SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW 19 $1.25

SFR INTERVIEWS Philip K. Dick • keiiy fi*eas ALIEN THOUGHTS SFR-type zine is a special interest item with inherently limited sales BY THE EDITOR potential (except in the growing number of science fiction and fantasy bookstores who sell quite a few). Sometimes I think I should have The following 'diary' format for started a zine called EROTIC VIEW¬ SFR is a change I've been tinkering POINTS: pics, letters, opinion, fic¬ with in the back of my head (far away tion. I'd be rich. from Alter's lair) for about a year. A combination of the usual "Alien • Thoughts" elements in dated form, in 8-3-76 Boxed and Jiffy-bagged all extensia and extremis. How much of the bookstore orders and got them it can the readers want? IMs seems off. Took two days. Every issue I to be the ultimate domination of the pick up two or three new bookstores, zine by the editor and will probably and drop two or three. quiet those who continually cry for 'more Geis'. ************************************ The advantages are obvious: I THE HADONIST don't have to buy as much outside FLIGHT TO OPAR material and I can indulge myself By Philip Jose Farmer shamelessly. Hie disadvantages are 7-30-76 Made my Friday self-impos¬ DAW UW1238, $1.50 the rigors of reading and reviewing ed deadline and got the subscription- a great deal more, and the danger complimentary- trade copies to the Reviewed by REG and the likelihood of making a damn post office in labeled sacks, all in Book two in the saga of Hadon of fool of myself---more exposure, more order, nice, nice, for the second Opar, the hero of the savage, Olympic risk. But I hereby stipulate to the class mailing. All that zip sorting -type games of the twin inland seas court of public opinion that I am and packaging and sacking and label¬ of central africa—12,000 years ago. now and always have been a member of ing drives me up the wall, and each He should have been made king of the Damn Fool party, so I am there¬ time I get halfWay through the pro¬ the Khokarsan empire but was cheated fore freed to be a damn fool when cess I interupt the labor to desper¬ by a usurper King and escaped impris¬ the inevitable impulse takes me and ately figure simpler alternatives onment and death during a vast earth¬ my better judgement is off somewhere (Second Class Transient...even First quake. weeding the garden. Class...Book Rate) but I always con¬ He has heeded the oracle's pre¬ Let the fun begin. clude the savings in postage---on the diction that his lovely wife will order of $150. per mailing---is worth give birth to a famous person if the mind-scrambling detail. But, oh, bom in Opar. In flight with his • those damned weird zones, those zip- small coterie he has adventures on code oddities, those sacking require¬ the inland seas and in the strange, 7-19-76 My birthday. Don't ask. ments- w cities that live on the coasts. Times Litho delivered SFR 18 this 47- There is intrigue, death and convinc¬ morning, surprisingly quick service Jimmy Carter, our next President, ing realism and utterly believable even for them. Less than a week. is coming on as one smart, tough, detail and background in this series. I had 5800 copies printed, up from relentless, admirable Liberal. His The vast struggle between the fol¬ 5500, to keep abreast of new subs choice of advisors in foreign affairs lowers of mighty goddess Kho and the and the slow increase in bookstore and economics signals his coming sol¬ userper male god Resu is fascinat¬ sales. I retain about 2300 copies utions—"solutions"—to national ing as it warps every life and is in reserve for back issue sales in problems. He probably fancies him¬ the crucible of history. I love it. future years. self a new Roosevelt. Farmer is so convincing that I Carter speaks with forked smile. I just had #9 reprinted--3000 really believe there was water cov¬ copies---and soon will have to have The economy is slowing down now, ering what are now the Chad and Congo #10 and #14 reprinted, too. All the and the upcoming July unemployment basins and that this was the cradle mimeographed issues will follow in figures ought to be interesting. Any of the world's first great civiliza¬ the next six months or so, as they kind of uptick will go a long way to tion. are exhausted. I can see the SFR sinking Ford. He's been taking the The first book was HADON OF AN¬ bank account melting away.... credit for the improving economy and CIENT OPAR, DAW UW1241, $1.50. that has been the backbone of his con¬ News that the postal unions, to tention that he is electable in Nov¬ protest the deficit-imposed cut-back ember. With the economy faltering he 8-4-76 Linda Bushyager's new KAR- in postal services and schedules, will be seen as very much un-elect¬ RASS arrived and as usual I read it are going to stop the mails soon. able, and this may give Reagan the first off---an excellent fan-news and That has got to be grotesque: that's talking point he needs to get the fan-opinion zine. like "We had to destroy the village She reports that John Miesel will in order to save it." Classic line. probably be introducing a motion at I fell instantly in love with the business meeting of the Mid-Amer¬ the new look of SFR 18---the appear¬ 7-31-76 \ Went through my accounts ican Con (the World SF convention ance of this IBM Delegate typeface receivable for the bookstores this this year, at Kansas City) to abolish at 12 spaces per inch. The other morning and found about twenty stores the fan Hugo awards (Best Fan Writer, typefaces worked beautifully in the way behind in paying. Pulled those Best Fan Artist, Best Amateur Maga¬ SFR format and functions. I will who were still owing for SFR 14-15- zine) as no longer viable awards. reduce the print just a bit more in 16 and send them a nicely phrased This is spoil-sport behavior if #19, I think. To a 36 space line in form letter saying in effect you-got- it comes off; these faans are pissed these columns, from a 34 space line ta-pay-before-I-send-the-latest-is- off that SFR, ALGOL and LOCUS have in #18. This will add maybe 100 sue. won the Best Amateur Magazine award more words per page...maybe 5000 I suspect most of them will for the last six or seven years. words per issue. I suppose Alter shrug, throw the letter away and for¬ They think large circulations make will claim them. get to pay the past due invoices. for winners, and that the small cir¬ "Damn right, Geis! I could use Sad but true that not more than culation "truly amateur" zine has no ten pages all for myself. I could--' a small percentage of bookstores are chance to win. All right! STAY in your pages, willing to carry a small-press zine. They conveniently ignore the Too much trouble. And of course an keep your goddamned voice out of my fact that no.more than four or five new diary pages. hundred votes are ever cast for the COVER BY TIM KIRK SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW ALIEN THOUGHTS.2 Formerly THE ALIEH CRITIC 07911 °’ UK

AN INTERVIEW WITH PHILIP K. DICK Conducted by Daniel DePrez.6 AUGUST 1976 REVIEWS IS THERE SCIENCE FICTION BEYOND FLIGHT TO OPAR VOLUME FIVE, NUMBER THREE THE BORDER? Reviewed by REG.2 WHOLE NUMBER EIGHTEEN By Bruce Robbins.16 HEALER Richard E. Geis THE NOTEBOOKS OF MACK SIKES Reviewed by REG.4 FDITOR ft PIIBI ISHFR By Larry Niven.21 THE MAKING OF KING KONG Reviewed by Buzz Dixon.6 PUBLISHED QUARTERLY CELEBRATING THE WILD BLACK YONDER February, May, August, November By Wayne N. Keyser.27 DEUS IRAE Reviewed by REG.19 Single Copy-$1.25 THE VIVISECTOR LEGACY A Column By Darrell Schweitzer.28 SPACE TRAP SUBSCRIPTIONS BIRTH OF FIRE UNITED STATES: $4.00 One Year PROZINE NOTES.37 Reviewed by Lynne Holdom.22 $7.00 Two Years THE SHATTERED CHAIN ANGEL FEAR: A Sort-of Review Column CANADA*: US$4.50 One Year of SF Art CHANGE THE HORDE US$8.00 Two Years By Freff.38 * Canadians may pay with personal Reviewed by Lynne Holdom... -.23 cheques if the chequing acct. AN INTERVIEW WITH FRANK KELLY FREAS MINDBRIDGE number on their cheques is printed Conducted by Freff.42 Reviewed by REG.24 in computer numerals. (Thus we FOR TEXAS AND ZED become slaves to the needs of the SMALL PRESS NOTES.46 Machine.) Reviewed by REG.25 UNITED KINGDOM: SF NEWSLETTER FROM ITALY THE CRAFT OF SCIENCE FICTION By Gianni Montanari.53 UNIVERSE 6 Due to constant de¬ terioration of the English pound, no THE FURUOLOGICAL CONGRESS THE ALTER-EGO VIEWPOINT FUTURE POWER current subscription rates can be set. Please query Wm. Dawsons 8 Sons, ad¬ By Alter 8 Geis.53 MERVYN PEAKE WRITINGS 8 DRAWINGS dress below. Reviewed by Darrell Schweitzer.... 28 ALIEN CONCLUSIONS.55 BACK ISSUES of TAC 8 SFR are WHAT DOES WOMAN WANT? available from: FANTAST (MEDWAY) LTD., Reviewed by Robert Anton Wilson...36 39 West St., Wisbech, Cambs., PE13 2LX THE HAB THEORY Reviewed by Ronald R. Lambert.37 Agent: WM. DAWSON 6 SONS LETTERS Cannon House J. T. MAJOR.4 RUNES Folkestone, Kent, NEIL KVERN.12 TENSION, APPREHENSION 8 DISSENSION CT19 5EE BILL GIBSON.12 WHO WAS THAT MONOLITH I SAW YOU PIERS ANIHONY.19 WITH? AUSTRALIA: $4.00 AUST. One Year JESSICA AMANDA SAIMONSON.20 SOUTH OF THE MOON $6.00 AUST. Two Years HARRY WARNER.20 THE ANNOTATED GUIDE TO ROBERT E. To Agent: SPACE AGE BOOKS LYNNE HOLDOM.22 HOWARD'S SWORD 8 SORCERY 305-307 Swanston St. JACK DANN.22 NEW LIBERTARIAN WEEKLY Melbourne, 3000 Vic. LEIGH BRACKETT.23 THE ARSENE LEPINE - HERLOCK SOAMES JUDY-LYNN DEL REY.23 AFFAIR ALL OTHER FOREIGN AND STRANGE PLACES K. W. JETER.24 ALTERNATIVE AMERICA US$4.50 One Year MICHAEL WARD.24 PHANTASY DIGEST US$8.00 Two Years DAN MILLER.26 TOADSTOOL WINE All foreign subscriptions must BARRY MALZBERG. 26 APOLLO be paid in U.S. dollar cheques DAMON KNIGHT.34 MEDUSA:A PORTRAIT or money orders, except.to HARLAN ELLISON.34 FANTASTIC NUDES #2 agents. DARRELL SCHWEITZER.35 THE BOOK OF VIRGIL FINLAY GALILEO Reviewed by REG.46 HEALTH AND LIGHT COPYRIGHT O 1976 BY RlCHARD E. Geis. All rights are hereby THE ALIEN CRITIC Reviewed by Elsie.48 ASSIGNED TO THE CONTRIBUTORS. SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW Available in microform from: BRIDGE OF ASHES OXFORD MICROFORM PUBLICATIONS LTD. THE STARCROSSED Wheatsheaf Yard, Blue Boar Street, Reviewed by REG.48 Oxford 0X1 4EY AND STRANGE AT ECRATAN THE TREES SHADRACH IN THE FURNACE GATE OF IVREL FIVE FOR INFINITY INTERIOR ART KENNAQUHAIR Reviewed by Alter-Ego.53 TIM KIRK 2, 3, Bacover ALEXIS GILLILAND 5, 6, 9, 10, 16, 17, 18, 22, 23, 24, 25, 28, 29, 30, 31, 35, 37, 42, 48 ed at 1525 NE Ainsworth, Portland, MIKE GILBERT 7, 8, 12, 13, 20, 21, OR 97211. 26, 27, 32, 33, 34, 41, 47 NO ADVERTISING WILL BE ACCEPTED BILL ROTSLER 36 Second Class Postage Paid at FREFF 38 Portland, OR 97208 ■ fan awards. All those thousands of 8-11-76 It occurs to me that enclosed is a copy of a manuscript. mere sf readers who are in theory while landing the Viking on Mars was The original has been destroyed, by distorting the fan awards don't in an admirable technical feat (which me, for two obvious reasons. The actuality vote for those awards be¬ the American people have come to take publication of the enclosed will set cause they don't consider themselves for granted) finding life on Mars is several persons and groups off after qualified. A few may vote on the the prime need; if there is life in me, the least of which is Philip Jose reputation of SFR, ALGOL or LOCUS, the solar system except for Earth, it Farmer. And they won't all be as but I would imagine very few. will help to keep the space program nice as him! I think you will also Linda feels the fan Hugos are alive. If Mars is sterile, too, then understand why I can't reveal how, or 'no longer being voted on by know¬ what's the point in looking further? when, or where I obtained the origin¬ ledgeable fans.' Aha. Well, she The romance is dead. al.' has the recently instituted Fanzine Now, if they found diamonds big THE MANUSCRIPT Activity Achievement Awards for the as fists on the Martian surface...If 'There was an event at the coup True Believers of Fandom, but there vast pools of underground oil were at "Zangaro" (I am using the names is that dull aching sensation in discovered in the Moon...Greed will given in the fictionalized versions many breasts that the FAAN Awards motivate more people and governments in order to protect my safety.) are consolation prizes. How much than will an alien microbe. that I had not known the full sig¬ better if the fan Hugos could be if. nificance of until just recently. abolished and the FAAN Awards the The SFR ads in ANALOG don't seem The book TARZAN ALIVE by Philip only ones left. And of course SFR, to be pulling very well. I'm aware Jose Farmer had a familiar air. I, ALGOL, and LOCUS have been gerry¬ I had to contend with that other SF too, am the real person upon whom mandered out of the FAAN Awards as REVIEW (monthly) from San Diego whose a semi-fictionalized story is bas¬ too 'professional'. That is, too ads in ANALOG ran three months (over¬ ed. Specifically, I am "Cat Shan¬ good and too successful. lapping mine two months), and that non" of Fredrick Forsyth's THE Andy Porter put an ad for ALGOL in a I note that Linda actually SELLS DOGS OF WAR. (As you may see, the recent issue of ANALOG, so that the her fanzine! KARASS is available report of my suicide was a contri¬ impact of my SFR ads has been diluted, vance arranged between ourselves. by subscription: 3/$1.00. Her ad¬ but, still, all those readers should dress is: 1614 Evans Av., Prospect I had—and have—reasons for be¬ respond more than they have. The Park, PA 19076. ing thought dead.) The other ads in GALAXY do better, even though thing connected with Mr. Farmer's Now, having sunk that harpoon, I most times the new subscribers don't biography is that its title is no feel better. ^ give a clue where they’re coming longer true. Specifically, "Tar- from. zan" is no longer alive. I_ kill- 8-6-76 I am surprised that the (Is that San Diego SF REVIEW ac¬ unemployment figure is up several tually publishing issues, by the way?) 'The events of the killing are ticks to 7.8%. That must send shiv¬ as follows: The setting of the I have ads scheduled in ANALOG attack upon the Presidential Pal¬ ers through the Ford camp. The in¬ through the December issue, and hope¬ crease is "explained" by claiming ace of "Zangaro" given in the book fully they will draw better as their is close to the reality. Close a lot more people entered the labor impact accumulates over the months. force--mostly women. enough, anyway, that I can refer You have to hit readers on the head to it. I was standing in the But consumer spending is slack¬ time after time after time to get ening and consumer debt formation is courtyard of the Palace when I heard their attention and give them that a tremendous inhuman cry. I swung receding to recession levels. New impulse to overcome inertia and write car sales are fading. around and saw in one of the ground a check, address an envelope, write a floor doorways the one the Ibo Something is happening, but you short subscription note... don't know what it is, do you, Mr. "Johnny" had gone through-a Jones? There is a strong feeling in me white man. The first impression that I should very soon stop trying, I had of him was that he was tall We have enjoyed home-grown beans, to hype subscriptions into the 2000- and muscular. Somehow, he did not strawberries, peas, kohlrabi (I think plus area. The time required to ser¬ look quite human. He gave the cry that's the way it's spelled) and com vice the existing lists is really and rushed at me. However, I was on the cob. We've got seven loaded more than I'd like, and the same goes, able to bring up my MP 40 -(Schmeis- tomato plants in the backyard...and for trying to dramatically expand ser) and shoot him twice in the very soon now we'll be eating toma¬ bookstore sales. A little lazy voice chest. toes like mad. No sign of any canta¬ (not Alter) whispers: "Coast, Dick¬ 'At seven that morning, "Dr. loups yet, even though the vines are ie. Sail along with 2000 subs and Okoye" said that he was interest¬ all over the fence and cover the 1300 bookstore sales...Be content ed in seeing the corpse. He iden¬ ground under the com stalks. with a few hundred dollars to live on tified it as that of—I suppose I have plans for expanding the a month...don't try to jack it up to the only way to say it is as of garden next year. $500 or more...Life is too short, en¬ "Lord Greystoke." Since it was joy. ..enjoy...read more...more... an entirely different name, I did more..." not understand its significance. 8-8-76 Finished the review of Since we did not want to have it HEALER by F. Paul Wilson which Karl I nod. I drift out to the back reported that an English nobleman Pflock asked me to do for LIBERTAR¬ yard to work on the gardens...get Had been killed during the coup, IAN REVIEW, an admirable journal. ideas for more flowers...more effic¬ for reasons of security, and since ient use of land...I work on the we mercenaries all wished to dis¬ storm windows...peek under the leaves appear, the body was buried as ************************************ at the lengthening, fattening cucum¬ that of "Vlaminck" bers ...eye the new strawberries... 'Some statistics might be in Briefly, HEALER is run-of-the- *yawn* Let's see now...I'll read one mill magic psience fiction with an of the Aspen Press books which arriv¬ 'Height: 6'4" interesting segment of libertarian ed a few days ago... 'Weight: 240 lb. (approximate¬ philosophy embodied in the planet ************************************* ly; it is rather hard to weigh a Tolive. Once again an immortal man LETTER FROM JJ. MAJOR corpse) (with an alien helper roosting in his 'Hair: Black. brain) saves all humanity and also August 16, 1976 'Colour of eyes: Grey. the galaxy from a fate worse than 'Build: Extremely muscular (It death. The formula is, for me, get¬ 'Enclosed is a CQA. I don't want would appear that he killed "John¬ ting extremely tiresome. (Double¬ it printed in the magazine, for reas¬ ny" by breaking his neck.) day, $5.95.) ons that will soon be obvious. Also 'Identifying marks: Many scars ************************************ (They were all over him. One I am sure will be of particular in¬ of psi phenomena reports on NBC news terest was one that started over to incontrovertibly verify them, a few weeks ago. That NBC put its once and for all. the left eye and ran to the right 'stamp of approval' on psi-talents to the hairline oh to the right (telepathy, precognition--the ones I Could be that once psi is accept¬ happened to see) is almost mind-bog¬ ed and respectable, everyone will 'On the suggestion from my friend gling. Now it is permissible to suddenly develop some of these pow¬ who is sending out this manuscript think psi is a real area for study, ers. Social inhibition is a power¬ to who he says are the right peo¬ and exists and like that. Now psi- ful force. ple, I should like to say that as phenomena have been legitimized. far as I know, I am not related Of course, there are a huge num¬ to any of the so-called "Wold New¬ I have received two clips of ar¬ ber of intensely neurotic and margin¬ ton" family.' ticles sent by SFR readers (thanks ally psychotic people around who have END MANUSCRIPT again) dealing with the mind-out-of¬ seized on the occult and the psi body experiences of people who have phenomena for their own warped emo¬ 'Hie least of the conclusions "died" and been revived. The exper¬ tional needs. They will always be a that can be drawn from this is that ience is one of looking down at one's problem for the image of psi and the the letter to Farmer from "Lord Grey- body after death and viewing the ac¬ true paranormal researchers. And it stoke" in MOTHER WAS A LOVELY BEAST tions and hearing the words of people may be that a,significant percentage is probably a forgery. I fear we at the scene. Later, when revived, of the insane and 'disturbed' are must renounce our fond memories and these once-dead people astound the psi-talented--because they have brok¬ dreams for "Lord Greystoke", "John witnesses by giving word-for-word en loose from the social blinkers Gribardson" and so on.' and action-for-action reports of that restrict most "normal" people, events when they were technically and are free to let their minds go ((I hardly know what to say. The dead. This phenomena has been re¬ in any direction. How embarrassing. legitimacy of the "manuscript" above ported time and again all through This will be an interesting field is now obviously beyond verification. history and in every part of the to watch. I have published this letter and ms. world. in the interests of possible truth. The ramifications are breathtaking— These once-dead people also re¬ Relevant qupte from page 22 of if this account is true.)) port seeing dead relatives and THE HEALING MIND: friends coming for them, to welcome ************************************** them to the spirit world, to heaven "When all things are considered, ...call it what you will. These the war against humanity's an¬ 8-12-76 Had 500 Presto Logs de¬ once-dead people never fear death a- cient enemy, infectious disease, livered this afternoon. This is a- gain. is going badly for our side. bout three years' fuel supply for the Faithful above all to the law stove. $112.00 cost. A bargain, I That's a comforting belief. The of cause and effect, the medic¬ think. experience can be "explained" by say¬ al researchers applied Koch's ing that the brain does not die in¬ postulates from bacteriology and Yesterday I built the frames for stantly, of course, and continues to gained some spectacular victor¬ the storm windows for the big front hear and possibly see, but that the ies. Smallpox has been elimin¬ windows, gave them the undercoat and perceptions are experienced by the ated from the Western hemisphere, the Birch White overcoat. This morn¬ dying mind (a natural process, per¬ polio and tuberculosis have been ing I stapled on the heavy clear haps due to oxygen starvation of cer beaten back, to name just three. plastic I had bought for the purpose. tain areas of the brain) as out-of- However, in the area of infec¬ Need some 1/2" wood stripping to bet¬ body hallucinations. tions of the kidney and bladder, ter, more securely hold the plastic the tide seems to be turning to the frames. I have read of this out-of-body against us. Couple nights ago something, experience before--having to do with "A recent drug company ad tells probably a possum, gnawed at two of prisoners in extended solitary con¬ us that at any one time an estim¬ our cabbages. We pulled those cab¬ finement, who have learned to prac¬ ated 8 million Americans have ur¬ bages, cut away the gnawed part and tice this astral projection of their inary tract infections. Over 20 will somewhat prematurely have cab¬ awareness/mind. Some mystics have written of it, and some occultists. million Americans have gonorrhea, bage for dinners this and mayhap next many more have cancer, or one of week. Our one huge head of cabbage Apparently one doesn't have to have is untouched. "died" or died to experience it. a host of other incurable dis¬ They write of the danger of going too eases. The organisms which we The everbearing strawberries are far from the body, for too long. If are told are responsible for ur¬ giving a second crop. Delicious with their 'lifeline' to their body is inary tract infections are no my wheat germ in the morning and es¬ broken they really do die. longer destroyed by our powerful, pecially scrumptious with a slab of expensive antibiotics. In spite ice cream (which I cannot do without What we need is a double-blind of this, each year the drugs be¬ for long). I am treading on the edge laboratory controlled experiment in come more powerful, costlier, and this astral projection technique. of my (self-image) permissible more dangerous. The simplistic weight--177-178 pounds. And more work on the psi talents-- "A pill for every ill" approach Started my second gallon of home¬ made wine yesterday, too. We have only one waterlock (for the fermenta¬ r U\FE" IS TOO SHORT! tion process) but have a dozen on or¬ TO SPEWS' sE-EKlNGjr jy der at Sears. Should be able to TO TRANSCEND Yfol/gyV, start a cycle of beginning one gallon v UMlTS. f~~ ^ every ten days or so while drinking a gallon during the same period---while eight or ten gallons are in the three month fermentation aging pipeline. The stuff comes out about 8% alcohol, and costs about $1.50 per gallon. It has a tangy, slightly sweet taste .a 8-13-76 Raining today. Strange^ non-summer we're having. I caused this rain, of course--I thoroughly watered the gardens last night. That was an interesting series to disease has backfired. We are beginning to kill as many people AN INTERVIEW WITH PHILIP K. DICK with the cure as does the un- . checked disease." CONDUCTED SEPTEMBER 10, 1976 ************************************* by Daniel DePrez ALIEN********************************* TOOUGHTS CONTINUED ON PG 13 GOING APE SFR: How about starting with the un¬ titled book you've just sold. That's THE MAKING OF KING KONG going to Bantam and Doubleday? By Orville Goldner and George Turn¬ DICK: No, just to Bantam. Bantam er. A.S. Bames § Co., Inc.. Cran- will attempt to sell it to a hardcover bury, NJ 08512; $17.50. publisher, but they own the...they're Reviewed By Buzz Dixon the prime purchaser, and they will of¬ fer it.... Doubleday does not have a policy of buying any book which has already been bought by a paperback KING KONG is the inarguable house, so they are eliminated by their classic produced by science fiction policy, but there are a number of oth¬ film makers to date. It is the ul¬ er houses who might do it---the hard¬ timate adventure film and one of cover. But- the few films with excellent char¬ acterization (admittedly the excel¬ SFR: The paperback will come out lence is solely found in Kong). first, though? Goldner and Turner's book DICK: I really don't know how they SFR: Then what about the collabora¬ traces the story of KONG, giving work that. I honestly don't know. tion between you and Roger Zelazny? much background information on Bantam is the prime purchaser, though. How did that come about? producers Merian C. Cooper and Er¬ SFR: How can you describe the novel? DICK: Well, that came about because nest B. Schoedsack, and special ef¬ I started DEUS IRAE, and I couldn't fects wizard Willis H. O'Brien. It DICK: Well, that's the most difficult finish it because of my lack of know¬ traces the early careers of the question of all to answer, I've found. ledge of theology. And I met Roger three film makers. I would acturally prefer not to des¬ cribe the novel. For one thing, they in '68, and asked him if he would help A feast for both the eye and purchased it from the rough draft, and me with the book, and he said he would, mind, the book has 268 photos or there'll be many changes in the final and he did, and his knowledge was ade¬ sketches taken from private collec¬ draft, and I wouldn't want to have it quate, and we were able to finish it, tions, most never published before. freeze in the rough draft form. I know but it still took twelve years for the Included are scenes and sketches it seems strange not to be able to ans¬ two of us to write the book, and it from O'Brien's abandoned film pro¬ wer a question like that, "What is the was very arduous for us to write. And ject, CREATION, which lended many novel about?", I always say, well, if we just sold that in England for a ver- of its creatures and scenes to somebody asked Shakespeare, "I under¬ y large sum of money, so we finally KING KONG. stand you're writing a play called will get som e money out of it. I do¬ n't think we will get much in this There are several beautiful, ROMEO AND JULIET, what's it about?" country, but we will get something on moody photos of Kong's jungle, as If he were to give an oral description the English sale. well as scores of behind the scenes of it, it'd probably sound like a ter¬ and special effects test footage rible bomb. And after he got halfway SFR: The bookstores in Portland are pictures. through describing it, he'd begin to selling out of the book. realize it sounded like a terrible Goldner speaks with authority bomb, and he would probably not write DICK: Well, it's sold pretty well in as he was one of the technicians it. So, short oral synopses do not this country. It's sold over 5,000 who worked on KONG (especially in give adequate account of books. Let's copies in the United States, so we the Empire State Building scenes) say it's the story of an alternate will make some money. But the English and who is now director of the universe, and of a tyrant named Ferris sale was good, it was between 8,000 and Chico State College Audio-Visual F.. Fremont, who's President of the 9,000 dollars, and we hope for other Center, California. He supplies United States, and in 1968, after hav¬ good foreign sales. many fascinating bits of history ing shot the Kennedys, Dr. King, Jim SFR: Why do you think your books have (such as producers Cooper and Pike, Malcolm X, everybody...George sold so well in foreign countries, and Schoedsack being the crew members Wallace...so that he is elected by a not as -ell in America? of the airplane which down Kong. very large vote, there not being any Cooper suggested, "We should kill real contenders, and sets out to de¬ DICK: Well, the first answer that com¬ the sonofabitch ourselves.") and stroy the two-party system. And it's es to my mind is "Damned if I know." lays to rest the myth of Charles the story of a group of people who Perhaps it's the general attitude to¬ Gemora playing Kong in some scenes. manage to overthrow him. wards science fiction in European countries, accepting it as a legiti¬ The writing is clear and order¬ SFR: Is this going to be marketed as mate form of literature, instead of ly, covering the chaotic happen¬ a science fiction novel? relegating it to the ghetto, with the ings of the film in lucid fashion. DICK: Oh yes, it's definitely science genre, and regarding it as sub-stand¬ If you only buy two books this fiction, because the people who over¬ ard. The prejudice is not there in year, THE MAKING OF KING KONG should - throw him are picked at random by an France, Holland, England, and Germany, be both of them. extraterrestrial satellite communica¬ and Poland that we have in this count¬ *********************************** tions system which informs them what ry against science fiction. The field is accepted, and it doesn't have any¬ 'As we decrease our sensitivity to do, and what information will bring thing to do particularly with the qual-. to pain we also decrease our ability down the tyrant, Ferris Fremont, and ity of my writing, it has to do with to experience the simple joys and coordinates their efforts through di¬ the acceptance of the field of science pleasures of life. The result is rect radio communications with the fiction as a legitimate field. Bear that stronger and stronger stimuli-- satellite, which has been in orbit a- in mind that many, many of the English drugs, violence, horror--are needed round the Earth for several thousand writers wrote science fiction: Ian to provide people in ananesthetic years, and periodically intervenes Foster, of course we always think of society with a sense of being alive. when tyrannical governments become --Ivan Illich, PSYCHOLOGY TODAY too tyrannical. There seems to be no George Orwell, Huxley, and it's just natural. It wasn't a step down, into May, 1976 other way to depose them. the gutter for them to do it, and it would be here. If Norman Mailer were would just write two more books like thing much except maybe one article by to write a science fiction novel—an UBIK. The fact that no political ide¬ Huxley about LSD. Certainly nothing inter-galactic novel—I doubt if he as were ever mentioned in UBIK merely much about LSD, just the kind of roman¬ would. Saul Bellow wrote me recently, showed how subversive this book was in ticism of Huxley, who spoke of, you and he said he is writing science fic¬ undermining bourgeois society. know, the kind of la-de-da, you know, tion, and he of course is a very fine opening all the doors as if it was writer, so maybe the ghetto walls will SFR: With reasoning like that, you just a magic key. And the horrific break down here. But I think it is the could say the same thing about a Bus¬ trips were something of course that he ter Keaton film. fact that they have a high regard for did not go into. Paul Williams simply science fiction there. And I think DICK: Oh, certainly. That's your did not believe I had written that also one of the reasons---especially really subversive thing, where there's book before I had had any contact with in France.---is that they're aware that no political ideas expressed at all. LSD. He checked with people before he it's a field of ideas. The science It's too fundamental to be articulat¬ was willing to -elieve that. And I fiction novel is a novel of ideas, and ed. have found that...I have found, for they're interested in the ideas. instance, in writing a book, that aft¬ There's an intelligentsia in Europe SFR: How did you come to discover the er I have written a book, a year or among the students that appreciates I CHING so far ahead of most people in so later I will meet a girl by the the ideas. You don't have the equiva¬ this country? same name as the girl in the book, lent intelligentsia here. We just DICK: Well, I was interested in Jung. with the same age, and many of the don't have that interest in books of Jung wrote the introduction to the same characteristics. So close, in ideas that they have there. They ap¬ Wilhelm Baines translation, and I came fact, that perhaps the girl could sue, preciate the philosophical and other across it in a...I'm not sure. I claiming that the character was based types of ideas in science fiction, and guess I came across it in a list of on her. One case, I even gave the look forward to science fiction novels. Jung's writings, and sent away for the girl's boyfreind's name correctly. They have a voracious appetite for I CUING in order to read Jung's intro¬ The girl's name is Cathy, and the boy¬ them. duction. And after reading Jung's in¬ friend is Jack. After I had written SFR: That would probably be the same troduction, I became interested in the the book, I met a girl named Cathy, reason, then, why science fiction I CHING. And I really had no intention and she was nineteen, and she had a books sell so well on college campuses. of getting involved with the I CHING. boyfriend named Jack, and I thought I wasn't interested in Sinology at all, later, you know, "I know I wrote that DICK: Sure, yes, absolutely. I got a and I just got hooked right away, after book before I ever met the other girl, letter from a German editor. There reading Jung's introduction, and began Cathy." In real life, the Cathy that are science fiction political organi¬ to use it immediately. Jung also wrote I met had a friend who was a police zations—right-wing and left-wing— an introduction to the Tibetan BOOK OF inspector, and she had some kind of there, too, that there's no equivalent THE DEAD, and I got involved in that strange relationship with him. He ap¬ for here at all. One of them, the for the same reason. parently busted her, but held back the left-wing one, voted me a vote of sol¬ bust in order to get information from idarity, and I thought that was neat. SFR: About what year was this? her. In the book, that was exactly It was something like the Workers and DICK: Oh, uh, 1960. what occurred. That's in FLOW MY Peasants for Science Fiction Gamein- TEARS, THE POLICEMAN SAID, that she schaft. And it was clear to me from SFR: The reason I asked was that, in had—that Cathy has this relationship the letter that we just have nothing EYE IN THE SKY, while the characters with Inspector McNulty. And I cannot like that here, a kind of political are in Arthur Sylvester's mind-world, account for these very, very close de¬ science fiction groups, where they see the personnel director of the research tails. They're eerie, they're really them in terms of the sociological and firm has to consult an oracle-like eerie. The fictitious girl and the political ideas and the effects on so¬ book to decide whether or not to hire real girl both had an inspector friend ciety of the 1984 type of novel---the the main character, and that reminded who had power over her, to get informa¬ me very much of the I CHING. dystopian novel. They take those dys¬ tion from her. Well, perhaps Paul topian novels very seriously there, DICK: I'd never heard of the I CHING Williams is correct, in this precog¬ they really do. I think another thing then. I didn't hear of it until 1960. nitive thing. in the fact that the American people are apolitical. The dystopian novels SFR: It was just a strange coincidence SFR: I was just going to ask if you'd don't really signify anything to the then? ever met any of your characters. For instance, have you, since writing MAN American people, because the American DICK: Just a coincidence. Just until IN THE HIGH CASTLE, met Mr. Takgomi? people are so politically naive that you mentioned that, I didn't know that. the dystopian novels don't seem sig¬ I'll have to go read that. But it's nificant to them, you know what I another example of what...Paul Will¬ DICK: No, I haven't. I certainly mean? They don't have the relevance iams wrote the article on me in ROLL¬ would like to, because I certainly was to them that they would have to the ING STONE, and said I'm precognitive, very fond of him. MAN IN THE HIGH CASTLE was an anomaly in my writing. I European people. and maybe it's an example of precogni¬ tion. Good Lord! had given up writing. I had actually SFR: The Americans seem to get more decided to give up writing, and was out of things like Tolkien. (At this point, Philip K. Dick's can of Mother's Pride orange soda helping my wife in her jewelry busi- DICK: Right, fantasy. But in Europe crawled across his brand new coffee they're more politically aware, and table for about five inches.) in fact they will read political things into novels which are not there actual¬ SFR: I've only seen that happen a ly. I've read a lot of European criti¬ couple of times. cism of my writing in which they see a lot of sociologic and political science DICK: My can of orange soda just lev¬ type ideas which isn't there at all. itated itself. But one of the things "The Decomposition of the Bourgeois I have noticed is that when I write a Structure of Society" I think was the book—I mean, I'm not sure if I'm name of one article about my writing, precognitive or not—but I have notic¬ and how I had subverted the bourgeois ed that when I write a book, very oft¬ society by destroying its fundament?.! en the events of my life will later concepts in a most subversive way. A resemble events described in the book. way so deviously clever that I never This is really true, and it has become mention politics. And this was so quite frightening to me. For instance, fundamental that the whole thing would I wrote THE THREE STIGMATA OF PALMER collapse—the bourgeois society would ELDRITCH before I had ever seen LSD, collapse like a house of cards if I seen anybody take LSD, or read any¬ ness. And I wasn't happy. She was SFR: In the Paul Williams article, he giving me all the shit part to do, and mentions that you no longer take am¬ I decided to pretend I was writing a phetamines, but that your body still book. And I said, "Well, I'm writing goes through the same reactions when a very important book. And to make you're writing. the fabrication convincing, I actually had to start typing. And I had no DICK: Yes, that's correct. I was e- notes, I had nothing in mind, except valuated at Hoover Pavillion Hospital for years I had wanted to write that at Stanford, which has the highest idea, about Germany and Japan actually reputation on the West Coast for diag¬ having beaten the United States. And nostic evaluation---equivalent, say, without any notes, I simply sat down to Yale on the East Coast---and they to write. said I was taking it for a placebo ef¬ and began to write, simply to get out SFR: So whenever the next novel canes fect of some kind. They couldn't fig¬ of the jewelry business. And that's up depends on when you get the next ure out...blood tests showed that the why the jewelry business plays such a handle? large role in the novel. Without any amphetamines never reached my brain. notes, I had no pre-conception of how They were baffled for the reason that DICK: Exactly. I could go for a year, the book would develop, and I used the I was taking them. So I stopped tak¬ I could go two years, I could go two I CHING to plot the book. ing them. And I work the same way. I weeks. This one, I was beginning to work at breakneck speed, and then I think I'd never get the handle. I had SFR: Do you forsee yourself ever us¬ just crash for days, I literally done almost 300,000 words of notes, ing the I CHING as heavily in writing sleep for days afterward, and I go and I was really beginning to think I a book as you did in MAN IN THE HIGH through the entire cycle, and give all would never get a novel out of it. CASTLE? the evidence of having been wired all And one day I was just thinking—just DICK: No, never again, because the I the time I was writing, and then crash sitting there thinking—and all of a CHING failed me at the end of that afterward, and yet there's no ampheta¬ sudden the handle came to me. And the book, and didn't help me resolve the mines involved whatsoever. And this next morning I sat down and began to ending. That's why the ending is so book I just sold to Bantam I wrote in write. And within twelve days I had a unresolved. The I CHING, uh...I did twelve days. Which was the kind of complete rough draft, which I sold to through the coins for the characters, thing I did when I took a great deal Bantam. After 25 years of writing, and I did give what the coins got--- of amphetamines, and wrote all day and I've learned one way of doing it, and the hexagrams—and I was faithful to all night. That's 70,000 words in I just don't know of any other way of what the I CHING actually showed, but twelve days. doing it. The only exception, say, would be the collaboration with Roger when it came time to wind up the book, SFR: ' Could you write under any other Zelazny, where I'd do a part, and Rog¬ the I CHING copped out completely, and kind of schedule, or would you want er would do a part, and I'd do a part, left me stranded. And since I had no to? notes, no plot, no structure in mind, and years would go by between our I was in a terrible spot, and I began DICK: Once I start a book, I like to parts. And we lost a lot of money to notice...that was the first time I just go through and finish it, because from having to spend so many years noticed something about the I CHING there's more chance of authentic con¬ writing it. But, as I say, I was in that I have noticed since. And that tinuity that way. I could never adopt difficulty, and simply didn't have is that the I CHING will lead you a- this thing you hear about writing ten the background for the book, and need¬ long the garden path, giving you in¬ pages a day, writing from 9-5. You do ed his assistance. your ten pages, and when you've done formation that either you want to hear, SFR: Had he been thinking of some¬ them, you stop. If you're hot, you're or you expect to hear, or seems reas¬ thing along those lines himself? onable, or seems profound, up to a hot. If you're hot, you're gonna write certain point. And then, just about until you drop. If you're cold, you DICK: I think he just...his broad the time that it’s gotten your, you could sit in front of the typewriter knowledge of things permitted him to know, your credulity is there---you’re forever. So if I’m hot, I will just pick it up. He's a very educated per¬ willing to trust it---just about the write. Before I wrote the novel in son, and a very skillful writer, and time you've given it your faith and those twelve days, I took notes for 30 he was just an ideal person for those trust, it will zap you with the most months before I was able to get start¬ two persons. I like the parts that malevolent, wrong information. In ed on the novel. For 30 months I was Roger wrote. I think he wrote some other words, it sets you up. It real¬ unable to find the handle for a novel. very funny parts. The pogo stick part ly does, it really sets you up. I re¬ The second I found the handle for the that he wrote was the funniest part gard the I CHING as a malicious spir¬ novel, I did it in 12 days. So, you of the book. I was very pleased with it. As actually spirit, an animation. have the attempt to write a novel in a what he did. single, uninterrupted burst. If I I'think it is an evil book, and I no SFR: Do you think science fiction has could have it my way, I wouldn't even longer use it. And I don't recommend a purpose beyond entertainment? that people...I certainly do not recom¬ sleep while I w-s writing a novel, I'd mend that people make important decis¬ just sit and start at page one, and DICK: Well, it all depends on what ions on the basis of it. The more im- write it straight through. If you're entertains you. Some people are enter¬ por-ant the decision, the more it tends hot you should never stop. And I will tained by a Beethoven quartet, and if to hand you an answer which brings never let anything interrupt me when another person walks in who likes Jimi tragedy into your life. And I say I’m writing, which, I suppose, is why Hepdrix, he hardly regards what he that as...after using it for years my girlfriend is moving out. She dis¬ hears coming out of the phonograph as and using it quite extensively. It is covered that, uh...well, one time I entertainment. It's gonna be diffi¬ a liar. It speaks with forked tongue. was sitting there writing, and she cult for him to believe that you’re came in and she said, "Could this being entertained when you're listen¬ friend of mine use your bathroom?" ing to a Beethoven quartet. Here we And I just had a hysterical fit. I have to go into semantics; what do you had to stop writing so he could come mean by "entertained"? Something that in and use the bathroom. And I just you find interesting and fascinating went all to pieces. I was just ter¬ certainly is entertainment. Like, rible. I was like Beethoven. You would you describe Milton's PARADISE know, Beethoven used to have these LOST as entertainment? Is that an terrible tantrums. And I had a terri¬ entertaining novel—or poem? I mean, ble tantrum. I carry it all in my I enjoy reading it. I suppose I would head, and even though I had all these have to say I find it entertaining. extensive notes, I never referred to If you mean, "Does science fiction have them, I was carrying the notes in my a didactic purpose?"