had developed a model of their own—more a matter of general-interest articles, personal journalism and in-depth editorial pieces, very large and active letter columns, and reviews of conventions and fanzines. It was almost as if individuals set out to produce their own versions of Atlantic Monthly or Saturday Evening Post, all on their own. Originally Serious and Constructive in tone, by the late 1950s many fanzines were “fannish,” shot through with the sort of humour not generally seen outside graduate physics and chemistry departments, or the studios where Monty Python and Saturday Night Live were produced.

The Art of Garthness #1 Page 7 April 2015 The First Vancouver Conventions The first Vancouver SF con was held on April 9-10, 1971, in the Georgia Hotel, with Ursula LeGuin as GOH. 70–100 people attended this gala event, and reports in June claimed “we did OK,” although Charles Brown’s report in Locus was disparaging. On the other hand, well-known American fan Frank Denton said it “tended towards the highly educated end of the spectrum…. It is certainly a lot more scholarly than a lot of the American conventions.” He added it was one of the better cons he’d attended. And Province Newspaper critic Michael Walsh wrote: “The tone of the convention, one of literary appreciation rather than fascinated adulation, was set from the beginning by the science fiction sophisticates from the sponsoring clubs.” The con did not break even, but no profit was expected or intended, and the loss was split evenly between the sponsors, the UBC Science Fiction Society, the BC Science Fiction Association, and the Simon Fraser University Science Fiction Society (SF3). SF conventions were in a few hundred of your best friends, until the early 1970s, as if the party were occupying a hotel for the weekend mainly because there were too many to fit in your mother’s basement. The exceptions were local conventions of long standing, such as Arisia or Boskone or LACon, or the travelling and Westercon, which are held in different locations each year. Like fanzines, SF conventions went through several changes in tone and adopted some peculiar institutions of their own, so that they aren’t much like conferences or conventions as the hotel industry knows them. A second Vancouver con was held on February 18–19, 1972, at the small Biltmore Hotel, with Philip K. Dick as GOH. About 100 people attended; the con featured films and costuming, and Philip K. Dick read out an address to the members, which was later published in Bruce Gillespie’s Australian fanzine SF Commentary (#31, October 1972). The Elron Awards A distinction of subsequent (apart from introducing dances at cons, as Fran Skene maintains) is the invention of the Elron Awards. These are neither fan-voted, nor juried awards; they’re totally undemocratic, and either someone arbitrarily bestows Elrons on hapless nominees, or someone accepts anyone’s and everyone’s suggestions. The theme is: “If we honour the greatest, should we not also recognize the least?” (D. George, VCON III). The Elron Awards were first presented by Mike Bailey at the first VCON. These included: 1. Special Award for the Elron Hall of Fame: Lin Carter. 2. Least Promising New Author: Robert Moore Williams. 3. Worst Melodramatic Presentation: Beneath the . 4. Worst Novel: I Will Fear No Evil, by Robert A. Heinlein. The Elrons have nothing to do with a former SF writer. So we insist. In later years the Elrons evolved into satiric awards as opposed to “worst of” awards. Gentle japes, rather than condemnation, in other words. In 1973 former BCSFA members suggested reviving activities, but things didn’t start to happen until all of 32 Vancouver fen met each other at that year’s Bellingham (Washington) convention…and the UBC crowd knew just seven of them (including Fran Skene, columnist Michael Walsh, and TV personality Chuck Davis). Mike Bailey proceeded to get the Bellingham con’s mailing list, and he contacted the Vancouver members. Informal meetings were held on June 27 and August l0 at Pat Burrows’ house, featuring news about Torcon II (the second

The Art of Garthness #1 Page 8 April 2015 Worldcon in Canada), books by Michael G. Coney (a fantasy/SF writer in British Columbia), and a call for articles for Mike Bailey’s zine. Mooting VCON 3 After some former UBC SFFEN went to Torcon II, as Pat Burrows recalls, several of them were overheard saying, “Gee, we ought to do something like that.” The first large meeting was held in October 1973 at Chuck and Edna Davis’ place, with 35 people; previously, meeting attendances averaged around 10 to 15. A third convention was mooted at this point, but no definite plans were undertaken. VCON 3 actually became a reality when Michael Walsh just announced it, with full details, in his column in the Vancouver Province. (Maybe unilateral initiative is what it takes sometimes to get anything done…)

(program book cover for VCON 3) The UBC SF Society The current UBC club, UBC SFS, was founded in 1973 or 1974, and immediately started accumulating books and trade fanzines. The club started publishing Horizons SF in 1980. The Society’s membership rose as high as 150 in 1992 and 1993. With its 1992–1993 revenues, and under editors like David New, Horizons SF became a small-press market for SF. In fact, David won an Aurora Award in 1992 for his editorship. For reasons of brevity I will skip over the next several years. (Also I wasn’t there and I am still organizing my notes.) Other contributors may expand on the passing of Helene Flanders, one of the more popular and active fans in BCSFA, and of Susan Wood, who was teaching at UBC and spending increasing time on editing science fiction rather than on fan activities. Just before her death, she edited a collection of essays by Ursula LeGuin.

(L – R: Felicity Walker, BCSFAzine editor; Barb Dryer, WCSFA Secretary; Kathleen Moore, the Eternal Treasurer; Steve Forty, Official Greeter and Member in Perpetuity.)

