Argentus Summer 2003
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argentus Summer 2003, Sheryl Birkhead Br. Guy Consolmagno, S.J. Ken Cheslin Evelyn Leeper Bob Eggleton Mark Leeper Brad W. Foster Fred Lerner William Rotsler Ed Meskys Steve Stiles Cheryl Morgan Taral Wayne Lloyd Penney Steven Pitluk Bill Roper Steven H Silver 1 From the Mine Steven H Silver A question that gets debated occasionally is which of your five senses would you least want to lose. In my case, I’ve always feared the loss of my sight. In an article, Ed Meskys explains that there are plenty of venues for the blind to obtain reading material and that loss of sight does not mean an inability to read the latest and greatest (or even the oldest and goldest) science fiction and fanzines. In the article, he also points out the problem with .pdf files for the blind and I’ll be sending him (and anyone else interested) a copy of Argentus on disk in a more blind-literate format. In her letters, Helene Hanff frequently wrote diatribes This issue’s cover, by multiple Hugo Award-winning against those who bowdlerized books by abridging, artist Bob Eggleton, is a representation of asteroid 13562 selecting, and otherwise making editorial decisions to cut Bobeggleton, which was discovered at Kitt Peak text. Fred Lerner now tackles that subject in his own Observatory in 1992. Eggleton was honored with the article, beginning with a look at a handsome volume that asteroid in April 2003, along with fellow science fiction only whets the appetite. artist David Hardy, whose I could claim that my ARGENTUS is published once a year by Steven H Silver. All asteroid, 13329 Davidhardy, selection of Toronto to kick off submissions, letters or other correspondence should be directed to was discovered in 1998, also at what I hope will be a series of him at 707 Sapling Lane., Deerfield, IL 60015-3969 or e-mailed to Kitt Peak. articles on fannish destinations [email protected]. Issues of ARGENTUS are available for $5.00 or “the usual.” The Argentus website can be found at was completely coincidental, http://www.sfsite.com/~silverag/argentus.html This year, I’ll be chairing and in part it was, since I Windycon for the second year wanted an article by Lloyd in a row. As numerology Penney. However, I will admit that I was partly would have it, this is also Windycon’s thirtieth year. To influenced by the fact that this year’s Worldcon will be celebrate the important anniversary, I’ve invited our held in Toronto. Does this mean that Argentus 4 will founding chairs, Mark and Lynne Aronson, to come back feature a travel article on Boston? Maybe, but probably as our Fan guests of honor. Other guests of honor include not. I still haven’t decided. Gregory Benford, Phyllis Eisenstein, John G. Cramer, Following the letter column, the travel theme Vincent di Fate, and Tom Doherty. I’m bringing in continues with imaginary voyages to the lands of science special guests Jim Frenkel, David Hartwell, Kathryn fiction and fantasy as fan writers describe their own Cramer, Christian Ready, Jeri Smith-Ready, Pamela journeys into various countries imagined by speculative Sargent, George Zebrowski, and more. Windycon will be fiction authors. held in Schaumburg, IL from November 7-9, 2003 and this will be our final year in this location. The Windycon From the Mine..............................................................................................1 website is located at www.windycon.org Religion, Science Fiction, and the Real Universe......................................3 Where I Get My Reading Materials............................................................9 On the Acquiring of Books .......................................................................10 On the Acquiring of Books .......................................................................11 Mourning the Loss of a Bookstore............................................................13 Complete and Unabridged.........................................................................13 Complete and Unabridged.........................................................................14 Art Credits: The Essential Filk Library.........................................................................15 Sheryl Birkhead, 1, 13, 29, 46, 52 01-02-03......................................................................................................18 Six Lost Worlds: The Dramatic Adaptations of Sir Arthur Conan Ken Cheslin, 10, 11 Doyle’s Novel ............................................................................................22 Bob Eggleton, Cover Letter Column ............................................................................................30 Brad W. Foster, 3 Fanzines Received .....................................................................................41 William Rotsler, 5, 7 Mock Section: Travel Reports .................................................................42 A Weekend in Arbaaz................................................................................42 Steve Stiles, 9, 12 Worldcon Gotham?....................................................................................47 