—a message in wuArA head. And I know of no other way to the bourgeois sense of the novel as \ write. That's the only way I know how the "message novel", that teaches some moral, it somehow improves the reader, alized, and the best I could do—I ciety, especially a dystopia. But the reader goes away after having read couldn't guarantee them immortality--- the persons themselves are free to it a better person, he now knows some¬ but I could guarantee them an audience speak and act and be as they really thing he did not know before (presum¬ of maybe 100,000, like girls that I've were. And always to be themselves, ably about life). I have never ac¬ met, or drinking buddies I'Ve had, and never to be just extensions of my¬ cepted the bourgeois concept that the turn them from just somebody that I self. novel must do that, anyway, be it sci¬ knew, and two or three other people SFR: With the economics of sf as they ence fiction or any other kind of nov¬ knew, that I could capture their idio¬ are, why have you sold so many of your el. I was thinking of a book like syncratic speech mannerisms, their things to Ace and Doubleday, when they Donleavy's THE GINGER MAN, which is gentleness, their kindness, their hu¬ are so low-paying? highly entertaining---I think it's a mility, and make them available to a great novel---but I don't think that large number of people. DICK: Well, I haven't sold anything it made me a better person by reading to Ace for a long time, really. I it. I think aesthetics must be separ¬ That's my purpose. So, I suppose sold OUR FREINDS FROM FROLIX 8 in, I ated from morality here, and...well, in a way I have a purpose beyond en¬ think, 1970, but I don't sell to Ace you look at the Sistine Chapel ceiling, tertainment. But I certainly would¬ anymore, and that was an anomaly---I nd you can say, "Well, does this make n't say that this is why people ought just needed the money. I think there you a better person, or do you just to write, or that they ought to write are 16 Ace titles, and they were all enjoy looking at it?", and the bour¬ for any purpose beyond entertainment. in the early part of my career. But this is why 1^ write. Always. geois person will always say it makes As far as Doubleday goes, I had a you a better person, because he is al¬ Especially I like to write about very good relationship witfi Larry Ash- ways thinking in terms of self-improve people who have died, whose actual mead, the editor-in-chief of Doubleday, ment. And the artist is always think¬ lifetimes are over with, and who ling¬ and I liked the hardcover editions, ing of aesthetics. And it all depends er on only, say, in my mind and the and I didn't realise that the advances on whether you're a member of the minds of a few other people. I hap¬ were miniscule. They were $1500. Now, bourgeois—you will always say, "A pen to be the only one who can write I should have known that was miniscule, good book is one which makes you a them down, and get their speech pat¬ because that was what Ace -as giving better person," and the aesthetic or terns down, and record incidents of me, and I knew that was miniscule, and artist-type will always say, "The great nobility and heroism that they two things that are equal to the same aesthetic values are end values in have shown under very arduous condi¬ thing are equal to each other. Now, I themselves." tions. I can do this for them, even should have known that, but what hap¬ I can prove my point. Does lis¬ though the people are gone. I have pened was that the paperback sometim¬ tening to one of Beethoven's quartets written about girls that I admire es paid very heavily, like UBIK (which of the third period...how does it make greatly, who are so illiterate that was - Doubleday novel). Doubleday you a better person? I don't think they would never read the book, even paid $1500. for UBIK but then the pa¬ anybody could ever show that listen¬ if I were to hand it to them. And perback people paid $10,000. of which ing to, say, the 13, 14, 15, or 16th I've always thought that was rather I got $5,000. So you see, when you quartets made you a better person. ironic, that I would make this attempt added it together, it wasn't all that There's certainly no message, because to immortalize them, when they were bad. And I got $9,500. for DO ANDROIDS they're abstract, so you're forced so illiterate that they could not or DREAM OF ELECTRIC SHEEP? in the paper¬ finally to admit that you listen to would not read the damn thing them¬ back, so the very low Doubleday ad¬ them either because you're compelled selves . vance didn't bother me. to, out of some sense of duty—that But that isn't really the purpose Then it started to bother me, fi¬ you ought to listen to good music— of the book anyway. The purpose of or you enjoy them, in which case you nally, when I wrote my anti-dope book, the book is that other people should A SCANNER DARKLY. And I realized I are back to entertainment. And I read it, and see...and I can convey had written a really great novel. Act¬ think that what we have to do is re¬ my admiration for these girls, and my define entertainment to include enjoy¬ ually I had finally written a true admiration for their heroism, my ad¬ masterpiece, after 25 years of writ¬ ment of ver)\ fine aesthetic works, in miration for my drinking buddies, and which case, I don't think science fic¬ ing, and my agent wrote back when he the heroism that they showed, and the read the first part, and he said, tion need have any other purpose. humor that they showed, and the love "You're absolutely right, this is that they showed, and the wit that SFR: So it would probably be the pub¬ exceptional material." and then~Ke they showed, and the humanity that lisher, more than anyone else, who went out and sold it to Doubledav for would say, "Buy this book, it will they showed. And get that down, and the same old goddamn two thou—by make you a better person." and the leave that as a permenent—or semi¬ that time they were up to $2500--- permanent trace---in the stratum of writer who would say, "Buy this book, still Mickey Mouse money. "Here is society in which we live. I think you'll enjoy it"? this masterpiece, and we are going to DICK: Well, the publisher would want SFR: So you don't necessarily try to pay you $2500. for it." And I fired to sit on both stools. He would say, control your characters, you let them my agent, and I prepared to buy the "It's full of sex, violence, action, write their own stories pretty much? manuscript back from Doubleday, and I and perversion, and all these things could never raise the money to buy it DICK: Very much so, yes, definitely. back from Doubleday. I couldn't get will make you a better person if you I try to remember—I write dialogue read about them." He'll have it both enough cash to buy it back. And Sim¬ and develop scenes—how my friends on § Schuster offered to buy it from ways. I think the writer falls in did talk, and what they did say, and love with his characters, and wants how they did behave, and how they did the reader to know of their existence. interact with one another, and the He wants to turn what are people known jokes they played on each other, and only to him into people known to a the games they played with one anoth¬ fairly large body of readers. That's er, and so on. I want them to be my purpose. My purpose is to take themselves, and I don't try to manip¬ these characters, who _I know, and pre¬ ulate them. The last thing I want to sent them to other people, and have do is put my ideas into their mouths, them know them, so that they can say and have them spout my philosophy. that they've known them, too, and have That's the last thing I want to do. enjoyed the pleasure of their company. That would probably be the furthest And that is the purpose that I have, from the authentic thing that I want which, I suppose, is a purpose beyond to achieve. So, although I write idea entertainment. novels, I'm concerned more with the The basic thing that motivates me person facing the idea, the idea as is that I have have met people in my extrapolation into a make-believe so- life, who I knew deserved to be immort¬ 9 Doubleday for $4000., so I would get Ace, and then later, $1500. Therefore, number of times now. You'd think by a little more money (Larry Ashmead I was actually getting more money than now that the shock effect would wear having then gone to Simon 5 Schuster). new writers are getting now from Laser, off. They're all taking dope, and But Doubleday refused to relinquish because of the inflation factor. I'm they’re all happy, and they're all it. They said $3000. was their limit talking about all the way back to wonderful people. Then the terrible for science fiction, and then they ad¬ 1955, I was getting $1,000. So they're destruction of their brains begins, mitted $4000. was their limit, and really getting less. The thing is, and they begin to lose contact with then they turned around with A SCANNER when you're starting out, you take reality, and they begin to gyrate DARKLY, and turned it over to their what you can get. You're glad to get around, and they no longer can func¬ trade department, to sell it as a in print, and I think that's a proper tion. And by the time the book ends, trade book, and there is no limit in attitude. It's just that when you've the protagonist is lucky if he can the advance to a trade book. So they been writing for twenty-five years, clean out a bathroom—clean out a weren't limited to $3000. And they've and you've won...for instance, my nov¬ toilet. Every time I read it, it has got a masterpiece, and they put out el FLOW MY TEARS, THE POLICEMAN SAID the same effect on me. The funny almost no money at all. won the John W. Campbell Memorial A- parts are the funniest parts ever writ¬ So the next book then, I sold to ward, and I got about $3500. in toto ten, and the sad parts are the saddest for it. That is $2500. advance, and parts ever written, and they're both Bantam for $12,000., and Doubleday was just out of luck. Doubleday said about $1,000. on the paperback. So I in the same book. got about $3500. in all for the Ameri¬ on the phone, very bitterly, "You're My new book, the one I just sold can sales on that novel which won that mercenary." And I said, "No, I have to Bantam, has a lot to do with Christ¬ award. I worked on that from 1970 un¬ to eat. I have to live. That's what ianity, and it's going to make two til 1973. Four years I worked on that we have here. I owe the IRS $4,700.; groups of people mad; the Christians novel, four years for that sum of mon¬ I can't afford to sell you a novel and the non-Christians. They're both ey. for $3000." And, of course, I espec¬ going to be furious. The Christians ially couldn't if I could sell it to Well, then I wrote A SCANNER DARK¬ are going to be mad because it doesn't Bantam for $12,000. LY, my anti-dope novel, and that's the fit .any conception they have of Christ¬ first time I really realized I was be¬ I never really got angry until ing burned. And I was so mad. I felt this book, A SCANNER DARKLY. I knew the book was worth a great deal of mon- I had written a novel equal to ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT. I felt ey. I knew that it was really a fine that what ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN book, and I worked five years on it. FRONT was to war—that anybody that And I knew that I was being gypped. It read it would never pick up a rifle as was the first time in 22 or 23 years that I really realised I was being long as they lived---that anybody who terribly gypped—just gang-banged is ever read A SCANNER DARKLY would never what it was. And Doubleday was crowing drop dope as long as they lived. In about this great book, and they were it I had all my friends who are now dead or crazy from dope, sitting around going to go to town. They were going to do this and do that with it, and I laughing and talking, you know, and then they all go crazy and die. It kept saying, "Well, why don't you give me a little more money? I mean, if you broke my heart to write it, it broke recognise the quality of the work, and my heart to read it, it broke my heart you have such plans for it..." and to do the galleys. I did the galleys two weeks ago, and I cried for two that's when they said, "You're mercen¬ days after I did the galleys. Every ary." And so they didn't get a shot time I read it I cry. And I believe at the next book. And they know it. that it is a masterpiece. I believe REG ROTE: It should be remembered it is the only masterpiece I will ever that Phil is speaking of moneys ad¬ write. Not that it's the only master¬ vanced to him in anticipation of mon¬ piece I have ever written, but the on¬ ey earned by the book. There are ly one I will ever write, because it royalty rates by which earnings are is a book that is unique. And when I figured—so much per copy sold. In got $2500. for all this work, I knew the long run an author doesn't lose I was being burned. Because there any money by accepting a low advance were human beings in that book who if the book sells enough copies to have never been put down on paper be¬ earn the advance and more in royal¬ fore. ties. However, Doubleday has a poli¬ And the person who came along and cy (the last I heard) of never re¬ saved that book was Judy-Lynn del Rey ianity, and the non-Christians are go¬ printing a new hardcover of their at Ballantine. Larry Ashmead at Double ing to be mad because it has to do with science fiction line—no matter how day turned the manuscript over to her Christianity at all. It has to do with well it sells. A trade book, howev¬ to see if Ballantine wanted to buy the what my idea of what it is. I did 30 er, will be reprinted in hardback paperback rights, and she said, "Well, months of research into the origins of for as long as it sells well. So I'm not interested in books on drugs. Christianity, and the Greek mystery Doubleday’s decision to publish A But I'll read it anyway." And she was cults, such as the Orphic religion, SCANRER DARKLY as a trade book is the first person to say, "This book is and also into neo-Platonism, Gnosticism, to Phil's advantage, and will prob¬ not your standard book. It's not your and so on. I have very powerful be¬ ably increase the paperback advance as science fiction book, it's not your liefs, and I have experienced very well. And I have never heard of Double¬ standard anything." And then she had powerful religious experiences, but day cheating on royalty statements. me completely revise the book. She they do not fit the doctrines of the Revertheless, most authors always showed me how to develop the charact¬ Church, particularly. Yet I will need money, and live in the financial ers, and when she got through working stick by them as authentic. short-run. Too, a large advance is a with me on that book, it...she...I sign of prestige and success. meaan...that didn't get me any money, In fact, right in front of me now, SFR: So then, it's a case of word I still didn't get any money, but I've we have a book called ANGELS, ELECT getting around now that if you want a written a great novel, you know, and I AND EVIL, which is a study of angel- Philip K. Dick novel, you're going to finished the galleys two weeks ago... ology. I, for instance, beleive that have to pay $12,000. or more? shit, it wasn't two weeks ago, I mail¬ angels exist. I believe there are at¬ ed them off last Monday...and I was mospheric spirits of a higher order DICK: That's correct. When you start sitting there crying and crying after¬ than human beings, that we cannot see, out, you take what you can get. When wards, you know, and I've read it a that are extremely powerful, and have I started out, I was paid $1,000. by 10 extremely powerful effects on our liv- es when they care to. I think most of I think people would have been There would be an initial shock,.but I the time they don't care to. I know pleased if there was life on Mars, but often have the feeling—and it does that we are under the protection of a I think they would have soon wearied show up in my books—that this is all powerful extraterrestrial intelligence, of the novelty of it, and said, "But just a stage. and if you want to call it God, fine. what is there on Jupiter? What can And this comes out in my new book If you don't want to call it God, fine. the life do?" And, "My pet dog can do that Bantam bought. The guy realizes In my book, it's called VALIS, which the same thing." It's sad, and it's — I mean, he's just an ordinary person stands for Vast Active Living Intelli¬ also very frightening in a way, to like us, and it traces him from grow¬ gence System. I prefer that word to think that you could come on the air, ing up in Berkeley, and it's semi- God. And it intervenes in human af¬ and you could say, "The ozone layer autobiographical---and the satellite fairs to regulate them, and coordinate has been completely destroyed, and which has been orbiting Earth, suddenly them, and ameliorate our conditions. we're all going to die of cancer in reveals to him that it's actually ten years." And you might get a Re¬ SFR: Right now, the first reports are A.D. 70. That it's the first century action. And then, on the other hand, coming back from our probes on Mars. A.D. That everything he sees is just you might not get a reaction from peo¬ What effect, if any, would news of so much gingerbread over the Roman ple. So many incredible things have ' life on Mars have on humanity? Empire. The Roman Empire is still in happened. DICK: You mean the average person? control. And nothing has really hap¬ I talked to a black soldier from pened since the year 70, and that they SFR: Yes. What would it do to their World War II who had entered the con¬ have just kept plastering more layers thoughts of themselves, and their centration camp—he had been part of of gingerbread over it, and that he place in the universe? an American battalion that had seized has to deal with this problem. He has DICK: All right. Yesterday, Chairman a German death camp—it wasn't even a to deal with the tyranny which is real¬ Mao died. To me, it was as if a piece concentration camp, it was one of the ly that of the Roman Empire. And I'm of my body had been tom out and thrown death camps, and had liberated it. willing to admit that I halfway be¬ away, and I'm not a Communist. There And he said he saw those inmates with lieve that. his own eyes, and he said, "I don't was one of the greatest teachers, po¬ In other words, that... I read the believe it. I saw it, but I have nev¬ ets, and leaders that ever lived. And new Britannica article on time, and er believed what I saw. I think that I don't s-e anybody walking around with that some of these basic categories of there was something we don't know. I any particularly unhappy expression. perception that we have, like time and don't think they were being killed." There have been some shots of people space, are not only difficult to de¬ They were obviously starving, but he in China crying piteously, but...I fine—time being very difficult to says, "Even though I saw the camp, and woke my girlfriend up at 7:00 in the define---but maybe illusory. I mean I was one of the first people to get morning. I was crying. I said, change may be illusory, you know, it there, I don't really believe that "Chairman Mao has died." She said, may be A.D. 70. It may be that we're those people were being killed by mil¬ "Oh my God, I thought you said 'Shar¬ still living in the Roman Empire. It lions. For some reason, even though on was dead'."—some girl she knows. may be just that we keep pasting more I myself was one of the first human"--- I think it would be like that. I and more layers of gingerbread to dis¬ notice the words "human beings"—"hu¬ think there would be little, if any, guise it, so that we think, you know, man beings to see this terrible sight, real reaction. If they can stand to that there's been these successive I just don't believe what I saw." hear that Chairman.. .that that great changes, and actually there hasn't And I guess that's it, you know. I poet and teacher, that great man, that been, and so on. ...one guy on TV—one Sinologist— think that may have been the moment said "The American public would have when this began, was the extermina¬ If somebody were to take that new to imagine as if, on a single day, tion of the gypsies, and Jews, and book of mine and say, "How much of both Kennedys, Dr. King, and Franklin Bible students in the death camps, this book is fact, and how much of D. Roosevelt were all killed simultan¬ people making lampshades out of peo¬ this book is fiction?" I wouldn't be eously," and even then they wouldn't ple's skins. After that, there was¬ able to tell them. I really wouldn't get the full impact of it. So I don't n't much to believe or disbelieve, be able to tell them. And when my really think that to find life on Mars and it didn't really matter what you Bantam editor comes out here, he's is going to affect people. One time I believed or disbelieved going to...there's a lot of questions he wants to know, because he's begin¬ was watching TV, and a guy comes on, SFR: Just two days ago, I was wait¬ ning to get the uneasy impression that and he says, "I have discovered a ing for a bus in Stockton, and a man I believe a lot of what I say in my 3,000,000-year-old humanoid skull with sat down on the bench next to a woman new book. And when he talks to me, one eye and two noses. And he showed sitting next to me, and he started off it---he had twenty-five of them, they by talking about how high prices were. he's going to get an even uneasier im¬ were obviously fake. And it had one Then he said, "Things haven't been pression when I say, "I have a very strong feeling that we’re in a kind eye, like a cyclops, and had two noses. the same since World War II. You And the network and everybody took the can't believe in anything anymore." of maze that has been built for us. guy seriously. He says, "Man originat¬ So it seems like a turning point for a And we're being tested, and run through ed in San Diego, and he had one eye lot of people. the maze, and evaluated, and hindered and two noses." We were laughing, from time to time, and notes are being and I said, "I wonder if he has a DICK: Yeah. I think that, like in taken." And I always feel that we're moustache under each nose?" my writing, reality is always a soap being timed. We are being timed. But bubble, Silly Putty thing anyway. I really have that -eeling very strong¬ People just have no criterion left In the universe people are in, peo¬ ly, and so nothing would really sur¬ to evaluate the imlortance of things. ple put their hands through the walls, prise me. I think the only thing that would real¬ and it turns out they're living in an¬ I feel as if causality itself has ly affect people would be the announce¬ other century entirely. This is a ceased to be. Ever since Hume demon¬ ment that the world was going to be feeling I’ve had ever since I started strated so beautifully that causality blown up by the hydrogen bomb. I think writing, which is from 1951 on, that is merely custom. Ever since I read that would really effect people. I if I discovered that this entire build¬ the book---not necessarily since he think they would react to that. But ing that we're sitting in now---this wrote it, but ever since I read it--- outside of that, I don't think they apartment—was a mock-up—a dummy— I have had the feeling that perhaps would react to anything.. "Peking has and extraterrestrial intelligences much of what we take to be ironclad been wiped out by an earthquake, and were looking through one-way ceilings chains of events are nothing but mere the RTD---the bus strike is still on." at us, I think that for several minut¬ custom, mere sequence, mere progres¬ And some guy says, "Damnit! I'll have es I would be amazed. But I think I sion, and are not so ironclad. to walk to work!" So? You know, would get over It after a couple of 800,000 Chinese are lying dead under minutes. And when you realize that— I remember that I read in ROLLING the rubble. Really. It cannot be bur¬ you know what I mean?—that it would STONE one time that the Brahmin goes lesqued. not permanently affect my equilibrium. through two cycles: during one part of its cycle, it sleeps, and during one part of its cycle, it dances. We all I think they will discover that they LETTER FROM NEIL KVERN think we’re in the part of the cycle have been worshiping planes that they where Brahmin is awake and dancing. made out of tinfoil, to attract other No date In actuality, we're in the part of planes. It's not going to be what 'In SFR 18 you said "The poem the cycle where Brahmin is asleep, they expect at all. sent by a hoaxter in the name of R. but, Brahmin is waking up. And when A. Lafferty was given a chorus of Brahmin wakes up, this world that Actually, I don't think we can say till the memory sets in, till high marks. Tsk. The real poet Brahmin is dreaming, will disappear. that amanesis sets in. And when it needn't 'hide' behind a famous name And when I read that, I thought, sets in, as it begins to occur, it to get his/her work published." "Well, that just about expresses my will be the great turning of the cos¬ 'This is bullshit.' You know damn basic view, in my books, although I mic wheel for mankind, and the uni- well you'd never consider poetry for hadn't known that. publication in prestigious SFR with¬ SFR: They're all dealing with the I'm very optimistic about it. I out the author being someone already point where Brahmin is waking up. think it's gonna be a really exciting next-to-God. I think the hoaxter thing. And although I put down drugs, probably knew this when he/she sub¬ DICK: Right, right. This is a very and I certainly don't recommend that mitted the poem in the first place; crucial stage now, because Brahmin is anybody take them, I think that some fandom is, at present, "controlled" not completely asleep. Brahmin in of the people who took LSD experienc¬ by a sect of snobbish people, at waking up. And when it wakes, this ed a little of this. And I think least the major voices in fandom are dream world will disappear—parts of that there was a certain validity in such as SFR and ALGOL. I'm not com¬ it will begin to vanish right before what, like, Huxley said about the plaining on this issue--just that our eyes, as it begins to wake up. doorways of perception. And Casten- your idealistic comment falls some¬ Brahmin is not dancing. Brahmin is ada, too, and things like that—peo¬ what short of your general practice... sleeping, but soon it will dance. ple who were working with some of the doesn't it? I think we've reached the most mescaline-type drugs—that there is 'No harm intended--just want to crucial time in 2,000 years. I think another reality very close, that's im¬ make you think about .it.' that there has already begun, some pinging on our reality, and will prob¬ titanic process of revelation to man, ably very soon break through to our ((Your judgement of 'bullshit’ is it¬ of what man is, where he came from, reality. Either we will break self bullshit. I consider every sub¬ what his role is, and that is very through to it, or it will break mission on its merits. I rarely re¬ much connected with Brahmin waking through to us. But the two will im¬ ceive sf or fantasy poetry, and since up. Because if Brahmin Is asleep, pinge on the other, and we will sud¬ my taste in poetry is individual and we, too, are asleep. That everything denly discover a...we are in a world demanding, this combination of factors is asleep, because there is nothing which has more dimensions to it than results in extremely rare appearanc¬ that is not Brahmin. And as we wake we had thought. es of poetry in SFR. 1 do not have up, we .emember—it's a form of re¬ an editorial commitment to publish membering—and we remember suddenly I guess that means I'm taking my own writing as more fact than fiction some poetry, regardless, as a quota. who we really are, where we came from, At the same time, yes, let us say, if and.... than I used to. I don't think I ever took it as completely fiction, I al¬ Robert A. Reinlein were to send me a I really believe in this, and it's ways, you know, was reaching for an truly awful couplet, I would publish in my new book, and I know that Bantam answer. Groping for an answer to the it—just because he wrote it. For editor going to want all that taken question of "what is real?" "What is its rarity and possible significance.)) out. He's going to say, "Phil, I don't reality?" And I think I am finally knew. I think you really believe all beginning to get a sense of what is this stuff, don't you?" And I'm going real. And one of the things that is LETTER FROM BILL GIBSON to have to say to him, "Well, when the not real is time. There's no doubt v/hite man says jimp, I jumps." about it. Change and time are not August 29, 1976 But the fact of the matter is, I real. The Greek philosopher Parmen¬ Dear Richard, really... In my book, the character ides was the first one to come forth I have a certain sympathy for suddenly remembers---the satellite and say that the universe does not Charles Platt (SFR 18), although I has him remembering, going back 2,000- really change. There is some under¬ think that your reply is a fair one. 3,000 years, and he remembers his ori¬ lying structure that is always the I'm not just one of "Those few who gins, and they're not on Earth, they're same. If we could only find out the wish to sample experimental, 'mod¬ from beyond the stars. And I honestly nature of that, and reach down to it. em' sf", as you put it; I'm actually And it is somehow symmetric, and that believe that. a fan of the stuff. ("Hey, don't was about all he could say about it; tell me you actually read that crazy In the Greek Orphic religion, they that it was somehow symmetric. J.G. Ballard stuff?.'.'") I think that ---that was the mystery that you learn¬ ed. You recovered your memory. It's SFR: Thank you, Mr. Dick. called anamnesis, which was the loss of anmesia. You remembered your or¬ igins, and they were from beyond the stars. They weren't all that succes¬ sful, but I think now the time has come, where that kind of memory will return to human beings. Long-term memories, which are buried in each of us, which is very much associated with Jung's racial unconscious, you see. And when we begin to remember, then we can begin to understand what our real role is, because the two are very closely identified: the memory of that very long, long life-span, and what we should do. We will understand what right conduct is. And I think that it will spook the Jesus freaks. And I say that as an ardent Christian, but I think it will spook most Christians. Platt does himself a disservice, in a given type of fiction. It’s all this winter, it will be by a mutated though, in merely dismissing Schweit¬ multi-layered and complicated.)) flu virus not quite like the virus zer's criticism as parochial. Sch¬ most of us will have been vaccinated weitzer (and this is soley on the against...which will bring great cries basis of material of his I've seen in ALIEN THOUGHTS continued of "Fool" and "Idiot" and "Swine” SFR) is a conservative critic, down upon the head of our moronic while Platt (for want of a better 8-15-76 It rained hard yesterday President. But he'll be a lame duck word) is a radical editor, and while President by then, anyway. I would probably side with Platt in and this morning; my heart bleeds for most arguments concerning the pos¬ those tourists who have gotten such a I suspect it is true what Lyndon sibilities of fiction, Schweitzer sad impression of Oregon. I am, of Johnson said about Gerald Rudolph does a better job of trying to com¬ course, a member of the James G. Ford—that he can't fart and chew municate with Platt than Platt does Blaine Society which urges visitors gum at the same time. with Schweitzer...You've said (or to merely visit Oregon—not stay. I something to this effect) that all am an Ecotopian in spirit. (I am now • fiction is essentially pornography. reading ECOTOPIA all the way through; a review will follow.) Kafka said something to the effect 8-21-76 Went to Sears last night that books we need are seldom the This diary is tending more and and discovered the Gro-Lite fluores¬ ones we want. The conservative crit¬ more to the personal—a kind of per- cent units on sale for $19.88. Fair ic resists innovations in form and sonalzine within SFR—and less to enough--I bought one. I have it technique, while denying ("It's all thoughts of s-f. Of course there are mounted now in the basement and will just pom.") that fiction has any only so many s-f thoughts to have over set it up for a bout of growing to¬ radical potential in the first a three month period. Most of those morrow. The folder enclosed with the place.. .Your position works very well, will be embodied in the reviews and unit says 15-16 hours of light is a- within sf's literary borders, because notes sections. bout all a plant can use; they need the bulk of sf is pornography--what We've decided to buy a fluores¬ darkness and a slightly cooler tem¬ Orwell termed "sub-sexual pulp porn¬ perature to complete their daily ography". In my own application of cent light fixture for the basement which uses Plant-Gro fluorescents growth cycle, which sort of takes down Sturgeon's Law, the great bulk of my dreams of 24-hour growth...but we crap is just that, while the fraction which give off 'just the right light wavelengths for optimum growth con¬ will see what happens. I'll start on¬ of value is something else. I like ions, carrots and some lettuce. to imagine that I read fiction in ditions'. It has two of these speci¬ the hope of encountering that frac¬ al fluorescents (48" long) and will tion of "something else".' permit us to grow vegetables in a 3' x 5' space under it. Mostly salad stuff, I imagine...all winter long. ((I do not go along with the misuse The appeal is that it can be 'on' 24 of the word 'pornography' to mean hours a day—bringing up crops in a anything reprehensible, warped, ill- month. The unit costs $23.00 and written, or of 'base' appeal. Porno¬ will be cost effective if we can get graphy is 'hardcore' sex fiction. Go $2.00 worth of eatables per month find another word to describe other from the installation. We shall see. fiction fixes. And while I'm at it, Interesting experiment. I'll report . let me say a few good words in be¬ CdiiMkCi 7 or ecu*.se. on progress and results. why do vdu vt/uk mry half of pornography...and mine in par¬ LOOK LiKt 5* ticular. Porno is liberating in its The above is the kind of thing way, does 'blow' minds closed and ig¬ which claims my major interest and norant in many ways, and can be a ve¬ enthusiasm now. I am the invisible hicle for serious message. In fact, hippie who is outwardly conformist things can belaid about life and and square, but who privately is I note that the stock market drop¬ society in porno that would be diffi¬ damned near self-sufficient and the ped another ten points Friday to 973. cult to say in other genres, because secret master, not of the world, but My private Signal is 950 on the Dow. porno editors don’t care what you say of himself and 90% of his life; who If the Industrial Average drops between the sex scenes. Further, I've has a small counter-culture, counter¬ through that "floor", to me it will had people tell me they were intro¬ economy going in his home and yard. signal an aborted recovery and the re¬ duced to certain sex techniques and sumption of the depression. sexual anatomy through my books, and are the better for it. Most notably, • an astonishing number of men don't 8-19-76 Well, it's Ford and...uh? I have been receiving a goodly know a damned thing about, a woman's ...Dole. Robert Dole. Two midwest- number of highly publishable letters sexual anatomy and how to really give emers will do battle against Carter of comment lately, for SFR. I groan pleasure. A lot of men have learned and Mondale. Ford, apparently, could at the thought of how much space they from me. AND a depressingly large not stand the thought of having a will take--and how much I'll have to proportion of women don't know a more "powerful" running mate. Not edit and eliminate. And almost daily thing about a man's pleasure centers that it will make much difference. I am offered other goodies in article or how to attend to them. I give The stock market dropped eleven points and review and interview forms. Damn. detailed instructions. j consider today---presumably influenced partial¬ I suppose SFR is a success; I could good porno writing as noble an accom¬ ly by his nomination, and more par¬ easily publish monthly and never run plishment as good sf or good historic¬ tially by learning of the slackening dry of excellent material. No, NO, forget it; the mail load already is al fiction, or good Literature fic¬ in