The Art of Garthness #1 Page 9 April 2015 Convention Coordination from Year to Year You may be wondering who decides when and where conventions are held, or how people come to be on a convention committee—or, with a little more thought, you may ask what it takes to make a convention work. In many cases a non-profit society or incorporation receives bids by interested fans to hold an established convention, licenses use of the trademarked convention name, dispenses some seed money, provides informational or hardware resources, and receives any profits (or covers losses) after the convention. Having a registered society, separate from the convention and carrying on from year to year, offers a basic level of liability coverage. By some point in the 1970s, Vancouver’s registered convention society was WCSFCCA (standing for Western Canada SF Convention Committee Association). Among other things, WCSFCCA (and now its successor organization, WCSFA) offer organizational guidelines written and revised by members of previous VCON committees. The WCSFCCA constitution and bylaws (which were in place from 1981) provided that regular financial reports from a VCON committee were to be made to WCSFCCA executives; another was that, if the committee’s performance did not measure up, WCSFCCA could step in, remove them from their positions and take over. However, this key provision was not put into effect; in fact, WCSFCCA executives are said to have bent over backwards to avoid the appearance of imposing control on VCONs. That wasn’t the only departure from written guidelines; Lisa Smedman, in about 1993, retracted a VCON bid rather than compete with another bid, and I gather this was typical of our aversion to conflict or confrontation. (Lisa Smedman has not only participated in BCSFA events and chaired VCONs; she is a local journalist, photographer, game publisher, and author of several fantasy/horror novels.) For a perspective on these years, and especially on the handling of finances, two of the best people to talk to are Ed Beauregard and Donna McMahon. Ed Beauregard has written (in his one and only fanzine) that we do not have a generally agreed-upon standard of responsibility in con- running. Several times, individuals have gotten into positions who…well, whose ways to mount an event just did not work, not at least with BCSFAns’ needs or abilities. I think that is now generally understood in these parts.2 Westercon 30 Westercon 30 on July 1–4, 1977 was the first Westercon hosted in Vancouver. The venue was the Totem Park Residence at UBC; Guests of Honour included [Pro GOH], Frank Denton [Fan GOH], and Kate Wilhelm [Special Guest]. Fran Skene served as chair. It is of interest to note that several conventions appeared in the Pacific Northwest immediately after this Westercon—Orycon, Norwescon, Spokon and Moscon of blessed and deplored memory, and NonCon in Alberta. In fact Edmonton and Calgary fans explicitly set out to learn what they could about conventions from this Vancouver Westercon. Westercon is a perambulating regional SF convention, usually circulating in the western States but open to bids from Canada. In practice, it is usually held on the July 4th weekend, somewhere in the Southwest. Apparently it was conceived shortly after World War II by Los Angeles fans, in order to bring together fans from around the West; in the mid-forties, apparently, there were practically no local cons in the West. Westercons have sometimes drawn over 2500 members

The Art of Garthness #1 Page 10 April 2015 (rather less, in the last decade). A bid committee mounts a bid three years before the target date; the site selection is held two years in advance. Correct me if I’m wrong, but it has never been explicitly established what regular Westercon attendees expect, beyond what local conventions such as VCON offer. , the editor of (then and now fandom’s journal of record), was disparaging about this Westercon. (The comment “A one-and-a-half-day convention crammed into four days” was attributed to him). Some out-of-town fans turned up their noses at the 1977 site, Totem Residence. After this sort of talk, Ed Beauregard, who was then one of our most prominent local fans, opposed Vancouver’s campaigning again for any outside, travelling cons. Beauregard’s opinion is worth listening to, as he has several times helped sort out the figures for cons with rather scrambled accounts (Westercon 30 included). Feeling Canadian: A Newszine, an APA, an Award, and a Fan Fund Three or four national Canadian institutions were attempted in the early 1980s. There was New Canadian Fandom, developed from Robert Runté’s fan news column in the regular Edmonton club publication; CANADAPA, a short-lived amateur publication association; the Canadian SF and Fantasy Awards (CSFFAs), conceived to bring publicity to Canadian science fiction and fantasy; and the Canadian Unity Fan Fund (CUFF), conceived to help fans from one side of Canada to attend conventions on the other side of Canada. (CSFFA was somewhat modeled on the Hugos, another fan-voted, but more international award for SF and fantasy, presented at the annual Worldcon. Fan funds, since at least the 1940s, have assisted fans from one region to make themselves known at fan events in other regions—usually internationally, and between different continents.) From the perspective of the 2010s, these fan activities may require a little explaining. About once a generation—or, at least, until the late 1970s— were treated to the sight of academics and media pundits agonizing about “What is Canadian?” This usually coincided with periodic agonizing about whether Canada is in fact an independent and sovereign country (or not); we also got to see some screeds that might as well be labeled “America: Threat or Menace?” A cynic might conclude that national fan activities were what happened when National Identity met SF Fandom, at least in the minds of some academics. This is plausible, when you consider that most of the concerned fans were college- or university-educated, if not academics themselves; and the organizers of the first CSFFA Awards were four teachers in the Maritimes. In 1980, the first CSFFA was presented at Halcon 3 by Spider Robinson to A.E. Van Vogt, for lifetime achievements in SF.

Spider Robinson

The Art of Garthness #1 Page 11 April 2015 In 1981, the second CSFFA was awarded posthumously at VCON 9 to Dr. Susan Wood, for lifetime contributions to SF. This year, the award took the form of a parchment scroll. Also in 1981, Michael Hall (then living in Edmonton) visited Torque 2 in Toronto as the first CUFF candidate. After that, as I have written elsewhere, things went a bit sideways. What kept happening was that organizers (such as the four teachers in the Maritimes) contacted people who were not actually on the committees of the conventions they wanted to recruit, as happened to Boreal in Quebec; or people defaulted on organizing the award and failed to tell anyone, as happened to Maplecon in Ottawa; or people proceeded on incomplete or mistaken information about the eligibility requirements, as happened to Spider Robinson and to Robert Runté. The Three Stooges routines did not stop until 1986. Please remember that all this was before the Internet, let alone the ; there was no single, original source of reliable information that everyone could refer to easily back then. Fortunately CSFFA (now a Federally registered society) currently has an official website at http://prixaurorawards.ca which, among other things, hosts a complete set of downloadable issues of its newsletter Auroran Lights. The 1986 Canvention (#6, which was also: VCON 14) was when CSFFA and CUFF both changed. At VCON 14, 1987 (Toronto) won its bid to host the next Canvention; and Mike Wallis, from the Ad Astra convention committee, then announced his plans to revive CUFF. After that, both CSFFA (renamed the ) and the Canadian Unity Fan Fund were put on a sound, rotating basis. One of the features of interest is that, year by year, the number of Aurora Award categories has tended to increase as the genre evolves. This is why I have not listed the awards, even those given out at Vancouver Canventions: we could fill this whole BCSFAzine issue by doing so. Subsequent Canventions in Vancouver include: * 2001: VCON 26/Canvention 21. Murray Moore of Mississauga, Ontario was the CUFF delegate to VCON 26. He produced a trip report, “A Trip Report Found in a Plain Manila Envelope.” * 2007: VCON 32/Canvention 27. Peter Jarvis of Toronto was the CUFF delegate to VCON 32. *2014: VCON 39/Canvention #34. Unfortunately the CUFF delegate that year was unable to attend. New Faces About 1987, an unusually large number of BCSFA and VCON regulars were taking a break from fan activities, and an unusually large number of new faces arrived, and became involved with VCON. Some new faces were Dan Dubrick, and Craig McLachlan; Jackie Wilson, and Vicki Oates; Shane Conley, and others. One new face was Garth Spencer, from Victoria. (That would be me.) Garth had become known largely through correspondence, as he gotten impatient, back in 1983, waiting for Robert Runté’s newszine New Canadian Fandom, and had started his own newszine, The Maple Leaf Rag, which in the end garnered a CSFFA Award at VCON 14. MLR continued on a bimonthly basis until 1987, when Garth got fundamentally fed up with Victoria and fled (screaming) to Vancouver to Seek His Fortune.