Taral Wayne, 19, 28 My Arrival in the Dreaming City..............................................................49 Excerpt from “Colombia, Venezuela, and Brazil Travelog” ..................52 2 all are activities of particular human beings. None of them Religion, Science Fiction, and the exist outside of the individuals who choose to participate in them. Thus within science fiction, religion must first be Real Universe discussed in connection with the characters who populate Brother Guy Consolmagno SJ, Vatican Observatory the stories themselves. Consider Red Mars, by Kim Stanley Robinson. In the Everybody has a religion, whether it is Islam or passage below we follow three characters: John Boone, football or fandom. Your religion is the core belief that the usually laid-back hero; Frank Chalmers, his rival and defines your self identity, the axiom on which you base something of a trouble-maker; and Maya Toitovna, one of everything else, the thing that gets you up in the morning the leaders of an expedition off to build the first colony on excited to meet the day. For me, my religion happens to Mars. We see the following scene, on their way to Mars, be my religion. Don’t get me wrong; I love fandom (and I through her eyes: enjoy football, for that matter). But I can gafiate and still be me. Fandom is my collection of friends; my religion is One Sunday morning the Christians aboard, my family. numbering a dozen or so, celebrated Easter in the bubble I thought first to be a Jesuit when I was studying dome... After their service they came down to the dining hall for brunch... and at first only Maya and Frank heard history at Boston College, but after following the advice what John was saying to Phyllis Boyle, the geologist who from an older Jesuit to “pray about” my vocation (prayer? had conducted the Easter service. I was 18 years old; who prays? So actually getting an “I understand the idea of the universe as a answer to that prayer in the form of a strong urge not to superbeing, and all its energy being the thoughts of this being. It’s a nice concept. But the Christ story...” John join the Jesuits at that time came as a real shock) I shifted shook his head. myself over to MIT where I wound up with a couple of “Do you really know the story?” Phyllis asked. degrees in Earth and Planetary Sciences, followed by a “I was brought up Lutheran in Minnesota,” John doctorate in the field from Arizona. replied shortly. “I went to confirmation class, had the whole thing drilled into me…You must know that the The same urges that had made me look at religious life gospels were written decades after the event, by people when I was 18 came back to haunt me when I was 30 and who never met Christ. And that there are other gospels a research scientist at MIT. Why waste my time worrying which reveal a different Christ, gospels that were about the moons of Jupiter when there were people excluded from the Bible by a political process in the third century. So he’s a kind of literary figure really, a political starving in the world? At that point I quit my job and construct. We don’t know anything about the man joined the Peace Corps. They sent me to Africa, where I himself.” went eager to dig ditches or whatever they wanted me to Phyllis shook her head. “That’s not true.” do. What they wanted, was for me to teach astronomy to “But it is,” John objected. “Look, there’s a history to all this stuff. Monotheism is a belief system that you see graduate students at the University of Nairobi. appearing in early herding societies. The greater their And they were right. People in Africa may be poor, dependence on sheep herding, the more likely their belief but they are people. And like people everywhere, they are in a shepherd god. It’s an exact correlation, you can chart curious about their world, hungry to know more about it and see. And the god is always male, because those societies were patriarchal. There’s a kind of archeology, where they came from and where we all fit in. And an anthropology — a sociology of religion, that makes all they’re hungry with the same sense of adventure that of this perfectly clear — how it came about, what needs it made me read science fiction when I was a kid, and made fulfilled.” me want to be part of the space program myself when I Phyllis regarded him with a small smile. “I don’t know what to say to that, John. It’s not a matter of history, after was older. all. It’s a matter of faith… We don’t know everything, to These urges eventually brought me back to pretend we do is arrogance. The creation is mysterious. considering a life as a Jesuit. In 1989 I left a professorship To give something a name like ‘the big bang,’ and then at a small eastern college to become a Jesuit brother, and think you have an explanation — it’s bad logic, bad thinking. Outside your rational scientific thought is an in 1993 I was assigned to the Vatican Observatory, where enormous area of consciousness, an area more important I’ve worked ever since. than science. Faith in God is a part of that. And I suppose I’ve dined out regularly on a Jesuit/scientist/fan, and you either have it or you don’t.” She stood.