the important home 6 apartment tion. In fact, maybe giving a reader house construction industry. reaching the point where I am begin¬ a hard-on may be better than giving ning to dread it, and am putting off processing a lot of it till the last him a bore. Is that conceivable? It appears more and more certain Could RAVISHED be of greater value possible moments. My return letters that there is no life on Mars. Sic than, say, THE GAMESMAN? Who decides become shorter and shorter, until now transit gloria Burroughs. —except the readers? )) I am tersely one and two-sentencing people. REG Regrets. ((But-yes, I see the point that It would be nice if nature would sf and porno are attractive to read¬ oblige us and come through with an ers for subconscious, deeply emotion¬ epidemic of swine flu...which we have What would Israel have done if, al reasons...deep-seated character/ lurched into preparation for, but I say, a gang of Jordanian soldiers had personality pressures and needs, in~ suspect she will not be that obliging axed and clubbed to death two Israeli the individual. Too, structural soc¬ and that if there is a flu epidemic officers in a demilitarized zone? ietal forces can "urge" an interest 13 Probably wiped them up almost instant¬ the American people from the shit¬ ly, in spades. Why didn't the U.S. • eating performance of our leaders... do that in Korea when that happened 8-24-76 John Kelly, a man with or "leaders". I note with disgust to our officers? Why do we take this more postage and generosity and ded¬ that Jimmy Carter approves the admin¬ sort of crap? ication than I can take (he sends istration's handling of the situation. Frankly, if I were President, I'd clips and articles and interviews Mustn't offend the North Koreans, you deal with other countries (in the es¬ from papers, magazines, etc...endles¬ know. What would the world think of sentially amoral realm of internation¬ sly) sent a letter or two recently us? Tsk tsk. Too bad they killed 2 al society) on their terms Unprovok¬ which impressed me and started me of our~officers, but...We are now in ed attack would earn unprovoked at¬ thinking. He recounted the impres¬ the process of virtually begging them tack, and I'd choose the place and sive and disturbing chronology and to apologize. How the North Koreans time and weapons (as the North Kore¬ geography of all the recent major and Chinese and Russians must be snir- ans did). And I'd look them straight earthquakes and eruptions in the kling up their sleeves at us. (Snir- in the eye and claim it was their world and suggested the cause was a kling: Sneer-and-chuckling) The fault, that in the latest incident conflicting movement of two or more South Koreans are astounded at our their men were attacking our snipers of the vast underlying "floating" performance. or artillery or fighter-bomber. It plates that comprise the surface lay¬ If we as a people want to be "a would be a transparent lie, and so er of the planet. world power" we'll have to have the what? I would have no compunction a- Presumably this movement is courage and fortitude to be powerful. bout lying to liars. And maybe they’d caused by monumental pressures gener¬ If not, then let's admit it and get decide not to crease the old American ated in the core. And that sooner or the hell out of places we have no bus¬ paper tiger's tail next time. later the San Andreas fault will let iness being in. It's the old Need we as a nation go with a correction of the pressures seem to have--to want to be loved, to building up in it. Today on the rad¬ the extent of taking all kinds of shit io I heard that scientists in South¬ Don’t anybody explain to me what off other countries and two-bit dic¬ ern California had discovered the the hell is going on in Lebanon. I'm tators . As the President of the U- mountains near the fault had risen 12 waiting for CBS or NBC News to per¬ nited States I'd prefer we were re¬ inches in the past few years, indica¬ form that task. So far the major spected, and if not respected, at ting great pressures and forces at media TV news forces haven't been least feared. At the present time to work. willing (or been allowed) to tell the a lot of primitive Asian and African American people who has been supply¬ But why stop there? Could not ing the vast quantities of arms to leaders, we are seen as contemptible these tremendous forces under the fools, gutless weaklings. the Christians and Moslems and Pales¬ surface also have an effect on the tinians, why the Syrians (who are But, of course, if I were Presi¬ atmosphere? I'm thinking of the in¬ supplied by Russia) intervened to credible drought England and Europe dent, I'd pull our forces out of Kor¬ save the Christian (anti-communist) ea as soon as possible. has had--the worst in over two hund¬ side from losing the war, and who red years. And (on a minor note) our benefits in this country from keep¬ local summer has been rather cool and ing this background information un¬ • rainy. spoken. In any other war this type 8-23-76 Phoned Times Litho and Which leads me to suspect that of knowledge is instantly broadcast. told them to dig out the plates for mayhap for the next several years we Not so this time. Why not? SFR #14 and run off another 3000 will continue to have cycles of vio¬ copies. An order from Lois Newman lent quakes, eruptions and exception¬ • just wiped out the last ten I had on al weather patterns. Look for an al¬ the shelf. teration or interruption in the vital 9-4-76 Ho-ho, the rate of unem¬ Still haven't done the paste-ups Asian monsoons. And perhaps an excep¬ ployment ticked upward .1 to 7.9%, for the reprint of #10; just a matter tionally severe winter for us. (Last which must have sent tremors of doom of finding the time. year the winter was remarkably mild.) through the Ford camp. The D-J In¬ Hell with it; I'm going out to dustrial average, having sunk to 961, weed the gardens. has rallied to 989. I doubt it will Assuming I'm right about the com¬ reach 1,000 again, though. ing/continuing Depression...it just • What is not so puzzling any more occurred to me that because of their is why loans, nationwide, are so low, dedicated hardcore readership which 8-26-76 By Ghod--the first sprouts continuing in the 11S billion area... WILL NOT sink below subsistence lev¬ were seen this morning in the pots down from 116 a month ago, and from el, the s-f magazines may survive the under the Gro-Lites. Three days and 123 a year ago. Interest rates con¬ Hard Times ahead far better than most five hours after planting. That's a- tinue to slide gracefully downward, other genre mags; certainly better bout twice to 2 1/2 times the normal while manufacturer's inventories rise than myriads of special interest mags rate, I think. Looking goooodl gracefully and consumer spending re¬ on the stands now. mains passive. Science fiction is rationalized The State Department (i.e. Kis¬ Why is the economy "pausing"? magic, and most of the time the mag¬ singer) is following its (his) usual The loan volume isn't rising because ic (fantasy science) is only ritual¬ public relations window dressing to there is no need to finance expans¬ ly "explained" or made credible. mask the abject gutless performance ions. The manufacturing operating Which is okay as far as economic sur¬ of turning once again, the other rate is at about 751, well below the vival is concerned. The irrational; cheek. Our cheeks are so red now strain level that impels new plant the interest in the occult, the UFOs, from being slapped I'm surprised it and new machinery purchasing. The in Astrology, in religion, in much of isn't more obvious to the people. rise in inventories suggests that the mystical "insights" of the mental I refer to the big, hairy "show consumers aren't buying enough to sciences--all this belief in the im¬ of force" in and around Korea--a car¬ sustain even the current rate of pro¬ provable is the cultural expression rier task force steaming importantly duction, and sooner or later the fac¬ of the savage in us. That savage is (and well publicized) to the Korean tories will have to cut back on pro¬ far stronger and unkillable than most waters, the flying in of a tactical duction. -Currently the car companies of us realize. There will always be bombing squadron from Idaho, a bristly are roaring ahead to build good a place or places for technological oh-so-defiant cutting down of that stocks of 1977 models, and Ford is ' fantasy (S-f) and the other, non-rat¬ damned tree ("Take THAT *chop* and operating at peak to buffer the com¬ ionalized, fantasies necessary to the THAT." *chop*), as if all this show ing strike by the UAW. So this spurt human experience. STAR TREK and THE is going to do anything but distract by the car companies is warping the OMEN are blood brothers. 14 picture a bit by appearing to show a more healthy economy than is true. 1978-79-80 should see another bank¬ a severe stroke and possibly a heart Along about the end of October the ing crisis. attack. He was resting well, was handwriting should be on the wall: * conscious. slow sales, the cars will stop rol¬ ling off the lines, and layoffs will My Gro-Lites in the basement are Dad's brother, Monroe Geis, and I begin. not producing the tremendous growth went up to the Vets' Hospital and saw in my seedlings I had hoped for. The him. Dad's left arm and side are par¬ The underlying reality as I see lettuce and carrots are coming along it is this: the oil crisis, an over¬ alyzed. He cannot speak, though he slowly, but the onions are lagging. understands what is said to him. He inventory cycle peak, and an increas¬ Tsk. I have completed outlining the ingly heavy debt structure all com¬ has all the latest electronic moni¬ new backyard garden with inset toring gear hooked up to him. Quite bined to send the country into the brick and have stripped off the 1974-75 recession/depression. The a modem section. turf. In the week ahead I'll dig up inventory problem corrected itself the ground and get out the rocks. He had a huge ball of a bandage on naturally--production was cut till This area of Portland is rocky as his right hand to keep him from pul¬ stocks were sold off, and then pro¬ hell. Will set the sod in the bot¬ ling out the i.v. unit (which he had duction resumed. tom of 8-10-inch deep growing area tried to do). Why? Some old people as drainage help and composting. don't want to go on living as part BUT: The cost of energy is still This new garden will add 8 square vegetable. The people who found him double or triple what it was before yards of new growing area for next at the apartment building said that 1974, and this increase in true-dol¬ year. I intend to build a cold frame he had told them 5 days ago that he lar costs is still working its way didn't think he'd be around much long¬ through the economy. You see it in * er. Perhaps he "knew" somehow that a constantly rising utility bills, for stroke or heart attack was coming. instance. This means, simply that it It may be that the SFR ads in Maybe the body/mind is aware on deep costs more for necessities, and Analog are worth the money; a recent levels of the clot about to break leaves less of our incomes for non- surge in subs has to be because the loose, the aneurism about to pop... essential "luxury" buying. new ad that appeared in the October issue. If I can afford it I'll con¬ The doctor we talked to at the State, county, and city govern¬ tinue them. Times Litho delivered hospital didn't say it, but I know ments are having to cut back on ser¬ the reprint of TAC #10 yesterday. # severe strokes and -heart attacks are vices, are cutting staffs Voters are 14 will be delivered on the 7th. I often followed by more of the same. saying NO! to new levies. quiver in dread of the bill. They don't know where in the brain his stroke hit. And meanwhile the Federal govern¬ I wish Freff would send the in¬ ment- -Congress- -is running "only" 50- terview with Kelly Freas; I'm getting I'm not very hopeful he'll ever 60 billion dollar yearly debts to get out of that hospital alive. Af¬ hype the economy. Fortunately, the ter discussing it with Monroe we went increased supplies of food stocks and • to his building and I paid ten days' manufactured goods has offset the vast rent on his apartment, and we will increases in fiat money created by the 9-7-76 I got a call from the move his stuff out in the next few government. But sooner or later the Portland emergency rescue unit last days. He cannot ever live alone a- farmers and ranchers are going to cut night about 10:30...the time is vague gain, if he lives. I'd prefer him back on production (because they lose in my memory--and the lieutenant in to live with us, here; in my home, if too much or don't make enough per cow, charge told me my father had 'trouble that is possible. breathing' and an ambulance was on per bushel, per acre) and food prices Dad is 73 years old. will abruptly zoom. Then the "infla¬ the way to take him to the Oregon tion rate" will hit 10% or more and Medical School hospital or the Vet¬ This afternoon I worked a bit in people will squeal. erans' hospital. my gardens, and will now go down to do some typing for this issue, and And the federal debt continues to Some concerned fellow tenants at his apartment building had discovered fill new subscription and back issue increase--every year it takes an extra orders. five billion or so to pay interest on him and alerted the Manager, who cal¬ the debt. Nobody much cares now, but led the rescue truck. (Just like on This afternoon, too. Times Litho in 1979 I expect the deficit to hit EMERGENCY on TV.) delivered the 3000 reprints of SFR 100 billion per year, and the infla¬ I thanked him and said I'd check #14. Life goes on. tionary stresses of this kind of with the hospitals in the morning. printed money will cause even more I thought Dad had had an emphysema • unemployment and mis-direction of re¬ attack and that all he'd need was a sources. (Remember when Lyndon John¬ few days off cigarettes and on oxy- 9-9-76 Dad was able to say the son was keeping the entire federal gen. first parts of a few words yesterday budget under 100 billion? Remember V morning when I went to see him. His when Nixon's 12 billion dollar defi¬ heartbeat looked solid and regular cits were appalling?) We are heading A few minutes later Jon Gustaf¬ to my untrained eyes. I began to into a hyper-inflation unless Carter son called from Kansas City to tell have second thoughts about moving his (who is promising to be an 'activist' me I'd won another Hugo--Best Fan stuff out of his apartment; I called, President) becomes an arch conserva¬ Writer. I am pleased, of course. and then went over to pay the balance tive in fiscal matters. No way. He Jon mentioned, too, that he had in¬ due on this month, just on the off will end up slapping on wage-price terviewed Tim Kirk, and that inter¬ chance that he lives and recovers e- controls. And go on to ruling by de¬ view will be in the February issue nough to be able to live alone with cree in the "National Emergency". along with Jon's s-f art review coi¬ constant visits from a friend in the building who lives directly above him This fall--right now--the big ...(who volunteered to do the job of banks are taking huge unreported los¬ l'll have some comments on the ses on the multi-billion dollar loans Hugo Award winners when the complete nurse-companion if Dad is able to they made five-four-three-two years results are published, soon. At this leave the hospital in a few months after therapy). Miracles do happen; ago to the underdeveloped nations. moment I'd like to thank all who vot¬ Those loans are coming due and very ed for me. ^ he is a tough old bird. He had a few of those countries are willing or Now back to Dad. I called this collapsed lung three years ago and able to make payments; they are cal¬ morning after my trip to the Post Of¬ almost died, had surgery for bladder ling for deferments and extensions... fice to get the expected load of ac¬ cancer last January, and now this. and what are the banks to do but go cumulated holiday mail, and found he Somehow, he survives. along? Truth is, those loans are BAD, was in the Coronary Care unit of the and that money is lost. And those Veterans' Hospital. He had suffered * banks are getting shakier and shakier. 15 Got the check for payment for my '2. ARCANA (2 volumes) by 49 pro¬ catalogue.) (And if you wonder why I novelette, "The One Immortal Man", fessors at various Italian universi¬ do it, you don't understand fans!) from Futura Publishers. They sent a ties (1969, 1971) is the most beauti¬ cheque for L170. Bemused, I had ful encyclopedia of our field, and The following comments have been boil¬ heard earlier in the morning that the the most useless. Their definition ing up inside me for over two years. British pound had sunk below $1.70 of the fantastic includes pornography, A most disgraceful pattern of unpro¬ per pound because of financial fears and the sf and fantasy content (of fessional jealousy and indifference regarding the English maritime work¬ the "straight" variety) is swamped towards this book has become evident ers decision to strike come Sunday. (in my opinion) by the "porn" content. to me, and I can no longer remain si¬ Not one of the many full color illos I took the check to my bank and lent. I have remained silent, in depicts a "straight" scene. I got got an exchange rate If $1.74. The print at least, because I kept hoping one volume in a trade and bought the branch will no doubt get revised for¬ for a thaw in the silence, because other from the Italian publisher for eign exchange rates in the A.M.) It one-fan raves can be counterproduc¬ came to $295.80...not bad. I have $25. The two (if still available) tive, and because I may appear to some secret hopes the story will be would therefore cost $50. The con¬ have some vested interest in promot¬ picked up from ANDROMEDA-2 for re¬ tents, however, are being reshuffled ing the Encyclopedie: I wrote the and coming out in a series of low printing in the year(s) ahead. first review of the book (basically a cost paperbacks. The "straight" sf rave review) which Charlie Brown re¬ V and fantasy content is collected in fused to run in LOCUS (he failed to The more Jimmy Carter (for tac¬ one of the paperbacks (#4 of 8 volumes run any review) and which Caz, bless tical reasons) seeks a centrist pos¬ so far) which will cost you $3 or $4 him, ran in ERB-DCM; I was the only ition not too far from Ford's if you can find someone who sells person in Canada who was plugging away stands, the more the old tweedle-dum, Italian books. for a Hugo for Versins, and I made a tweedle-dee ennui will set in, and '3. ENCYCLOPEDIE DE L'UTOPIE, special trip to Toronto to leave a people will tune out politics, think¬ DES VOYAGES EXTRAORDINAIRES ET DE LA copy with the Torcon committee; I was ing there is no real choice anyway... SCIENCE FICTION (1972) by Pierre Ver- the only realistic source of the book I'.hat fun if Gene McCarthy, the righ- sins is the single most important for North Americans and Britons for a ist party, and the Libertarian party book on sf ever published. Versins year—and I imported copies only aft¬ could get in on those nationally tel¬ has read more sf in more languages er I suggested to various dealers that evised debates. w than any English-speaking person I they stock .copies, and was turned down So Mao is dead at 82. And Pres¬ know, and I know only two Europeans by each one; and I have been asked by ident Ford said he was a 'very great who have the potential of going beyond three people, including Versins, to man.' Was Stalin a very great man, Versins. I have read this monstrous do an English translation. I also too? How times change. Mao was a 8-1/2" x 11" 1000-page tome twice, wrote a second review, at the request tyrant a few years ago, responsible and dip into it constantly. (News of Waldemar Humming, which is one of for untold thousands of deaths-by¬ note: La Maison d'Ailleurs, the only two reviews in German, and the purge. Ah, good old doublethink. world's first sf museum, opened may 1, only rave reviewin that language. I 1976 in Yverdon, Switzerland. The want to stress again, that, as I say curator is Pierre Versins, of course, on the first page of this catalog, I CONTINUED ON PAGE 49 since it is his collection which forms am a fan only: I attempt to make no the basis of the museum. It is Yver¬ money in any of my fan activities, ************************************* don 's second museum—the first, whether as a dealer, writer, or pub¬ founded in 1763, is still going strong lisher. I am willing to name people IS THERE SCIENCE FICTION BEYOND in Yverdon's 800-year-old castle. to whom I have refused to fill orders THE BORDER? There were 200-odd fans at the open¬ and to whom I returned money for ord¬ ing, all from Switzerland and France, ers for the Versins and other (**) Herewith, with permission, a plus yours truly. I was amazed at books on this list, and I am willing letter from BRUCE ROBBINS, a the quantity of sf published in lan¬ to name publishing projects I have quote from his Catalogue/News- guages other than English. Also, relinquished to professionals who had letter #5, and an article by half the museum is an art gallery, better use for profits than I had for Bruce. They are a different featuring European artists never seen losses—on request by letter. I perspective, and they are oc¬ in North America. A full travel re¬ have no business naming names in casionally harsh and strong port will appear in my sixth "cata¬ print here. in judgement. I value both. log." Let me state at the start that I '4. Tuck. I'm often asked which have the highest regard for the works is"better", Versins or Tuck. There’s of such people as Sam Moskowitz, Ger¬ ry de la Ree, and Jacques Sadoul, who 28 August 76 no comparison. (Indeed, there's no comparison between any two of these are guilty in varying degrees of ig¬ 'I meant to comment on a letter encyclopedias.) My advice: The Tuck noring Versins. In chronological ord¬ from George Price some issues back. and the Versins are absolute essent¬ er, the first hint that fans were not There's no need to be theoretical a- ials for anyone who pretends he is the cosmically-minded creatures I had bout other encyclopedias of sf and serious about sf. If you have some fantasy. I have four sitting on my enthusiasm (and money!) left after shelves. Tuck and Versins, buy the Rynin and •1. INTERPLANETARY FLIGHT AND marvel at this forgotten first histor¬ -geST M'NPJ OF ian of sf. ARCANA is for completists COMMUNICATION (9 volumes) by the Rus¬ QEWERArtOM WERE A<-L sian N.A. Rynin. Originally publish¬ SEOSwto - RATE RS -—^ ed and sold by the author himself from ■ his Moscow apartment in the 20's and 30’s, they came out in English in 1971 VERSINS, Pierre - Encyclopedie de as a spin-off of the American space l'Utopie et de la Science Fiction 1st program. Rynin put together all that d> Lausanne 1972. $71.00*/ he could discover in fact and fiction *‘Available from other North American about interplanetary flight and com¬ dealers, and I will not sell such i- munication. It's the first, and cer- tems until the other dealers are un¬ tainlu last, time that an encycloped¬ able to do so. (There are too many ic survey of sf if graced with sub¬ people trying to make a buck off sf. stantial mathematical formulae: both I'm in it just for fun. This cata¬ sf and space science have grown so logue, for instance, is costing me that one person can only master one more than I grossed from the last or the other. 16 always assumed they were came when can and other sf writers. I sold 23 that of self-admitted fanzines. Dar- Charlie Brown failed to rrn any re¬ copies of the Versins to a wide range ko knows and understands sf that is view of the ENCYCLOPEDIE. Don Wolheim of people, from neo-fans to long-time totally alien to me—Lem and other and I independently wrote to LOCUS a- scholars, to people who could read Eastern European and Slavic writers. bout this book, and I suspect that if rench and to people who could not. He very likely has a Versins-sized it hadn't been for Don, Charlie would And at least two people told me of it quantity of observations about sf yo have ignored the book altogether. being stolen off college library book¬ relate to us, but I can't imagine him (Don has spent a total of 30 minutes shelves in record time. sitting down and spilling his guts with Versins; I have exchanged a few for five years. He'll continue on I mentioned Don Tuck. His ency¬ brief letters with the legendary re¬ his own cautious, careful way. Ver¬ clopedia is a whole different kettle cluse of Switzerland. Both of us sins has been a fan—he has publish¬ of fish. He basically "just" lists were promoting quality, not a friend.) ed fanzines in English, and has been books of interest to people whose con¬ The most shameful episode occurred active in various European countries cern is sf by Anglo-Saxons and/or sf next, when the Torcon committee re¬ as well—and wrote his ENCYCLOPEDIE available in English. Versins has fused to give Versins a Hugq. When I as a labor of love—he has made no written a true encyclopedia: while he pressed them for an explanation I got money from it, and probably never an immediate "but the book is in does list books, the majority of the verbiage is in essay form. I refuse will. It took five gruelling years French!" That was the most unreal to merely write it. Versins is a moment in my life. Not only was a to rate one encyclopedia over the oth¬ self-admitted failed professional body that called itself "World" doing er: both are essential labors of love writer—he quotes another's observa¬ this, but in a country where French to all sf students. The point of men¬ tion: "Versins knows everything about is an official, legal language. (The tioning Tuck is that he is an old cor¬ science fiction, except how to write officials of the World Series Little respondent and friend. I think he de¬ it." As a result, he wrote his ENCY¬ League recently changed the rules so serves a special Hugo, too, yet I am CLOPEDIE in a fuck-the-critics style. that the damn foreigners, like those not going to campaign in his behalf: It is a simple, yet arrogant style in Japan and Okinawa, who had won sev¬ he, being English, has his boosters. that most Americans and English Can¬ en of the last eight cha-pionships, I prefer to spend what energy 1 have adians can rea- after two years of could no longer compete in the finals. on an underdog who is equally deserv¬ typical college French. The style No, they didn't change the name, just ing, and who has written a more ambi¬ drives academics to distraction, but the rules. It depresses me to real¬ tious book. (Don is a Good Guy in I love it. Versins has nothing to ize that some so-called fans are guil¬ the boosting of Versins; he independ¬ hide and exposes his material in a ty of such narrow-mindedness.) Sam ently of me advertised and sold the straightforward manner. Another pos¬ Moskowitz has verbally dismissed the Versins in Australia and New Zealand.) itive aspect of Versins is his re¬ book, but he can't even read it! (I If you are wondering who the hell clusiveness—he’s too busy enjoying sight-translated some passages for Bruce Robbins is, well, I’m just a sf to worry about an image. He's in¬ him.) Jacques Sadoul, in his HIS- fan. I've been in fandom fifteen different to my ravings on his behalf. TOIRE in late 1973 made a wildly out¬ years and I expect I'll be a student The real students of sf and the tru¬ rageous denunciation of Versins, and of sf all my life. I have never re¬ ly curious will read him; he knows in response to criticism from Versins, stricted my attention to one language this and is satisfied. myself, and perhaps others, softened —my interests outside of English Obviously I recommend this tome. his denunciation in the 1974 edition: language sf are primarily in German now it is merely outrageous. The Ver¬ It is available from many profession¬ and French language material. I, for al dealers. Anyone who proposes to sins book towers physically and in¬ example, was reading fern years before tellectually over the Sadoul. Versins write about "science fiction", with anyone was saying a word about him in no qualifications, must read and stu¬ discusses sf across national and lan¬ English. I never joined the Lem band¬ guage barriers, in all its forms in dy this book. The latest would-be wagon for the simple reason that I historian to make a fool of himself all times. Sadoul, who doesn't qual¬ don't like his work. But I read every- ‘Aldiss-'-it^kernoliffer- ify the title of his HISTOIRE as to thing Franz Rottenstemer and others countries and languages, deals only ence that I enjoyed BILLION YEAR say as to why I should like Lem—I'm SPREE to the extent of buying both with the Anglo-Saxon and French-speak¬ always willing to learn. ing worlds. Gerry de la Ree put out the U.S. and British hardcovers, snd a booklet of illuminated letters, There are many reasons why Versins that I share Brian’s fascination with FRANKENSTEIN as a seminal work of sf claiming it was the first of its kind. has made a quantum leap in sf schol¬ I pointed out to Gerry that not only arship, and why I don't expect any (see my last two issues of PARADOX) does theENCYCLOPEDIE have a better one other person to match his acheive- ---the point is, he calls his book set of illuminated letters, but it ment, at least anyone I know. The "the true history of science fiction" has an entry on the subject (Letter- criterian that eliminates the most and resorts to the sheerest tokenism ines) which mentions even earlier ex¬ potential candidates is linguistic in considering non-English language amples. The real irony here is that ability. With linguistic ability we sf. Jacques van Herp, for example, Gerry is one of the dealers who flat¬ have only Franz Rottensteiner, Darko considers the true origins of sf to ly refused to stock the book. When Suvin, and Pierre Versins. Franz has be in Continental European literature Schuyler Miller reviewed Tuck [part published an encyclopedic quantity of in the second half of the 19th cen¬ 1] in ANALOG and made a reference to first-rate material on sf: I have nev¬ tury. This view must be reconciled the Versins that showed he hadn't er put all my copies of QUARBER MERK- with that of Aldiss. seen it, I wrote him and urged him to UR into one pile, but if I did I take a look. In the time between the would have over 2,000 lehal-sized writing of that review and the re¬ pages, over twice the lemgth of Ver¬ ceipt of my letter he had purchased sins. QM, despite being mimeograph¬ the Versins and wrijtten a review of ed, maintains a high standard of pro¬ it which he expected to see printed fessional academic quality. Franz is in due course. Ben Bova did not run aso a professional editor and agent. it because, as he told me, Versins is I eagerly await his SCIENCE FICTION of in terest to specialized scholars BOOK from Seabury, but its projected only. But Versins champions the very length of 200 pages will not allow sf ANALOG is famous for: straight, the wide-ranging sweep of Versins. hard sf. Versins defines his subject Darko Suvin is the most brilliant man matter as "conjectures romanesques in sf—but he has never been a fan rationelles", rational romantic fic¬ and he is the model of the cautious, tion, and does not "pad" his book serious academic—he gets furious with entries for non-df people like when I refer to SCIENCE FICTION STU¬ Tolkien, as popular as such an action DIES as a fanzine, as if his purpose might be, nor with second rate Ameri¬ was very much different in kind than 17 I have no news to report. The Switzerland. The Swiss had allowed lic. The publisher of his ENCYCLOPED- companion volume with the much needed victims of Hitler to recuperate at IE, L'Age d'Homme, is not, as I once index is still in preparation. Any special camps, and to remain in Switz¬ suspected, a creation of Pierre Ver¬ English translation will most likely erland. It wasn't until 1948 that sins, but rather a thoroughly mundane be in several volumes, at least two Versins could function as a human be¬ Swiss publisher, with balls. Versins or three years away. ing. (Versins turned 25 in 1948. is serious about sf only in print. What had you done by your 25th birth¬ He refuses to engage in serious long- day?) Versins decided to spend the winded discussions of sf—his speech rest of his life doing one thing. to officially open the museum to the La Maison d'Ailleurs Opens Was it to become a vengeful, world- 200-odd fans in attendance being a famous Nazi-hunter? A super Kurt Von- perfect example. BY BRUCE ROBBINS negut? An outspoken religious fanat¬ ic? None of these. He decided to Of the fans in attendance, all On May 1, 1976, the world's first devote his life to the study of sci¬ were from Switzerland and France, ex¬ science fiction museum opened. Its ence fiction. He believes that only cept myself. Among those who were name is Maison d'Ailleurs ("House of in science fiction can he find An¬ not there, but wrote to say they wish¬ Elsewhere") and it's to be found in ed they were, are Jacques Sadoul, Yverdon, Switzerland. It's the sec¬ swers. While others keep shouting Jean-Baptiste Baromian, Maxim Jaku- ond museum in Yverdon---the first was (mostly to one another) he believes science fiction is the only relevant bowski. Demetre Ioakimidis, Brian Al- founded in 1763 and is still going literature. Versins has quietly liv¬ diss, Eugene Moineau, and Valeria Pri- strong in the 8—year-old castle ed that truth. Among his accomplish¬ vi Carini. This is not an attempt at located one block from the Maison d' name-dropping—there are few people Ailleurs. Considering the level-head¬ ments over the years that are worth mentioning: who would know all those names!—but edness of the Swiss, the truly work¬ one way of emphasizing the fact that ing democracy that is Switzerland, 1. His fanzine AILLEURS (1956- there is a hell of a body of sf out¬ and the peace that Switzerland has 1967 with resumed publication promis¬ side the English language that is all been able to keep internally by re¬ ed for the near future) considered by but ignored by us Anglophones. One maining strong but not beligerant, Jacques Sadoul as the best fanzine ev¬ point that was made to me by more this new museum has as good a pros¬ er published in French, and a strong than one of the European fans was pect as any to survive the future. contender, in my opinion, as the best that Europe was the capital of sf. And that's a damn good thing, because fanzine ever. It is also the only These European fans know everything the museum's holdings represent the trilingual fanzine I have ever read. worth knowing about English language most important science fiction col¬ 2. His radio show "Passeport sf, and much more! (Remember the lection in the world. The books, re¬ NEWSWEEK with the special section on cords, posters, fanzines, comics, pour l'Inconnu" which has been going since 1957 on Radio Geneva. sf about a year ago? The European games, toys, necklaces, stamps, art¬ edition of NEWSWEEK chucked the cover work, etc. are the former property of 3. His sf pavilion at the 1970 photo of Gerald Ford and made that Pierre Versins and Martine Thome, and edition of the permanent world exhibi¬ article the cover story!) Pierre Versins himself is the curator. tion in Montreal, the first such pa¬ To wander among all these goodies is vilion at any world's fair. The museum is everything I expect¬ to peer inside the head of Pierre ed it to be, and more. One room de¬ 4. His truly mind-boggling EN- Versins, and some biographical data voted to artwork, which is changed ev¬ CYCLOPEDIE, the most important book on this incredible man must be men¬ ery month. The most complete collec- about sf ever written, and unlikely tioned. tion of European sf in the world. Ev¬ to be surpassed. Versins has read erything that's worth reading in Eng¬ more sf in more languages than anyone Pierre Versins was bom in France lish. (I saw English language edi¬ I know. Add to that his motivation tions of Lovecraft and Howard I had in 1923. Pierre Versins is not his and the fact that he spends 100% of real name—the "information" in the never before seen in all my years of his time on sf (reading it, translat¬ collecting.) And the oldest sf books third edition of Jacques Sadoul's HIS- ing it, dramatising it, writing it, TOIRE as to Versins' real identity is I have ever seen—the first edition writing about it, collecting it, etc. of Cyrano (1657), the first illustrat¬ wrong—and I will not reveal the etc.). Before Yverdon decided to cre¬ truth here. It's what he's done that ed edition of NILS KLIM (1745), the ate a second museum in 1975, Versins only known copy of a 1759 edition of counts. Versins was active in the literally would go without food for French underground in World War Two, CANDIDE—some with letters offering days rather than break up his collec¬ to buy for fabulous sums. was captured by the Nazis, and sur¬ tion. I have never heard of anyone vived not one but three concentration with such dedication to sf! I obviously think this is a place camps. He was force-marched to one, worth visiting and revisiting. The Most people reading this have tortured at another, and put in the exact address is: ^ison d.Ailleurs ovens at another. Alphabetically, heard of Pierre Versins only through the three were Auschwitz, Buchenwold, my writings. Versins spends no time 5 rue du Four and Flossenberg. I was too horror- promoting sf (or himself) to us True CH 1400 struck to be bothered to write down Believers. He "preaches" to the gen¬ Yverdon, or memorize the exact, ghoulish de¬ eral public, especially the Swiss pub¬ SWITZERLAND tails and their proper chronological order as I read the personal clip¬ pings Versins was kind enough to let me read. As someone who earns his living juggling mortality statistics for an insurance company I could work up the astronomical odds of surviving the hell Versins went through. But I won't. The least ghoulish incident is how Versins survived the ovens: Versins' group was naked and waiting for the gas when something jammed. By the time the gas was able to flow properly, the Nazis, with their per¬ verse sense of punctuality, saw that the time allotted for Versins' group had passed and hustled his group out and the next group in. The scene switches to 1948 and But all you really have to remem¬ beat, caused by...well, ambiguity reading in SFR about Lester del Rey's ber is the name of the town. Once raises its fuzzy head for me here. opinions on fantasy—and I have just you're there any local can tell you I was taken aback by the ghost of completed first draft of a 100,000- the way. You can also donate mater¬ Lufteufel and by the fantasy science. plus word fantasy for del Rey, too— ial and money if you are so inclined, The novel is science fiction only be¬ and admiring the little T. Kirk col¬ but let's be honest; there's no sense cause of its label and its use of umn headings featuring "Thingworld" donating if you can't enjoy the mu¬ standard sf furniture. But sf has and "Macaroniscope" and think how seum. Visit the place first, and many comers, and why not one marked this Alan Burt Akers, who sounds like when you have exhausted yourself look¬ Spiritual SF? Robert Silverberg is Michael Moorcock maybe, ((Nope)) re¬ ing at all the materials, think about not the only one who can write this marks on new SF writers of the 60's the several tons of books that are variety. being bowled over by praise to their packed away awaiting the day when destruction, and making an odds-on There are sections which show the more bookshelves can be purchased. bet that he was not thinking of two hand of Phil Dick, and sections which And while you are awaiting your next 60's new writers named Niven and An¬ betray the strong style of Roger Zel¬ trip to Europe, don't forget that thony—and reading about the Geis azny. (I particularly liked the sat¬ Forty Ackerman has a collection worth wood stove, which interests me be¬ irical mutated human 'bugs' who wor¬ supporting, and Versins' expenses are cause I am about to build a house in ship their god named Veedoubleyou. peanuts compared to Ackerman's. the backwoods Florida forest and shall There are many pranks like that.) use wood stoves, solar heating, gard¬ I don't know if this is a good ens and such along with my bicycles— book or not. It's sure as hell dif¬ my home life resembles REG’s more BRUCE ROBBINS address is: ferent, and it kept me reading (with than is comfortable—and about his BRUCE ROBBINS raised eyebrows, but with interest). new good-woman companion, and abrupt¬ P.O. Box 396 It has something for everybody but ly I run into this querie about my Station B the hard science types. use of the word "geis" in OMNIVORE, Montreal H3B 3J7 --REG p. 146 of the British (and Avon) edit¬ CANADA ion. Sigh. Okay; the word is used ************************************* correctly and spelled correctly, and ************************************* it appears in the Oxford English Dic¬ LETTER FROM PIERS ANTHONY tionary (not in the main edition, but LIES, ALL LIES in the supplement at the end), so my August 15, 1976 British fans can go to the library DEUS IRAE, an ambitious collaboration and verify it for themselves. I was by Philip K. Dick and Roger Zelazny 'Dear Alter, bom in England, you know, so these (Doubleday, $5.95), is...beyond me on I'm addressing this to things matter. But the main diction¬ the religious level, beyond the ob¬ you because Richard E. Geis will nev¬ ary I use is the one I got for my vious ironic ending that shows the er print it. He doesn't even know tenth or eleventh birthday, a 1913 lies that buttress and often found¬ the meaning of his name. Here I was, Funk § Wagnalla (no, I wasn't ten in ation the faiths men live by. There drowning my