The Art of Garthness #1 Page 12 April 2015 It dawned on me, at one Westercon 44 meeting, when the idea of a fanzine room came up, that none of the rest of the committee knew what a fanzine room was. Well, this was typical of fandom by then, naturally out of touch with the recent past, since the massive increase in genre fan numbers had reduced traditional fandom to a tiny niche fandom unknown to most fen; nothing and no one told them what fanzines were. But it so happens to lead us to the story of Westercon 44. These committee members innocently didn’t know what this had to do with Jerry Kaufman, Suzanne Tompkins, or the Haydens—the convention’s advertised guests. Trying to Make a Long Story Short In July of 1988, Fran Skene returned to Vancouver from Westercon 41 in Phoenix, with a proposal to bid for Westercon 44. Vancouver had bid for the Westercon (and lost) a couple of times after Westercon 30, most recently for 1989. Fran Skene persuaded me to join the bid committee, in charge of publications. I took it on faith that the Westercon bid was a valid proposition, because Fran was the well-known fan who introduced me to BCSFA, and to Northwest fandom. As it turned out, she had to stand down because of other commitments. On July 2–6, 1991, Westercon 44/VCON 19 was held at Gage Residence Hall, UBC, Vancouver, BC. Guests included William Gibson [Pro]; C.J. Cherryh [Pro]; Jerry Kaufman [Fan]; Suzanne Tompkins [Fan]; Steve Jackson [Gaming]; Patrick & [Editor]; Warren Oddsson [Artist]; Verna Trestrail Smith [Lensman]. In summary, Westercon 44 was fun for people attending it; fans and writers alike made a lot of contacts. But for the committee holding it, it was a nightmare. In the end, Vancouver fans took a loss of over $11,500.00, rather than a five-figure profit, with concomitant damage for some years to our morale, to our goodwill in fandom and the business community, and to our membership. We might have had a successful Westercon if we had had a few hundred more people attending; or if we had restricted our spending; if we had signed a contract a whole year earlier (per our regular practice); and if many other, more experienced people had joined (or stayed on) the Westercon committee. But we had an overturn in active membership around that time, and a lot of entirely new, inexperienced faces on the committee. Mind you, this Westercon faced several external problems not of its own making: the changes in provincial and federal legislation that all came about at this time—the first implementation of the Canada–US “Free Trade” Act, affecting Customs duties; the new federal Goods and Services Tax; and (in early 1991) the sudden appearance of new BC liquor legislation. Jackie Wilson (now Barclay) and Vickie Oates placed a bid to hold “VCON 19.5” in May 1992 at the Relax Plaza. Their avowed purpose was to hold a cut-down, limited-membership con, supported entirely on its own income—and if it looked like it would take a loss, then it would fold, and refund the preregistrants. Con Hiebner acted as Treasurer. As a direct result, this convention of less than 200 members raised a little over $900, which went to service the outstanding Westercon debt. Where WCSFA Came From We found out well after 1991 that the WCSFCCA secretary had failed to re-register WCSFCCA in a timely with the BC Registrar of Companies; so for a year, Westercon had operated without any financial protection. The association was subsequently reorganized as WCSFA, the Western Canada SF Association, to act as BCSFA’s officially-registered face, and to oversee future VCONs.

The Art of Garthness #1 Page 13 April 2015 The West Coast Science Fiction Association (WCSFA) was incorporated as a legally registered society on January 26th, 1993. WCSFA is “a non-profit organization dedicated to the advancement and understanding of science fiction and in Vancouver, BC and its environs. WCSFA combines education and in the events it sponsors, most notably VCON…All members of the most recent and upcoming VCONs and of the British Columbia Science Fiction Association (BCSFA) are automatically members of WCSFA.”3

Some interesting and positive events have involved BCSFA members in other organizations, such as the Society for Creative Anachronism. Jim Welch, a former active BCSFA member and fanzine publisher, has subsequently been severely active in the local Barony of Lion’s Gate. The late Andrew Brechin participated in events of the Public Dream Society. Again, telling their stories appears to be a job for other contributors. Final Words One of the things about contemporary fandom is the sheer variety of types of fans. There are people who tend to assume that fandom is necessarily about film or television series, who have an enthusiasm mainly for visual media, and who want to hold the kind of conventions promoted by Paramount and other studios—which is all rather unlike pre-1970s fandom and conventions, isn’t it? There are people who imprint on something else that they’ve seen or read (like me: I happened on a stash of 1970s fanzines from Edmonton, when I entered a small SF club in Victoria). There are people who want to make a buck, make a , be the big fish in a little pond, or just be the centre of attention. There are people who want to write up everything, and imagine others will want to read it (again, like me). Letting go of your baggage and seeing fandom as it is can take a few years; it is neither a business, nor a small pond, nor an audience for videos or for essays. Another thing you notice, after a few years in fandom, is that the accepted focus or range of interests changes, again and again. I have had to accept that my cherished fannish, or fanzine fandom is not even a memory now as far as mainstream SF&F genre fandom is concerned. In fact a legend has grown up that fanzine fans are snotty old coffin-bait who worship the past and have no interest in anything since 1965, and show no welcome or respect for anyone open to learning about fanzines. Or as Lloyd Penney, perhaps Canada’s best known traditional fan, put it “Fanzine fandom is the least welcoming fandom.” This depends on the individuals in question. Some are. Some aren’t. On the other hand, anyone who reads books and magazines more than watching TV, or expected original story universes or original reasoned speculation, tends to be put off by the of comics and costuming and gaming and media-inspired fantasy or SF. This is to be expected. The various niche fandoms within fandom often have little in common, and tend, especially with their own conventions, to focus primarily on their particular interest. This makes it all the more amazing that a fan-run general-interest convention like VCON soldiers on, offering a little something for everybody, habitually attracting about 700 attendees year after year.

The Art of Garthness #1 Page 14 April 2015 Over all, BCSFA, and fandom as I knew it, have been the setting in which I grew up (belatedly). And so have some of the rest of us, behaving perhaps foolishly but like humans behave. Perhaps some of us have learned and grown—hopefully without gaining an evil reputation, or incurring financial disasters or criminal charges in the process. Garth Spencer Friday 27 February 2015 1(Sources: Harry Warner Jr., All Our Yesterdays, page 174; Michael Dann, “Nils Helmer Frome: Lost and Found,” New Canadian Fandom #6, January 1983.) 2(Ed Beauregard, Inside from the Inside.) 3(From the website.)

JOIN THE ANARCHO-SURREALIST PARTY! Since we probably won’t be allowed to add write-in candidates if we bother to vote in the coming election in Canada, perhaps we might as well found an absurdist party again, just to register that None of the Above Is Acceptable. Yes, I have already been recommended to join the NeoRhino Party. I sent them a cheque. In the meantime, I have been promoting the Anarcho-Surrealist Party, or rather a splinter group called the Second Reformed Anarcho-Surrealist Party with a Hot Tub in the Backyard Society Inc. Perhaps the platform is not self-evident. I shall explain. Take any party platform, extend it logically, and reduce it to absurdity. I have barely begun to explore the possibilities, as detailed below. You may suggest more and better policies. Planks of the Party Platform Anarcho-Surrealism is not about recommending anarchism. We already live in anarchy. We always have done. Different people respond to this (without acknowledging it) in different ways. In most societies there is a What’s Mine Is Mine party, usually called “conservative”, and a Charity towards All party, sometimes called “progressive”, sometimes “liberal”, sometimes “the nanny state”, sometimes “communist”. These don’t mean the same things but the distinction is lost on mushy- thinking North Americans. There are other alternatives. My question is, can there be a working, functional anarchist community? It’s a question because recent events in the first world industrial countries, both political and economic, seem to be forcing people to invent such a way of life. At least, our current Conservative administration seems to be advocating the dismantling of all government, even our withdrawal from the more advanced activities of civilization. Perhaps we can reason from first principles. In effect nation-states, like criminal organizations, contend with each other on a basis of mutual distrust, and respect mainly for each other’s arsenals. Perhaps the theory was that by doing the hard work, governments at all levels spare us the time and effort we need to devote to our regular lives; the cost being that governments claim “sovereignty”, or complete independence, which we yield to them.

The Art of Garthness #1 Page 15 April 2015 But since the 1970s, and the attempt to withdraw governments from many of their responsibilities, more and more people have found themselves facing anarchy as individuals. It takes a fairly large personal estate, significant resources, and much preparation to shoulder all the burdens yourself – provide your own food, clothing, shelter, medical care, communication, transportation, and insurance measures against disability, or terminal illness. Very few individuals can manage that. Just look at the numbers of homeless people in North American cities. If the alleged authorities are simply going to withdraw from the responsibilities that governments took on in the 19th and 20th centuries, as for example the Harper administration proposes, then perhaps communities have to assume both sovereignty, and the assets to carry out the above- named responsibilities. Whether these communities are municipalities, or something like counties, has to be worked out. If the ability to carry out the functions of a community constitutes the right to do so, and to claim the sovereignty to do so, then perhaps corporate entities can logically become sovereignties. Note that logically, if corporations and corporate managers fail to pay taxes to governments, then effectively they default on their subscriptions to government services, such as military and police protection, and the right to trial. That forces such entities to provide these services for themselves, in some other way, or seek another service provider. Of course the foregoing is an attempt to take neo-conservatives’ own goals to their logical conclusion, and reduce them to absurdity. Means of Exchange Some of my friends and family have questions about what passes for an economy, at least in the world at large. The term “pyramid scheme” has been used. If an economic collapse occurs, what becomes of our currency? What may replace it? One theory of value rests not so much on goods and services, but on human potential. It is hard to estimate how much potential productivity, or service, anyone represents; but the more skills and experience anyone has, the more they can offer, and the more their skilled work is worth. Consider the difference between a surgeon and a student taking a first-aid course, or a journeyman carpenter and a master. Conversely, the older someone is, the more they have realized their potential, and the more their life expectancy is an issue. My theory which is mine and belongs to me is that we could all, conceivably, issue currency redeemable by our skilled labour or products, and time-limited so that the notes expire within a given time period. Thus the currency will be backed by our man-hours within a given date. At any rate this is as close as I have come to rationalizing Federation economics from the Star Trek series. Comments? I mean, it isn’t as if any means of exchange amounted to more than a game of Let’s Pretend. Fellow Travelers If municipalities or counties can be sovereignties and contend on an equal basis with corporations, conceivably so can the communities we call “reserves”, or “reservations”. In theory they should have resources, manpower, and determination enough to face down all comers. In practice, they have been used (and abused) as resource bases. I think all communities seeking to maintain their sovereignty will take a dim view of denying fellow communities the resources to maintain their functions, their independence and their sovereignty.