sorrows after having just 1913, I got it second hand in 1944 or is a great deal of comment, self- discovered that the novel I sold to 1945) that remains the best one ex¬ questioning, trotting out of believ¬ Elwood last year, BUT WHAT OF EARTH?, tant. So I present to you its defini¬ er/non-believer perspectives and psy¬ is being published as a collaboration tion entire: chology. There is erudition. On one with Buck Coulson---I only learned "GEIS, geasa pi. An obligation level I'm respectful, and on another that by having my agent send a regist¬ of honor, generally restrict¬ I mutter, "Christ, this sort of thing ered return-receipt letter to verify ive, attaching to a rank, ord¬ has been thrashed out again and again that the novel was going to be pub¬ er or individual in the ancient and again for eons. Why again? Why lished at all—well, Coulson is a Irish aristocracy." do these two heavy science fictional fine fellow, but I have had no corre¬ You can see talents feel the need to restate the spondence with him this past year, that this definitely is the same Geis, obvious, to retread this old, old and the novel I delivered to Elwood who as a dirty old man must have been was complete and publishable as it bom around 1913 and is by now quite stood. Seems Elwood wanted some rank and in need of restriction. Not I'll grant they do it very well, changes in it, and wanted Coulson to in the body of a fascinating pilgrim¬ to be confused with the next entry, do these changes, so I said okay, "GEISHA, A Japanese girl espec¬ age by one Tiber McMasters, an arm¬ here is the rope, and well, I think less, legless painter in the post- ially trained to furnish enter¬ I'll have to sick my agent back on tainment at convivial and social Smash world of extreme mutants and him with a copy of the contract, be¬ isolated small cities in North Ameri- gatherings, by her posturing, cause this must be - unique "collab¬ dancing and playing." ica. He is on a journey to find and oration" in law as well as in moot. That of photograph (for a church mural he is I am really afraid to see what has course is not Geis, but his companion. painting in Charlottesville, Utah) been done to the novel, now. Funny Geis, Geisha, a matched set. (This is the face of the worshipped God of thing is that once Elwood asked me to a public service, educational announce¬ Wrath--a still living man named Carle- do a really major galactic-scope SF ment ; as I said, Geis seems to be ig¬ ton Lufteufel, former head of ERDA, adventure on par with Asimov's FOUNDA¬ norant of the ramifications of his the man who gave the order to drop TION trilogy, so 1 thought about it own name.) My big dictionary, the the Bombs... and said, what the hell, why not try?, very soul of helpfulness, goes on to The still hanging-on Christian and sent him a 17,000 word presenta¬ proffer some good advice for Geis and Church is interested in discrediting tion on the Cluster trilogy designed Geisha, in the form of a literary the ascendant God, and Tibor has a precisely to his specs—and he bounc¬ quote: ed it. So I sold it to Avon instead, friend/enemy tracking him...There is "Every man who entered the Fenian and am now doing second draft on the a hunter out to find and kill the God ranks had four geasa laid upon concluding novel; the overall trilogy ...There are the strange mutants Ti¬ him, 'The first never to receive runs about 350,000 words, the most bor meets on the way...The Goulart- a portion with a wife, but to ambitious adventure of my career. So like robots and computors (time and choose her for good manners and this may represent a neat example: shortages have addled their brains) .,. virtues; the second, never to whaf one writer can do with Elwood, It should be noted that Tibor is offer violence to any woman; the and what he can do without Elwood, third, never to refuse anyone for traveling on a specially made cart both projects having been designed anything he might possess; the pulled by a cow, and that he has pow¬ for Elwood, and both based on the ered mechanical arms. fourth, that no single warrior same background framework. should ever flee before nine There is hope and redemption for 'Anyway, here I was relaxing by (i.e., before less than ten] mankind at the end, a spiritual un¬ 19 champions. All of which suggests my not asking you to contribute...If reinforces my belief that non-art¬ the following maxim: Speak softly, you think it worth mentioning in SFR ists shouldn't be expected to say but carry a big dick(tionary). Maybe as a market, I'm paying $10 on accept¬ much about art in their Iocs. The next issue of SFR, Geis will inform ance for articles two to five thous¬ artists can do it so well, through us all exactly what goes on within and words, $20 for longer pieces, $5 their practising knowledge of the the Fenian ranks; maybe it is an apa. for reprints. subject, that people who can't draw At any rate, now you know exactly Am finishing up an anthology of are licked before they start as art what 1 meant by the reference in OM¬ art, fiction, articles and verse cal¬ critics. Come to think of it, may¬ NIVORE. ' led ORCHARDS OF WONDER, doing the be this accounts in large part for the lamentable condition of mundane ((Alter-Ego here. Geis insists layout myself, to be published by art criticism in professional publi¬ his name is German and means...goat. Stellar Z in Florida. Will ask that cations. Much of it is written by I suspect that's the truth, judging you be on the review list though you people who got interested in art be¬ from some of his past behccoior. may think it too fannish for review. I sold a short story to MWRRDIN for cause they had the mistaken belief ((I suspect the Laser contract $26 and am excited. that they were capable of drawing and gives them the right to edit (add, painting. Freff has an ability to subtract, alter... even unto major Noted that FOOD FOR THE GODS was paint word pictures that is nearly as revision) once they own the ms. I listed in Variety as one of the top imposing as his non-word pictures. I wonder how the royalties are split?)) ten money grossing movies last month. won't forget his description of the But so was WILLARD years ago. From Apollo-Soyuz artists' tour. Matter everything I've heard, the movie is of fact, it made me remember the poorly acted with bad special effects first time my journalistic work Went to see LOGAN’S RUN, one or two brought me to a talk by a real cel¬ nice special effects in the whole ebrity. Herbert Hoover spoke at a long dre ry movie, and even those nearby college and I was assigned to two spots will be lost on the small cover it. (He wasn't president at screen. Peter Ustinof was the only the time. I'm not that old yet.) interesting character. Box was a There I was, my eyes popping in ex¬ close second, though Box was pretty citement, and there were all the dumb. Doesn't say much for the mov¬ other reporters from press services ie, does it. THE OMEN has me suck- and big cities, ignoring the former ered in, however. I think it is ex¬ president, chattering incessantly a- cellent. Saw it twice. Astounding mong themselves, while one of them, special effects, believable acting who apparently had lost a coin toss on the part of the child who plays or something, followed the talk as the son of the anti-christ, and Greg¬ he looked at the advance copy, so he ory Peck uses his face to replace a could yell at the rest of the press million words of dialogue. The big¬ if Hoover departed from his text. gest thing though is the mood. Ever ************************************* see a whole audience shrink down 'I liked George Martin's Killer- under the seats? No kidding, with bowl review. Not only are sports LETTER FROM JESSICA AMANDA each successive scene, the audience moving away from violence. Most of SALMONSON grew shorter. The plot is not uni¬ the violence that is publicized to¬ que, but well conceived. THE TENANT day is hokum. You hear hockey an¬ August 20, 1976 is unique, and grisly. Not one I nouncers on television screaming a- Looks like Darrel Schweitzer is could see again, too tedious, but bout the hard checks and the fights. slowly taking over SFR. In enjoy one only intelligent film of the re¬ Most of the impact is minimized by his interviews very much, but think cent spate of fantasy and sf. Saw the fact that the players are on skates and the skates are on ice, his reviews are too cutting, too sub¬ NOAH'S ARK, produced by Mormons. Can jective, and too holier-than-thou. I you imagine Noah with a hick prairie which acts like the oil in your en¬ gine to prevent the serious sort of think I'll skip reading his reviews accent? The film is a good joke. for a while; twice he kept me from Makes Van Danikin sound wise. The damage. Football players are so pad¬ purchasing books I discovered later sad thing is that any fool could ded that the punch-throwing which oc¬ to be very worthwhile. I'd like to Come up with a convincing argument casionally breaks out after a play is see him do articles instead, which in favor of the Ark theory--but the meaningless. can be as subjective as all hell and Mormons couldn't. (My blood-brother ' My only genuine criticism of very entertaining and rude without is a Latter Day Saint; he has to put SFR is the minimal amount of review¬ posing as the final decision in a mat¬ up with prejudiced statements like ing by you. I liked it better when a ter. that all the time). page or two by you alternated with Exciting news in my editing pro¬ ************************************* material by others from start to fin¬ jects: a contract with TK-Graphics ish of each issue.' to produce as huge (75 to 90 thousand LETTER FROM HARRY- WARNER ************************************* word) anthology of essays regarding 'The concept of narcissism provid¬ feminist issues in fantasy and sf July 15, 1976 es us not with a ready-made psycholog¬ ical determinism but with a way of un¬ (not exactly up your alley, but noth¬ 'It's not strictly appropos of derstanding the psychological impact ing you should scorn). The collec¬ Science Fiction Review, aside from of recent social changes--assuming tion will be written mostly by women, my mention of the topic in the loc but men aren't excluded entirely. I'm that we bear in mind not only its in the 17th issue. But maybe you clinical origins but the continuum a bit of a reactionary sexist, but haven't heard that I've apparently not so much so that I absolutely re¬ between pathology and normalcy. It found a new publisher for the his¬ provides us, in other words, with a fuse to believe guys might have some¬ tory of fandom in the 1950's. Joe thing to offer in womens' studies. tolerably accurate portrait of the D. Siclari has tackled it. He plans "liberated" personality of our time: I've asked Denys Howard to cover the to do it backward from the way Ad¬ effeminist point of view, and Black of his charm, of his pseudo-awareness vent handled All Our Yesterdays, pro¬ of his own condition, his promiscuous author Charles Saunders is doing an ducing a cheap memeographed edition essay on racism in sf§f which is at pansexuality, his fascination with first and a hardbound, printed book oral sex, his fear of the castrating least allegorical of sexism, and I later. He is trying to get the cheap should get a query off to Tiptree at¬ mother (Mrs. Portnoy), his hypocon- edition finished in time to peddle dria, his protective shallowness, his tempting to wheedle something out of it at MidAmeriCon. him. Those are the token males avoidance of dependence, his inability amidst the batch. Ain’tcha proud of 'Freff's material in this issue to mourn, his dread of old age and me? Hope you're not disappointed in 20 death.' ..-Christopher Lasch fense lawyer to get the robot off on are rescued by a passing faster-than- a plea of insanity. light ship built several decades lat-

BLANKENSTEIN THE LEFT HAND OF BENNY Victor Blankenstein, a young and The Winzers are a nearly human half-mad physician, is obsessed with race, differing from the humans of the ambition to create a man. He other worlds in one important respect. spends years procuring parts of dead They spend most of their time as neu¬ bodies, joining then into a giant hu¬ ters. At rare intervals they may be¬ manoid form. Finished, he subjects come male or female, unpredictably. the creature to a combination of Benny Hai is chosen as ambassador lightning and man-made electricity. to the Winzers because of his very Unfortunately, the composit body does similar life style. They get along REG NOTE: Larry Niven sent the fol¬ not respond. It continues to decay, fine. lowing ms. with a note which reads while enraged villagers converge on (partially): 'I enclose a gift. Blankenstein's laboratory, screaming GRALLDEN "The Notebooks of Mack Sikes" ap¬ about "health hazards". Some unnamed disaster has plunged peared in the SFWA FORUM but has the city of Bellokta into anarchy. since been revised. ... You already BRAVE NEW WHIRL Hero enters Bellokta, explores without know how much I enjoy SCIENCE FICTION A savage raised in primitive con¬ any special purpose in mind, learns REVIEW. If you'd like to publish the ditions is introduced, without pre¬ nothing, and eventually wanders out "Notebooks" please feel free. ' paration, into the civilization of I feel very free. a thousand years from now. Within Sikes seems to have chosen this forty years he has killed himself loose plot framework as an opportun¬ through overindulgence. ity to publish almost a million words THE NOTEBOOKS OF MACK SIKES of scenes and notes from unfinished by Larry Niven 1985 stories. Publishers saw things dif¬ Benevolent dictatorship threatens ferently, and he never sold it. "No conflict, no story," says my to become anarchy when the dictator, friend and Sarge. Then he yells a- known only as Big Brother, is strick¬ cross the room, "Hey, Larry! See en with hysterical blindness. Was it THE ROADS MUST STROLL that six-foot-tall white rabbit over something he saw? While society dis¬ Study of a nationwide strike of there?" integrates outside the Ministry of the Slidewalk Repairmen's Union. Truth, heroic doctors try to cure the "Yeah?" Chaos reigns as airline passengers dictator's blindness through highly must walk to the luggage depots. "Curtain!" imaginative forms of shock therapy. Or, "Hey, Hamlet! The King murd¬ TOURIST IN A STRANGE LAND MARINA ered your father and married your Michael Valentine Wisowaty, rais¬ Two warring races ready themselv¬ mother. What are you going to do a- ed from birth by Martians, is brought es for the epic battle that will ex¬ bout it?" at age twenty-one to Greenwich Vil¬ terminate one race and will probably lage, founds a new religion based on "Nothing." leave the other too nearly destroyed polygamy. Martians believe he has to survive. A third force interven¬ "Curtain!" gone native. es. One Outsider and one human find A rare publishing event has brought themselves marooned on an alien world, BUG NORMAN SPINRAD this old party routine suddenly to separated by an invisible barrier. A Talk show host, driven insane by mind. telepathic voice t.ells them they must inane and stupid phone calls night settle the war in single combat. after night, falls prey to delusions Harvey Mcllroy Sikes turned to Unable to reach each other, the of grandeur and persecution. science fiction in the 1930s. His combatants agree to settle their dif¬ work, spanning three decades, is not¬ ferences in a game of multi-lingual ed more for quantity than for quality; Scrabble. MISSTEP OF GRAVITY but the pulp magazines were always Mekzlin: a massive world with a hungry for material. Now, at last. NIGHTFALLING tremendous rotation rate—once in Mack Sikes' estate has permitted us On a world within a multiple star twenty-one minutes—and a surface to publish these excerpts from his system, night falls only once in gravity that varies from 3G at the notebooks. Sikes' fans may derive three thousand years, when all the distended equator, to 800G at the some enjoyment from these dozen-odd suns are on one side of the planet. poles. An exploring ship makes the plot summations of stories that Sikes As the sky darkens and the stars be¬ tragic mistake of landing at the pole. somehow never got around to writing. gin to emerge, everybody goes to bed. Ships's robots must somehow scrape the remains"of the crew out of the CLAN THE COLD MATHEMATICS circuitry before the ship sags into a Tale of Johnny Foss, a young Clan A girl stows away on a spacecraft disk. brother in search of his people. The carrying strickly limited fuel. Her ************************************* Clan mutants have long since gone in¬ extra mass will mean that the ship to hiding from the vengeful jealousy has insufficient fuel to land. She of the unchanged, numerically super¬ must be ejected, and quickly. For¬ ior humans. Characteristic of the tunately nobody likes her very much. mutation are: tiny*black tendrils to ACCIDENTAL ECOLOGY DEPT. be found near the roots of a Clan's TAU TEENY 'It is estimated that malaria typically blond hair; slightly lower¬ A spacecraft carrying several hun¬ will arrive as a major epidemic in ed intelligence; and a greatly enhanc¬ dred humans and all the requirements Europe within the next ten years, ed sex drive. of a prefab colony, finds itself ma¬ thanks to the decision by Germany rooned at the edge of lightspeed when and France to build atomic generat¬ YOU, ROBOT the brakes on its Bussard ramjet drive ors that utilize river waters for Adam Asimov, the world’s first burn out. Their only hope is to drive their cooling systems and hence intelligent robot, is accused of mur¬ the ship to ever higher velocities, bring the water temperature within dering its creator. In its cell the building up the time dilation effect the range in which anopheles breeds. robot prints out a full confession, to give themselves extra time to --Ivan Illich, PSYCHOLOGY TODAY' then hangs itself using a thick steel think of something. Fortunately they May, 1976. cable. This allows the robot's de¬ 21 ************************************* LETTER FROM LYNNE HOLDOM THE LASER'S EDGE interest. It is basically a first- contact story which reads more like 6-1-76 LEGACY a well-written juvenile than an a- By J. F. Bone [Laser #18] dult novel. ’I recently got a job in a book¬ SPACE TRAP Ken Farrell, a cadet, is assign¬ store, and sales of SF bear out yours By Juanita Coulson [Laser #20] ed to survey, along with Zachary, and Alter’s position. Sword § Sorc¬ an experienced pilot. They check ery sells very well---mostly but not BIRTH OF FIRE out planet NE 592 which isn’t sup¬ exclusively to high school students. By Jerry Poumelle [Laser #23] posed to be resurveyed for years The standard authors—Heinlein, yet. When they crash on the plan¬ Clarke, Asimov, LeGuin—sell well Reviewed By Lynne Holdom et they discover telepathic human¬ also, but the champ here is Larry oid aliens and some Earthmen who Niven. Also, LORD OF THE RINGS will have stolen a ship and settled the always sell. Every so often amid the junk and planet to get back to nature and botched first efforts of beginning the simple farming life. Neither ’But I started getting in some writers, Laser does publish some books I like—Bradley books, natch, group is native to the planet; novels worth reading even if they both arrived at about the same but also Brackett, the Deryni trilo¬ are not quite science fiction clas¬ gy, Piper, and other borderline SF/ time; neither is willing to trust sics. LEGACY, SPACE TRAP, and the other group as both have had fantasy...and boy do they sell. BIRTH OF FIRE are three such good Pfeil’s THROUGH THE REALITY WARP sold some bad experiences. Farrell and books. Of course Poumelle, Bone Zachary cannot even get a message very well and it’s mediocre slam-bang and Coulson are hardly beginners. space opera. This is what people back to Earth. Everyone is stuck on the planet. There are no easy LEGACY is a novel that two de¬ solutions. The writing does get a ’Down books don’t sell well. Sil- cades ago would have been set on bit sticky at times but at its verberg doesn't sell that well. DY¬ Mars-a Mars with canals, dead best is thought-provoking. ING INSIDE sold less well than any of sea bottoms, a mysterious long- the other Ballantine releases for Feb. dead native civilisation, Earthmen BIRTH OF FIRE reminded me of except STELLAR-2 and anthologies nev¬ who have adapted to the planet and Heinlein's juveniles, possibly er sell very well. Fen know what they become decadent, more recent ar¬ because Poumelle, like Heinlein, want and down novels aren't it. rivals who must live in domed set¬ is very concerned with the meanings tlements, and all sorts of half- of freedom. 'I think Watergate has drained castes and assorted low-life. people. Nixon-related books sell like The setting is that of a Mars mad. Why worry about David Selig de¬ Since this is 1976, it is set in revolt against Earth, another stroying himself ((in DYING INSIDE)) on Arthe at the far end of the gal¬ familiar Heinlein theme. The nov¬ when you can read about Nixon doing axy and Sam Williams, a doctor who el chronicles the coming-of-age of the same? Also, I wish Farmer would has been disfigured in battle, is Garr Pittson, ex juvenile delin¬ finish that third Riverworld novel sent there by mistake. Once there quent turned Marsman, and his role ((he has)) and that McCaffrey would he can either try to unravel reams in the rebellion. During the novel write the third Dragon novel. We get of red tape (a process that could Poumelle gets off some shots at a lot of requests for both. I hear take years) or get a job and earn the justice system, affirmative someone is starting a DRAGONWORLD the money to travel to his real action and certain university typ¬ fanzine. Maybe that'll do it. destination. He becomes an under¬ es who think that preserving the cover police agent tracking down 'There are only three Laser books ecology intact is more important dealers in tonocaine—a drug that than making life bearable for peo¬ I'd recommend since last time—THE makes heroin look like aspirin--- HORDE by Green, TO RENEW THE AGES by ple. Laser may have bowdlerized but sets up as a slum doctor to the language but it is more earthy Robert Coulson, and THEN BEGGARS gain the trust of the half-castes COULD RIDE by Nelson. A LAW FOR THE and realistic than that of STARSHIP and drifters. Soon he is off to TROOPERS or REVOLT IN 2100. Sci¬ STARS by Morressy is interesting and another domes settlement, travel¬ ence fiction has changed in the shows promise. ling among the more decadent canal last twenty years. I'd recommend 'Stay well and keep Alter happy. dwellers and is almost offered as this book to anyone thoujgh it hard¬ His nastyness should be preserved for a human sacrifice in the mysterious ly ranks with Poumelle's best. pre-human Arthean ruins. He soon the ages. I recommended BLAKE'S ********************************** PROGRESS to a friend who liked it. discovers that he must know more a- bout the drug traffic than he real¬ ises consciously but he always won¬ LETTER FROM JACK DANN ((I'm sure Bob Silverberg gust ders what the drug dealers want to 16 August 76 winced and cursed. David Selig did accomplish as the monetary rewards not 'destroy himself in DIING INSIDE. don't seem to justify the risks. His talent for telepathy was dying Are the dealers mere sadists who and his agony of alienation was fin¬ like to see human misery? The end¬ 'In your review of the 50th Anni¬ ally ended. He couldn't cope with ing is a bit predictable but, oth¬ versary issue of AMAZING, you quote his ability, refused (or was unable) er than that, I'd recommend this from my novella, STARHIKER, to give to take advantage of it, and was far as fine action-adventure. the reader an idea of my style. Un¬ better off without it. What most fortunately, there's a typo—"con¬ readers found disagreeable was his ceived by intelligent intellect" lack of self-interest and his fail¬ should read "conceived by intellect." ure to exploit his wild talent. I 'Gave me quite a scare, sent me cried "Fool!" to him dozens of times. back to the magazine, whereupon I But, nevertheless, a very well-writ- rue T>-fo si<5-hT* breathed a sigh of relief: intelligent ten novel. ..because it did provoke jintellect is a bit much...even for those strong reactions.)) SC-HOOL- OF /pT' NtUE o'C.FD 1 ((My apologies, Jack. As I recall, Alter=Ego was using the machine the day your let- (("No you don’t, Geis! You're the one who screwed up that typing! Darnn- it, I get blamed for everything!")) 22 ************************************* LETTER FROM LEIGH BRACKETT The three main characters here are Lady Rohana Ardais, who was mar¬ 14 August 76 ried to the Lord of Ardais at fifteen; her foster daughter Jaelle who has 'In re Lynne Holdom's warning joined the Free Amazons and is con¬ that THE STARMEN OF LLYRDIS (Ballan- sidered the family scandal; and Mag- tine) is a reprint of an old Ace delena Lome, a Terran raised at Caer double, GALACTIC BREED. It isn't... Dorm and is recuperating from a brok¬ quite. The Ace version was only 40,- en marriage. 000 words as against 60,000, and the However Peter Haldane, Magdelena's first couple of chapters were consid¬ ex husband, is kidnapped by bandits erably messed with. The Ballantine who mistake him for Kyril Ardais, Ro¬ version is in fact a reprint of the hana' s son. Since the Terran Empire original Gnome Press hardback, THE lets its agents take their chances and STARMEN. Darkovans consider all conflicts 'All best from both of us...we purely kin group affairs, no one is read SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW from cov¬ willing to rescue Peter. Then Rohana er to cover, and thoroughly enjoy it.' suggests to Magdelena that she pose as a Free Amazon and ransom Peter herself. During her journey she AND ON THE SAME MATTER: meets Jaelle, learns that the penalty for posing as a Free Amazon is being LETTER FROM JUDY-LYNN DEL REY forced to become one, and saves Jael- SENIOR EDITOR., BALLANTINE BOOKS le's life. Thus the two become blood- sisters and go together to ransom Pe¬ August 23rd, 1976 ter. Then Jaelle falls in love with Peter and regrets her vows for the 'Re: Lynne Holdom's "helpful" first time as she has never felt which was reconmended by a friend. warning in SFR #18. this way for any man before. Despite flaws, it shows a writer of definite promise, and has a realistic 'Hie true pedigree of THE STARMEN Put this way the novel doesn't female character...something all too OF LLYRDIS is as follows: sound too great, but the real meat of rare in this field. First published as THE STARMEN the book is in the interrelationships OF LLYRDIS in STARTLING STORIES between the characters. Magdelena The plot encompasses many famil¬ (March, 1951). and Jaelle have the same relationship iar science-fiction themes: psi mu¬ Then published in hardcover as as Tom Sawyer and Huek Finn or the tants hated and hunted by normal hu¬ THE STARMEN by Gnome Press (1952). Three Musketeers, a strange one to mans; first contact between humans Afterwhich Ace published a find between women but a true one and intelligent aliens; and a paranoid shorter version THE GALACTIC BREED with no more hint of homosexual at¬ dictator who wants senseless war to as one-half of a Double. tachment than would be true in such further his career. Unfortunately Ballantine published the orig¬ a male relationship—but men seem the major flaw of the novel is the inal Gnome Press version in 1976 curiously unable to understand this. lack of integration of the various under Leigh's original title THE Peter Haldane is no exception to the themes---all separately are well STARMEN OF LLYRDIS. rule. Also, Jaelle has joined the handled and each could have carried Free Amazons for all the wrong reas¬ the novel by itself. 'Our aim was not to confuse read¬ ons: her father was a tyrant, her ers but to return a fine novel to its The most interesting subtheme is foster-mother was unhappy in her mar¬ proper form and title. It's a shame the development of Selina Christian riage, so Jaelle thinks of marriage your correspondent Holdom was not a- from fearful psi mutant distrusting as slavery. Yet Rohana cannot under¬ ware of the\ full publishing history everyone and everything, to Selina stand Jaelle either. When partners of the book.' Christian, human being, who is confi¬ separate at the slightest trouble, do dent of her own abilities and willing they ever build anything worth while? ((Thanks to you both for the to relate to others. The reader is Both are partially right; it just de¬ background and perspective. I doubt carried every step of the way. Less pends upon what evils a woman is will¬ Lynne was reading s-f in the SO's.)) well done but still good is Selina's ing to live with. There is no gain stay with the Lucents as she learns without some loss. It is also the about their culture and the threat of Free Amazons who are willing to deal extinction that lies over them. The LYNNE HOLDOM: THREE REVIEWS with the Terrans despite the Comyn problems with the Terran dictator Tien Council as they resent Darkovan women are pure pulp. Maxwell also has a ten¬ being judged by bar-girls and prosti¬ dency to use psi abilities to get her¬ THE SHATTERED CHAIN tutes which are the only woman Terr¬ By Marion Zimmer Bradley self out of any tight spots in the ans ever meet. This reconciles the plot. DAW UW1229, $1.50 Empire into letting Magdelena remain with the Amazons. If this sounds like a put down, In all of Bradley's previous Dark- it's not. Selina and the Lucents are over novels, Darkover has always seem¬ My main quibble with this book is fascinating enough to carry the nov¬ ed to be an extremely masculine world. that it contains very little of the el. Maxwell's next novel should be Women are either married off young wonders of Darkover and it is not as something to look for. (with or without their consent) or se¬ well constructed as THE HERITAGE OF ### cluded in Towers as sequestered virg¬ HASTUR. It does offer a good insight ins. As a woman I found both roles into the lives of women and the petty unsatisfying and I am hardly a ramp¬ restrictions that hamper them. THE HORDE By Joseph Green ant feminist as THE FEMALE MAN nause¬ ### ated me because of its either/or phil¬ Laser #27, 954 osophy CHANGE By Ann Maxwell I've come across some books by Now finally someone has written a Popular Library, $1.25 Joseph Green but none of his work novel that deals with women realistic¬ really impressed me until this one. ally and shows that they are just as I always like to discover a new Despite some unevenness in pacing capable of courage, loyalty and honor science fiction writer. The field (caused perhaps by Laser's 190 page as are men. Also as incapable of needs all the talent it can attract. format)((or editing)) this novel pre¬ these virtues—for such traits are I was most eager to try this novel sents some most unusual aliens who those of individuals, not sexes. 23 are still humanoid enough to be com- prehensible though they come to this But Jacque Le Favre is a survivor conception of entertainment seems to state from a vastly different direc- and lucky, and lives through perilous be one of a low level of data input. missions to strange new planets. He In other words, it tells us things is a key man in the discovery and use we already know, arranged in new Basically, both humans and Shemsi of an alien organism which is a mind- patterns. This kind of entertain¬ are space-faring peoples and both de¬ bridge between people---and alien in¬ ment has its advantages. It is easy, sire to settle the same type of planet. telligences. cheap and lazy. Both want to learn more about the oth¬ er but are fearful of the risks in¬ The alien super-race which seems 'I would venture to say that volved. intent on wiping out mankind is the your reviewer is really asking for "enemy". Maybe. Well, be kind to his own mind to be masturbated. Leo Volz and his wife Misty are the next ant you see; give it its liv¬ Masturbation has its advantages. It one human exploring team. Misty has ing space and trust that the ants will is easy, cheap and lazy. All it been captured by the Shemsi and Leo mature eventually and overcome their takes is an engaging fantasy. I, is determined to rescue her. After naked ids. for one, have found intercourse, he rescues a Shemsi, the two travel though a good deal more strenuous, together toward the Shemsi outpost Matter transmitters are the means and complex than masturbation, to be and each learns about the other. The mankind uses to spread through the infinitely more satisfying. Shemsi don't understand sexual dif¬ galaxy--until running into the ter¬ ference except intellectually, while rifying shape-changing aliens, the L'vai. 'Mr. Vicha's review is dense Leo keeps wanting to put his compan¬ This is a satisfying, spell-bind¬ with examples of easyness, cheapness ion into either the male or female ing book; Joe uses the elements which and laziness. The opening paragraph, role. Yet the Shemsi do seem to have made THE FOREVER WAR so good--honesty, alone, can be ranked as no less three females who are Mothers and God¬ realism, cynicism and idealism, much than a minor masterpiece of vague desses all in one. They have ordered tension and a fast pace. He can prose. He mentions nothing of what Misty taken to the Birth Mountain, write. he thinks about the novel, then (ap¬ partially to study her and partially parently) tries to shore up his un¬ to discover if Leo can rescue her. stated opinion by mentioning the Their psychology is as alien as their hearsay "tried patience" of some un¬ physical development. I'll be looking named people referring to works of for Green's work from now on. He's Delany that are not specified. He definitely worth reading. One last tells us he likes Dhalgren but cannot note—Green seems to be the only sf explain why. I am of theopinion writer around who recognizes that that a reviewer who can't figure out women use contraceptives and that why he likes a book can't be worth this could be desirable. much as a reviewer. If Mr. Vicha ************************************* meant to imply that he liked a book that he would not consider good, the LETTER FROM K.W. JETER obvious conclusion is that he suffers from stupidity or bad taste. Further¬ August 14, 1976 more, he makes this statement in the opening paragraph of a review of an¬ 'An amendment to my letter of May other book by the same author. It 15th ((In SFR #18)): for purely per¬ does not inspire confidence in the sonal, non-literary reasons I cancel¬ reviewer's opinion. ed my contract with Laser Books for 'Laziness is exemplified by con¬ what was to have been #64, THE LAST tradictions. The reviewer tells us WRONG NUMBER. he likes a book which he later refers 'I found your discussion of type¬ to as mental masturbation. In a sec¬ faces fascinating, and agree with you tion of the review given to a listing that "reading dynamics are very sub¬ of Triton's highlights, Mr. Vicha tle, and the effect can be profound." calls one aspect "an uncomfortable However, I personally find densely- blend of soap opera and Doctor Zhiv¬ packed small type attractive. True, ago" and mentions excellent parodies it can't be read and absorbed as eas¬ which are boring. In another section ily and quickly, but I like rooting LETTER FROM MICHAEL WARD he calls the conclusion of Triton around in a thick, seemingly endless mundane and anticlimactic, yet says elsewhere, "At this point [p. 274 in mass of stuff (hmm, sounds like hunt¬ June 16, 1976 ing for truffles...) Even with as a 330 page book], what has seemed to much good stuff as you get into SFR, 'In your issue #17 the review of drag on becomes a suspenseful, psy¬ I've usually zipped through the whole Triton by Mr. Donn Vicha (I presume chological flight." and, "...it thing in about a half-hour. But Donn is a masculine name; if not, my builds on so many levels it has great then, I read very fast, and have very apologies), performs such an injus¬ power." and, "...the most chilling sharp, unaided eyesight, so this tice and disservice that I feel I and realistically written exploration probably does not hold true for most must address myself on the novel's of inner space that can be found in of your readers.' behalf. science fiction if not in mainstream literature." ************************************* 'Your reviewer seems to be long¬ ing* for Delany to drop his present 'Does the reviewer know Delany NEVER CHANGE A WINNER pursuits (which Mr. Vicha calls personally? If not, how does he jus¬ "mental masturbation"), the explora¬ tify the affrontery of (cheaply) pre¬ MINIBRIDGE tion of loci of mind and perception suming that Delany is self agonizing/ By Joe Haldeman (or "self) and the interfaces of analyzing and needs to free himself St. Martin's, $8.95 these loci (communication), an area in order to entertain us? The only reason I can see from material in the Reviewed by REG in which Delany has found new things to say, original, creative things, review is that it sets him up to take a metalogical step and suggest that Essentially a repeat of the FOR¬ and devote his "great talents" to entertaining, diverting us. If we Delany has attempted to spell out his EVER WAR plot, with a slightly dif- relationship with SF through Bron's erent ending. Young man joins (in are to accept McLuhan's contention that there is no difference between despair, which, after some vague cir¬ this novel) the Agency for Extrater¬ cumlocutions, allows him to come to restrial Development--from which, entertainment and education -- they are both, essentially, information the metalogical conclusion that De¬ like the army in FOREVER WAR, re¬ exchange -- then the commonly held lany is going to start writing what cruits rarely get out alive. 24 the reviewer wants to see: the a- fore mentioned concept of entertain¬ formal Remarks Toward the Modular dinary and begins to let us see .our ment. Calculus" was gratuitous? own condition."--p. 25) and abandons possible insights with a deft appli¬ 'The reviewer tells us not to 'The reviewer describes five char¬ acters from the book: Bron, the pro¬ cation of metalogic; on to the point bother reading Triton’s two append¬ where, finally, she is left with on¬ ices because they are crap (cheap), tagonist, as stupid and pathetic; his lover (disparagingly) as an artistic ly the conclusion ("Sure with a sur- will give you the feeling of being ity which, if it were this subjec¬ talked down to (easy), and seem to figure, and three others in terms of their sexuality. Cheap and lazy. tively complete, must be objectivity have nothing to do with what went on ...") that the dawn will never come. before (lazy). The first point does Bron's relationships are much more complex than Mr. Vicha would have us A conclusion, for the fulfillment of not deserve comment. As to the other which, if it is to become objective¬ two: the erudite language is an in¬ believe. I can't help but think, for instance, that he has let most ly true for her subjective self, she tegral part of the form appropriate can only commit suicide. in a critical fiction and in a dis¬ of the significance of the restau¬ cussion of the text and textus of rant scene slip by in his bedazzle- '1, for one, hope Delany contin¬ science fiction; the appendices do ment with Delany's description of ues to explore our attempts (with have something to do with what has the food. Soap opera--or rather, perception filtered by the sensory gone before. the romantic myth--is one of the el¬ shield of subjectivity as our only ements of Triton, and the parodic di¬ tool) to cope with that amazing and 'In the first appendix, Delany's alogue in this scene is one access all but incomprehensible matrix of statement in the discussion of text point into the entire web of myths, phenomena and relationships which is and textus that "Various bits of roles and codes which Bron uses the universe. technological discourse...are used (metalogically, emotionally lazily) to redeem various other sentences instead of logic, pn p. 378, in the 'Reading the reviewer's specula¬ from the merely metaphorical, or e- dream sequence: "A terrible script! tions on Delany's intentions, I ven the meaningless, for denotative Devoid of whatever meaning--or was could not help but wonder what Mr. description/presentation of inci¬ it meaninglessness?