The Art of Garthness #1 Page 16 April 2015 Taking things a little further, what about undiscovered or unverified species? Sasquatches? Manitou? Alien or interdimensional beings? My theory which is mine and belongs to me is that sasquatches scoped out the situation when whites first arrived, they shaved and adopted human identities, and at some point in the 20th century they entered politics en masse, and now they’ve colonized legislatures so successfully that H. sapiens are nearly crowded out. Which sort of explains why representatives are not very committed to the interests of their constituents. Recognizing any other reasoning beings as potential contributing members of the community would obviate their felt need to dominate the political process. But then, changing a sasquatch ’s convictions of superiority, or right to rule, or simple paranoia about the masses would be just as hard as changing the convictions of one-per-centers and the managerial culture in world capitals. (Of course, we could always kidnap and deprogram key individuals, but that would be piecemeal and quite properly detected and neutralized, before it got very far …) Changing Settlement Patterns As climates change, and the temperate zones move further to the poles, we may find it feasible and desirable to found new communities in higher latitudes. One of my correspondents has in fact been researching and planning the feasibility of new communities in Canada, between the populated south and the depopulated north. If historical patterns repeat themselves, though, the colonial efforts will be led by profit-seekers, both individual and corporate, more than people looking to found a community to live in. There may be a great popular demand for northern homesteading, though, as long as it largely means mining and forestry and industrial manufacturing. It will take time to condition northern soils to sustain any version of agriculture. There are two populations that might be strongly motivated to make a fresh start – today’s homeless, and today’s criminals. A cloud of witnesses attests that homeless people are as often people who lost their homes, then their employment, then everything, after one major expense – in the , often a major illness. This sort of abuse is not limited to the United States. The phrase “cities of refuge” may come to mean places where criminals can make a life, no questions asked, and with some kinds of contribution can clear their records. Or it may come to mean a bitter joke, like the American prisons run for profit. Future Initiatives If we’re still going to do this nation-state thing, could we at least grow a pair? Correct me if I’m wrong but from the moment of its creation, Canada seemed always to be accommodating other states when it could have bene assertive, even aggressive; witness the absurd history of the Pig War, if you don’t believe me. There is a forthcoming opportunity, if we choose to take it. Only international treaties keep Antarctica a neutral territory. If those treaties fail, and if global climate change reaches its maximum possible effect, not only will much of the Antarctic ice cap melt, parts of it may acquire a habitable climate, even one where cultivation can be pursued. And the resources to be claimed there will be significant. Is there any compelling reason why Canada should not claim territory there?

The Art of Garthness #1 Page 17 April 2015 I mean, Canada may not be habitable forever … What Brought This On? I have a mixture of personal motives for coming up with this gag. One of them was the fact that my grandfather was the type of retired military man who voted Conservative, and probably was a member of the Monarchist League; but his son-in-law (my father) was a staunch union socialist, so when I was canvassing for the NDP we had to switch the party signs on the lawn before Grandpa came to visit. So I thought there was a family trend, and thought I might as well be an anarchist. There was also a sense of humour. At one point, because I got my name on a magazine subscription list, I received an offer to join the Conservative Party. I wrote back saying no thanks, I’m starting my own party, and went on to describe very logically the platform of the Christian Anarchist Party, and did they have any flaky members they wanted to unload? My plan worked; the Conservatives never bothered me again. Most of all, though, I began to suspect the existing parties and ideologies all miss the point: which is, I imagine, how to maintain a functioning community. I do not confuse this with “order” as imposed by authorities; that never exists, in my experience.

WHAT I RECALL ABOUT FORMAL LOGIC One of the ways I give offense unnecessarily is by saying things like “You haven’t studied logic, have you”, to friends like Lloyd Penney. I guess I should say, formal logic, with a funny notational system and terms like “modus ponens” and everything. Really very few people learn about this, as we see every day in the news. All logic is, is ensuring consistency in statements. That practice – making sure that your statements, representing each step in reasoning, can be true at the same time as other statements – is the middle and both ends of the deal. There are some false impressions people have about logic. One of my other acquaintances in fandom presumed that logic had to mean iron rules about rigidly separate categories, which never occur in nature, or rules that absolutely rational people should live by, which also never occur in nature. Neither of these things is the case. One of the reasons for false impressions about logic is the impression people can take away from stories like, oh, the cases of Sherlock Holmes, for an example. Most of Holmes’ explanations of his reasoning miss the mark, in a way. A naïve reader could think the whole matter was about rules he had gathered about the many human activities he observed, and therefore what meaning to take from the many clues he observed. In fact, logic is only a grammar for making statements - and for making arguments, that get from one statement of known fact to other statements that must also be factual. You might also get the false impression that logical rules are about how things work out over time. The formal logic I was taught ignored questions of time, or number – in fact, most of the features that people trip over in grammar and syntax. When I stumbled on the existence of classes in basic formal logic, we spent the whole first term getting acquainted with “fallacies” – simply, mistakes in reasoning. Apparently, we are often misled by our assumptions about many subjects, so the job of logic is to draw our attention away from the

The Art of Garthness #1 Page 18 April 2015 subject and towards the form of our arguments. For a mind like mine, this is helped a lot by using a sort of algebra called “symbolic logic”, as often as it is called “formal logic”. At one point in a logic course, a student will be acquainted with “truth tables”, starting with two statements, p and q, and showing what combinations of statements about them can be true, if one or both of p and q are true, or false. At this point I may lose some of you if you have problems with algebra, or with any math that involves a notational system. Be assured that formal logic can be practiced in “natural language” (English, or anything that real people speak); it just takes care and attention to critical details. Sentence logic Having learned to make statements that are even capable of being either true or false – and it’s amazing how much language is generated that isn’t capable of that, not just in New Age circles – a student of logic is then introduced to the good stuff, the rules for making valid arguments. “Valid”, by the way, doesn’t necessarily mean true. I could (and do, for comic effect) make up arguments that proceed from statements both false, and not truth-functional, to various absurd conclusions, quite devoid of logic. You can achieve comic effect without even indulging in logical fallacies, although they can help. For whatever reasons, historically the first level of logical analysis is about whole sentences, and the examples given are usually universal statements – that is, sweeping generalizations like “all Belgians speak French” or “no Canadians drive Russian cars”. Let’s set aside the fact that few universal statements can be proven true, except the human need for food, water and a minimum daily requirement of chocolate. The forms that truth-functional statements can take are: A simple positive statement (p) Negation – a simple negative statement (~p) And/But (Conjunction) (p  q) It’s a curious thing, but in logic, the term “but” has the same meaning as “and”: that two statements can be true at once. In English, the only added meaning in “but” is that we don’t expect that compatibility. Or (Disjunction) (p  q) Conditional (p  q) Biconditional (p  q)

Syllogism (Modus Ponens) The best-known example of basic logic is the if-then sequence, e.g.: 1. p (given) 2. p  q (given) 3. q (M.P., 1, 2) That is, given p (let us say, “the winter was mild”), and p  q (“if the winter is mild then the pine