--it might have Vicha's intentions were in writing dent." Example: the discourse, im¬ for an audience! But I did give a the review. Considering the three plicit and explicit, on physical al¬ terations makes Philip's habitual gesture of covering a breast with a hand, rather than a muzzily sexual allusion, a comment on attitudes and practices related to the nursing of children. Another example: consid¬ er the epigraph on p. 345: "Hetero¬ topias ...destroy...that less appar¬ ent syntax which causes words and things...to hold together...they dis¬ solve our myths and sterilize the lyricism of our sentences." When De¬ lany writes (p. 104), "One of the junior programmers, wearing a blue body-stocking with large, silver dia¬ mond shapes," we read something very different from what, unredeemed, would have been a flacid, content¬ less description. The contentles- sness, itself, .has been transformed into an insight^ into the experience of existence in an heterotopic soci¬ ety. If Delany had told us the pro¬ brilliant performance. I must have most prevalent aspects, his inten¬ grammer had a mustache, it still gotten carried away with the part.") tion must have been to entertain.' would have said nothing (not even I would suggest the reviewer reread ************************************ the sex) of the programmer other the epigraph from Mary Douglas' Nat¬ than the mustache. It is interest¬ ural Symbols. LET'S HEAR IT FOR OVERKILL ing to note that the first chapter is 'Delany has given us a character, subtitled "Per Satz" or "The Sen¬ FOR TEXAS AND ZED schizophrenic by Laing's definition, tence." By Zach Hughes molded in one speculative culture and Popular Library 445-00370. $1.25 'In Appendix B, the discussion social body (Mars), transplanted to of modular and nonmodular descrip¬ another (Triton) even more specula¬ Reviewed by REG tions adds another dimension to the tive, then proceeds to detail Bron's main text. On p. 228, in the Spike's mythical/logical confrontations with I still squirm in my chair as I letter to Bron: "You do...adhere to a number of elements of that social think about this good bad book. I some kind of code of good manners, body, and maps out how he manages to enjoyed it when it involved danger proper behavior, or the right thing inflict a good deal of the hurt on and conflict--usually the massive to do, and yet you are so emotional¬ himself. And it is done in a way (virtually unthinkable--one million ly lazy that you are incapable of im¬ that with a little dilligence is spaceships!) interstellar battles-- plementing the only valid reason that clear, concise, dramatic. and skimmed a lot through the usually any such code ever came about: to 'Reading Triton, we sit behind short romance scenes and necessary put people at ease, to make them the protagonist on a well structured transition scenes between battles. feel better, to promote social com¬ roller-coaster ride. We go past Texas is an edge-of-the-galaxy munion. ..The only way you seem to be dozens of fresh ideas and intelli¬ freedom-loving human colonized plan¬ able to criticize your own conduct.. gent, innovative details of specula¬ et, just trying to get along with the [is] that your version of the code tion. We are carried inexorably to incredibly massive Earth Empire (which was ten years out of date." Thus Bron's astonishing decision to change is interminably, stalematedly) at war the myths, roles, codes of proper his sex and sexual preference and with the almost equally massive Cas- behavior are nonmodular descriptions past it. We are carried to the siopeian empire. Texas is a bit sup¬ because included in the descriptions point where she pauses to question erior technologically and its people are no reference routes back to the not just her life but her method of are bred for size and quality. purpose of the codes. Did the re¬ coping with it ("The death at the viewer think that the subtitling of center of such discourse is extraor- This the life listory of Lexing¬ the text and Appendix B as "Some In¬ ton Bums, an 18 year old who kidnaps 25 a High Lady of the Empire, is forced than this omnipresent glow from an LETTER FROM BARRY MALZBERG toserve in the Empire space navy, who unseen source. engineers a mutiny (sort of) and who 'The only conclusion is that il¬ 14 August, 1976 is the key man and leader of the Tex¬ lumination must come from the mach¬ as space navy during the climactic ines. The machines fester with e- 'Thanks for the new SFR, a joy as war that results in the *gasp* United nough light bulbs and glowing dials always. My article,((in #18)) I have Texican Galactic Protectorate. decided, suffers from a sudden onset to illuminate Vincennes, Indiana. Now, I ask you...FOR TEXAS AND of climax but this is the kind of The lights blink and beam and short thing which can happen to one in the ZED is another of the endless string out, and the machines have more of Vast Perspective and Vast Conquest late thirties. I am bemused and fas¬ gears and cogs than Jimmy Carter has cinated by Terrence Green's article sf novels...with half-vast (in this teeth, and they have steam pouring case 1/4-vast characterizations. In¬ and dare mention ... one comment: out of them and meters to read and Those three novels plus GATHER IN THE deed, caricature characterizations. dials to turn and levers to pimp, and HALL OF THE PLANETS and DWELLERS OF boy, is it ever HARD on those poor Oh, well....as I said, I enjoyed THE DEEP which might be seen critical¬ workers to keep track of all that ly as falling under one conceptual stuff. Little wonder they revolt. tent comprise, at the most, 8% of my output and less than a fifth of it in LETTER FROM DAN MILLER ‘But that just shows the intellec¬ science fiction. I wish critics, ev¬ tual paucity of the mind that con¬ en friendly ones like this man would September 6. 1967 ceived these machines, a mind that stop trying to pigeonhole me...I have, obviously has no idea how machinery whatever my flaws, more range than works and would be intimidated by 'This is a warning. There's a given credit for. His argument, for machinery any more conplicated than a instance, would collapse if he had movie making the rounds on late-night wheelbarrow. If this movie were the television posturing as the great sci¬ read UNDERLAY, THE MEN INSIDE, or real "Metropolis"--the standard that GUERNICA NIGHT. ence fiction silent classic, "Metrop¬ most subsequent sf films have been olis. It -as shown here in Chicago measured against--we'd probably be 'I applaud your high-spirited de¬ recently, and though one has to ad¬ getting sf movies today filmed in¬ fense of your ovm position in your mire the skill with which the imita¬ side a shopping center in Texas. But column. I certainly have no com¬ tion was made--it really looks like the phony "Metropolis" ultimately plaints against the regarding of sf it was filmed in Genrany in 1926--it fails on the acting of its charac¬ as primarily a means of entertainment is obvious this is not the film so ters. What we are asked to believe ...most of it isn't, that's all. frequently rhapsodized as a cinematic is acting in the German expressionist and sf masterpiece. 'Will you indulge me as you did tradition is nothing more than a with Peter Mandler a couple of issues ‘I've never seen the real "Metrop¬ bunch of simpering (and until you've back and allow me once again to re¬ olis," the one directed by Fritz seen simpering in a silent movie, you view a review? Here is Buzz Dixon Lang, but I've read all about it, so don't know the meaning of the word), reviewing Sutherland's STORMTRACK on I was not suckered in by this fraud. whining morons made up like drag page 25. He tells us at the outset, The phony film follows the same story queens on their way to a gay-pride "According to Theodore Sturgeon, 951 line as the original: The revolt of parade. The actors' idea of acting of sf is crap. This book is of the workers who toil before machines in is flail their arms about and twist remaining 10%". I assume that Dixon subterranean caverns, preserving the their hands into claws, with an oc¬ feels that sf is a literature plus decadent life styles of those above casional licking of the lips, flair- 54 accordingly. We must have 1004 of ground in a futuristic metropolis. ing of the nostrils and widening of mysteries, commercial novels or goth¬ the eyes. This not the acting that I ‘It is said the sets of the gen¬ ics; only sf will give us 1054. know the immortal Fritz Lang coaxed (Well, I love it too, folks.)' uine "Metropolis" are astounding, es¬ from the original cast of "Metropo¬ pecially the mighty city itself. The lis." ((It ms a typo, one I eommitted ersatz "Metropolis" is none of this. and failed to spot. I'm astonished Its sets were concocted by a mental at the number of readers who mention¬ defective gone berserk with a Leggo 'No, indeed, this abomination is ed this particular goof.)) set. The buildings are painfully ob¬ not the immortal "Metropolist." This vious miniatures preposterously out is immortal junk, garbage, probably 'Dixon goes on to tell us the of scale to autos, bridges and other written and directed by the immortal following, "STORMTRACK isn't great", paraphernalia. Real buildings of Cordwainer Bird and bankrolled by the Sutherland "needs practice," there that size and shape couldn't possibly people who brought us "Space: 1999." are "lapses in logic, sketchy writing be erected; their cantilevered stories and scenes that don't work...in the 'I pity the gullible sf fan who hands of a lesser writer the surprise would tumble, as would the insubstan¬ might view this fraud and think he tial bridges that span miles of air ending would be deus ex machina". He was seeing the original immortal mas¬ also points out that Sutherland "drops without support while bearing the terpiece. The sap might question his weight of autos and pedestrians. In clues masterfully throughout...subtly own taste because he can't see the weaving in clues as off-handed re¬ the subterranean catacombs, where the art that is so obvious to those who workers waste away, I saw crumbling marks." "One of the better writers have raised "Metropolis" to its lofty of the late 70’s". brick and mortar but no dust or dirt; position in science fiction filmdom although miles underground, sunlight today. For myself, I'll wait patient¬ 'I think there are either two illuminates the workers' city; in¬ ly until the real "Metropolis" shows STORMTRACKS or two Buzz Dixons or per¬ deed there is no illumination other up. Meanwhile, beware the suburban haps two of each. Maybe when he re¬ version.‘ solves the arguments amongst all of ************************************* them Dixon might be able to do some reviews for you. 'The United States now puts 451 . of its total energy into the produc¬ 'I enjoyed George Warren's letter tion, care and use of vehicles. The a lot. As he appears to be learning typical American, in the course of a in his early forties or whatever he year, devotes 1600 hours to his car-- is (actually he sounds fourteen) nas¬ tiness and scurrility go both ways working to pay for gas and insurance, and how do you like that, George?' driving, etc.—and he travels 7500 miles. So he travels about five ************************************ miles per hour invested.' MOTORCYCLE HIT BY TRUCK --Ivan Illich, PSYCHOLOGY TODAY MAY DIE May, 1976 (Oregon Journal headline) ************************************* 26 CELEBRATING over the green cliffs and canyons of Hawaii. A recent issue of AMERICAN THE CINEMATOGRAPHER Magazine made much of the use of laser images in the final WILD space sequence, but I didn't see any¬ thing unusual. BLACK Separate galleries cover various YONDER sip-topics of flight, from early bal¬ loon experiments to speculation on the nature of extraterrestrial life. AN ARTICLE It is in these galleries that the connection between one day's Science BY Fiction and the next day's reality is Wayne N. Keyser made most evident. In a cavem-like gallery dealing with the larger picture of the uni¬ verse, theories on the formation of Washington DC in the Bicentennial stars, planets, galaxies, and the uni¬ Summer has been a monumental circus. verse itself are illustrate^ with Colorful tourists speaking strange slides, film and computer simulations. tongues ("Ah din't brang y'all four Around a corner, Julia Child demon¬ hunnert mahls jist t'stuff yerseffs strates, on videotape, how the French with hot dawgs, demmit!") have jammed Chef would prepare "Primordial soup" the streets, every organization in ---the theoretical aquatic mix which town has put on its own fair, festi¬ existed before life began and which, val, exhibition or party, and we've in a similar environment to the early seen the biggest-ever fireworks for Earth, generates the basic chemical the 4th (ever see a million-and-a- building blocks of life. The origin¬ half people stand up and cheer? Gad!). al 5-foot model of the Enterprise, The Smithsonian Institution, the courtesy of Paramount Pictures, hangs nation's own museum, chose this op¬ above a copy of the plaque carried to portunity to dust off its older good¬ possible alien observers aboard the ies and bring out some new ones. Its Mariner space probe. Below that twelve-week Festival of American Folk- stands a model of a theoretical ET life is like a three-month celebration message to Earth, along similar lines: of the American people and I pity the a plastic geometrical shape contains person who has missed it altogether. reactions when compared to the down¬ a scale model of the sender holding As a permanent addition, the Smith¬ right spacious lunar lander. the shape, cell samples, coded infor¬ sonian has closed the pitiful quonset mation on its home star system, even hut formerly devoted to Man's aerial In the center of the main lobby computer discs with decoding infoima- efforts and opened the immense new is a triangular slice of moon rock tion. The gallery also contains a Air and Space Museum. mounted in plastic so that the visit¬ fascinating slide-display which al¬ lows the viewer to select environment¬ The borderline between Science or can actually touch a piece of the al parameters ("hot planet, heavy Fiction and Reality has always been moon. Of course, for all I know it gravity, sea creature”), then displays hard to pin down, and often shifts could have been a chunk of paving tile from a gutter somewhere, but I a possible being fitting such an en¬ with time. Here in DC it's especial¬ vironment. ly hard to identify the line where still got quite a thrill touching it. illusion and reality meet, since,the The Albert Einstein "Spacearium" Down the hall a little way you city itself is steeped in high-pres¬ in the building features more pictur¬ can walk through a reconstructed WW I sure illusion, both national and in¬ es than stars in a 42-minute show des¬ airfield in France or the hangar and ternational. What better place could cribing the history of aerial and flight decks of an aircraft carrier there be for a multi-million dollar space exploration. Though it featur¬ at sea—through the windows you can monument to the speculative spirit of es some workmanlike Jeff Jones por¬ see (films of) carrier takeoff and mankind? And that's what our air and traits of astronomers, the show seems landing techniques. Upstairs you can space efforts have been from the be¬ uninspired and is not nearly or as stand in a mockup of the lunar lander ginning—every major development in flashy as it tries to be. I wish cockpit and watch the moon landing as the technology involved those big, they'd stop the cheap tricks, make the pilots saw it through their win¬ basic questions "What will I find Burgess Meredith shut up and leave us dows, or stand just a few inches from when I get up there?" and "Will I get alone with the stars and the music. the five exhaust tubes of the stand¬ down in one piece?". ard Jupiter rocket and imagine the in¬ Far better is the Museum's film credible force the develop. The building itself is impressive theatre, showing a special film call¬ ---four gigantic marble blocks con¬ ed "To Fly"—worth seeing twice. If you're not careful you'll come nected by three only-slightly-smaller "To Fly" interprets the flight exper¬ down with a bad case of sensory over¬ glass bays. Inside each of the bays ience in the rare Imax format—con¬ load and have to quit for the day (as hang aircraft as if in flight; the ventional theatrical film uses 35mm I did). But I live here and can walk X-1S beside the Spirit of St. Louis film running at 90 feet per minute over to the Museum for lunch any day. and the Wright Brothers' unmanned vertically, but Imax uses about nine If you're coming from a distance, try craft; the Apollo-Soyuz vehicles sit times the frame area on 70mm film for a long, liesurely stay in town. on the floor just below the backup running horizontally at 336 FBI. The It's nice to have a museum that Sky lab, which is rigged to allow the five-story-high screen fills the en¬ does complete justice to American pio¬ tourist to walk through the living tire field of vision, and the seats neering of the aerospace field; our area. are raked so sharply that nobody's efforts are something we can be right¬ head blocks your view as the needle- ly proud of, and we have owed ourselv¬ What was "silly Buck Rogers stuff" sharp image and six-channel stereo es this national pat-on-the-back for less than thirty years ago now looks present giddy, dizzying views of a a long time. Let's enjoy it before pitifully old-hat beside the latest helium balloon soaring over West Vir¬ some investigative committee proves developments. John Glenn's original ginia forests, the Navy's Blue Angels that the moon landings were all faked capsule, a major attraction when it over Grand Canyon and (Omigod!) a on a sound stage at CIA headquarters first arrived shortly after Glenn's champion hang-glider flying at sunset in nearby McLean, Virginia. flight, now provokes claustrophobic 27 ************************************* THE VIVISECTOR to get TV spots and speaking engage¬ make them tend to rationalize their ments, which are beyond my immediate own one-dimensional stick figures concerns at the moment. But I will that way. come back to this later, when I’m A Column by Darrell Schweitzer Ted Sturgeon's "Future Writers in ready. a Future World" also contains much A few of the entries between which could be dangerously miscon¬ these two extremes really stand out. strued, because he seems overly con¬ Norman Spinrad is very good on "Rub¬ vinced that SF can actually change ber Sciences", the art of making a the world and avert undesirable fut¬ pseudo-science sound right. He uses ures. This could too easily lead to Dianetics as a prime example, and propaganda, which is the death of suggests that if Hubbard hadn't had art. H.G. Wells proved in the latter SF training he might not have pulled half of his career that this can his scheme off as well as he did. ruin even the most experienced author. Hal Clement also has much to say a- Frank Herbert, allegedly writing bout real science in fiction in his about "Men On Other Planets" seldom "Hard Sciences and Tough Technolo- sticks to his subject, and spends ogies." Harlan Ellison tells you most of hi,s time telling us how to a- just about everything you could pos¬ void cliches. A noble aim, of course; sibly want to know about screenwrit¬ and worth an article all by itself, ing (including where to go for more but not adequately treated in this information), from technical terms to one which reads like a mumblesheet structure to manuscript format, to for two separate essays run together. how to break in. He also tells why he has stuck it out in Hollywood, Still, the virtues of this book fighting to get intelligent material well outweigh its faults. I can en¬ on the air, even when the experience vision quite a few different reader is frequently like "reading Voltaire groups, for whom it is strongly rec¬ to a cage of baboons." Very simple: ommended: the serious reader who he doesn't want to abandon the big¬ wants to see what kind of thinking gest medium there is to the non-tal¬ goes into SF; the academic class in ents and lackwits without a fight. search of a thorough textbook of the¬ This is a brave and admirable thing, ory in the field; the would-be writer even for a person with all the re¬ making his first attempts, who has quired characteristics of a succes¬ already been through the de Camp's sful screenwriter, "great skill, a HANDBOOK; and all -but the most advanc¬ fertile imagination and the stamina ed selling writer. I doubt it'll do of an Outback Abo". Asimov or Clarke much good, but for THE CRAFT OF SCIENCE FICTION Larry Niven is helpful with his the rest of us it's a handy volume Edited By Reginald Brentor indeed. It also might be good as re¬ piece on the made-up words in science Harper § Row, 1976 quired reading at serious writing fiction (which work differently than 321 pp. $9.95 workshops, like Clarion, during those the made-up words in fantasy, by the way), showing the method behind the weeks in the middle when the initial At first glance this symposium writer's madness. Probably the best steam has run out and nobody is pro¬ seems to be a concerted effort to put two on actual technique are John ducing much. Sprague and Catherine de Camp out of Brunner on the novel (contrasting business by producing a definitive various narrative modes) and Jack text on the writing of science fic¬ Williamson on shorter lengths. Wil¬ tion guaranteed to supplant their re¬ UNIVERSE 6 liamson carefully explains one way to cent SCIENCE FICTION HANDBOOK, Revis¬ Edited by Terry Carr write fiction -- the careful planning ed. (See review, SFR 16) But no, Doubleday, 1976, 184 pp., $5.95 and outline approach. Katherine Mac- the two volumes go very well together, Lean's "Alien Minds and Non-Human In¬ like interlocking pieces of a jigsaw I wouldn't want people to think telligences" also has much to recom¬ I'm some sort of snarling fiend who puzzle. mend it, even though she makes bibli¬ gets his jollies writing scathing re¬ The deCamp's deal mostly with the ographic errors like attributing a views of other people's books, or more elementary aspects of fiction, Zelazny novella to Silverberg. (which somebody so rotten he just can't basic plotting, story structure, con¬ the index at the back also does.) write a nice review, even if some of sistency, character tags, etc. while the things I've had in SFR these past TIE CRAFT OF SCIENCE FICTION is more What articles didn't I care for? few issues give that impression. No, advanced. But the HANDBOOK has an For one there's James Gunn's "Heroes, I'd rather write favourable reviews, excellent chapter on the business Heroines, and Villains: The Charac¬ because that means I had a good time side of things, which the Brentor ters in Science Fiction" which says reading the books, and I'd like to volume does not. little of any importance about the let you in on this pleasure. A bad I think prospective buyers of same. It ends up being a shallow review means my time was wasted and CRAFT will find the book either in¬ history of the field which frequent¬ I'm giving you a warning. Which is teresting, if they are just readers, ly tries to excuse deficient charac¬ what book reviewing, and this column, or useful if they are writers or terization on a basis that I just can are all about. Recommendations and would-be writers, in this case de-' not accept -- allegedly some stories warnings. pending on where they are right now don't need good characters. They So, when I came to this sixth vol¬ in development. I'm at the story- would only get in the way. GULLIV¬ ume of UNIVERSE I had the highest hop¬ sale-once-in-a-while stage at the ER'S TRAVELS is the cited example. es of a collection of first-rate mas¬ moment, and for me some of the art¬ I'll admit I've seen works which suc¬ terpieces which would elicit a glowing icles like Brentor's own "SF: The ceed and even achieve greatness with¬ notice. Alas, 'twas not so. UNIVERSE Challenge to the Writer", about the out any real characterization (CHILD¬ 6 wasn't a total washout, like somte nature of the field and the reasons HOOD'S END, for example) but it seems books I've been reviewing lately, but for writing it, goes over old ground, to me this is despite this lack, not it wasn't very good, either. while Fred Pohl's "The Science Fic¬ because of it. Also such an idea is tion Professional" tells me some a terrible thing to bring up in front To get the worst out of the way things I already know, like why the of new writers (who will be reading first, I was unable to finish either new writer cannot get does not need this book in droves) because it'll Gordon Eklund and Greg Benford's "What an agent, then goes on to cover how 28 Did You Do Last Year?" or Charlie Haas' "Shifting Parameters in Disap¬ Interviewer: Dothings work out and not an anecdote by classical rul¬ pearance and Memory." I know a lot better in the alternate ending? es, but the result is hardly moving. of people think it's unfair to pass Author: Oh, much better. The The piece is decidedly second-rate judgement on something without read¬ first story, you see, is just a Ellison, however—the usual cliche ing all of it, but I don't. When you little downbeat study of charac¬ that follows at this point is the enter a swamp and see there's quick¬ ter. Whereas the science fiction, statement that second-rate whoever- sand all around, you go back and warn the story with the happy ending, you're-talking-about-at-the-moment fellow travellers. You don't have to is an upbeat story of ideas. is still better than nine-tenths of trudge all the way to the other side. Whereas Angsteed's theories prove, everybody else's best. Not so with After giving a story a fair chance, in the first story, to be just a Ellison. He's always impressed me as if I find I'm being bored to lower paranoid fixation, in the SF sto¬ a vastly uneven writer, whose last states of awareness and cannot pro¬ ry they are proved to be true. collection, DEATHBIRD STORIES, includ¬ ceed without effort in the absence of (p. 31) es both the best ("The Whimper of enjoyment, I will stop. Chances are Whipped Dogs") and the worst ("Bleed¬ if your tastes are at all like mine ing Stones”) writing being done in you'll have the same reaction, so in Aldiss is touching here on a clas¬ sic ambiguity, more commonly found in the field today. Middle-range Ellis¬ book reviewing, as opposed to criti- on is just that---middle range---and cism (let Lester del Rey explain the horror fiction. If the fantastic ele¬ ment is "real" then the character is if it were written by someone else it difference to you last issue) it is would probably attract little notice. okay just to retreat and tell what sane, the symptoms are misleading, happened. and the story is a fantasy, not a val¬ The greatest oddity in this vol¬ id psychological study. If the fan¬ ume, or maybe even in the entire UNI¬ Here's what happened: the Ben- tastic elements are delusions, then VERSE series, is Steven Utley and How¬ ford/Eklund story is a common but very you have a mainstream story where the ard Waldrop's "Custer's Last Jump." difficult type, the tale of drab peo¬ psychology is good but the potential¬ Carr calls it a novelet, but it's not ple getting bored silly in a not very ly interesting fantasy aspects are a story at all; it's an essay of the interesting setting. The point of this dumped. How do you have both? Henty sort that GALAXY used to run as "non¬ particular effort is that a surfeit James, as I interpret him, did this fact articles" and it's a splendid of technological wonders is fully as brilliantly in "The Turn of the Screw" one, outlining the history of an alter¬ dull as no wonders at all, and we are by leaving his stor- de-iberately un¬ nate world in which the airplane was left convinced of this, but the story clear. The governess was going banan¬ invented about fifty years earlier takes after its subject matter and be¬ as and there really were ghosts. I'm than it was in ours. As a result the comes a dreary, yawn-provoking affair not sure Aldiss lias done the same. Civil War was fought with World War I further dragged down by some of the You may pass the self-interview off as technology, which was picked up by most insipid dialogue and characteri¬ an "experimen-al" technique, but I some of the indians who worked for zation since Margaret St. Clair's aw¬ think it's more the sign of an incom¬ the Confederates in the west. So the ful Jick and Oona sitcoms in the '40's. plete work. We have here a fragment indian wars of the 1870's involved bi¬ I'm really surprised how bad this is, and notes for finishing it, more a planes, blimps, and paratroopers and considering that both the perpetrat¬ critical exercise than fiction. Custer was defeated by the Sioux air ors have shown themselves to be first- Harlan Ellison's "The Wine Has force. It's a fascijating idea, and rate craftsmen, in the past. Been Left Open Too Long and The Memory the authors have done it in enormous detail, complete with a bibliography Charlie Haas is a new writer whose Has Gone Flat" would have been just of ingenious titles like THE SEVENTH work is otherwise unknown to me, and right for a book Harrison failed to all I can conclude from "Shifting Para¬ complete a few years ago called THE CAVALRY: A HISTORY by E. R. Burroughs, meters..." is that he either Hasn't Got YEAR TWO MILLION. Most SF writers FRANKLIN’S ENGINE: MOVER OF THE WORLD by de Camp and Pratt, and MR. LIN¬ It or he Hasn't Git It Yet. I didn't today prefer to stick to the near fu¬ last long enough to be sure what this ture, where things are very much like COLN'S AIRMEN by Carl Sandburg, and story was really about; a dozen pages they are today. Very few make the at¬ dozens of subsidiary gags like a ref¬ of seemingly\irrevelant detail, dull tempt to create a world wholly chang¬ erence to an Errol Flynn movie called conversations, and a protagonist whose ed, with no discemable connection to THEY DIED WITH THEIR CHUTES ON. Prob¬ only identifiable trait is a craving current scientific knowledge. This ably the best is what purports to be for candy bars, and I felt I'd had e- sort of writing, if it is to succeed, an excerpt from Mark IVain's journals, nough. It's entirely possible that I has to hav- the quality of a vision, and ably mimmicks the style and man¬ never got to the story, that like many like something revealed to an Old nerisms of that writer. beginniner efforts this one didn't Testament prophet, and the problem is really start till page fifteen, but that most current writers are extrap- In short, I was entertained great¬ before I got that far I'd dozed off olators, not visionaries, which was ly by this, but was left with the feel¬ and woke up a few hours later lying why Harry couldn't get enough stories ing that a lot of potential hasn't been on top of the book. That, dear read¬ for his anthology. used. This would make a great back¬ er, is Schweitzer's Infallible Sign ground for a story, perhaps even a "The Wine Has Been Left Open..." novel, in which case "Custer's Last that something is not worth finish¬ is Harlan Ellison's attempt to be ing, especially when it happens in a Jump" might serve as an appendix. All visionary. His invention is commend¬ it needs are plot and characters. short story. able, but his story organizing is something else again. A vestigial plot concerns a convention of immor¬ Now on to the good stuff, or at tals from all over the galaxy held on least the moderately acceptable stuff. the planet with the best acoustics. Brian Aldi-s' "Journey Into the Heart¬ The plan to enliven the otherwise tedi¬ land" is a fairly interesting explor¬ ous existence with rare and exquisite ation of "inner space" in the strict¬ sounds, and of course since this is a est sense of the term. The prose is story for the printed page, Harlan rather unpolished, lacking in organiz¬ cannot reproduce those sounds, but on¬ ation and grace, but it does carry us ly hint at them. Most of his story into the life of Andrew Angsteed, a consists of descriptions of the sounds researcher who seems to have discover¬ and how they are produced, and very ed a new area in the unconscious. Ev¬ little attention is paid to charact¬ entually he withdraws into it and be¬ er. There is a viewpoint person just comes catatonic. Did he really find visible enough to mske the difference something new, or is he merely coming between a necklace and a mess of loose unglued? Aldiss can't make up his beads, and there is even enough of a mind, so he interviews himself about character change to make this a story possible endings to the story: 29 which I have only one objection: the THE FUTUROLOGICAL CONGRESS 1928, or earlier. But this sort of year it’s set in. I don't believe By Stanislaw Lem stuff is what the Eastern European that a machine drawing entropic ener¬ Avon, 1976, 142 pp., $1.25 reader is used to. What happens when gy from dying people will be develop¬ (Originally published in Polish, 1971. a reasonably sophisticated writer com¬ ed, and widely in use, by 1986, a mere Translated by Michael Kandel.) es along? He takes them by storm, be¬ ten years hence. Three hundred years, comes a sensation, and sells millions maybe. Most likely never, but we can It' time to take another look at of copies. That's Stanislaw Lem, cer¬ accept it for purposes of the story. the position of Stanislaw Lem in the tainly the most sophisticated and ad¬ (But then don't listen to claims like SF world I think, now that the NEW vanced writer, conceptually and tech¬ that. SF people are notoriously con¬ YORK TIMES Book Review has run a front nically, in the Soviet Union or its servative when it comes to prediction. page feature extolling him as the satellites. He's certainly the best Maybe Shirley is trying to teach us a greatest thing in the known universe, SF writer in Poland. (But then, is lesson.) Otherwise it's a fine bit of and many American readers have actual¬ there another SF writer in Poland?)" work. Not only do we have the new ly heard of him. Since the piece ap¬ In America it's a different picture machine, but society's reaction to it, peared there has been an upsurge of altogether. Lem is the Eastern Euro¬ a protest movement, and the emergence sales of Lem's books, although wheth¬ pean H.G. Wells, the starter of a tra¬ of a special class of operators at er or not this will continue remains dition rather than a follower in it. least as distant from everyone else to be seen. Before, a bookseller told But in the United States the tradition as policemen are today. People regard me that Lem just didn't move at all. has been moving in a linear develop¬ the process as necessary but still He'd sold a grand total' of one copy ment since the 1920's and in bits and loathsome. We also have a plausibly of the 25 copies of THE CYBERNIAD he'd snatches since the middle of the 19th motivated protagonist who maintains ordered. The book was a total turkey. Century at least. Here Stanislaw Lem the illusion of life for the length Yet in Europe, especially in Eastern cannot expect to stand alone. He is of the story, and a plot intrinsic to Europe, Lem sells millions of copies. one writer among many. Imagine, if character and premise. What more can you will, what enormous significance anyone ask? Of Course it could have Why is this? I have a theory, and my theory is that Stanislaw Lem Robert Silverberg or Ursula LeGuin been more intense, more brilliantly would seem to have if either of them written, and unquestionably an all- hasn't got much competition in Eastern Europe. Ever since various Eastern were the only major SF writer in the time classic. But it wasn't, and United States, Canada, Great Britain still it shows that Shirley has what European countries, including his na¬ tive Poland, were reduced to colonial or Australia. But they're not. There it takes to be a front rank SF writer are many others, and all of them seem eventually. He is definitely a man status by the U.S.S.R. things haven't been that good for the arts. Censor¬ to fuse together in the public eye, to ship has been a serious problem. Lem form a field of science fiction. I'll also be watching Glen Chang, admits this himself in THE ALIEN CRIT¬ Now then, how well does Lem hold but only out of the corner of one eye. IC #10 when he refers to a first novel up against the field of science fic¬ His "Stars and Darkness" begins well which could not be published in the tion, especially in the English-speak¬ but denies its own premise, or, to be early 1950's "for political reasons." ing countries? The answer is—much more precise, chucks out the old one This, you will recall, was the same better than any other Eastern writer. and brings in a new one at the end. period that Alexander Solhenitsyn was He is equal to most of the better wri¬ Star travellers on a long voyage are languishing in Siberia for having made ters in the U.S. in some ways, but playing unauthorized psychological an indiscreet remark about the "man not significantly greater. In other games while sharing dreams, via mach¬ with the moustache" in a personal let¬ ways he is still far behind and has a ine. Yang, the sadist, enjoys over¬ ter. By all indications no writing lot to learn. powering and tormenting his fellows, could be published during this period while the others keep coming back on in the U.S.S.R. which did not openly His major failing is in technique, the hope that sometime they'll get serve the State. In other words, and this new book shows it to an extent the goods on him. Somehow the illus¬ propaganda only; no art, and a cultur¬ hardly hinted at in his first English- ionary maimings become real; corpses al -asteland the result. Certainly language novel, SOLARIS. (Which was start to pile up; and Yang is finger¬ to a large extent this was also true conceptually brilliant, but clumsily ed 8 chased through the ship by the in the colonies, at least until the put together. Still, I would recom¬ rest of the crew, who must kill him aforementioned gentleman with the mend it to anybody who can find it. before the cyborg brains in charge of moustache relieved mankind of his It's now out of print.) everything discover they've all been existence in 1953. Which explains THE FUTUROLOGICAL CONGRESS shows breaking the rules. Up to this point why Russian SF is so embarrassingly once and for all that Lem doesn't there is real emotion and suspense, knock-kneed and primitive by American know how to handle exposition. This but then presto! Yang discovers that standards. It only began to evolve is a basic skill in modem science he's a phantom (strangely visible and in the 1950's, and did so in an envir¬ fiction, and it has been ever since tangible to all), a figment of the onment in which non-conformist think¬ Robert Heinlein developed ways of in¬ imagination of a defective cyborg ing and personal independence, two tegrating background into the story brain. Somehow he hasn't known this traits which frequently go to make a without stopping to lecture. He did all along, even though the story is good writer, were severe liabilities. this in the early 1940's, before which told in the first person from his So the evolution of SF in that part of characters in science fiction tended viewpoint. Stranger still, the rest the world has been late and slow, and to ask each other dumb questions, and of the brains doom him to eternal tor¬ the results usually read to the Amer¬ after which everybody copied Heinlein. ment. "They have learned well," we ican reader like they were written in So the whole field is in debt to Hein¬ are told. Who has? From whom? Are lein, but Mr. Lem isn't, and it shows. we to believe the entire crew are fig¬ ments of the imagination? In which To be specific. The first half case, who the hell would send out ah of this novel is superb. It takes expedition like this? place at a futurological convention in Costa Rica, during which there are UNIVERSE 6 isn’t bad by the stan- political upheavals and a general sat¬ dardsof recent original anthologies, uration bombing of everyone and every¬ with five of the seven stories read¬ thing with psychedelic drugs by the able, and four of them worth reading police in an attempt to restore order. (Shirley, Waldrop/Utley, Chang, Ellis¬ There are fine moments of satire, and on), so it might be worth picking up some dizzying twistings of reality/ as a paperback, although,I really can¬ unreality reminiscent of the best of not recommend that you spend the full Philip K. Dick. Our hero, Ijon Tichy, six bucks on the hardcover. In any gets so freaked out that even after case the 27th annish of F§SF is prob¬ the drugs have worn off (apparently) ably a better buy. he doesn't trust the reality of any¬ thing. He is deemed incurable and put into cold sleep. He then wakes ers that her allegedly "disturbed" sub¬ up in the future, in an era of a ject is really brilliant, perfectly "chemocratic" utopia, and, alas, what sane, and a political deviationist, started out like very good Dick turns whose mind will eventually be erased into fair to middling Hugo Gemsback. by electroshock in the process of his Lem does not know how to make his characters live in his imaginary fu¬ ture. All they can do is talk about This may sound familiar to you, it, ask each other unlikely questions, like something out of a newspaper. and jot down findings in diaries. I'm sure the story will be banned in Some of the ideas are, as we've come the Soviet Union if the censors are to expect from Lem, extremely invent¬ on their toes. Is it a contemporary ive, but he totally fails to make sto¬ story, then? No, it is real science ries out of them. This last half is fiction, and not just because there's quite dull reading, especially after a technological gadget in it. The so promising an opening, but it might mind-probing device is central to the be worthwhile to writers, who could story, and in a way it is the story, mine it for undeveloped material. because only through the machine are It's a goldmine in that respect. we able to appreciate fully the im¬ pending loss of the patient's person¬ The ending, by the way, is apall- ality. One of the images appearing ingly obvious. I won't say what it on the scr-en provides th- metaphor is, but if you think you see it com¬ which is the mainspring of the piece: ing after only a few pages into the a perfectly formed rose. A rose is a second half, you're probably right. beautiful flower with thorns. Good Conclusion: crude by American stand¬ and bad together, like science, like ards, but interesting. Get it while the human mind, the individual. The you can, if you're curious to see Now, I really doubt those words therapist's name, by the way, is Rosa, genuine SF from another culture, be¬ and it doesn't,seem heavy-handed be¬ cause I'm not sure Lem will last long rhymed in the original Polish, just as I doubt that the numerous and clev¬ cause the story is exquisitely, flaw¬ in this country. Certainly the ludi¬ lessly put togethe-, and it's certain¬ crous claims made for him by the NY er puns and other verbal tricks could come through translation intact. There ly one of the best SF shorts to be TIMES and by his agent, Franz Rotten- published in years, and one of Le steiner, won't improve his chances. are portmanteau words like "intellec- tronics" and "wego" (the ego of a mul¬ Guin's best, which is saying a lot. Readers will go to Lem's books