The Art of Garthness #1 Page 19 April 2015 beetles will survive”), we must arrive at q (“the pine beetles will survive”). This is just one of a range of logical tools, which can be introduced in an argument wherever it is possible to show a contradiction, draw an inference, create a conditional statement, or conclude an hypothesis. Hypothesis When a sequence of statements are supplied as “givens”, and a student is challenged to support another statement, one approach is to introduce an hypothesis. In symbolic logic this takes the form of underlining a statement, and drawing a scope line (a vertical line beside the hypothesis, and everything that follows it, up to the conclusion), and then seeing whether the hypothetical statement can be finally proven or negated. The great thing about constructing an argument this way is that you can tell right away when you are dealing in an hypothesis, as opposed to dealing with established facts. There are people who need help to tell the difference. Predicate logic But, you ask, what about the many cases where you’re not dealing with all-and-only statements, when only statements about individuals or subgroups of classes can be shown to be true? What then? Well might you ask. Universal statements, whether negative or positive, can be represented in a more sophisticated form. At this point we separate them into a subject, meaning (in logic) a thing we are talking about, and a predicate, meaning (in logic) whatever we are saying about it. Do not, by any means, confuse these terms with the identical words used in grammar: there is a critical difference in meaning, but not everyone gets it at first. By this structure we can talk about individuals - Hp ~Np Meaning (let us say) “Peter is a Hoosier” or “Peter is not a Nigerian”. Notice, by the way, that subjects (not necessarily individual people, but possibly objects, animals, or perhaps events) are symbolized by single lower-case letters, and predicates are indicated by single capitals (perhaps actions, or perhaps characteristics of subjects, perhaps membership in a group). We can also talk about groups or sets - (x)(x = {CB})(~Kx) Where CB stands for “the set of Conservative members”, and K stands for “aware of financial shenanigans”, so that the whole statement reads “all Conservative members were not aware of financial shenanigans”. (Mind you, this statement is merely “truth-functional”, it hasn’t been verified or checked for consistency with other known facts.) When we define groups, conventionally we use only a few letters (x, y or z). No one knows why. The foregoing is an example of a universal statement in predicate form. If you can confidently make universal statements about real objects, events or people, well and good, you can use on them all the same relations and logical rules that apply in sentence logic.

The Art of Garthness #1 Page 20 April 2015 Relations such as negation, conditionals and biconditionals may apply within the scope of the statement brackets: (x)(x = {CB})(~Cx  ~Kx) (In this case the condition “C” could mean “member of Cabinet”, which would make the whole statement read “if Conservative members were not in cabinet they were not aware of financial shenanigans”. However, an alternative form is the existential statement, e.g.: (x)(x = {Peter, Paul, John})(Gx) Unlike rigid, all-or-nothing categories, an existential statement – based on the symbol  - merely says “some”. For this example, x includes some names, G stands for “writers of Gospels”, and the whole statement reads “there are some people, such as Peter, Paul and John, who were writers of Gospels.” The most useful rules of logic, such as conditional and biconditional relations, can rarely be applied to existential statements. Most facts of life, whether about the physical cosmos or the human experience, are existential statements. This restricts us to using much more restricted logical tools in much of life – or, to hedging the statements about with conditions, such as when and where and to whom statements apply. Many of us don’t care to be that specific. Venn Diagrams and Set Theory The period in which I encountered formal logic was also a period when set theory seemed to be applied to introduce many disciplines – probability theory, calculus, logic, you name it. If you have ever played with hula hoops, or rubber bands, and seen them fall overlapping with each other, then you have seen how sets are illustrated, in “Venn diagrams”. The simple insight illustrated by these diagrams is that in an abstract space, where individuals in the logical sense are represented by any position in the space, a circle can represent any given set; those points inside the circle are members, those outside are not; when sets overlap, the points in the overlap are members of both sets; when there is no overlap, there are no common members; when one circle surrounds and contains another, the members of one set are also members of the other, but not the reverse; and so on, and so forth, in rather logical fashion. Normally a Venn diagram is represented by a horizontally oblong rectangle (with rounded corners), and a little Greek “” letter to one lower corner indicating this abstract space includes Everything we are thinking about. In practice, of course, at any given time we are trying to think over situations involving a limited time and place: a limited number of objects, or reactions that can take place; or a limited number of people and possible interactions between them. Problems with people There was a point when I wondered whether a modification of symbolic logic could be applied to things like small-group psychology or sociology. It turned out to be more of a job than I could do, partly because of my general ignorance of the field, and the limited number of symbols available for all the features and possible interactions of humanity.

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ASATRU This is my personal attempt to pull into order my homework on a faith I have adopted. There will be embarrassing omissions and misstatements, which I expect others will wish to point out. That is my whole purpose in putting this on record. # In the 1970s, Iceland officially recognized the pre-Christian worship of pan-Germanic gods as an official religion. Since then this form of worship has appeared in various forms, under different names, in various countries, including the United States and Canada. Some of the other names and forms of this worship are Forn Sed, on the Continent; Theodism; Odinism, etc. Like Wicca or other forms of worship, this appearance has to raise some questions. Obviously it’s ironic that 20th- and 21st-century educated, urban adults would be drawn to a rural, agrarian, pre-industrial world of practices and beliefs. Or else that is precisely the point, with Asatru as with Wicca, or for that matter, as with modern Gnosticism. These faiths at least seem to offer what many find lacking in orthodox Christianity: the presence of divinity; or a connection to, not a repudiation of the physical world. It is not trivial that Wicca, Asatru, and other alternative faiths are decidedly grass-roots phenomena made up of independent small groups in loose association, rather than being organized hierarchies with a central authority: not, in that sense, “organized” religions. If you think that this form of worship attracts people who feel a sense of identity with Germanic forebears, you’re quite right. If you think this is a sign of re-emerging Naziism, you’re quite wrong. There are neo-fascists out there who appropriate the trappings of pan-Germanic paganism, including , and who make a big deal of ancient Germanic tradition. There are words for people like that, but I won’t repeat them here. One of my ancestors risked his life too many times to battle Nazis and other alleged people; I don’t care for what that experience cost him, or what it said about them. Onward.

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In practice, at least as described on paper, an Asatru kindred meets eight times a year for a “blot” (an observance on the solstices, the equinoxes, and times spaced equally between them). Such a social event includes a “sumble”, a round of drinks from a horn, usually in the form of three rounds with the horn passed from person to person. The first round involves ritual toasts to hail the old gods; the second, toasts to hail the ancestors; finally, toasts involving stories, remembrances, “boasts” if about ancestors or a recent accomplishment, and maybe oaths, if one is prepared or foolhardy enough. The word “blot” originally meant a sacrificial ceremony, and if you think it originally meant a blood sacrifice, you’re quite right. If you think Asatru involves sacrificing animals today, you’re quite wrong. Sacrifices today can be as symbolic and unbloody as you would expect from moderns, although they might go to the extent of forging a sword, bending it in half, and throwing it into a body of water, in symbolic sacrifice. Blots are presided over by the head of a kindred, a “godhi” (or “gydhja”, if a woman), basically the head of a household. Kindreds, or hearths, are usually small and local groups, sometimes literal households. This tends to exemplify the grass-roots independence of these groups, or the small- community lifestyle which Asatruar may recreate. This bears implications for the virtues espoused by Asatruar. A Religion with Homework Nobody can pretend there was a living underground tradition of worship of the old Germanic gods until modern times. (If anyone claims there was such a tradition in Iceland, I have not been informed.) There are, however, some elements of pre-Christian oral literature saved in written form, due to the written works of the Icelandic scholar Snorri Sturluson in the tenth century. The Eddas are collections of traditional poetry, including mythology, tales of the gods, and some proverbial advice in the form of the “Havamal”, or “Sayings of Har”. Entirely aside from the Eddas, the written literature also includes sagas, tales of allegedly real people and events (not by any means all translated into English). Reconstructing the customs and ways of life of pre-Christian Germans, Scandinavians, and Anglo-Saxons is an ongoing effort, and a source of continual arguments.

The Art of Garthness #1 Page 23 April 2015 A surprising amount of information has been recovered, ranging from the cuisine, dress, architecture and farming methods of ancient Germanic peoples to their blacksmithing, swordsmanship, seamanship, dance, and even board . A little online research can turn up a wealth of beautiful recovered music and poetry, some of it now being performed regularly by modern artists and troupes.

What Is Good, and What Is Not Good? A thoroughly detached observer, with some knowledge of Greco-Roman religion and culture, might comment that the official worship and belief structure of Germanic pagans was … well, amoral. Their public decencies and sense of religious law was not exemplified by the conduct of the gods in the Eddas, any more than the gods in Greek or Roman myths behaved like anybody you would want in your neighbourhood. In fact the pan-Germanic gods were apparently as limited by poor judgment, limited information, gullibility, self-seeking, misplaced passions and temper as any mortals. That may in fact make them more relatable than other gods; or this degree of humanity calls into question what “god” means anyway. Nine Noble Virtues A couple of Asatruar in the 1970s combed the Eddas for examples of old Germanic values, however, and came up with the “Nine Noble Virtues”:

An academic observer might think this emphasizes the public, and rather relative values of “face” versus shame, rather than the conventional, rather absolute values we term good versus bad, right versus wrong. Someone who actually lives with people might fail to see any important distinction.

The Art of Garthness #1 Page 24 April 2015 Runework, Galdr, Seidhr, and Magic Generally (A previous version of the following article on runes was published in BCSFAzine #425, October 2008:) Long after Europe was Christianized, some Northern Europeans used a sort of alphabet called “runes” or “futhark”, which was vaguely associated with paganism, with the Norse and Danes and Goths, and with folk magic. Runes were used for calendars, for and in talismans, as well as for writing. Strictly speaking, an “alphabet” is not only a set of signs for the sounds that make up words; “alphabet” is technically applied to a host of scripts normally taught in similar sequences. Latin A, B, C, D, etc. are mirrored by the Greek Alpha, Beta, Gamma, or the Hebrew Aleph, Beth, Gimel ... and so it goes. (Incidentally the Hebrew names for the letters are recognized as words for “ox”, “house”, and so on.) Related alphabets include Arabic, Russian, Coptic, Armenian; they all descend ultimately from ancient Punic. Runes follow a different sequence, usually called a “futhark”. A diagram is inserted below.

There have been different versions of Norse runes at different times and in different places, not only with variant forms but also with a different number of symbols, and with different names. The version shown above is the Elder Futhark, perhaps the earliest known form of the runes. The names of the runes – like the original names of letters in Hebrew – were taken from everyday objects or concepts, not all of them found in nature: “Feoh” was a word for cattle, “Urs” a word for the aurochs (now extinct), “Hagal” for hail. Also like the earliest alphabets, the runes are very angular, adapted to carving into wood or stone. A longer futhark developed in Anglo-Saxon Britain; a shorter sequence, the “Younger Futhark”, developed in medieval Scandinavia. As late as the 17th century, runes were used for writing, for ciphers, for calendar reckoning and for folk magic. In the early 20th century yet another runic system was dreamed up by a German mystic, and co- opted by the German fascist movement in the 1930s. Come to think of it, a lot of fringe culture from the 1930s was co-opted by the German fascist movement. Neo-fascism keeps popping up again in our generation. What I call “fringe culture”, including crop-circle theories and pyramid power and astrology and, well, rune lore keeps making a comeback, too. Without looking terribly hard I keep finding books on runes, on the same shelves where you find astrology guides and numerology texts, palmistry, courses, and a thesis arguing that Atlantis was a Neanderthal stronghold. (This is not to say that someone sporting runic tattoos or writing runic graffiti is likely to be a skinhead, any more than a member of the Bush administration was likely to suffer from Alzheimer’s just because they work in the same building as the late President Reagan.)