expect¬ Keep it in mind when award time comes. ing something really earthshattering tiple personality) which seem to be and they won't get it and they'll be native to English. I would be curious terribly disappointed. Enjoyment of to know how this was done, but in any Admittedly anything is a comedown a book is frequently ruined this way. case I'm grateful for it, since it after a story of such calibre, and in If something is heralded as an all- does liven things up considerably, ev¬ this case the particular comedown is en in the tedious latter half. time classic and it isn't, we feel one of the two reprints in the col¬ let down. If no such claims are made lection, Damon Knight's "The Country for it, we see it on its merits. It of the Kind." It's also a double would be a shame if Lem is not appre¬ comedown for me because I knew that ciated on his merits, but I suspect FUTURE POWER it was in some way a parallel of H.G. that's going to be the case. I see Edited by Jack Dann § Gardner Dozois Wells' "The Country of the Blind," so some signs of it in U.S. fandom al¬ Random House, 1976, 256 pp., $7.95 I went and read the Wells first, then ready. (Which is not a totally untyp¬ came back to the Knight, which suffer¬ ical reader sampling. We vote awards At last, at last, an anthology I ed by comparison. Both are studies of for, say, THE\FOREVER WAR, and the can completely respect. Well...almost relative values, but Damon's seems a general readership buys it like cra¬ completely. The wonders of FUTURE lot more contrived. His premise is zy.) POWER are manifold, and among them is that a murderer in a pacifist society a readable Felix Gotschalk story, an is prevented from doing harm to others Sooner or later some smartass event so rare it must surely herald by an alteration of a type of epilep¬ critic is going to do a full-scale the advent of the Millenium. sy he conveniently has, but otherwise The-Emperor-Is-Naked article on Lem, The theme of this book is power, is allowed to do anything he wants at and he may be sneered right out of mostly in the sense of man's ability the price of total ostricism. The serious consideration. To prevent to control others. Dann and Dozois criminal then goes on a destruction that from happening, I suggest you (mostly Dozois, I suspect since many and lootin g spree and thinks he's on read some of his books at once. Also of the ideas in the interview I did top of the world. But he's not and available in English are MEMOIRS FOUND with him are repeated) discuss possi¬ the people around him regard him as a IN A BATHTUB, THE CYBERNIAD, THE IN¬ ble futures in their introduction, and cripple, the same way Wells' blind VESTIGATION, and THE INVINCIBLE. Try admirably manage to be neither techno- folk regarded the sighted man as im¬ them, because they are a significant philic nor technophobic, and bring up perfect. Knight's idea is interest¬ part of 20th Century SF, but don't ap¬ Gardner's basic three science fiction ing, but it's hardly believable or proach them expecting Shakespeare, futures. Leaving aside the first one well developed. Dann and Dozois Tolstoy, and the Prophet of God all in which everybody dies and story pos¬ might have done better to reprint the rolled into one. sibilities are severely limited, we original Wells. The translation of THE FUTUROLOG¬ have the future of arrested technolog¬ "Smoe and the Implicit Clay" is ICAL CONGRESS, I might mention in pass¬ ical development and a new dark age, one of those lunatic things R.A. Laf- ing, is excellent, although sometimes and that of unlimited technological ferty has been writing for years. We I suspect that the translator has turn¬ progress. The stories at least loose¬ often say that nobody writes like so- ed collaborator and rewritten parts of ly deal with the idea of power against and-so, but if Lafferty's case it's the book. I mean, it reads like it was these backgrounds. perfectly true. Seriously, who else written in English when you come to Ursula LeGuin's "The Diary of The would write a story about an attempt something like this: Rose" is a quietly terrifying story a- to find out who has been on new worlds bout near-future psychiatry and the before the explorers get there, then The butter, melting, hissed bring in such answers as Kilroy, in¬ and spat, and the thought that destruction of personality for polit¬ ical reasons. A woman therapist equip¬ visible indians, semi-transparent cab¬ butter might sputter and make bies, a planet full of buffalo turds the flame gutter was so hilar¬ ped with a machine that lets one peer into the mind of the patient, with the (if I'm reading correctly), ands a ious that I burst out laughing... cigar-smoking, pot-bellied, walrus- (p.19, italics author's) best intentions in the world, discov- 31 moustached computer extension, and make it all make sense on its own lev¬ the point entirely (in which case I He tells of a neo-Victorian era el? Outwardly there doesn't seem to would argue that the author has fail¬ in which sex is dirty again, and con¬ be much cause and effect in his sto¬ ed to communicate the point, and if trolled by some novel bits of biolog¬ ries, but I think I’ve figured out he really cares about such things he ical engineering. All this comes how Lafferty works. The causes are should not let such misinterpretations through careful selection of detail novel and the effects unheard of, but happen) it all seems rather tame to and overheard conversation as a child still there is a relationship. To me. We have a government apparently goes in to his sexiatrist for promo¬ borrow a few words from Harlan Ellis¬ run by psychiatrists, or in which tion to adult. No more will I say. on, who was trying to explain a simi¬ they play an important part. We have Read it. larly crazy writer we had at Clarion one of those large indoor urban cul¬ After this the anthology begins the year I was there, Lafferty lives tures familiar from the FOUNDATION to slip a little. Vonda McIntyre's in another universe, perhaps his own trilogy, THE WORLD INSIDE, and many "Thanatos" is about a world in which personal one, but difinitely not our others, and that's about all. The such problems as pollution have been own, and on those occasions when our story is a trifle, although the mere allowed to run unchecked beyond all universe rubs against his, a story re¬ fact that it's intellig ible shows a hope of reversal. All animals have sults, told basically in the terms of big improvement for Gotschalk. His died, and for biological purposes, the other universe. prose is still awkward and cluttered such as making serums, people are us¬ with unexplained jargon (including Yes, that’s it, I think, although ed, mostly political malcontents. unlike the other guy Lafferty at least something about engrams---is he a Sci¬ entologist?), but at least it's comp¬ There is a very real horror in this, writes in the language of our universe, and the tale is competently told, but etent English. so we are able to follow him where no it seems to me that virtually all the earthly mind has gone before. I think. Next we have something by George Vonda McIntyre stories I've read have Either that or I'm being slowly sucked Alec Effinger, a writer who, quite been about lone women in hopeless and into Lafferty's universe, because the honestly, has never appealed to me. degrading situations. She may not re¬ alise she's repeating herself, but more I read of his work the more I "Contentment, Satisfaction, Cheer, come to appreciate it, and maybe even Well-Being, Gladness, Joy, Comfort, when her short fiction is collect¬ understand some of it. And Not Having To Get Up Early Any¬ ed (as that of Nebula winners inevit¬ What has this got to do with the more" is about how the six represent¬ ably is) the result will be a very stated theme of the book? A little, atives who rule the world on a folksy, monotonous book. but not much. The editorial blurb informal, first-name basis start to Finally we have a decidedly frus¬ tells us the story may be read as a nudge one another out of power until trating and disappointing novella by demonstration of how we can prevail there is only one left. It's a cot¬ Gene Wolf, "The Eyeflash Miracles." against technological gimmickry (the ton candy coup de etat and nobody The story treads the fine line between indians defeat the paleface computer), seems to be hurt or particularly up¬ intentional and artistically valid am¬ set, and finally the single survivor but it also might be taken to show how biguity and outright confusion, trips, having an entirely new paradigm for gives up control of the world to a and falls into the wrong area. It's perceiving reality may force your op¬ giant computer, then joins his fel¬ about a blind boy (who sees at times, lows in retirement. There's no con¬ ponent to meet you on your own terms mostly unreal things) who may or may and confuse the hell out of him. flict, and the whole thing may be not be a mutant homo superior, or one summed ip in one word: bland. It's "She Waitd For All Man Bom" is of several gods, who wanders around the sort of story that isn't unpleas¬ the U.S., time undefined,, society simi¬ top drawer James Tiptree (which is the ant to read, but when you get done delight of this book—virtually all lar to ours, government much differ¬ you say "So what?", shrug, and go on ent (running genetic experiments on the stories are the authors' best) to something else. It does make an humans and fully willing to slaughter which I might point out for an award interesting parallel to D.F. Jones' if LeGuin hadn't written "The Diary the results), without accomplishing COLOSSUS, save that Jones approached anything in particular. Parts of it of The Rose." It's about the ultimate the same situation with the shivering power struggle between life and death, are interesting, even well done, es¬ horrors—which I find more plausible pecially some of the dream sequences, and how the two come to terms at last. in human terms. To be more specific: after several and the task of presenting all this prologues which take up half the text Now the other reprint, by an un¬ from the viewpoint of a blind person and show the race between new means of known writer. A.K. Jorgensson is (all feel, no images, except in spec¬ life and new means of death (e.g. ad¬ really Robert W.A. Roach who lives in ial cases where he does see vividly), vanced medicine and nuclear weapons), Algeria, we are told, but the editors but the story meanders and lacks dra¬ Tiptree draws in a very short space an don't mention if this guy has ever ma. At times cause and effect don't admirably detailed picture of a regres¬ published anything besides his single seem to apply. When the boy is threat¬ sive, post-Blast society more complete story, "Coming of Age Day," or where ened with death, the situation is not than what some writers can do in a that story appeared (copyright 1965), resolved. It merely ends. The author novel. Into this setting a strange but on the basis of this effort alone, skips to something else. The result child is bom, extremely pale, blind, I'd say that Jorgensson has the poten¬ is like a film cut to ribbons. Most yet amazingly healthy and possessed of tial of becoming a major SF writer. of the continuity is missing. You unnatural powers of healing—and Future variations on sex and govern¬ can watch it all the way through, but killing, it turns out. ment control thereof are a recently afterwards you wonder why you bother¬ developed cliche in the field, but ed, and you also wish the story had This child is immortal, but death¬ Jorgensson makes it seem fresh, per¬ been complete enough to mean some¬ dealing, a combination of the ultimate haps because he was writing SF before thing. Too bad. Wolfe is capable of in life and death. She destroys all most SF writers discovered such iftuch better, but even so a single life on Earth, perhaps in the universe, things, or because he comes from out¬ strikeout like this isn't bad for an but cannot die herself. The story side the regular SF community, or may¬ anthology of such overall high quali¬ works as science fiction, as myth, and be because he's simply more imagina¬ ty. as an amazingly condensed yet living tive than most. epic, all in about 3000 words. The Gotschalk story I mentioned earlier is "The Day of The Big Test." The title tells all. A boy genius takes an intelligence/psychological adjustment test, and as a result of his passing it his family is moved to (apparently) better quarters. The editors seem to think this is some sort of daring and "wildly improbable" speculation, but unless I'm missing I'd like to publicly commend Ran¬ Life" and the picture shows a rag¬ dom House for publishing books, not ged, emaciated child sitting in a cheaply printed conglomerations of pile of rubble, while two fat ladies pages loosely thrown in the general at least 500 pounds each, look on; direction of a plastic back. This ed¬ the caption reads: "Really, now, ition of FUTURE POWER is printed on Mrs. Jones, I dunno what children good paper, with sewn signitures, and is cornin' ter these days! 'Ark at a genuine cloth binding. Very few 'im now! Wants me ter tyke 'im ter publishers go through this much trou¬ 'Yde Park...an' 'im wif a puffickly ble anymore. Even Random House didn't good back garden ter play in!" until recently. Berkley-Putnam and Scribners are the only two other major On the facing page there is an houses I can think of right off. St. ink and watercolor illustration Martin's used to, but regrettably from an unpublished beastiary of im¬ stopped. Any collector of old books aginary animals called THE MXCUS can assure you that the sewn signi¬ BOOK, complete with nonsense jingles tures are essential if a book is to to explain each creature. These, last more than a few years and be sig¬ if they may be compared to anything nificantly more durable than a paper¬ remind me a little of Dr. Seuss. back. Random House books won't dis¬ They have none of the barbed nasti¬ integrate in five years. Librarians ness of the SATIRE cover, or the SLAUGHTERBOARD DROPS AN ANCHOR. Al¬ horror of the wartime series, "An so present are several essays; the Exhibition of the Artist, Adolph complete short book for artists, THE Hitler." CRAFT OF THE LEAD PENCIL; Peake's The fourth style is found in first published work, a piece from Mervyn Peake Writings £ Drawings the book illustrations, from which a childrens' magazine written when compiled by Maeve Gilmore fj Peake derived a good deal of his in¬ he was ten and living in China, Shelagh Johnson Academy/St. Mar¬ come. These are black and white, and, for the first time anywhere, tin's Press, 1974, $15.00 somewhere halfway between impres- one of his plays) THE EYE OF THE sionalism and realism, showing BEHOLDER. Mervyn Peake was one of those scenes from TREASURE ISLAND (a Peake wrote several plays, but rare geniuses, seldom seen in fan¬ great favorite of Peake's), THE tasy or any other field, whose got nowhere. One of them THE WIT RHYME OF THE ANCIENT MARINER, ALICE TO WOO, was staged in the 1950s but works will surely live as long as THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS, and so the language simply because they failed promptly, and THE EYE OF THE on. And scattered throughout are BEHOLDER was broadcast over BBC are so unique that no writer of many things which don't fit into later generations will ever dupli¬ radio in 1956. Of course, it's these broad groupings, several hard to judge what any play must cate them. His reputation rests paintings of figures which rather mostly on the monumental GORMEN- be like performed by merely reading resemble early Picasso, one or two it, especially a radio play since GHAST trilogy, and perhaps his near abstracts, a map of three im¬ other novel, MR. PYE, and the no¬ it has no descriptive stage direc¬ aginary countries, rough sketches, tions, but I would guess that THE vella "A Boy in Darkness" are simple line drawings, the proposed known to more than a few. But I EYE OF THE BEHOLDER was interesting outline of a television cartoon, without being very memorable. It's wonder how many readers know that and much more. Peake also drew, painted, wrote about an artist who is hired to poetry, plays, short stories, etc.? The writings are equally inter¬ paint a nativity mural in a church, He was an amazingly versatile art¬ esting. The American reader gets and then shocks the congregation by ist, who did outstanding work in what is probably his first chance showing Christ in a spaceship several media, even if only his to read Peake's poetry, all of it (shades of CHARIOTS OF THE GODS!). novels are widely circulated. having been published previously in The churchmen don't appreciate the very scarce British editions only. aesthetics of the thing, and the We owe a lot to Maeve Gilmore Some of this is rhymed nonsense painter leaves town, only to return [Peake's widow] and Shelagh John¬ verse, and the rest free form, that some years later to find his work son, because it is only through sort of poetry which is disting¬ accepted, respectable, and ignored their efforts that we are afforded uished from prose solely by the way by the public. This is not a very a full view of the range of Peake's it is arranged on the page. I don't effective play. Its preachments a- talents. Writings and Drawings is think it is as effective as his bout widespread insensitivity to a large, well reproduced, deluxe best prose. Mich of it does noth¬ art are well made, but just not very book, with drawings or paintings on ing for me; in some only a line or dramatic. Playwrighting was not nearly every page, sometimes in two stands out; but occasionally one of the author's strengths. color. From it we see much more of one works all the way through. One Peak's graphic skills than could I suppose the only thing wrong of the best begins like this: ever be imagined from the sketches with this book is the fact that sev¬ and spot illustrations that are If I could see, not surfaces. eral pages are taken up with excer¬ found in most editions of the GOR- But could express pts front the well-known and easily MENGHAST books. Before this the What lies beneath the skin available works, mostly the GORMEN¬ only completed Peake drawings I had Where the blood moves GHAST trilogy. Of course, the com¬ seen were the frontispiece for TI¬ In fruit or head or stone. pilers wanted to give a well-round¬ TUS ALONE, the jacket and interiors Then I would know the one ed sampling of all Peake's work, for MR. PYE, and the two-color cov¬ Essential but I doubt that many readers who are unfamiliar with the major writ¬ er on NEW WORLDS 189. Now I rea¬ And my eyes ings will be buying this book. So lize how tiny a tip of the whole When dead what we really have here is a col¬ iceberg these were. Would give the worm No hollow food. lection of Peake marginalia, an art Peake had at least four styles folio-cum-scrapbook (where else as a graphic artist. The most often There are lots of fragments would you see drawings for the seen is the sort of mild caricature and drafts, including one of a sec¬ never written OPERA OF GORMENGHAST, found in the GORMENGHAST books, tion of TITUS GROAN when it was or a rough outline for the fourth which show a character's personal¬ called THE HOUSE OF DARKNESS, and Titus book?) and the space could ity at a glance. Then there is the another from something called MR. have been better used by printing much more bitter, wildly exaggerated SLAUGHTERBOARD, which is much gloom another of the plays, or perhaps type, such as the drawing used on ier and more intense than the pub¬ one or both of the short stories the cover of Graham Greene's maga¬ lished childrens' book CAPTAIN Peake had in SCIENCE FANTASY, zine SATIRE. The topic is "child 33 "Danse Macabre" and "Same Time Same Place” (issues 60 and 61, 1963), LETTER FROM HARLAN ELLISON ungentlemanly chuckling. Mr. Cooper, which have never appeared in a sf reviewer for one of the more pres¬ Peake collection. 7 August 76 tigious English newspapers, has deliv¬ The bibliography at the back of ered reams of review copy—not to the book is not to be trusted en¬ 'A few brief, scattered comments mention extensive interviews—-in tirely. Theabove mentioned short on items in SFR #18. which he bemoaned our Yankee procliv¬ ity for wallowing in hack trash. stories are not listed, and neither '1. Thank you for the pleasant, is the chapter from TITUS ALONE Though I'm certain the word shit passing nod of approval for my short would never pass Mr. Cooper's lips or which appeared in NEW WORLDS 494. story, "Strange Wine," in the 50th And an ambiguous entry reading, his typewriter, his ability to dis¬ Anniversary issue of AMAZING STORIES. miss virtually an entire nation of "Speculative fiction (NEW WORLDS) I'm rather fond of that little piece, October 1967" turns out to be, on fantasists with an awesome cavalier and it was with mild sadness that I certainty forces me to boil down his checking, Langdon Jones' review/ heard the editor, Ted White, had said essay on A REVERIE OF BONE, but effusions to that objective word. it was a poor piece. Had Ted not That he is responsible for the dreary, you'd never know from the biblio¬ said it from the lecture platform at graphy. (While they're listing dreadful "Avery" books is a bit of some convention or other, I might not incidental intelligence I clutch to such things, it would have only have minded so much, but he did; and been consistent to mention Mr. my nasty little black soul with un¬ (while he was well within his rights common joy. My undying thanks to Mr. Jones' other long review, or GOR- to have said it because he didn't ac¬ MENGHAST, in issue 181, April 196&) Dixon, a critic of rare perception cept it for inclusion in that issue, who also, not incidentally, gave a Still, the excellencies of this the publisher did) I went back and nice, strong review to J in Suther¬ book overwhelm any shortcomings. re-read it several times to see if it land's STORMTRACK, the first of my It presents a lot of rare material, really was a bummer. Perhaps your "Discovery" titles. gives a good outline of Peake's linking it with Ted's own story as career, and is a fitting tribute to one of the "good things" in the issue '4. David Taggart's mentioning one of the finest creative minds may give Ted cause to reconsider. that we were both reviewed in a 1954 issue of IMAGINATION hardly makes me the fantasy field has ever known. Perhaps not. But either way, it's Highly recommended. always nice when an outside observer feel old. It gives me a feeling of *************** ******************** casually drops a plaudit on something permanence, cohtinuity, oneness with over which a shadow has been cast. the ages...as if I were a sarsen stone at Stonehenge. Come on, Dick, get LETTER FROM DAMON KNIGHT '2. I think your response to with the program. We're both "elder Charles Platt's letter about Darrell August 25, 1976 statesmen" now. I'm 42 and loving Schweitzer's review of NEW WORLDS #6 every minute of it...looking forward was unfair. While it is possible 'When a reviewer says a story is to age 50...and watching with interest Charles was a bit harsher than he to discover what phrase the cliche- bad, it may be because the story is needed to be, I can fully sympathize incomprehensible or badly written, or mongers will devise to subsum me when with his position. After ten years enfant terrible clearly becomes in¬ because the reviewer is uncomprehend¬ of nuddled, clearly confused reviews ing and a bad reader. In Darrell valid. If it didn't become so ten in fanzines, by people whose compet¬ years ago. Schweitzer's review of ORBIT 17, he ency to review experimental fiction often misses the point and then com¬ can easily be held up to question— '5. Also delighted to discover plains that there is none. Seth Mc- and a degree in English Lit is consid¬ Mr. Dixon is a fan of BBC's DR. WHO Evoy's "Which in the Wood Decays," erably less of a valid credential than series. Both my wife, Lori, and I for instance, is a burlesque of the your response would lead us to be¬ became rabid fans of the series dur¬ cliches Schweitzer complains of; his lieve— I can fault Charles for his ing our trip to England last year, solemn criticism is almost as funny vehemence a good deal less than you and again this past June-July. The as the story itself. Schweitzer also did. Readers of SFR know full well new segments, featuring Tom Baker, fathers on me Jim Blish's "Call the your general negative reactions to are even more delightful than the rabbit a smeerp," and says about Kath¬ experimental writing, but to lungs all ones PBS has been running here in the leen Sidney's "The Anthropologist": of modem fiction outside the sf la¬ States with Jon Pertwee as the uni- I got quite a start four pages bel as filled with "ambiguities and quitous Time Lord. The shows are so into the story discovering that non-plots, metaphors and indirect filled with fun and intelligence and somebody named Robert, who oth¬ meanings" is, I hope you'll agree solid adventure sf that those who erwise seemed a normal child, upon reconsideration, more than revel in SPACE:1999 and STAR TREK had three heads, nine legs, and slightly unfair.' would be blown away if they could see three fingers on each hand/foot. them. And in the U.K., the Good Doc¬ ((No, I'll only reconsider to the tor is a cult-generating figure as The first page of Sydney's story is point of slightly unfair,)) wholeheartedly worshipped as Mary only eight lines long. Halfway down '3. Personal reasons of revenge Hartman is (among a certain set) here the second page the attentive reader (utterly despicable and without even in the U.S. I only wish the Hugos will find the following: the faintest tinge of moral justifi¬ extended to English presentations: I'd quickly nominate the four-part But he was spared one agony: he cation) made me smile long and hard story called "Planet of Evil," which made a poor Scapegoat. They at Buzz Dixon's stomping of the "Rich¬ we saw in company with Mike Moorcock could not easily project their ard Avery Expendables series. For last year, one chapter each Saturday fears about their own human those who are unaware of the true i- for a month, and which the BBC re-ran weaknesses onto a beast with dentity of ’Avery," permit me to vent- in one lovely scoop this year. three heads and nine legs. late my vengeful instinks by noting that the lurker behind the name is 'My God, this has gone on much 'It seems to me that criticism none other than Englan's self-anointed longer than I'd intended! All in all, like this really helps nobody—auth¬ adjudicator of "quality" and "trash" a fascinating issue.' or; editor or reader.' in science fiction, Mr. Edmund Coop¬ ************************************* er. Those whose interest in imagina¬ ((I have just read "Which in the tive fiction roams beyond the terri¬ Wood Decays" and enjoyed it. It torial confines of the United States seems an amusing dead-pan mockery of will find this amusing, as Mr. Cooper a set of cliches...put.. .also a triv¬ has long carried on a campaign in the ial piece. It's been done so often. U.K. against many American sf writers Every young writer discovers cliches as "purveyors of adolescent twaddle." and sets out to demolish them. They That I am one of. these alleged purvey¬ usually outlive him.)) ors is, of course, the reason for my ************************************* 34 LETTER FROM DARRELL SCHWEITZER humanities than the sciences, although I do have a smattering of science August 18, 1976 since I don't think we can get an ap¬ preciable grip on realit- without it. 'Charles Platt's letter in the new My scientific education is that of a SFR ((#18)) had me agreeing with him layman, and by my standards at least on one point. It is true that there rather spotty. (Much better than are science fiction fans who have nev¬ that of the general public, however, er read anything else, and 1 agree if the success of SPACE:1949 is any 1004 that these people are unqualified indication.) Pardon my ignorance, to review anything but SF, the same but it's always seemed to me that way that a mainstream critic who has something "humanistic" is concerned never read any SF before is unquali¬ with people, their emotions, percep¬ fied to review SF. I would even go tions, etc. The earliest works and one step further and say that someone thinkers to which this term is usual¬ who has never read anything but SF is ly applied are late medieval and ear¬ not qualified to review anything, be¬ ly Renaissance types who turned away cause his viewpoints are too narrow from contemplation of God and the and he has only had vague and indir¬ angels and decided that man and his ect contact with the culture of the world were worth bothering with. society around him. SF is a part of 'My objection with the stories that culture, but not a large part. in NEW WORLDS 6 was that they had no I'm reminded of the story about the intersection with human reality at blind man who reported that an ele¬ all. I would argue that they were as phant is flexible, thin, and rather coldly mechanical (i.e. both non-emo¬ like a rope, because he had touched like Gore Vidal or,(to use my earlier tional and non-intellectual at the the tail and nothing else. example) Singer can reach a much wid¬ same time, thus having no appeal to er audience because their work is a- 'Fandom is loaded with this type the reader) as anything written by a bout people and real situations, and of person. The most ludicrous dis¬ member of our species can be. Platt it means something to someone besides play I can remember happened when insists this is for readers more fam¬ the writer. Dave Harris was giving a talk at a iliar with modem literature. Well, Philadelphia fan meeting. He was in a way he is right, if he means it 'Platt says that NEW WORLDS 6, as telling how Maxwell Perkins was the for the people who read, say, Donald published by Avon, was "nori-science- John Campbell of the mainstream in Barthelme. I would level the same fiction." He means clearly that it the early part of this century, in¬ charges against him, if CITY LIFE is was this sort of "literary" anthology. fluencing general fiction the same any indication. Barthelme is one of Why then, pray tell, was it marketed way Campbell influenced SF in the these guys fascinated by putting as science fiction? It was. The 1940's, bringing major new writers to words in funny patterns, and with words "scpeculative fiction" (the ac¬ the fore and all that, when a dimwit typography (like writing a "story" tual label used) have been worn into raised his hand and said, "But what consisting of numbered one-sentence non-meaning, but the reader still as¬ did he ever produce that can compare paragraphs.). This also has nothing sociates this with science fiction. with Hal Clement?" Repressed gig¬ to do with human experience and reads So, too, do the distributors and re¬ gles. Most fans aren't this far gone, like a computer printout. Hardly tailers, because that's where the you know. Harris looked rather taken what I would call humanistic or even book ended up—in the science fic¬ aback but recovered quickly and said, human, but then Platt and I have dif¬ tion section. It doesn't belong "Well, THE GREAT GATSBY, the novels ferent definitions, obviously. I am there, but it gets there, because as of Thomas Wolfe and Ernest Hemingway left with the feeling that many modem recently as the four issues of the ..." Sigh... There really are liter¬ mainstream writers have passed into quarterly published by Berkley, it ary bigots in this field who are ful¬ advanced decadence, abandoning charac¬ was mostly science fiction. If Platt ly as bad as the general critics in, ter and theme, and concentrating on wanted to edit a different kind of say, NEWSWEAK. I know a few people form entirely. Which suggests that magazine, why not found a new one who will come right out and say, "But science fiction has no cause for an with a different title? He has as I can't read that! It's mainstream!" inferiority complex. The mainstream much chance of turning a science fic¬ writers have a great deal to re-learn tion magazine into a "literary" one 'Platt no doubt places me in that from the likes of Silverberg and Kate as he would, say, ELLERY QUEEN’S MYS¬ group, but he doesn't know my inter¬ Wilhelm. Or some of them do. There TERY MAGAZINE. One cannot change a ests and reading habits. I do lots still is Isaac Bashevis Singer who magazine from one type to another, of reading in areas we provincially writes characters in his stories. retain the same title, and hope it call "outside the field" (trans.: all (And he also protest obscurity and will sell. Readers of the old type human thought and endeavor prior to meaninglessness in modem fiction, of material will be disappointed, the 19th century, and a good bit of stating in an interview that clarity and readers of the new will never get it thereafter.) The degree you men¬ is a virtue and the public is being the word. I imagine the readers for tioned ay receiving is a Master's in the type of thing Platt is publish¬ English Lit. I didn't have to write consistently lied to by the New York literary establishment. ing [or was publishing—two develop¬ a thesis, but the most extensive pa¬ ments have happened: 1) Hilary Bailey per I wrote was on Lord Dunsany's 'NEW WORLDS used to be, circa is now editing the series, and 2)' plays (part of a book I'm doing for 1976, an excellent, very literate sci¬ from what Platt told me at Lunacon, T-K Graphics---I never like to let ence fiction magazine. I wrote lots the Corgi Books version will not last writing go to waste) but besides that of favorable reviews of NEW WORLDS beyond #12] did not pick the thing up my heaviest concentration was in med¬ material back then, of CAMP CONCENTRA¬ because they thought it was science ieval and Elizabethan/Jacobean writ¬ TION, AN AGE, A CURE FOR CANCER, BARE¬ fiction. ing, although I did take most of the FOOT IN THE HEAD, and even BU JACK standard courses like Modem English BARRON. But somewhere along the line 'Actually, the vast majority of Drama, and (yes, even) Modem Ameri¬ the magazine turned into a "little" the stuff I see in NEW WORLDS (which can Fiction. (Which mostly consists literary magazine. This is a very I still read, by the way, the most of Hemingway, Faulkner, Fitzgerald, specialized type of publication, prob¬ recent one to come my way being #9— and othewriters long dead, curiously ably not viable commercially (as wit¬ which is much better, in all fairness) enough.) ness the non-profit. University-fund¬ which I would consider to be fiction 'Anyway, I am curious to know ed nature of most others of the type) at all is science fiction. The series what Platt means by stories which are which appeals to a very limited reader- consists of SF, poetry, fragments, and "humanistic rather than mechanistic." ship. It is, I think, much more lim- non-functional word patterns. About % own background is much more in the 35 the only decent mainstream story (i.e. a realistic story about persons and 'By an astonishing coincidence I n't. It isn't always the same old events in the world as we know it, received a humble dittoes fanzine in story. There are dozens of older with no speculative elements) was the mail along with SFR, something writers in our field, people who have Harvey Jacobs' "The Negotiators" in called PROTEUS, and in it David Fryx- been writing constantly for over thir¬ issue #190, but that was quite a few ell sums up my feelings about Barry ty years, who are not miserable and years ago...1969 to be precise. I Malzberg very aptly. Malzberg is ap¬ burned out, and who will probably think NEW WORLDS will appeal less to parently "still hanging around, pre¬ continue to write happily until they the reader of mainstream fiction than sumably waiting for mourners." I'm drop. I'm thinking of people like it will to the science fiction reader. amused and to some degree amazed by Asimov, Clarke', de Camp. I doubt 'As for the origin of the phrase the way that Malzberg has managed to their experiences have been similar "non-functional word pattern", I hope attract more attention to himself by to Malzberg's.’ this term will be my lasting contri¬ leaving the field than he ever did bution to the vocabulary of criticism. while in it. He also seems to have been "leaving" the field for an awful¬ We have needed something like that A MELANGE-A-TROIS OR MORE for a long time. The idea occurred ly long time, perhaps with the intent to me when reading the Sayings of of topping Harlan Ellison's epic dis¬ play of "leaving fandom" which has WHAT DOES WOMAN WANT? Chairman Pierce, who suggested (quite By Timothy Leri sensibly) that calling something id- been going on since the 1969 Worldcon. Maybe Malzberg will make "leaving SF" 88 Books, POB 632, Pleasant Hill, descibable" is not only a cliche but ORE 97401. $10.00 a serious copout. It means the crit¬ his new full-time career, at least for a few years... Pardon me. The man ic or reviewer has refused to deal Reviewed By Robert Anton Wilson with the item at hand. Nothing is may be sincere, but I suspect cynical indescribable. Then, I wondered, how showmanship, an attempt to raise him¬ shall we describe the standard NEW self to the level of Silverberg and This book is presented as a WORLDS whatsit, the non-communicative Ellison (since both are publicly exit¬ manuscript which fell through a piece without any intellectual or ing at the same time) without writing space-time warp from the Vidalian emotional content, lacking the idea¬ as well as either of them. I do not solar system in 2575. Timothy tional content of an essay or the think Malzberg will find any "mourn¬ Leri, the author, is, in some emotional/human values and experienc¬ ers". He will not be missed or re¬ sense, Timothy Leary, the Harvard es of a short story? (Also devoid membered. The poor fellow is under psychologist, LSD researcher, of anything I would recognize as po¬ the delusion that he is a major tal¬ counter-culture guru, internation¬ etry.) To be specific § descriptive, ent, and th- cruel insensitive world al fugitive, etc. Timothy Leri is yet general, I dubbed these things just doesn’t recognize him, alas 6 also a galactic agent assigned to (having the Ballard "condensed novels" boo-hoo. His hardcover books are al¬ a primitive and barbaric planet, in mind) as "word patterns." You ready being remaindered in large num¬ Sol-3, with the assignment of mu¬ can't argue with that, can you? Eith¬ bers. I sometimes see three and four tating it from mammalian (emotion¬ er they are random words or they are different titles on the same table. I al) consciousness to objective in¬ word patterns, and I'm giving the don't buy them because his omnipres¬ telligence. writer the benefit of the doubt. ent short stories have taught me bet¬ ter. I tried to read HEROVIT'S WORLD The work itself seems to be com¬ Now, since they communicate nothing posed by Leri, not Leary, but has and serve no purpose, they are use¬ and the joke ran thin after thirty pages. The egotistical, self-pitying been edited and commented upon by less. Non-functional as in having various interstellar critics and no function or cause for existence. whine didn't help much either. This is hardly my idea of a major work of scholars. Some passages are ob¬ Hence the non-functional word pattern. viously incorporated by mistake (or It has been a fad among pretentious criticism, or anything, contrary to Terrence Green. I would be more ex¬ by the conscious fraud and counter¬ writers of science fiction, but one feiting of texts that bedevils all of the most positive developments in pecting one to come from John Jakes or E. C. Tubb than from Malzberg. scholarly attempts to reconstruct SF of late has been a wholesale return events in barbaric periods. to human values on the part of the Really, his only significant contri¬ new and relatively new, post-"new bution to SF has been to kill the Timofiev, the "acid assassin" wave" writers like Martin, Dozois, technophobic, unplotted, woe-is-me hunted by the Soviet secret police, Reamy, Varley, Haldeman, etc. NEW novel by running it into the ground is probably such a forgery. -- un¬ WORLDS, representing the older, non¬ with hordes of pallid rehashes. To less Leri is the forgery and Timo¬ human, computerese type of writing is me at least Malzberg's talent is a fiev is the real origin of this very minor one, below average but now old-fashioned. This is what hap¬ myth cycle. Then, again, according pens to any closed-off elite. Sooner with some potential, now prostituted tc other chapters, the real man be¬ beyond any hope of redemption. Too or later everybody else goes off in hind the mythology may have been a bad. He was lost to the field long another direction and it becomes a baseball player having a bad ses¬ before now. You know, the only Malz¬ backwater. sion and being booed by the fans berg story I ever read which I could who once cheered him on... remember afterwards was his first one, back in 1967. That’s mediocrity for Erudite readers will soon notice you.' another set of problems beyond these obvious historical confusions. Leri, ((Divining another’s motives whoever he is, has become blended is a seductive, but dumb game. I over the centuries with Dante, Jam¬ know from experience. That "waiting es Joyce and Julian the Apostate. for mourners" line is a aheap shot. (One of the most dramatic verses at¬ ((I think some of Barry 's short tributed to him, "Midway through fiction will live a long time. I our Life's life, I awoke on a dark think he misuses his talent at novel planet," is palpably a distortion length. Nevertheless, I enjoyed of Dante...) It is even possible HEROVIT’S WORLD and OVERLAY, and will that the conspiracy which attempts remember them. to destroy him (i.e. either the ((In writing, even an exit takes MVD or the infamous Nixon-Liddy a long time, because of long publish¬ Gang) is itself a fiction, model¬ ing schedules and heavy inventories.)) ed on Egyptian demonology or Wil¬ liam S. Burroughs' Nova Mob. 