The Art of Garthness #1 Page 25 April 2015 Runes, like Tarot cards, are prone to evoke a sense of cryptic, potent symbolism. (At least, crude geometric designs and symbols of basic, common experiences have that effect on me. Must be something in the limbic system.) I want to call this “iconic” even though it’s a misnomer. The fact of life, however, is that any arbitrary set of symbols can develop “iconic” significance for people, in my sense; just give it enough time and reinforcement. It has been traditional to claim that Tarot cards are some cosmic, timeless, Platonic powers in themselves, not just as symbols; the same thing has been claimed of runes, Hebrew letters, and Sanskrit writing, even of their very sounds. It may not matter. The folk-magic aspect of runes combines the notion of runes as signs for Cosmic Values, and the notion that you can somehow divine character, foretell the future, or cast spells by rearranging the signs. From the days of Viking raids to the present, people have been casting runes for divination, writing runes in rings, and combining runes in talismans for health and good fortune. The conclusion of this is obvious: we have here an Unregulated Industry. The Anarcho-Surrealist Party calls for professional standards of runecraft, and the formation of a professional licensing association. It only remains to consider whether this is a Federal or a Provincial jurisdiction. Should we strike a Royal Commission? All this calls for further study. # However, other forms of magic were practiced by men and women, all respected professionals in this pre-Christian culture: galdr, a form of using the sounds of runes; seidhr, a visionary form of trance and prophecy, perhaps related to ancient subarctic shamanic practices. Do they know something I don’t?

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THE PROBLEM OF MAGIC Given that I usually consider myself a liberal secular rational humanist, why do I study magic and Odin-worship? Do I think this is a necessary life skill? There’s an existential position (in the philosophical sense) in which you realize how much each of us takes on faith, for no rational reason – often, for irrational reasons – or how much of our experience is not a matter of reason at all. At that point it makes just as much sense to return to the ancient of pre-Christian Europe, even in 21st-century Canada, as to support the Conservative party, or to show up at conventions dressed as your favourite fantasy media character, or to seek out an acupuncturist, or to join the Society for Creative Anachronism. There is also an emerging position, argued by contemporary occultists, that magic can be practiced in experimental fashion. That is, set up a magical working very much in the spirit of experiment: record the time, place, purpose, materials, and procedures followed; then observe and record the results. It takes a certain frame of mind or sense of humour to go through with this. Read writers such as Isaac Bonewitz or Robert Anton Wilson for examples. A little reading in occult literature can convince you that performing rituals and spells, creating amulets and other talismans, boils down to grown adults playing make-believe: convincing themselves that under specified conditions, visualizing a desired goal and willing it, truly hard, can make it probable, even inevitable. (I have done this kind of reading periodically, and it is amazing how cyclically the publishing industry produces this literature, both new and old.) What seems to be happening is that sometimes, adults consider the possibility that naked will can change probability, and that it’s worth trying: even when the adults are educated modern urban post- industrial sorts. The really striking change – if my conclusions are not ludicrous – is that modern occultism is a

The Art of Garthness #1 Page 27 April 2015 broad variety of practices, sharing the foregoing premise but clothing it in a wild variety of symbolic and mythological traditions. You could easily imagine a sort of science fiction convention, but with Wiccans and Odin-worshippers and Voudun talking shop, and Santeria practitioners hobnobbing with Shinto and Taoist magicians, and assorted Kabbalists and Tantrists for flavour. In fact, there are conventions like this. As you might imagine, some people now feel free to dispense with traditions and make up their own symbolic systems. I have in my possession a work called Urban Primitive which, like Chaos Magick, which argues for making up your own symbolic world. One of the repeated messages is that to make a magical working effective, you are best advised to use the symbolic system that is emotionally meaningful to you. (This raises the question of whether Rhine’s experiments to discover ESP, and similar phenomena, might have turned up more results if he had used Tarot cards or astrological signs, rather than emotionally “flat” Zener cards.) For whatever reason I am interested in mastering and using a system of archaic symbols – the runes of Northern Europe. If anything, the changes in occultism have not amounted to a withering of the whole practice under the influence of 20th-century rationalism. What seems to happen, instead, is that popular attitudes change in cycles: at one time, rational materialism came to be a dominant worldview, and other worldviews were marginalized; now, since approximately the 1960s, dominant worldviews – or at least, a social consensus to give lip-service to it – has broken down. New religions and occult have been emerging into view, if not newly created since that time. And so have cults, and flaky political movements, and satires upon all. What does all this portend?

THE GELDED AGE Jacob Bronowski, , and others who popularized science have pointed out a strange trend in the 20th century – a loss of nerve, as Bronowski put it, or a retreat from rationalism, to paraphrase Carl Sagan. This is true, and is perhaps superficial. After the 20th century experience, what should any observer expect but a retreat from everything that seemed to lead to disaster? In the popular mind, that included Science (as if it were one monolithic institution), Technology, maybe Business, certainly Rationalism … and, to more and more minds, Democracy or Republics. Yes, that’s a pathetic explanation. This claim implies that a majority of us are mildly hypnotized much of the time, and were effectively brainwashed by, gods help us all, lame 1950s B-movies. But I advance this claim seriously. There are opinion pieces published on the Web now suggesting that junk science, frauds peddled as “holistic” medicine, voodoo economics, or New Age spiritualism seem to “sell” better because, superficially, they make more sense than actual, technical, factual information. That is to suggest that anyone – from the hardheaded businessman popping vitamin C for the wrong reasons to the webmaster shopping for crystals – is susceptible to adopting some nonsense, outside of the one field in which they’re technically educated and experienced. I would go further and claim that most of us are now feeling powerless, and put-upon, and subject

The Art of Garthness #1 Page 28 April 2015 to the caprices of unidentifiable forces – the classic chronic feeling of farmers, sailors and soldiers, when you think of it. And, by no coincidence, superstitions are kept alive most often by farmers, sailors, soldiers … and now, urban people without a grasp of the world at large, outside of the one field in which they are educated and experienced. To go a little deeper, I would like to match this failure of general skepticism with another failure – a loss of confidence, or enthusiasm, or drive. My first encounter with this was a puzzling failure to find other SF fans who wanted to make, or produce things. There was no interest, in contemporaries or younger fans, in actually building actual inventions, however absurd or amusing, or even in producing amateur publications. However, there was a great deal of interest in special effects, game design, virtual realities and generating images. In the world at large, elections are notoriously faced with a majority of apathetic voters. Somewhat sinister groups like Anonymous, and outright neofascist groups have their fan base, but again, they are in the minority. It is one thing to suspect that general intelligence and rationality are decreasing (as the news about American elected officials sometimes suggests). It is another to suspect that there is decreasing force of will, to act, to defend your own interests … even to make your own entertainment. What’s going on here?

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