'Barry's essay this issue (the in¬ Behind this web of surface ambi¬ tro to his book) is of course thrown guity (a deadly parody of academic way off by his assumption that all scholarship), Leri's stor- is, writers are like himself. They are- mercifully, straightforward, comic, 36 and highly erotic. Commodore Le- ri, who may be an alias for Captain Reich or Masters-Johnson, (f) the James Kirk of the S.S. ENTERPRISE, most brilliant satire on human arrives in Switzerland pursued by chauvinism since Swift, (g) the more conspiracies than the bedevil answer to the title question, and ed heroes of ILLUMINATUS! (h) more--- much more... An ambiguous anti-senitic mil¬ The last time I visited the im¬ lionaire offers to help him, a prisoned felon who created (or, as professional "information broker" he says, "transcieved" this galac¬ (who sells state secrets of all tic allegory, I told him, "In this sorts to the highest bidder) also day of Women's Liberation, no oth¬ appears as an ally, and a myster¬ er male psychologist would dare to ious and bewitching creature, Jo¬ claim he knew the answer to WHAT anna (raised by her step-father to DOES WOMAN WANT?" He flashed that be the most intelligent woman on world-famous Grin, which shows Terra), is also helping him -- or Cosmic Humor according to his ad¬ perhaps spying on him for the Vat¬ mirers and Permanent Brain Damage ican. It is also possible that according to his critics. "Well," ing polar ice caps make the earth all these allies are actually plan¬ he said gently, "other psycholo¬ wobble and then capsize. The thesis ning to betray him. In short, the gists haven't had as much exper¬ is very credibly presented, and I context is, as Leri himself observ¬ ience with women as I have." find myself wondering if Eckert real¬ es, "normal mammalian politics." ly means it. There you have him in a nut¬ In this melodramatic Spy Thrill¬ shell. Everything he does is Whether the thesis is right or er ambience (which may be an actual hilarious, provocative, infuriat¬ wrong, in my estimation this is sf at description of the actual adventur¬ ing, dazzling original and sure to its best. It is of the same classic es of a real scientific dissident keep his fellow scientists argu¬ calibre as When Worlds Collide. in our own time), Leri, like Cap¬ ing for a decade at least. WHAT ************************************* tain Kirk, attempts to be courte¬ DOES WOMAN WANT? is all of that, ous, kindly, and helpful in his to the nth power. dealings with the primitives. None¬ PROZINE NOTES Oh, yes, it also begins his theless, the primate taboo-system By REG is everywhere, and he finds him¬ outline of how humanity can double self imprisoned in 29 separate its IQ, triple its life-span and The second and final part of Bud- jails and exploited by scores of achieve space migration in this ry's serial in the August and Sept¬ lawyers who strip him of the local generation in this generation. ember issues of F§SF, MICHAELMAS, sacrement ("money"). That is to be continued in his next shows his absolute conmand of his book, EXO-PSYCHOLOGY. material,,,and himself, I suppose. "The reason Kirk always gets He shows an intimacy-interaction be¬ out of jail in 58 minutes," he tween his hidden world manager (the reflects, "is that he's always a TOPSYTURVY newsmen, Michaelmas) and the tool million lightyears from the near¬ of control, the super computer in¬ est lawyer." THE HAB THEORY telligence (Domino) that is just By Allan W. Eckert Then another interstellar voyag¬ right. I read in awe of the intel¬ Little, Brown § Co., 1976, 566 p., ligence shown and required by Mich- er appears, an enigmatic UFO per¬ $9.95 haps modeled on Celtic mythology aelmas---the anticipation, the know ledge, the awareness, the adroit lev¬ or the Book of Job, maybe staffed Reviewed By Ronald R. Lambert by extra-terrestrial Lesbians (or, erages, the skill and experience_ at least, that's what the Male and realize the intelligence and Eckert was four times a Pulitzer skill necessary on Budry's part to Supremacist underground claims.) Prize nominee, and his characteriza¬ The UFO announces that all Terran make this apparent to the reader tions are the best, most fully-dimen¬ without leaving the reader adrift in life will be exterminated unless sionally human, that I have ever seen humanity can demonstrate objective confusion and perhaps abject infer¬ in an sf novel. Of course, he pays iority. intelligence by answering a simple for this in length. "neurogenetic" test-question which measures evolutionary sophistica¬ ■ Like virtually all mainstream wri¬ tion. Alas, it is the very ques¬ ters in recent years who have tried *Glaaack!* Let go! *Urk* Damn tion which Freud himself admitted their hand at sf, Eckert employs the it, John Varley! Will you tell your psychology alone can't answer, the multiple-viewpoint technique, where story to take its claws off my throat? title question of the book, WHAT about three or four stories are inter¬ Thanks. Wow. "Bagatelle" in the Oct¬ DOES WOMAN WANT? mixed. This is fast developing into ober GALAXY is one hell of a gripping a stereotype with mainstream authors story, you know? It would be unfair to reveal writing sf, but in THE HAB THEORY it any more of the suspenseful and is unquestionably the right way to do I read your story because a read¬ surrealistic plot. It is enough er of SFR had mentioned that he con¬ to say that, mingled with the major sidered you to be a natural story¬ theme of humanity's search for an Despite an opening flaw, the nov¬ teller.. .(or was it a writer in an¬ answer to the UFO riddle, we are el is the best sf novel I've read in other fanzine?) I tend to agree. also given (a) a coolly scientific years. The flaw is the idea that a You have the go-for-the-jugular analysis of the real "Timothy Lea¬ rational person would decide to shoot instincts and you have the skills. ry's" erotic history from adoles- the President of the United States You don't mess around calling atten¬ cense through LSD and Tantra to with wax bullets to gain attention tion to yourself as the writer. Al¬ the "alchemical mating" with the for his theory. Seems to me if a fel¬ low me to salute you and be assured bewitching and mysterious Joanna, low were shut out of the scientific I'll be a willing reader from now on. (b) bland instructions on how to journals he could always get a fic¬ But---could you instruct your stories brainwash a whole country with tion writer to write up his ideas as to be a little less ardent in holding LSD, (c) a decoding of the evolu¬ an sf novel, as Eckert has done. your readers? I've got bruises. tionary allegory hidden in the (Hmm!) ************************************* Tarot cards, (d) a series of shock¬ Eckert has taken the anomalies ing revelations about political and Erich Von Daniken has exploited and FIRST LINES I NEVER FINISHED WRITING psychedelic conspiracies of the used them to support the thesis of a past two decades, (e) a whole new Argot the barbarian felt the regularly recurring global cataclysm trembling in the earth and' knew the philosophy of sex, more radical as the steadily growing, off-balanc- Purple Horde were than anything in Brown, Marcuse, 37 It was, of course, crap. I can will communicate itself to the casual see that now. Crudely painted over a browser. The others are just decora- cruder design. But at that time it did for me what a good piece of SF Art should always do, completely apart To.use a musical analogy, the from its technical achievements, and first two are Muzak. Only Fabian that is turn on the imagination. It crafts a pleasant song. was bad, but boy, was it full of won¬ der. This month's magazines score most¬ ly low in that department, I am afear- Remember the old days? Remember ed. Let's look at the October covers books with (gasp) illustrations? Of on F§SF, ANALOG, and GALAXY. course, they are still there in cer¬ tain markets---childrens' books, for FfjSF is celebrating an annivers¬ one—but to.we fanciers of genre fic¬ ary with this issue, and since they tion it has been a long time since usually try and make it a special is¬ word and line shared a book between sue all around I was particularly them. Luckily, in small ways, that looking forward to this cover. But is changing. More and more publish¬ it is extremely disappointing. It's ers are realizing that with offset creator, Chesley Bonestell, is well- printing a page of art isn't a hell known and respected, a pioneer of of a lot different than a page of his craft, but all that notwithstand¬ text, and better, that people like ing what we have here is competently illustrations. They help sell books. done and dull. We are presented with a space probe of conventional design, Terry Carr and Don Wollheim (both greenish in color and largely in when at ACE, the latter now at DAW) shadow, scooting across the crescent have done their bit to keep the trad¬ disc of a cratered planet, also green. ition alive. Now Sharon Jarvis, at ANGEL FEAR: The painting is so calm as to be life¬ Doubleday, is bringing limited il¬ less, and although it is not unpleas¬ lustration back to the SF hardback. A Sort-of Review Column ing to the eye it does not serve to I have here a copy of a new of SF Art attract it, either. For Bonestell Doubleday book, Gordon Eklund's THE this is no better than an exercise; GRAYSPACE BEAST. Its cover is a typ¬ perhaps it is a rough, instead of a By Freff ical ugly Doubleday cover—Sharon finished painting. F§SF has done that is, sadly, not in charge of external before. packaging. (I have talked to the wo¬ Vincent DiFate's cover for ANALOG man who is. She is a nice enough Hello there. I am writing in New person who has no idea what SF is all York, site of the world's most exten¬ is surprisingly similar. This time . the spaceship is white, made of con¬ about and whose taste in art direc¬ sive collection of bricks (some of tion I find abominable, most of the whom are walking the streets without nected cylinders, and the crescent disc it shoots by is red. I grant time. So it goes.) What disting¬ proper institutional care.) I am al¬ uishes THE GRAYSPACE BEAST.is that it so near the close of a business trip that this has more tension to it than the Bonestell. The strong red-white- has a frontispiece illustration by that started in Alabama, cycled to LA black contrast, combined with the Rick Stembach, the first of many and San Francisco and then here. All planned by Sharon. It is, after all, by car. Distance driving like that rocket's thrust (as opposed to the probe's drift) make it a better maga¬ her only chance to get a proper illus¬ is almost enough to send me catatonic^ tration of the story in somewhere, there being so little time to sort zine cover...but it, too, is intrin¬ sically dull. Part of this stems since the cover won't be... the humongous amounts of visual sens¬ from the painting technique, which I ation... of necessity, you are forced The problem at Doubleday is that think walks the wrong line between to sit back and endure the thousands it prints by letterpress, pot offset. stylishly simplified and completely of miles of movie as it unreels. This raises the expense of printing realistic. The result is the kind'of artwork and limits the possible tech¬ So forgive me, but I'm not en¬ competent but uninspiring tech illus¬ niques. Solid blacks are verboten. tirely in the here and now. Visual tration that you find in NASA publi¬ Tiny lines, or lines too close to¬ bombs planted by a Utah sunset or a city material or on the walls of Air gether, likewise. But at least it is Denver street comer are just now ex¬ Force Colonel's offices. DiFate can an illustration. ploding in my head; 23,000 words of and has done much better. articles for Marvel must be typed by And for a few books something GALAXY, after the other two, is a Friday; and I'm trying to prevent my¬ more is planned. Tom Monteleone is flawed pleasure. Steve Fabian paint¬ self from buying a magnificent set of editing an anthology for Doubleday ed this one as an illustration to African mahogany tone blocks I came called THE ARTS AND BEYOND: VISIONS Niven’s CHILDREN OF THE STATE. The across recently in a Village music OF MAN'S ESTHETIC FUTURE, each story overriding color is magenta, with in which has been illustrated by a deep blue shadows providing some con¬ young artist from a New York art Is it surprising, then, that I trast. An old man stares out in fro¬ school. Some are good, some are' ter¬ prefer foundation-digging to specific zen surprise on a fanciful, elven rible, all are a bit different for reviews? city beneath a bloated and glowing the field. There will he a hardback ******* star. This is not a perfect painting. WHISPERS, edited by Stuart Schiff, No way. Fabian worked it in oils— with "lots of illoes" and a color FLASHBACK DEPARTMENT: The first or so it looks—and the glow of the cover. If these sell well it might SF cover painting I ever noticed as a star could have been smoother, more just convince the bosses at Double¬ child was on FANTASTIC (or was it calmly eerie. The city shapes are day to try a couple of other volumes.- AMAZING?) and it illustrated Ellison! s futuristic ala 1940 (an affliction Fa¬ "Paingod." It was awesome—a brood¬ bian and Freas both fall for too of¬ In the meantime I am doing the ing and somehow sadly malignant alien ten) and the human is too stiffly frontispiece for Steven G. Spruill's loomed over the planet Earth, which formed. But despite these objections KEEPERS OF THE GATE and daydreaming, was trapped inside a precise, glowing this painting, as a cover, as an SF along with Sharon, of someday creat¬ crystal. This particular little kid cover, is a success the other two can ing a profusely-illustrated one-vol¬ sat in front of the drug store maga¬ not match. This one has the emotion ume version of Zelazny's AMBER. zine rack and knew that before him in it already, like the "Paingod" cov¬ Fools and madmen aim high. More pow¬ was the greatest painting he had ever er that struck me years ago, and it er to them. 39 SCALPELS IN THE NIGHT, CALMLY DISSECTING etc., to be huimied to the Frank Sinatra tune of almost the same name. I want to talk about a whole bunch of new people to watch (or watch out) for. They are all people who deserve detailed analysis and I'll probably come back to them as I learn more of their working habits; but for now, a sketch of likes and dislikes. Future columns will expand on the theme. BORIS VALLEJO is rapidly shaping up as the best Frazetta-style artist around. He is far from perfect, but has one characteristic which endears him to me over Frazetta himself. Boris' anatomy is not totally ludi¬ crous; sometimes it is even excellent! Look at the cover he did for the re¬ cent Ballantine reissue of DAVY, which is wonderful, surviving even the lousy blurbs. If he continues in this dir¬ ection, creating more believable hu¬ man beings, and finds his own pecul¬ iarly individual brushstrokes — *ah*-- I will wait and hope. THE BROTHERS HILDEBRANDT are still-life painters, damnit, and I fail to see why they are used so much. For one thing, they have no feeling for SF machinery, and everything they do is static, flat, washed out: Southern California on a hazy day. Zelazny's MY NAME IS LEGION, or Meri- dith's RUN, CCME SEE JERUSALEM are excellent examples of the Hildebrandts at their very lowest...and then, just when my fangs have extended to their full length and I feel like tearing up the next painting of theirs that I see, they come up with something like STELLAR 2 cover that Jon described last issue, or the matched paintings for THE EARLY DEL RAY volumes. Which are very good indeed. Why so bad one time, so good the next? (I think the reason behind it all is a failure of a less visible art, that of art direction itself. The hardest task of an art director may well be that of matching the proper artist to the proper work. You don't ask Alexander Calder to illustrate Grinm's Fairy Tales, or Kelly Freas to do a cover for the music of Stock¬ hausen. This matching job is criti¬ cal, and Ballantine is doing very poorly at it. Their success rate is low. And though I admit that their successes are glorious ones, think of MY NAM: IS LEGION, THE LONG ARM OF GIL HAMILTON, NERVES, and so many oth¬ ers! Pfui, as Nero Wolfe would.say. Ballantine seems to be aiming at a sort of false nostalgia in its blurbs and covers, and to a certain extent in the books it has chosen to puHish. It is notable that the only success they've had with that tone of editor¬ ial voice has been the recent reissue of MARTIANS, GO HOME, which brought ' back the original Freas cover. Let it serve as a lesson...the past is the past, and imitating it without mis¬ sing the point entirely is very hard to do. (Conversely, kudos to the art director at Ace for his artist chrices on Leiber's THE MIND SPIEERS, Dick’s SIMULACRA and DR. BL00DM3NEY and hell, nearly all the Dick rereleases. And more of the same to the person at and an airbrush, and has since become of a review. They enlarge, by a Bantam who chose Pauline Ellison's the youngest Big Name in the field small percentage, the number of peo¬ rich, moody work for LeGuin. These (much the same way that I am the ple who know of an artist and may are cases where the artwork is fresh, youngest Non-name.) Several months gain interest in his work. I see exciting, and absolutely appropriate ago Rick had covers on three major his as a service, not a disservice, for marketing the stuff in 1976. prozines at once; a first, I believe. and there I think that Mike is wrong, These are the covers that 20 years His forte is the astronomical paint¬ much as I like him. Lastly, Mike, I from now we will be nostalgic about, ing, at which he is much livlier than cannot understand denying yourself a and other—lesser—artists will im¬ Bonestell. His black and white work forum to speak from and to help itate.) is considerably less together, and spread the ideas you think are so im¬ portant. Ah, well—c'est la guerre. STEVE FABIAN I have trouble with. his anatomy, while improving, is poor. I freely confess to not liking most Rick admits he likes the hardware ^^Have you all noticed the covers of his work, for a variety of reasons best, and it shows in very nuts-and- of Berkeley's THE SINS OF OUR FATHERS One is that "false nostalgia." Steve bolts spaceships that I wish would and ALPHA 6? The cover for SINS is draws a world of the future that is become more fanciful. Stembach's actually a few square inches of a 20 years old. This is a trait he major evolution as an artist seems to larger painting used in full on ALPHA! shares with Freas, but unlike Kelly be in his judgment. He is learning The Berkeley art director insists he does so with a vague and gauzy what he can and can't do, and waiting that it was done with Powers' full texture that puts me off, like look¬ until he is good at a new technique knowledge, and that he was paid twice ing at an acceptable nude photo taken or texture before unveiling it. The I certainly hope so. (It is effec¬ through a vaseline-smeared lens. I only exception I know of, the clouds tive, I admit, and it makes me wonder think this imprecision in his drawing in his "Anvil of Jove" cover for FfjSF just how much previous Powers work on is his worst handicap, but I keep see earlier this year, was one of those pb covers has actually been part of a ing things that give me hope...the bits of prayer and inspiration that greater whole?) startling green cover on a recent work beautifully. (Rather a pity it was printed so muddily. The original *Richard and Ginger Garrison (PO GALAXY, his scratchboard work for the Box 721, Forest Park GA 30050) are first installment of CHILDREN OF THE is a gem.) Other times he has taken chances to less happy effect. The publishing an SF calendar which I STATE...these are strong pieces. Fi¬ know almost nothing about save that nal short comnents: his cartooning September GALAXY cover shows a mar¬ velous scene inside a holographic Hinge, Rick Bryaht, Kelly Freas and (for me) is terribly out of date, and several other good SF artists are in¬ I keep getting the impression that he projection control room that is blown badly for me by the poor painting of volved. Check with them for details--- has little feeling for faces. All the edition is going to be limited, if those not taken from direct photo ref¬ the human central character. People my source is correct. erence share a certain mushy quality. and fabric are not planets and can't be modeled the same way. And perhaps the 1940s-50s movie star ^^The new "look" to the GALAXY look will be the standard of female Me I’ll leave to the mercy of logo is the responsibility of a Brit¬ beauty in the future, but I sincerely those I've covered. For what it is ish artist named Ames, (Andrew Steph¬ hope not. worth, I consider my problems to be enson) , who has also been doing in¬ DARREL K. SWEET does covers for huge in all departments, and I doubt terior work. I like it a lot. Now Ballantine. They are very well-drawn. my detractors can match my own self- if only they could unclutter the mast¬ They are painted with a smooth and criticism. But Ill sure as hell head by dropping the sign with the technical precision I envy. Sweet learn from your attempts. The ad¬ clumsy "worlds of if" lettering... knows his textures; fur, cloth, lea¬ dress for brickbats is 211 Highland Drive, Enterprise AL 36330. ^^And we end our column from glor¬ ther, skin, feather...and despite all ious New Yawk with an Art Director of this his covers are so bloody ******* Story. It seems that Herb Stolz at bland I can't enjoy the good points. ANALOG was always giving Mike Hinge a He suffers from a stiffness akin to A batch of miscellaneous notes to close the column for this time: ~ rough time whenever he brought in an the Hildebrandts, and I wish that assignment. Stolz would not be satis¬ once, just once, he would let rip ^^The Freas interview in this is¬ fied. He would not be able to be with some really bright colors and sue was originally supposed to be clear about his dissatisfaction, eith¬ dynamic shapes. He has done two or contrasted with an interview with er, and would usually end up pointing three very good things (A MIDSUNMER Mike Hinge, who is Kelly’s opposite to a Schoenherr as a sample of RICHT TEMPEST and A CASE OF CONSCIENCE come number if ever there was one. Kelly artwork. As far as Hinge could see to mind; the latter is the best cover is at the top of the field; Mike has the only difference (apart from sty¬ that book has ever had.) But for the been scrounging along on the bottom listic considerations), was the Sch¬ rest? In two cases I can think of level of survival for some time. oenherr 's illoes were BIG, and his using Sweet was a crime, and they are This is his particular karma, I sip- were same-size. So the next assign¬ THE GODWHALE and A FINE AND PRIVATE pose, and it arises from the way he ment he. turned in, he turned in BIG. PLACE. I find the loss most painful deals with art directors, agents, ed¬ Stolz - of course - loved it. on the Peter Beagle book, where the itors, and so on. Mike is given to new cover reduces a sad and ghostly knowing what is best and acting on And you thought SF art made any love story to a pastel mishmash of it, and to hell with other opinions. sense? Nobody here but us irration¬ TOPPER, Forest Lawn, and the Wildlife This is laudable enough. Sometimes. al human beings, which is precisely Album. (The vicious tone you hear is But so often he takes it to what I why I rail about working that sense the pain of a reader who feels one of consider ridiculous extremes.. .when of wonder into our art. Farewell his favorite books has been undeserv¬ I asked to interview him for SFR he 'till next time. edly ravaged. I was afraid for THE responded by refusing on the grounds LAST UNICORN until I saw that Ballan¬ that Geis was a ripoff artist—that tine had had the sense to just change he reprints covers without permission the type, keeping the magical Gallar¬ and thus violates copyright. do cover it was first published with.) Darrel, if you are out there I want So what? Library Journal and particularly to talk with you, to un¬ Publisher's Weekly reprint material derstand your whys and wherefores. I without permission. I thought it was suspect we have radically different implicit in the fact that a cover is philosophies on the way paint pre¬ meant as a form of advertising that sents emotion. it be encouraged to show up in as many different places as possible! Lastly consider RICK STERNBACH, It is hardly as though Geis was sel¬ who came out of nowhere a little over ling posters of these works and turn¬ three years ago, armed with temperas ing a profit that the artist never sees. They go to illustrate points 41 FREAS By FREFF: The Young Turk Interviews the Older Turk

TO ALL PRESENT & FUTURE SUBSCRIBERS (A wee bit of preface, maestro: FREFF: So what finally made that de¬ any friend of mine will tell you I am cision seem viable—going into art IF YOU MOVE I NEED YOUR FORMER ZIP- a great fan of beginnings. I like to instead of a trade? CODE AS WELL AS YOUR NEW COMPLETE trace out the intricate threads of the FREAS: Specifically, I think I made ADDRESS. FAILURE TO COMPLY BRINGS world until I can see how things got A VISIT FROM THE DREADED GENTLEMAN started and why. This is slightly ob¬ the decision to go into art when I PICTURED BELOW, WITH HIS DEADLY sessive, but what the hell; it beats found out that I hated just about ev¬ erything else. SMITH S CRANSTON .68 AUTOMATIC. being in love with carburetors or cot PLEASE MAKE ALL CHECKS AND MONEY lecting the underwear of nuns...Frank FREFF: That implies you tried other ORDERS PAYABLE TO SCIENCE FICTION Kelly Freas is one of my beginnings. things for a while. REVIEW. His art turned me on when I was young¬ er. He was the man who looked at my FREAS: I was in a machine shop for PLEASE SEND ALL MAIL TO: sketchpad and said "Move to New York!" a while. I was a welder, and I got quite active in union business. I SCIENCE FI And because he is charming and funny even became an organizer. Though I P.O. BOX J and has a fantastic wife and gorgeous didn't know it at the time the com¬ PORTLAND, daughter, I can forgive him the tal¬ ent that makes me plot the breaking pany felt that it might profit more of his fingers—slowly. from me by putting me in public re¬ lations. Which they did. I didn't (Oh, yes,—his cover for George know when I took the job that it RR Martin's "Second Kind of Lonli- meant I could no longer be in the un¬ ness"---((ANALOG, Geis. but I forget ion, but I was getting twice the pay, which month, please fill it in---!!* so when I found out I didn't complain IS TOE SINGLE FINEST PIECE OF SF art too much. This was for Curtis-Wright in the past decade. in-Columbus, Ohio, and it is where I really began my career in profession¬ ((* I don't have that issue, but I'm al art. I went on from there to do sure one of the readers will send the usual nuts and bolts commercial along the information.)) advertising work, everything from car cards and 24-sheet billboards to (This "interview"/conversation drawings for catalogs, jewelry rend¬ was taped in late April, 1976, in erings, that sort of thing. Eventu¬ Kelly's Virginia Beach home, with ally, after the war, I got around to lots of kibitzers.) going to art school, which took me to Pittsburgh. I was already establish¬ ed as a practicing freelance when I • started, so I was able to build a business quite effectively while in FREFF: Okay, Kelly, background! school. Where did you sprout from, anyway? FREFF: We still haven't gotten to FREAS: I was bom in New York but your entrance into science fiction. raised in Canada. I came back to Were you doing it then for your own the United States to go work. pleasure? FREFF: And how long ago was that? FREAS: I didn't do any work for my FREAS: Much too long. Longer than I own pleasure. I took my pleasure in could possibly remember. other ways. If you'll just stop for a moment to think of my schedule... FREFF: Hmm. All right, then, when I was up at seven o'clock to get was it that you started doing profes¬ downtown, have my breakfast, and sional artwork? start school by nine. I'd get out at 4:30, have dinner, and be at work at FREAS: At the age of four, I believe 6:30. This didn't give me much time it was. Nursery school...although I for any sort of entertainment. But I This didn't make much money then. My did get some enjoyment out of some of Publication first serious business venture was in my work. At one point I was design¬ second grade, when I was selling my ing slot machines, although it ended is Available in classmates copies of Mickey Mouse. I up on the bottom of the Monongehela was caught by the teacher and she con¬ River. But while it lasted it was MICROFORM fiscated my entire inventory, putting fun. I got my first experience with ...from me out of business... for a while. art silk-screening on that job, where I had to screen seventeen transparent Xerox colors onto glass, to be lighted from University FREFF: So what kind of art training the back. You don't make any mis¬ Microfilms were you getting as you grew up? takes. FREAS: Severe. The usual run of FREFF: So where did SF come in, half 300 North Zeeb Road Ann Arbor. Michigan 48106 high school courses, science-oriented Here you are, the winner of God-only- Xerox University Microfilms primarily, because I really didn't de¬ knows how many Hugos— - cide to become an artist until I was Toronto. Ontario, full-grown. My mother flatly told me FREAS: Only nine. that what I should do was learn a res¬ FREFF: Only nine—more than anybody pectable trade, so that I could earn a else—and all you were doing then living, and then I could paint on Sun¬ was slot machines and ad art? days to amuse myself. It was the at¬ titude that seemed to be held by most FREAS: Ah, but I was reading SF. I of the people around me, most of my started reading it practically as life. soon as I started reading. Burroughs mostly, and before I could buy the magazines I was reading my uncle's. He was a smart cookie—wouldn't al¬ automatically paid you when the job ing in Mexico I was seriously tempted low any of them out of the house. was delivered, and automatically re¬ to dig up some pre-columbian pottery So if I wanted to read them, I had to turned the artwork to you when it with Alfred E. Neuman's face on it. go there after school; it saved a lot came back from the printer. This was Fortunately, I resisted the inpulse. of magazines for him. I think at real strange at the time because ev¬ FREFF: Many artists can break down that point I developed a feeling for eryone was working peculiar ways of their careers into periods. Do you? SF in general that stuck with me the their own. But S$S had it down to a And when do you think you've done rest of my life. There were long science. It was very pleasant. your best work? periods when I didn't read anything FREFF: And when did this delightful else at all. My interest was such FREAS: I think my best period is, circumstance become standard for you. that when it occurred to me to be an oh, roughly from 1975 to 1976. I ex¬ That is to say, when did you start illustrator it never really occurred pect next year to be better, though.. with ASTOUNDING? That's where you to me to become any other kind. As a I cannot say I could break it down made your rep. commercial artist I had been doing all into periods when I did or did not kinds of work that would, eventually, FREAS: I had been in New York a enjoy my work, or did better or worse. contribute to my science fiction. couple of years before I started There have been periods in which I working for Campbell. I hadn't gone did a different kind of thing, but if Examples: at one time 1 was doing a near it; I'd worked for everyone else I had to break it down into more con¬ lot of heavy equipment illustration, in the field, either covers or illus¬ crete periods. . .well: The Astounding which of course lent itself very well trations, but I wouldn't go near AS¬ Period, the Mad Period, the Mexico to SF. Another job was taking blue¬ TOUNDING because I had already gone Period—that was where I had simply prints and drawing three-dimensional through the experience, which I have reached the point where I could not shaded drawings from them, so that described elsewhere, of sending a generate another idea to save my people who were looking for a partic¬ portfolio to Campbell which was not soul. It was accumulated future ular part would be able to see it and to his taste. When I got it back the shock. Unless you are completely in¬ find it quickly. It was tricky. But covering letter burned my ears suf¬ volved in SF illustration you can't the curious part of it was that I ficiently that I stayed away for realize how true the description of could see the part in my mind. And quite a while. Finally, Polly said, future shock is. What we had to do it would come out in proportion! "What is he going to do, eat you or was build a complete structure of the That was the weird thing, because if something?" "Yes, I expect so!" world of the story we were illustrat¬ I had tried to measure it all I'd "Well, go in anyway." It was easier ing. You would saturate yourself in have botched it completely. I had a to go see him. than to argue with her, this, learn all its details, then stint as a layout man in the machine so I took a portfolio in and surpris¬ have to immediately put it down and shop for a while, and I was absolutely build a whole new one for the next terrible at it. The boss said I |story. You never had time to get couldn't measure twelve inches with a |your feet on the ground in the real foot ruler, and he was right. world. There was no balance to it [whatsoever. FREFF: So you decided to become an SF artist. Bully for you. But HOW? FREFF: I would like to hear more a- bout Mexico. You almost died as an FREAS: I was in art school at the artist then, right? time. A friend of mine named Chuck Kennedy, an ex-classmate who had FREAS: For all practical purposes taken off for New York, came back for that is what happened. You could al¬ a visit, saw a picture I was working most call it a kind of creative con¬ on, and said, "Hey! That's just the stipation, with a million ideas crowd¬ sort of thing that WEIRD TALES would ing in and blocking every avenue of like." So I sent it in and they said, communication. But none of them were "We love it,", although I had to make |science fiction ideas. I had been do¬ one minor correction, bringing the ing a bit of other work, but nothing central figure out from the back¬ that really made any difference, so I ground, because their three-color ingly enough instead of eating me al¬ decided it was time to quit and get process reproduction couldn't distin¬ ive he was quite charming, went over out and go to Mexico and paint for a guish the subtle tones. This paint¬ my whole portfolio with me, took me year. I did some religious work, ing was of Pan dancing in the moon¬ to lunch, and gave me a job to do. some abstract—mostly I painted my light, playing a clarinet. It came That was the beginning of a friend¬ own psychotherapy. out on the November, 1950, issue, and ship that spanned the rest of Camp¬ I didn't do another one for exactly bell's life and which I enjoyed thor¬ one year. oughly. I hadn’t even gotten the first assignment done when I got a FREFF: How much did you get for it? phone call asking if I would have FREAS: I went broke. time to do a cover. "Mr. Freas? FREAS: Fifty bucks. FREFF: That's all? Mr. Freas? Are you there; Mr. Freas?" FREFF: Did you get the original I was absolutely stunned. "Oh,...I FREAS: Well, possibly the fact that back? was just checking my calendar to see my children were forgetting how to speak English had something to do FREAS: I did, yes. This was not if I had time to take it on..." I would have paid them to do a cover. with it...they really were, too; they standard. Most of the time you did That "The Gulf Between," Oct., '53. started school in a Mexican school not get the originals back. They were and learned Spanish very well. But very sticky about it. I discovered FREFF: You also are well-remembered without Americans to play with they later that every once in a while, for all the work for Mad. When did were gradually forgetting. More than whenever the storage space was all you start there? that, though, the most important cluttered up with paintings, they FREAS: •55 c '56. thing was that I was simply running would have a burning in the inciner¬ out of money and I had to come home ator or the back alley and just clear and go to work. At that time, at everything out. The thought of giv¬ least, it was not possible for me to ing them back, however, was anathema. FREAS: He floated around for years work in Mexico legally, and I was in This didn't begin to change until the and years. He wasn't designed; he no position to work illegally. late fifties, early sixties. The sort of accumulated. We tracked him leader in the change was Street and FREFF: Err...that's not quite how I officially to 1917, but I have seen heard it, Kelly. Didn't you do a lot Smith, who bought only first rights, postcards and newspapers that go back didn't require that a bill be submit¬ of Mad covers from there through some into the 1880's. While we were liv- obscure means? ted—they gave you a work order— 43 FREAS: Yes, but it was a very painful both brush and airbrush without hav¬ bperation. And about that time I ing to spend a lot of time cleaning severed connections with Mad because FREAS: Every hour available, every the blasted machinery. I tend to use it was interfering in the work I was acrylics on the larger work. My fav¬ trying to do. It was also a problem, day. It works out to fourteen to fifteen hours a day, although it orite b§w form, I suppose, would be a getting the pictures out of the coun¬ very very delicate drybrush used in try. You could carry the entire feels like eighteen. I'm up around nine o'clock and at work at the draw¬ the manner of Ed Cartier. Most of countryside out in the trunk of your the pictures I have done in this car, and nobody would care, but if ing board about noon after messing a- round with letters and so forth and I technique have been somewhat on the you try and mail a painting the roof cartoonish side, which is really un¬ falls in. will be at the drawing board until a- bout one in the morning. Time out fair to it. I used to do a lot of FREFF: The answer v 5 tourist ex- for dinner, of course. If I'm on a scratchboards, but if you are going press? really heavy schedule I'll push it to do it the way I like to see it until three or four in the morning, done, it is too slow to be practical. FREAS: That's what I would do. They I love Finley's work; I think he is would pass from hand to hand and then because I find that the night time is the most creative time. I can do rou¬ probably the greatest penman this be mailed at the nearest post office century has produced. But to spend on the other side of the border. One tine work and rendering very readily during the daytime, but for the idea three days on an illustration is picture passed through six different just not practical any more. sets of hands before it finally ended work I prefer to work after midnight. up in San Pedro. It didn't arrive in FREFF: And how much time to you FREFF: You like Finley. Who else do New York when it was supposed to so spend on a painting? you think great, or for that matter, we started checking up, traced it to terrible? FREAS: I try and figure on having San Pedro and the girl who had taken FREAS: When I was a student Ed Car- it there, and she said, "Oh, yes, it six weeks lead time, from getting the manuscript to delivering it. Of tier was, to me, a little tin god. is still in my suitcase.' I forgot NOBODY could draw like Cartier. His all about it!" It finally got to Mad this six weeks most of the time will be spent thinking about it, reading, one technique I tried very hard to just in time for their deadline. None master and in son® cases succeeded, of the paintings ever missed an is¬ sketching, and then a relatively small amount of time on the actual but not as often as I would like. I sue, but they went by some peculiar tried to imitate Finley too, but af¬ routes. painting. On the other hand I'm just as likely as not to get the painting ter having one picture drag on for a FREFF: I’m going to change the topic week and still not be finished, what completely. When did you marry Polly? with all the little dots I was put¬ ting in, I decided that this was just FREAS: (pause) Son of a Bitch! We not for me. forgot it again! FREFF: Andrew Wyeth, among other ar¬ FREFF: (with slowly dawning under¬ tists, likes to have a painting a standing) Your...anniversary? round to come back to, to nibble POLLY FREAS: Today. on... FREAS: The 27th? I thought it was FREAS: I do this. If you'll look o- the 26th. Are you sure...(domestic ver there you'll see a picture with a discussion ensues, concluding in Kel¬ date spanning four years...the pic¬ ly offering Polly a glass of wine.) ture is painting itself. Every once in a while it tells me what it wants FREFF: Hrrumph. Yes. And what ef- done with it. fect did she have on your business, on your life? I know you have two children, but other than that. FREAS: Fifth Amendment. The only FREAS: Oh, she had very little ef- thing I find objectionable is a lack fect on my business (cough)...she up to the moment of almost-completion and then have to scrap the whole of sincerity and a lack of applica¬ took over the accounts first thing tion. I'm perfectly willing to allow and checked up what I had been doing thing. This is where I act more like a fan than a professional. From my anybody any peculiarities of tech¬ the year before. She discovered that nique, or stylization, or philoso¬ the year before I had kept very good way of thinking a professional has to know when to cut his losses and quit. phical approach. But I demand that records, done a very careful job set¬ they be honest about what they are You never produce a picture that is ting up my books. I had added up all doing. But going back to artists I exactly what you want, but you have my expenses for the year and added up like...the problems with the upcoming to know when to stop arguing with all my income for the year and then I ones are not which I like, but which yourself and say, "This is the way a had added the two together and paid I could leave out. There are so many part of me decided to do it." But tax on both. At that point she took damned good ones that I think the every once in a while something about over the books, the income tax, and field looks more promising now than a picture will bug me so much that the business. it has in any time in the past 30 rather than try and correct it I will years. When 1^ came into the field scrap it and begin again. there weren't any SF artists. There were a lot of good, professional pulp artists, but there weren't five who considered themselves SF artists or FREAS: Yes. Brian Stableford's even wanted to consider themselves POLLY FREAS: That's why we're sol- WATCHGOD'S CARGO. I scrapped that that. But now we have Whelan, Kirk--- one twice before I settled on the who is more a fantasy artist, from my version I did, and I still wasn't FREAS: She did more than just keep point of view—and DiFate, who is books. When she had more free time satisfied. My painting was just not the best around right now, I think. up to the vision. than she does now she used to model The problem is that a science fiction for most of my work, both male and FREFF: Let's talk techniques. What illustrator is a very different breed female. Particularly after I got the are your favorite media in color and of cat. In order to really be on you Polaroid, since she refused to pose black and white? have to be as involved with science for sketches after she nearly broke as with picture-making; but if you her neck posing for a corpse in my FREAS: I do my cover sketches, as a let the science take over it screws rule, in tempera- - -especially Shiva first ANALOG picture. The Polaroid up your picture-making completely. ruined my photographic technique, but Nu-Tempera, because it is usable with It is a very very fine line to walk, it helped my drawing considerably. and I do it only by the simple exped- ient of falling off on both sides at work? was the sort of thing I wanted to FREAS: I use a palette knife a lot, correct. Polly and I now have 24 FREFF: Money, Kelly, money! You got and the airbrush---though I try to prints and 8 postcards. We don't $50 for your first cover; what now? keep it in bounds---but primarily, - keep a running check on sales but I yes, the brush is my tool. Some day can tell you that each is a limited FREAS: I demand a miniimm of $450, edition by anyone's standards, be¬ for either reproduction or resale. I though, when I have nothing better to do, I'm going to knock off a complete cause our print order was only 2000 learned a long time ago that one of a print. We make just enough money the things you had to keep in mind ly airbrush painting. Just to show how I think it ought to be used, which from one set to put into the next. was that, regardless of the job, there The way it began was that we had an are a certain number of things you no one is doing these days. The real airbrush experts vanished sometime in extremely unpleasant experience with have to do to get started on it. The a retirement plan, in which we lost minute I pick up a pencil it costs the early sixties. All you have now is a bunch of photo retouchers. Want about as much money as we put in. $25, and when I reach for a brush it After that we thought about it and costs another $25. This is the only to see some good airbrush work? Wheth¬ er you like the style of artwork or realized that stocks and bonds were practical way to approach commercial just not for us, that the best in¬ art of any sort. You have to decide not is immaterial, but go back to Al¬ ex Schomberg's work in the late 40's, vestment we could make would be in that if you just read the damned our own work. At that point we stop¬ story it has taken enough time that early 50's. There was a man who knew how to handle an airbrush! But I am ped selling pictures and started mak¬ you have to figure your cost into it. ing prints instead, figuring that the This leaves you with establishing a not fond of the type of thing he did--- SF still-lifes, by and large, do not prints couldn't do anything but ap¬ certain minimum below which you can preciate in value. not drop and still manage to make it. thrill me. Nor am I that fascinated by highly-polished machinery. FREFF: So you aren't selling any or¬ FREFF: You do a hell of lot of work iginals at all now? every year. Always have done it, so FREFF: Sue me for a heretic, Kelly, far as I can see. It would seem that but you do a lot of highly-polished FREAS: A very few. For one thing, a project that ran longer than you machinery. it keeps getting harder and harder to thought would make for trouble. FREAS: Yeah, but if you look closer part with them. I'm reaching the you'll notice that there are an awful stage where I am solving problems FREAS: I've had paintings drag along that interest me very much, technical for three or four weeks...the second lot of scratches inside that polish. problems of working with light, the cover for DOUBLE STAR was almost four I have a love for textures. I like weeks of steady work. I didn't do my machinery to look as though it has kind of thing that was fascinating anything else during that time! It done something. I like a knife-blade years ago when I did the cover for wasn't that the cover was all that with scratches on it, that shows it FARMER IN THE SKY, showing a robot great---it was okay---but that every has been sharpened. It has worked! crawler going through a field of rub¬ single detail in it caused me trouble. I like that feeling. ies. The problem of handling the light on the actual transparency of I found a model for the character and FREFF: What do you see as the SF il¬ did what was essentially a portrait stone, the light shining through the lustrator's prime problem? Or prob¬ facets... this was pure joy. It was of him; the character was a descend¬ lems? ant of William of Orange, my model all reasoning. Where are you going was a descendant etc. The character FREAS: The major problem is keeping to find a model for this sort of in the story was a model railroad ahead of yourself. You are working thing? buff, so I picked up bits of rail¬ right on the edge of technology. To FREFF: Let's at least glance at the road equipment, one locomotive in me, research is extremely important. LASER situation. What was your reac¬ particular which was worth fifteen Making my pictures as technically; tion to being offered the whole ser¬ dollars then and is now worth 4500 correct as I can without spoiling the ies, instead of having it done by or so because they only made a few picture is a definite objective for different artists? of the kits...anyway, I drew it so me. And where you are working with accurately that it is recognizable to something on that edge, where do you FREAS: I said, "Roger, I don't want model train collectors as being that go to get the information you need? to do the whole series. I don't want particular one. Everything on that Once I was trying to get something on fo have anything to do with series. cover took twice as long as it should fluidics, but it was new enough that I don't like series." But they asked have. On the other hand, the first nothing, really, had been published. me to come up to Toronto and look painting I did---the Pan with the And at the time I did Haldeman's over their operation, which I did, clarinet—was done in a matter of a "Hero" there was very little in print and they explained what they were try¬ day, something like that. I don't on black holes. This puts you in the ing to do and why...and it sounded set out with a definite limit on time. spot of trying to do something that like a hell of a good idea to me. The picture takes as long to do as it will satisfy you, your editor, and They are aiming at a very specific demands. the reader. Every once in a while audience. This does not mean that as you hit it and it is a great feeling an artist or Writer you are being re¬ FREFF: But what about deadlines? even though you know it was purely stricted; it means that you are being asked to develop the skill to commun¬ FREAS: I never make a deadline. I accidental... icate to this particular group. You never miss one, either. Deadlines, FREFF: You've been steadily releas¬ to me, are sacrosanct. I take it for can have an infinite number of ideas ing prints the last few years; so to play around with, but you have to granted when I begin a job that the have other artists. Why did you buyer has left himself a certain am¬ approach the group in their own lang¬ start? Are you getting what you want uage. ount of buffer zone. Either he is out of it? giving me a job that isn't scheduled FREFF: But what about doing painting or that is scheduled far enough ahead FREAS: The essential part of this is after painting in that same format? that he knows he will have it in that I was so unhappy with the repro¬ plenty of time. I will aim at the duction I got...people would see book FREAS: That's the funny part of it. date he gives me. If within a few and magazine covers that were only Rather than finding it limiting I find it exciting. It presents the days of that date I know I'm not go¬ half the picture, or so badly repro¬ ing to make it I call up and find out duced that you had no idea what color challenge of constantly having to how much more time I can have, and the original might have been. I real¬ make the format look different than it is, but can you think of anything this time he'll tell me exactly when ly wanted to get some good, big cop¬ it has to be in, and it will be. I ies of my pictures so that people that offers you more variety than a have never left somebody waiting for could see them the way they were sup¬ human face? In a sense I am a frus¬ the boat. posed to be. You know the story of trated portrait artist. Something the cover that was printed upside that hangs on a wall doesn't do so FREFF: Do you consider yourself pri¬ down and backwards (("Hero")); this much for me, but a character study marily a brush man, in your color like the LASER covers gives me the opportunity to do portraiture or to It is all eye-gluing reading, be¬ Under the familiar flag of "Every¬ invent whoever I want to. And I have cause these people write well and thing You Want To Know About Robert E. considerable freedom with the back¬ think well, and what they have to say Howard--But Were Too Ignorant To Ask" grounds. I'm functioning pretty much --what they thrash out between them-- (my description—make no mistake, as my own art director. I don't have is a series of viewpoints on science here) is THE ANNOTATED GUIDE TO ROB¬ to submit roughs to anybody, or argue fiction and science fiction writing ERT E. HOWARD'S SWORD 8 SORCERY--CON¬ about them... which educate and entertain. AN- KULL- KANE by Robert Weinberg. He FREFF: Raging envy, but enough of This is not a formal, stultify¬ is recognized as an extremely well-in¬ that. Closing comments time, Kelly. ing magazine. It seethes. formed fan. What have you waited 2S years to say? It has a series of up-to-date re¬ This is for the specialist, the (Polly laughs. Kelly scowls at me.) views, too. enthusiast, the library. Published by Starmont House, Box E, West Linn, FREAS: I'm thinking seriously of be¬ I recommend it. Send $2.00 (cash, Or 97068. No price on the cover and coming a literary critic. please, for a while) for four issues I can't find Ted Dikty's phone to ask. to: Paul Walker, 128 Montgomery St., Write and ask, I guess, if you're in¬ Bloomfield, NJ 07003. terested. SMALL PRESS NOTES by REG There is an introduction and chap¬ • ters on Solomon Kane, King Kull, Bran Mak Mom and the Piets, James Allison, I suppose in the small press THAT WAS NO MONOLITH, THAT WAS world you can get away with a title Turlough Dubh, Non-Series Stories, like RUNES OF AHRH EIH ECHE, if you MY PLINTH Conan, The Chronological Conan, and have a hardcore group of readers/ The Conan Saga (as written by Robert WHO WAS THAT MONOLITH I SAW YOU WITH? E. Howard). By Michael Goodwin Jonathan Bacon does have such an Heritage, 1976, 112 pages, $2.50 • audience, and RUNES is a selection of (plus $.50 postage 8 handling) letters by Robert E. Howard. P.O. Box 721, Forest Park, GA 30050 It is a 40 page (8 1/2 x 11) off¬ set book on heavy white stock. It Reviewed By REG U.S. Postal Service STATEMENT OF OWNERSHIP, MANAGE¬ features a cover and 26 illustra¬ MENT AND CIRCULATION. 1. Title of publication: tions by Randall Spurgin (who is It's a STAR TREK cartoon book. SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW. 2. Date of filing: Sept. what might be called a 'fairly good It takes the starship Enterprise 20, 1976. 3. Frequency of issue: Quarterly. Four pulp illustrator'). There are 26 through every conceivable pun (good, issues published annually. Annual subscription letters of correspondence from How¬ bad, atrocious), one and two-liners, $4.00. 4. Location of known office of publication: ard to such people as Lovecraft, every sight gag possible, and some 1525 NE Ainsworth, Portland, OR 97211. Location of Clark Ashton Smith, August Derleth, impossible. One gag or joke per page the headquarters or general business offices of the Carl Jacobi, Farnsworth Wright, Har¬ in three or four panels. publishers: 1525 NE Ainsworth, Portland, OR 97211. - old Preece and Wilfred Talman. Al¬ Michael Goodwin is not too good 6. Publisher: Richard E. Geis, 1525 NE Ainsworth, so (and perhaps most important) are an artist, and he strained and reach¬ Portland, OR 97211. Editor: Richard E. Geis, as two letters from Howard's father de¬ ed for most of these cartoons. above. Managing editor: none. 7. Owner: Richard scribing the circumstances of How¬ E. Geis, 1525 NE Ainsworth, Portland, OR 97211. ard’s suicide. They are sad and re¬ What is really important is the 8. Known bondholders, mortgagees, and other secur¬ vealing. announcement sent along with this ity holders owning or holding 1 percent or more of In Howard's letters he is a cour¬ corny cartoon klatch. Heritage is total amount of bonds, mortgages or other securi- teous , polite gentleman, with occa¬ going to publish the late Thomas Bur - sional free-spirit enthusiasms and ett Swann, Jr.'s fantasy novel, fierce macho. His great interest was QUEENS WALK IN THE DUSK, in deluxe in the past; mostly Irish/Celt his¬ hardcover,,illustrated by Jeff Jones: tory and mythology and pride. four full-color, and four black and A. Total No. Copies Average No. Actual No. white plates. It will be a numbered Printed Copies each I suppose at base he might be edition, limited to 2000 copies. gle issue pub¬ considered a mother's boy...and $15.00 plus $1.00 for postage and preceding 12 lished nearest, could not survive when it was deaf handling. months. to filing date. she was about to die. There is real 5336, 5800 tragedy in his life-flow...and I B. Paid Circulation think a very real degree of honor and • 1. Sales through dealers and canriers, street integrity. I haven't been in an amateur vendors and counter sales. press association in years, and while 1150 1207 The reader of Howard's fiction I've been busy with TAG and SFR, the must always regret he died so young. 2. Mail Subscriptions apas have reproduced, spread, sent 1280 1581 RUNES costs $2.95 postpaid and is out tentacles...! didn't realize! available from Jonathan Bacon, Box C. Total Paid Circulation I've just received SOUTH OF THE 147, Lamoni, IA 50140. 2788 MOON #13. It is a valuable index of 2432 ■ all known and generally available D. Free distribution by mail, Carrie fannish (SF and related interests) samples, complimentary, and other free copies. amateur press associations. It tells 251 209 TENSION, APPREHENSION 5 DISSEN¬ who, what, when, where, why and how E. Total Distribution SION has begun. The first issue of much. There are lists of General A- this exceptionally good fan magazine pas, local Apas, and Specialty Apas 2683 2997 devoted to discussion of sf and sf ...altogether over sixty groups of F. Copies Not Distributed writing, is a product of two major sf people exchanging their small-circu¬ 1. Office use, left over, unaccoi critics: John J. Pierce (of RENAIS¬ lation publishings. Apas are friend¬ after printing. SANCE fame), and Paul G. Walker (in¬ ly, intimate, close-knit groups. 2653 2805 terviewer, contributor to the top fan They cost very little money and can 2. Returns from news agents magazines, including SFR, THE ALIEN be absorbing to the point of destroy¬ CRITIC, LUNA, etc. ing a marriage. If you want a copy of SOUTH OF THE MOON #13, write Airirew They battle back and forth with G. Total 5336 5800 Sigel, 424 Greenleaf St., Evanston, a major contributor, Thomas J. Rob¬ 11. I certify that the statements made by me above IL 60202. It costs 504. erts, a professor of English at the are correct and complete. Richard E. Geis University of Connecticut. Cain Smith has an interesting art¬ The two other Aspen books sent Tom Collins also sent along a col¬ icle in the September 19th issue of were MY ADVENTURES IN THE FLYING lectors item: a long-lost poem by H. P. NEW LIBERTARIAN WEEKLY. He is a sci¬ SCOTSMAN by Eden Phillpotts ($4.00), Lovecraft, MEDUSA: A Portrait, in the ence fiction reviewer and columnist and THE METHODS OF UNCLE ABNER by ragged-edged cover, high-quality paper, for the magazine, which has a strong Melville Davisson Post ($6.95). I special typeface, limited (500) edition sf interest, since Samuel E. Konkin have no opinion on either of them. format. Tom says it is a real bargain III, a long-time fan, is the editor. They are purported to be 19th century for a first edition at $6. Before I forget, subscriptions are detective stories. Probably worth it for the collector $15. per year, and the address is Box or investor. 1748, Long Beach, CA 90801. A very brief scan of a page here and there leads me to suspect modem Cain Smith's point in his article, imitative-of-19th-century-prose auth¬ Gerry de la Ree sent along a copy "The Trouble With SF", is that too few orship of these two, too. I don't of FANTASTIC NUDES: Second Series By of the sf writers of today—especial¬ care enough to investigate further. Stephen E. Fabian. This is a beauti¬ ly the sophisticated "literature" or¬ Aspen Press' address is: P.0. Box fully printed b/w portfolio on 10-1/2 iented writers—really believe in the 4119, Boulder, CO 80302. x 14 heavy white stock, unbound, in a people and the futures they are por¬ heavy green cover. A limited edition traying; they use the sf furniture of 750 copies. $8. per portfolio. and they use the themes, but their The plates are of beautiful women from real interest is in the literary form, Richard Gardner sent along a copy books such as SHE, THE GIRL IN THE the style they are using or display¬ of his ALTERNATIVE AMERICA. It is a GOLDEN ATOM, UNDER THE MOONS OF MARS, ing, the relevant (to today) cause resource index, listing over 5,000 al¬ GODS OF THE NORTH, THE BLACK*FLAME, A they are pushing or exploiting, or the ternative lifestyle groups and organi¬ WITCH SHALL BE BORN, PIRATES OF VENUS, money they'll make. zations. It goes from Aardvarks and THE SLAVE BRAND OF SLEMAN BIN ALI, THE I can see how a prolific writer, Abortion to Yippie, Yoga, Youth, Yurt, HOUR OF THE DRAGON, and THE HUNTERS OF after having created and peopled a doz¬ and Zen. There are three listings und¬ GOR. A feast for male sexists. en or so futures, worlds, times... er Science Fiction: Star Trek Assoc¬ Send the checks to Gerry de la really would find it difficult to care iation, ALGOL, and TABEBUIAN. Frank¬ Ree, 7 Cedarwood Lane, Saddle Riyer, for and believe in them to the point ly, I would think that the Science NJ 07458. of commitment of real emotion. iction Writers of America, and LOCUS, I'm going to try to run one of would be better sf resources, overall. these on the cover of SFR 20. This necessary commitment must cost But I suppose any sf reference in this in psychic energy, and must be (is!) book is remarkable. $4. from Resourc¬ NOT A SMALL PRESS BOOK, but worth tiring to a writer—a kind of future es, Box 134, Harvard Square, Cambridge, the space and the mention, is THE BOOK shock---and may be subtly avoided for MA 02138. ^ that reason. Thus the career writer OF VIRGIL FINLAY, edited by Gerry de would of necessity deal in cardboard la Ree, and published by Avon under and stereotype—simply in self-de¬ There is a new, high-quality (on a their specialized Flare imprint (30585, fense. It's likely that some writers par with WHISPERS) fantasy/macabre off¬ $4.95). 8-1/2 x 11 size, gloss cover, have more guts and energy than others set zine just out. PHANTASY DIGEST is best paper, etc, and over 120 of the and are able/willing to put all of in the 5-1/2 x 8-1/2 format, looks pro¬ finest Finlay drawings and sketches. their power and energy into each suc¬ fessionally typeset, has good art, and It covers his whole range and profes¬ cessive story. a firm editorial hand by Wayne Warfield. sional life. The introduction, "Fin¬ The fiction is of professional quality. lay Remembered" by Gerry de la Ree, This reluctance to commit the in¬ It is scheduled for irregular publica¬ is intensely interesting. Another ner Self to characters and future by tion from Hall Publications, Box 326, 'must have' book for serious students a writer may also explain the resort Aberdeen, MD 21001. $4. per copy. It of sf, especially the pulp days. to tongue-in-cheek science fiction in has 84 pages. which nothing serious happens, there is no real emotion, and the people and future depicted are transparently sham. Continuing in this sub-genre is The first issue of GALILEO is out. A writer, drained by a previous novel, TOADSTOOL WINE, a collection of fanta¬ Good format: heavy four-color covers, may turn to such a technique if he has sy and horror from six independent mag¬ 80 pages inside, newsprint, 8-1/2 x 11. to keep going—keep earning money— azines: FANTASY AND TERROR, MOONBROTH, $1.50 cover price, $4. for four issues or has a deadline to meet. SPACE AND TIME, WEIRDBOOK, WHISPERS, by subscription from: Galileo, 339 New¬ and WYRD. A good sampler of fiction, bury St., Boston, MA 02115. • poetry, articles, and art. You might Seven stories, three articles, de¬ I very much enjoyed Philip Jose find something you like and want to partments_ A professional package. Farmer's THE ADVENTURES OF THE PEER¬ read more of. Coordinating editor Give it a try. A lot of the fiction LESS PEER (Aspen Press, $5.50) a year is W. Paul Ganley. Send $2.95 for a strikes me as Literary and Pretentious, ago, so when Aspen Press sent along a copy to Box 35, Amherst Branch, Buf¬ but the Chilson piece is good.^fc few of their recent publications, I falo, NY 14226. (Make checks payable picked out the ARSENE LEPINE-HERLOCK to WEIRDBOOK.) ^ SOAMES AFFAIR to while away a stray hour. Several years ago Tom Collins pub¬ This small book, in limited edi¬ lished an irregular, high-quality lab¬ tion ($5.00 paperback, $12.50 hard¬ or of love titled IS. The long-delay¬ cover) is by "S. Beach Chester", and ed seventh issue has now been printed there is an introduction by Phil Far¬ ---but the magazine is now titled mer. I am of the idle opinion that APOLLO. 8-1/2 x 11, offset, good pap¬ Chester is fictional, and that per¬ er, heavy covers... superior interior haps Phil is the actual author...it artwork and graphics. Material by: all has his predilection about it... Alexei 8 Cory Panshin on Heinlein, a except that the story, begun in ab¬ poem by Tom Disch, a long-lost sf sto¬ surdity and doing great violence to ry by Jack London, a sonnet sequence Holmes' character (even allowing for on Wells' THE WAR OF THE WORLDS by jest and burlesque, and satire and Wade Wellman... Why, there are even parody), rapidly sinks to abject buf¬ a series of reviews by myself, which I foonery, becomes static, stagey and had forgotten about. Incredible. silly...and I refuse to believe Phil APOLLO is a good value at 114 pag¬ would allow himself to wrrite such a es. Send $2.50 to Tom Collins, 338 W. piece of malformed, malconceived id- 19 St., #1B, New York, NY 10011. 47 LET THE SUN SHINE IN lethargy, sleeplessness, throwing up, STARSCHLOCKED nervousness, headaches, etc., and dis¬ covered this group were all watching HEALTH AND LIGHT TV about 25-50 hours per week. When THE STARCROSSED By John N. Ott the TV was cut to zero, the childrens' By Ben Bova Pocket Books, 80537, $1.95 symptoms cleared up in 2 or 3 weeks. Chilton, 197S, $6.95 Reviewed by Elsie An experiment among hyperactive Reviewed by REG first-grade children by the Environ¬ John Ott has been recognized mental Health 5 Light Research Instit¬ The intriguing problem for the through awards for his works' impor¬ ute showed that after a week of using reader of THE STARCROSSED is to try tance to eye care. There is still full-spectrum light bulbs, there was to divine how much of this story of much to be learned on how the full a marked improvement in the childrens' a betrayed, undermined, misguided sf spectrum of daylight affects plants, attention span, nervousness, fatigue, television series is masked truth, animals and humans, but enough re¬ irritability and hyperactivity. how much slightly distorted for ef¬ search has been done to be of great To summarize, a quote from John fect, how7much is plot-romance, and importance to manufacturers and pro¬ Ott: how much is highly relished, malign fessionals who influence where and satire. how we live and work. "We have finally learned that light is a nutrient Ben Bova was the science advisor - John Ott, 45 years ago, began ex¬ much like food, and, like for the one-season disaster of a sf perimenting with "time lapse" photo¬ food, the wrong kind can series, STARLOST. Harlan Ellison was graphy. His hobby led to photo-bio¬ make us ill and the right the originator of the idea, did work logy. While experimenting with cell kind can keep us well. Re¬ like a trojan to get it off the photography as, certain drugs were search has taken a giant ground, did write the opening scripts introduced into their environment, step, but there is still (which were butchered, beyond his con¬ Ott noted that changing the color fil¬ much to be accomplished." trol) and the abortion was produced ters often had a greater effect on in Canada. the cells than the drugs. ¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥*¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥*¥¥¥¥¥ Harlan has detailed this hellish Further studies on animals and experience in his oft-reprinted ar¬ man show that the full spectrum of FAULTY STRUCTURE ticle, "Somehow, I Don't Think We're daylight is important to stimulate in Kansas, Toto." man's endocrine system and that he BRIDGE OF ASHES suffers side effects when spending too By Roger Zelazny But is/was Harlan really the ir¬ much time under artificial light. Signet 451-Y7080, $1.25 repressible, aggressive, talented, wo¬ We generally think of color as man-chasing, hard-driving man Ben Bova something seen, but colors make up Reviewed By REG describes in the character named Ron only a part of the spectrum; there are Gabriel? Was there so much incredi¬ ultraviolet wavelengths, the opposite, In spite of the pivotal charac¬ ble backbiting, scheming, lying cheat¬ infrared, and radiant energy. ter's father's name (Richard Guise), ing, etc. etc. etc. as revealed in I was disappointed in this latest this novel? Were Canadian highschool In researches with fish, animals Zelazny Signet novel. I sensed Roger students recruited to produce the and poultry using 3 different types was fulfilling a contract and had no script ideas for STARLOST? (To save of fluorescent tubes (cool white, day¬ real zest or burning-in-the-guts when money.) Were the Canadian artists and light white and pink), light duration writing this. craftsmen so dismally dumb! and stub¬ intensity and nearness to windows in¬ born? Were the actors so untalented fluenced egg laying, sex of young and It's highly readable, intriguing in its way, as the story of a super and miscast? Was the producer such a behavior. Light which is received telepath is developed, as the back¬ misbegotten cretin? Was the director through the eye stimulates pituitary really an acid-freak on the skids? and pineal glands. ground of ages-long alien manipula¬ tion of mankind is revealed, and we We may never know. It's marvelous fun John Ott suffered from arthritis; learn of the dark man who has battled to guess, though. one day he broke his glasses, and so the aliens through the eons, seeking ***************** for weeks went without dark or untint¬ to free humanity. YOU CAN FOOL SOME OF THE PEOPLE ALL ed glasses on the beach, in the sun. OF THE TIME, ALL OF THE PEOPLE SOME He noticed he did not need his cane But Dennis Guise is too much the OF THE TIME, AND THAT'S USUALLY SUF¬ and that his elbow and hip did not pawn in the game, too little self- FICIENT TO GET YOU ELECTED. bother him as much. directed. The reader is too much the observer, not enough the participant —Carl Juarez Ott's "daylight treatment" im¬ who "becomes" the hero. Most of the proved others' hay fever, diabetes, time Dennis is in a since-birth cata- metabolic function of cells, and tonic-like trauma from telepathic o- uAve i ro rroHSTH cancer. verload. ^rrtE er"uVri. At the University of Oregon Med¬ The battling with the aliens is » *22, ical School, a paper by Dr. Fredric wiTH short-shrifted, too, and the ending, „AN, W£t>l»N<* Nm' Urbach summarized: the winning, is flat and so-what. "...One-third of all basal cell Better if the dark man had been the carcinomas occurred on areas prime viewpoint character, instead of receiving less than 20% of the off-stage, doing his own counter-man¬ maximum possible ultraviolet ipulation. dose. This suggests that some factor in addition to ultra¬ SUICIDE IS THE SINCEREST FORM OF violet radiation plays a sig¬ SELF-CRITICISM nificant role in the genesis —Carl Juarez of basal cell carcinoma." Teachers, policemen and parents should read Chapter 12 of Ott's book on hyperactivity, aggression and be¬ havior-modi fication. —Carl Juarez Physicians studied thirty chil¬ dren for symptoms such as fatigue, ALIEN THOUGHTS continued wareness sometimes and understands bove-ground garden will be for tomato¬ when I speak to him. Nods in answer es and cucumbers exclusively. First to questions. But the unspoken mes¬ I have to give the planks a coat of 9-13-76 Called the hospital this sage I get from nurses and the doc¬ linseed oil, then paint them a week morning to check on Dad's condition. tors is that he is now in a dying later. They should last quite a few A nurse said he is now 'confused' room. They are simply waiting. He years that way. One horrified buy of most of the time and 'very active' either refuses to swallow food (hand- a head of lettuce for 50f this morn¬ with his legs and right arm. Appar¬ fed) or is unable to swallow because ing (and a look at the per-pound pric- ently the paralysis is only total in of motor control problems because of for other vegetables) convinced me his left arm. He has no bladder or the stroke. He is back on the i.v. beyond doubt. bowel control. They have stopped the i.v. and are hand-feeding him. We're going to have several bush¬ els of potatoes to dig up soon. The stock market amazes me. To¬ They're so crowded the upper level is When I went up to see him last day a report in the WALL STREET JOUR¬ being pushed above the surface of the Friday he wasn't conscious. I felt NAL that new manufacturing orders earth. uncomfortable trying to awaken him or turned down in July, and that in the attract his attention since he is now latest reporting week new claims for The dwarf peach tree has tripled in a small four-bed ward; the other unemployment insurance went tp (which in size this summer; I expect a great heart patients were watching. One of presages, almost certainly, at least crop next year. (But I begin to won¬ the damned monitors went off with a 8% unemployment rate for September der if it is really a dwarf tree!) BEEP-BEEP-BEEPing when I touched his which will be reported to the nation around October 6-8th...thereby sink¬ ing Gerald Ford's election hopes.) • I don't want to go see him again, Yet today the Dow-Jones Industrial 9-17-76 Dad's condition is 'un¬ yet will, of course. The place is average went up 8 points. This, too, changed' . I cannot help but think demeaning, humiliating, depressing. in the face of the Ford Motor strike. that his strength is gradually waning There he lies like a corpse with this If the market goes up tomorrow I'll without solid food, even if the i.v. machine blinking and clicking to it¬ be flabbergasted. does contain' vitaimins and nutrients. self as its tentacles embrace him. (And I have not asked what it does I note that the British govern¬ contain---perhaps only glucose.) ment has upped its prime interest rate to 13%: They hope to lure money ******* Still digging out rocks and small from other countries to give their boulders in my new garden. How the economy a shot of wealth. I'd love A call from Jeff Levin of Garvin contractors must have cursed when to lend them money at 131, but I do 5 Levin, Booksellers yesterday. He they built this house and had to dig not understand who is going to borrow had been at the worldcon and offered down into this ancient riverbed to it at 15-16%? Those are prohibitive to bring my Hugo back to Portland. put in the full basement. I'm dig¬ interest rates which are usually de¬ We drove over and picked it up. ging out the rocks to a depth of one signed to inhibit borrowing and cool foot. I'll have a prime 6' x 12' gar¬ off an economy. I doubt this move by It is a very impressive Award den when I'm finished, ready for the English authorities.will work. this year—heavy, round, stone-like planting in the spring. I'll fertil¬ plastic base with a Tim Kirk sculpted ize it this winter with regular bur¬ Loan demand in this country con¬ dragon curled around the back. The ials of garbage and leaves from the tinues amazingly sluggish. Ths prime Award plate is a handsome black with surrounding trees, tra-la. rate may be lowered to 6.75%. Steel silvery lettering. My Gro-Lite crops in the basement production and ordering is surprising¬ are beginning to disappoint me; the ly slow and low. This is my third Fan Writer Hugo, lettuce comes up and spreads begin¬ The next month will tell the and I must admit a feeling of amaze¬ ning leaves, but the stems are too tale. If the new cars, starting Oct ment and pride. And gratitude. Wow! weak and the plant falls over. The first, sell well, there is hope. If Thanks. onions are sprawled all over as if they bomb... "Screw that humble act, Geis. they don't know which way is up, and Lemme have it--it's mine: I won that the carrots appear equally as confus¬ Energy costs are continuing to mount. Utility companies are getting Hugo and here you sit with a croco¬ ed. I suspect this was a mistake. massive rate increases. And local dile shit-eating g.in taking the A cold frame in the backyard and a credit." few pots in the window to start some and state taxes continue to creep up seeds may be the best bet for early and up and up... Alter-this is not the time or crops. All-year basement salad crops ******* the place... may be impractical. But I'll keep up Interesting item in the news to¬ "Hell it isn’t.’ You’d still be the experiment for at least a full day; A large percentage of waste cranking the Gestetner, cursing sten¬ two or three months. radioactive containers, dumped in the cils and praying for enough subscrip¬ Atlantic in the early 50s have broken tions to pay for the ink if it were¬ open and have "contaminated" the sur¬ n't for me. Yoiid be scrounging for 3:25 PM Just got a call from a Dr. rounding areas of ocean floor. There the material and begging for art. I Elliott at the Veteran's hospital. are giant bell-shaped sponges growing am the creature to whom you owe all Dad is deteriorating and the message on the drums. Are these monster-siz¬ this. Do I ever get any thanks? is that he may not last too much ed sponges mutations or only a here¬ NEVER! All I get is my picture in longer; he's largely unresponsive and tofore unknown variety? SFR and GALAXY...and a poor likeness rarely conscious. He may have had it is, let me tell the world. Tim further small strokes; he refuses ****** Kirk is a fine artist, but he's never food. even seen me! All he had was a div¬ I finished digging and de-rock¬ ine inspiration, and he made me too ing the new garden in the back yard. ugly! I'm handsome! I'm—" Now to find a place to put all those damned rocks. Drunk. Go to bed, Alter. Sleep 9-16-76 Saw Dad Tuesday and he it off. seemed the same as the first time I Have plans also for a 'container' saw him a week ago. But they have garden: foot-wide planks joined in a "Like hell I'm drunk. A little moved him to another room, this with¬ rectangle or square, filled with dirt. home brew wine doesn't make me drunk. out the tell-tales and heart monitor. Beats digging out a ton of rocks. I I'm sick and tired of you putting me Simply a two-bed ward with a color TV will build two: 18" wide and 6' long. down, maligning me, every time I make on the wall. Dad is uninterested in I have just enough lumber. This a- a valid point, a correct claim, a right opinion. The day will come. or unaware of the TV. He comes to a¬ 49 Geis, mark my words, the day will come must have a bad case of trench mouth 9-30-76 You're all probably sick when I, Alter-Ego, when I will be Ful¬ from putting their footies in. Both unto death of my economic commentary ly Recognized, when my True Worth will of these men are members/stooges of and doom-saying. The plunge of the be known, and when that day comes, the Eastern Establishment; Carter no English pound this past week and the Geis, when that marvelous moment ar¬ less than Ford. They are managers, drop in our government's leading in¬ rives, then you'll be FINISHED, WIPED second-level administrators who have dicator's index, plus the 154 drop in OUT, DEMOLISHED!" the prestige of office, but little building contracts in August presages actual power where it counts. There Your true worth. Alter, is about a further slide in the U.S. economy. are groups and individuals who "sug¬ five cents. I'll even give four cents I could go on but let it pass. I've change. Look at you! A mess. Why gest" to the sitting President who made my points for this issue. The do your tendrils turn green when you've his key cabinet officers will be, and, handwriting is on the wall (and no¬ had too much alcohol? somehow, every time these key men body wants to look at it). turn out to be men with close ties to ******* "How should I know? Just lucky, the Rockefellers or other (less vis¬ I guess. Now, I'll just take my Hugo ible) money/power loci. I'm interested in a story in this morning's paper: The city is Ever really listen to Carter? citing a man who has been keeping Unhand that trophy, you scurvy His speech rhythms are halting, and five hens in a coop (well built, little alien! his sentences almost always end on a lower note. shielded from neighbors' eyes, sani¬ "No! It's mine!" tary, no smell) for a year-and-a- Give it back! Ford, in the "debate", was much half. He and his wife kept the chick¬ more firm and strong-voiced; more ens to provide a living experience "I earned it. You can't—Damn— forceful and rhythmic. for their young children, to provide LET GOj" But, of course the state of the eggs and to make a modified 'closed ecology system' (the chickens eat the Alter! Stop—Don't-- - economy will probably decide the el¬ ection. garbage). They are being cited be¬ *Crickle-crack--snap!* cause they didn't (or couldn't) get ******* permission from their neighbors. The "Oooo..." Dad was only barely conscious city health department is satisfied My Ghod! Look what you've done! when I saw him today. They have tak¬ with the cleanliness of their opera- "Geez, I'm sor--- NO! I'm not en him off the i.v. and his oxygen. sorry. I deserve at least half this To see if he can survive without them. Now, I'm fairly sure I could get Hugo...and now I've got half!" If he makes it he'll be sent home permission from my neighbors, but I (here) or to a nursing home, to die will want to check into costs of feed GET OUT OF HERE! OUT! OUT! eventually. And...if he deteriorates hens, diseases, and other such items. or has another heart attack while off the i.v. and oxygen.. .what? Mm and I suspect that as a result of • I both think it would be a blessing this story a lot of people will think 9-20-76 We went up to see Dad to¬ if he dies soon. about keeping chickens in the city, day. My Uncle Mm drove us up. Dad given eggs at 75

SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #12 $4.00 One Year / $7.00 Two Yrs. "Smoke and Glass"--a non-fiction fantasy about Harlan Ellison by Richard Delap; "You Can't Say THAT!" by Richard Lupoff; "Confes¬ sions of a Wage Slave" by David M. Harris; "Tuckered Out" by Barry City. Malzberg; "Uffish Thots" by Ted White. State.Zip.

SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #13 The SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW Elwood Controversy; "Visit To a P.O. Box 11408 Pulpy Planet" by Milton F. Stev¬ Portland, OR 97211 ens; "HARLAN ELLISON—Some After¬